Ash HT
Likes Bikes
I'm reading through some of these posts about Ti frames, Waltly and boutique brands, as some know I work at one.
Anyway a bit of info if anyone is interested.
You find a few OEM's in the boutique frame market, some make there own but not many. Some just wack a design together and get a cheap Chinese company to knock up a frame. Anyone can do that but the key is finding a good factory and I can tell you most of the good ones don't deal public direct.
Some frame builders actually invest in development, testing to ISO4210, fatigue test , stiffness test ,and impact test. Some do FEA, the list goes on and it cost truck loads so adding to the final price of that 4k frame. (Although ours are not 4k)
So when someone has a wing about the extra cost this all cost money but also get the rider a much better product, of course it adds to the cost from some cheap frame.
A few frame builders if anyone is interested.
ORA are the go to Taiwanese company for production of titanium frames and they also do stainless steel and steel. The catch is the MOQ is about 100 frames per SIZE frame (steel) and lead time is over 18 months. I was going to do a steel version of a Ti frame we do the Nero Ti but with the MOQ decided not too.
Waltly well It seams a fair few of you know Waltly and Sumi, and they deal customer direct, they are a small player in the frame market in SEA and do a reasonable frame but you really need to provide your own design and check the drawings. They don't provide testing or double butted tubes from what I know..
XACD in North China, Probably one of the highest quality but also the most expensive and interesting to work with, these guys are lunatics to work with and if you are able to get past the design / order stage good luck. They are a massive set up and I have worked with them. Lead time closer to 9 months.
Titan also in North China, one of the big 3 builders in China and work with a fair few OEM's. They are currently doing 250 Ti frames per month, lead time about 8 months. Still taking 2022 orders but not for long.
Hi Light again North China, these guys are possibly the biggest and one of the best Ti OEM factory in the world, also the oldest and with a MOQ of 200 frames per year. They build frames for a fair few of the well known OEM's. They provide all the testing services. No new orders until 2023 but most OEM's have the 2022 orders in.
A lot of OEM's use ORA and Hi light. From what I was told by a employee at Hi Light ORA are too busy so off loaded all the smaller OEM's as in company's that maybe buy 500 frames a year, some of these OEM's went to Hi Light then Hi Light became too busy with 5,000 frames to get finished in 2022 cutting off all new orders and telling smaller OEM's they cannot do work for them in 2022.
A bunch of small OEM's went to Titan pushing the lead time out from 3 months earlier in the year to now around 8 months and then Waltly, hence Waltly stopped taking direct to customer orders awhile back.
Just a bit of info if anyone is interested.
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