Also Made In England

FutureCycles posted this video from the Brompton factory today:

As it happens, I’m a bit of a factory nerd, so I love this sort of thing. It got me thinking - what other bicycle factory footage could I find?

The obvious answer is from Brooks Saddles:

My professional opinion on the above two films? Well, I can now see why Brooks saddles are so expensive to produce, and it’s nothing to do with the materials they use!

Brompton on the other hand seems to be getting a lot right - lovely to see those jigs in the brazing section, and fantastic to see the coordinate measurement machine checking the alignment of the forks. The only bit that raised an eyebrow was the inspection of the hinge castings - were they being tapped to check for cracks / porosity?!

I also found this clip about Pashley bikes from a French news programme. It was shown around the time of the 2007 Tour de France, which started in London:

I’m not sure if the subliminal message wasn’t, “The Risbeefs will never win - just look at the bikes they ride!”

Filed under: Bike Culture

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3 Responses to “ Also Made In England ”

  1. miketually on March 14, 2012 at 8:48 pm

    Orange make some of their frames in Halifax. Guy Martin did a visit/film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlIYEdRFQu4

  2. Keith on March 15, 2012 at 11:28 am

    Just watched the video on the Bromton factory and Brooks England Very intresting to see what goes on behind the scenes.My son has a Pashley though and I dont think he loves anything else but his bike.

  3. John the Monkey on March 20, 2012 at 1:39 pm

    Gazelle factory, 1925;

    http://vimeo.com/1132271