I recently overheard a discussion about which bicycle brands are better, North American brands and European brands would have better quality over Asian brands..

The truth is ....Most..90% of all bicycles, regardless of the brand are manufactured here in China, in addition there is only a few huge factories producing multiple brands therefore dont believe that imports are better...there are no western brand imports into China..none..

If a Big Western brand has their R&D headquarters in Europe or the US their top models are made in that country, but that's why you'll never see those bikes available here in China..

Mike

Don't buy a Chinese brand bike - they are shit. I learned the hard way, I bought a Chinese brand and had nothing but trouble from it and was actually quite relieved when it was eventually stolen. My Chinese friend who owns a bike shop agrees that if you want a decent bike then Giant or Merida are the only safe options. They may be manufactured in China but designed and engineered abroad.

Giant and Merida are not European or North American brands. They are in fact both Taiwanese companies, and I think their quality is pretty decent.

I think is somewhat accurate to say that most of the Chinese branded bikes are shit, but some of them seem to be getting better. I think it really depends on how much you pay. The brand I bought "Gammax" or 杰玛仕 is the "high performance" branch of the Gamma or "杰玛" bicycle company. I can't say how strong the frame is, but at least the design is modern (has 1 1/8" tubes, and all the correct mounting holes). For the most part, it seems as long as you don't spend less than 1200RMB you will get something fairly decent.

Considering that the price difference between a domestic brand and a foreign brand (Giant and Merida) is minimal, I advise you to play it safe and go with a foreign brand. Though, this will likely make your bicycle a target for theft. I just went with a Chinese bike and upgraded all the components to second hand or new old stock 500 level Shimano parts. Now I have a bike that works well that doesn't say "steal me".

Giant and Meridia are chinese manufacturers...not Taiwaneese

Ref US bikes.
I don't know about now, but in 2000 we had problems sourcing spares for one, incl ball bearings.

Reason?
Imperial units, inches, and teenths/32nds.

Something to watch out for if you find a US bike in this market.

Merida and Giant are Taiwanese brands but both have manufacturing facilities in China as well as elsewhere. So I guess you're both right!

I agree that Chinese BRANDED bikes are shit but there may be a couple of exceptions and things are improving. Chinese brands are aimed at the domestic market so they are generally of lower quality with lower price tags to match.

By the way, Merida own 49% of Specialized. Mosso is another Taiwanese brand (with Chinese manufacturing facilities) worth looking at.

Tiger Tiger.... there still are some imperial mesurements in the industry but it could have been some older leftovers but new in the box..

Going back a few years, 1990's Giant was the manufacturer of Specialized, there was a spat at one point where Specialized had quite a large debt to Giant, at that point Specialized went to Meridia ...

Did anyone know Trek was/ is manufactured by Giant.....along with countless other brands??....

Keep in mind Trek manufactures a few of their "high end" models in Wisconsin ..

I still have all my tooling in Canada. The 1970's still had "french threads" and the days when Campagnolo was "the" standard. Shimano was an odd company trying to find a niche in the cycling market.Suntour was actually better...the old days...mountain bikes were still contraptions of a few west coast US cycling enthusiasts.

Most of the bad Chinese brands are based on the factories management, we all know how things work here..

The other quality issue with some cheap brands is low quality materials. Bearings that wear overly quickly, pedal stems and forks that bend are three issues that spring to mind.
And bad management will say, 'but we build to the same quality standards that we always have'. Which is often true.

For the record - UCC on Beimen Street (jie) sorta across and down the street from the Yunda Beimen Jie gate (NOT the North gate on 121 Street). Low end starts around ¥1800.

NEVER let your bike out of your sight. If you lock it - lock it to something like a tree or iron fence. I just lost my second bike in 6 months from the Yunda campus (crap security, heavy non-university foot traffic). Both times the bikes were locked (crap combination lock though) and not affixed to something immovable. Once was in front of the security cameras, so I'm guessing it's the local fake cops doing the lifting...