Derailleurs from Taiwan

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Taiwan

For the Taiwanese cycle industry it all happened in 1972. Bicycle manufacturers Giant and Merida were established that year, as were the companies that manufacture the Falcon and SunRace component brands. For the next ten years the Taiwanese bicycle industry cut its teeth on low end ten speeds. I remember a Giant ten speed from about 1980, it had beautiful paint, Japanese chainset and derailleurs, unfamiliar, highly chromed, no-name brakes, pedals, headset etc. and weighed about 10kg more than you expected it to. Oh! how we laughed - in our ignorance of the future.

During the 1970’s the US market gradually became addicted to Japanese manufactured bicycles (and Japanese manufactured cars, cameras, televisions, hi-fis etc...). Then two earthquakes hit at once. One earthquake was the ‘Yen shock’ that partly arose out of this addiction - the Yen doubled in value against the dollar. Suddenly Japan was uncompetitive.

The second earthquake was the arrival of the mountain bike. This had a new look, was a new and disruptive technology and grew a new culture surrounding it. The new consumer demanded new brands. Suddenly the brands and supply arrangements that had dominated the 1970’s were no longer in control. More...

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Dahon (Taiwan)