Review: Why Your Bike Is Made in Asia

 Why Your Bike Is Made in Asia is Bill McGann's memoir of his career first as a bike shop owner, then as a wholesale distributor (Torelli) importing bicycles from both Asia and Europe. Just like in the auto industry, the bike manufacturing industry in Japan, Taiwan, and China simply out-competed the European manufacturers on price, quality, and sheer industry. (By the way, I only remember the name Torelli because they'd imported some rims that were the worst rims ever made, breaking steel core tire levers trying to get tires off and on rims that were just a little too big)

Overall, the book is easy to read --- I'd bought it and finished it in the same day, starting with the invention of the bicycle and explaining that one reason cycling never took off in the USA was that the tire industry in the US was dominated by a company that refused to manufacture clinchers, ensuring that bicycles in the US were unreliable to the point where people preferred to walk than to ride a bicycle.

The first thing that struck me was that most of the US bike industry was really badly managed. Schwinn, for instance, was in its 3rd generation of being managed by a family member, and of course, its incompetence ensured that it never produced lightweight bicycles to compete with European (and later Asian) imports. The manager suffered severely from Dunning Krueger, and blamed everyone (including his employees who voted to unionized after being treated badly) for his failure. What I wish the book covered was actually the American success stories like Trek and SRAM:

Despite that hiccup, as a result of superb management and a good instinct for what Americans wanted to buy, the Wisconsin company went bravely on without me. Trek went from strength to strength and by the 1990s had far surpassed Schwinn in sales. Trek showed that the failure of American and European producers to compete with Asian factories was not the fault of location or workforce. As is nearly always true, the suits in the upstairs offices were to blame. (kindle lopc 1335)

The American manufacturers that succeeded had to compete against Asians who were cheaper, and Europeans who had a local market where cycling was much more popular, and Bill McGann had no insights to give us as to how they did so. Names were dropped like Jobst Brandt (curiously referred to as a bike historian!) and John Neugent. We read about the invention of Mountain Bikes by Tom Ritchey, Charlie Cunningham, and Joe Breeze, and the rise of Specialized taking over the mountain bike industry. The founder of Specialized, Mike Sinyard, was described as possibly the best businessman in the industry but we also do not get any special insight about why he was so great. Bear in mind the Specialized never manufactured in the US and so his wheelings and dealings to get his bikes imported and sold is a big deal. We also never get into how Quality Bicycle Products (QBP) became so dominant in part supply. We do get a treatise in indexing (which Shimano invented) and praise of it as being super reliable whereas in my personal experience, indexing works for precisely 3 months after which it never works again.

It's clear from reading the book that it has several limitations and gaps that need to be filled in if it's to be more than just a memoir of some bike guy who had next to no influence in the industry but nevertheless managed to acquire quite a bit of wealth doing so.  Nevertheless, it's a short read, and cheap at $4, and if you don't know most of this (which I didn't) is well worth reading.