I'm back from Taiwan and all I can say is that it feels really good to be home. What's even nicer is the fact that I'll be home for a whole 2 weeks before I head off to the next event. Ater being home a total of about 10 days the entire month of February and not much more than that in March, 2 weeks straight is pretty awesome.
Being home means being back in the office; that's not neccessarily a bad thing since there's a lot of work still to be done to finish up our 2008 line. The Metro bikes are coming along nicely; I am really excited about this series of bikes. Spec is done, graphics are in the works, so we should have samples in house in a couple of months.
Jumping back to the subject of Taiwan and the Taipei Cycle Show, I really had a good time at the show. It's much different than Interbike in the sense of it's mostly attended by Taiwanese vendors. After attending the show, it really becomes clear that Taiwan really is the center of the bike manufacturing universe. Accept it folks...the vast majority of bikes and parts are coming is from this part of the world. Some manufacturers still manage to cleverly disguise the fact that their products (or at least a portion of their manufacturing process) are being made in Taiwan. It's really interesting when you tour factories over there and see whose products are coming out of the factories. When I toured factories earlier this year, there were numerous times I saw frames from brands I never knew came from Taiwan. It was very enlightening.
Speaking of enlightening, I thought you all might enjoy some "sneak peek" pictures of one of the colors the 2008 Mary SS frame will come in.
The color is called Carolina Blue; it has sort of a semi-gloss finish to it. I'm really stoked on how this frame color turned out. I think it will be a real winner for us. For those of you unfamiliar with our Mary bikes, these are our line of 29" wheel steel hardtails. Named after the CCR song "Proud Mary" (that has a line in about "big wheels keep turning"), we do both a geared and singlespeed version. They are super fun to ride.
Well, that's all I have for now. I'm going to try and make a habit of writing shorter posts...hopefully I'm off to a good start.
Hasta luego.
4 comments:
Oh sure, steal my thunder with your spy shots. Damn you Hamilton!
I'll post my own, I guess.
Taiwan is the center of our cycling industry, whether folks care to acknowledge that fact or not. It is what it is- not good, not bad, just fact. The show was awesome, I do admit.
Jill, (a.k.a. HARO girl)
American-European bicycle ware in development as we converse.
View my modified HARO 'V3' for 2007.
SRAM group with FULL suspension.
Welcome back. Personally, where the bike is made doesn't matter, as long as it's made well.
Also thought you'd find this interesting. I was the owner of a 2006 Shift R5 for about 3 hrs. Picked the bike up at my friend's bike shop Saturday, hung around BS'ing when a guy walks in, sees my bike and says, "I want that one." Ten minutes later, it's his. My friend is placing an order for my very own 2007 R5 on Monday or Tuesday. I'm keeping that one.
That's awesome! Wow, kudos to you for giving up your bike to a customer who really wanted it. But it sounds like you are coming out ahead of the game by getting the 2007 model. Enjoy it! The R5 is a great bike.
Post a Comment