[Closed] Santa Cruz Bicycles - Alchemy and Astrophysics.

At least they don't design their bikes at a molecular level.

Good attention grabber then and some free shares, mine certainly felt rocket powered today 🙂

Sounds like they are taking the piss of marketing talk to me, a bit of tongue in cheek over exaggeration.

Given that this is SC we're talking about, I suspect it's the piss being taken.

Like with the pricing?

Hahaha....

Like with the pricing?

Given that a made-in-Taiwan Heckler frame costs only marginally less than a made-in-Halifax Five, one might think that, yes.

/trolling

This made in Taiwan thing seems a bit weird to me. Taiwan is the worlds 19th economy, they have the absolute best bicycle manufacturing facilities in the world by a significant margin. I'm happier buying a bike made there than here or in the US as I'm confident it will be better. People seem to assume that SantaCruz and others shifted their bike manufacture there purely for cost savings but they are a major brand now and needed to be able to make more bikes with better QC and still come in at a decent price point. Made in Taiwan means quality to me, they should cost more than Oranges!

But thay still charge made in the USA prices for Taiwanese made frames.

And no one said anything about quality.

Should a frame from Taiwan cost less then and if so why? UK or USA manufactured frames aren't better after all.

An underlying principal of alchemy is to take something ordinary, such as a raw material, and turn it into something special?

Marketing bollocks? Probably. However, isn't this sentiment a fundamental of most product manufacturing?

I suspect they are taking the p*ss, particularly with the astrophysics bit.

Given the number of people coming back from test rides on various Santa Cruz bikes at the Dalby Expo yesterday with massive smiles and gushing about how great they were, they must be doing something right.

Not so sure they are alchemists or astrophysicists though.

the_lecht_rocks - Member
Picked up a 2014 brochure yesterday for a wee browse and just read the introduction.

Apparently they use alchemy and astrophysics to design and engineer their bicycles.

Now that's either bollocks or taking it to the next level !

It is bollocks but it is sucked up by plenty of fanboys just like the other bollocks.

Should a frame from Taiwan cost less then and if so why? UK or USA manufactured frames aren't better after all.

i think you will find costs are rising worldwide

as for wether something is better or not that can only be pulled out of your ass or mine as an opinion

It is bollocks but it is sucked up by plenty of fanboys just like the other bollocks.

if an orange 5 failed round the pivot there would be a public witchunt on here however walk on water Santa cruz can do no wrong...awaits startling "its how they are dealing with warranty" fanbois to show

Should a frame from Taiwan cost less then and if so why? UK or USA manufactured frames aren't better after all.

At the moment, manufacturing costs in Taiwan are lower (presumably due to lower labour costs?). Wouldn't take much for transport costs to rise to the point where this is offset, and you can't tell me that countries with extensive aerospace industries are incapable of building bike frames to the same standard as Taiwan.

Is it the alchemy or the astrophysics which makes the trails come alive?

aracer - Member

Is it the alchemy or the astrophysics which makes the trails come alive?

haha, perhaps the alchemy mixed with astrophysics makes a magical out of this world experience.......i'm now considering a Tallboy Carbon LT 🙂

Truth be told Santa Cruz frames are the nuts and everybody who knows bikes knows it. I am a fanboi having had 5 of them over the years. All of them were excellent, trustworthy bikes. The new ones look even better than the last lot which is saying something. They can spout as much marketing BS as they like, they make great bikes.

I am a fanboi

It's a good job you told us that.

costs for manufacturing goods in Taiwan and China have actually substantially increased during the past 2 years, they are not the 'cheap' manufacturing base they once were, unless you are talking about sub-standard or counterfeit goods

in January 2013, the Chinese Government gave workers in their A-grade factories a 19% pay increase, this has also impacted workers in Taiwan

despite the lower costs of living, skilled workers with in-demand skillsets can achieve very good wages, and often have skills we no longer have in the West.

when you figure in rising materials costs, rising manufacturing costs, rising shipping costs (putting those goods into big containers and shipping across the Ocean)

plus the increasing costs of living in the Western markets where the distributors operate; prices are only going up!

as an example, a popular "big" brand manufacturing in Taiwan had to increase their 'crash replacement' road bike frame price from average GBP£600 to £850+ in the past 2 seasons to cover the increased production cost from their supplier

not to make more profit, as the crash replacement is not a profit driven motive, but one to keep the customer riding 'the brand'

I would trust a Taiwanese made frame from one of the quality brands, much more than a domestically made frame from a smaller brand; simply because in my experience the Taiwanese made frame will be manufactured to a higher quality control using superior techniques that are often unaffordable in domestic manufacturing, and the backup from the quality brands is second to none

Lighten - course they're just having a laugh.
Alchemy is turning stuff into gold anyway - neither stiff nor light.

[quoteTruth be told Santa Cruz frames are the nuts and everybody who knows bikes knows it. I am a fanboi having had 5 of them over the years. All of them were excellent, trustworthy bikes. The new ones look even better than the last lot which is saying something. They can spout as much marketing BS as they like, they make great bikes.

God you could actually feel the excitement...awesome post if only folks could complain as effectively as that

i've got a SC, i like it, it's not made of a lump of the purest Green though [/percy] so not sure about the alchemy bit but it rides very nicely and i can got fast enough to scare myself on it 😀

It is bollocks but it is sucked up by plenty of fanboys just like the other bollocks.
if an orange 5 failed round the pivot there would be a public witchunt on here however walk on water Santa cruz can do no wrong...awaits startling "its how they are dealing with warranty" fanbois to show

Not as bad as the Hope fanbois! Never seen so many similar failings in one product (hub cracks) as with theirs

(And yet i still bought a set 😕 )