Singletrack

BEHIND THE SCENES
HAND
MADE IN CHINA
Chipps follows the path of an Asian-made bike
from concept sketch to mountainside testing.
WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY CHIPPS
I’ve always wanted to follow the development of a product
from first-sketch to final product, but it’s easier said than
done. Many companies are rightly wary about opening
themselves up to outsiders, especially journalists. There are all
sorts of intellectual property worries in letting someone see
behind the product designer’s wizard’s curtain, not to mention
potential embarrassment if it all goes wrong.
I’d mooted this idea to a few companies over the years
and usually received replies along the line of ‘Great idea! It’s
never going to happen…’ Finally, though, Simon Wild and
the team at Saracen Bikes agreed to let me come along on a
factory visit to see how things get made. Simon went further
than that in fact. He’s proud of his suppliers and of the work
that Saracen’s factories do, so I had carte blanche to shoot any
photos I wanted, ask any questions, and to really try to get an
idea about how a complex modern mountain bike is brought
to the shop floor for you or me to buy.
Snookered.
You know those trick shots in snooker where the player hits
one ball and the chain reaction causes every other ball to land
in the pockets, all at the same time?
That seems a good analogy to start with for bike design.
You’re trying to set things in motion, over a period of months,
sometimes years: the product design, the component spec,
the ISO testing, the production, the component assembly
and painting, the shock tuning, the samples, the brochure
photography, the graphics, the finished bikes arriving by
container – everything, so that it all culminates in that one
model being available for sale on a particular date. Preferably
a bike that the customers will have heard about through
advertising, and seen used through team sponsorship, with a
dealer and warranty backup, in this year’s hot colours, with
the best new suspension design and fitted with the latest
must-have components. All of that needs to happen for every
model in the range, every year. And when that’s done, there
needs to be something in the pipeline for next year. It’s quite
a treadmill.
My trip would take in visits to both Taiwan and mainland
China, to see several factories where Saracen’s alloy suspension
bikes, carbon hardtails, and carbon full suspension bikes are
made, painted and assembled. Then I’d have a chance to test
out one of the new models before its launch date in autumn
2017. But first, let’s go back to April…
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