American bicycle makers
Every line below is a quote from the manufacturer, with the page it came from and the date it was read.
| Manufacturer | Origin | The maker’s own words |
|---|---|---|
| Alchemy BikesCompany-level claim | Varies by product | After years of searching, Alchemy has finally found a fabrication partner that can help us bring the LYCOS to you at a lower cost than our handmade-in-Colorado models, all with our same world-class standards and award winning layups. All LYCOS builds use top-shelf components to give you the best possible ride, now at a lower price than we've ever offered. |
| ALLIED Cycle WorksCompany-level claim | Varies by product | However, to continue to push the dream and give our customers the best ALLIED experience, we’ve decided to shift some production overseas and partner with trusted and established manufacturers in Asia. |
| Bike FridayCompany-level claim | Made in USA, as claimed | You can contact us at the factory in Eugene Oregon USA: |
| CHUMBA BikesCompany-level claim | Made in USA, as claimed | Our Sendero, Yaupon and Terlingua SL frames all use domestically sourced and certified aerospace grade 3Al-2.5V titanium tubing. |
| Co-Motion CyclesCompany-level claim | Made in USA, as claimed | 4765 Pacific Ave Eugene, OR 97402 United States |
| Litespeed BicyclesCompany-level claim | Made in USA, with a qualifier | manufacture and assemble every Litespeed titanium frame by hand |
| Mosaic CyclesCompany-level claim | Made in USA, as claimed | Every Mosaic ever built has been built by our team right here in Boulder, Colorado. From product design through fabrication and finish, it’s all done under one roof by our team of talented people. |
| Vassago CyclesCompany-level claim | Made in USA, as claimed | The Donnybrook is a USA made steel gravel frame that rides like butter! We have been cranking these frames out over the past few years for special Vassago customers that want a semi-custom USA handmade steel frame. |
| Waterford Precision CyclesCompany-level claim | Manufacturer operates in the USA | Handcrafted Bicycles Since 1993 |
| Worksman CyclesCompany-level claim | Made in USA, with a qualifier | Proudly Made In The USA Using Domestic & Imported Components |
The best explanation of this problem was written by a bike company
Litespeed builds titanium frames in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and published a page called "What 'Made In America' ACTUALLY Looks Like". It is the clearest account of a qualified claim we have found anywhere, and the company wrote it about itself.
The short version is that Litespeed hand-builds every frame in Chattanooga, and the titanium those frames are made of comes from overseas, because the quantity and quality it needs is not currently available domestically. It goes further than it had to:
the majority of components needed to actually make a bike rideable, drivetrain components, touchpoints, wheels, and tires, are also manufactured overseas. Even the machines and tools necessary for bicycle production are made overseas.
The phrase it lands on, borrowed from the interviewer, is "American manufacturing powered by a global supply chain". Litespeed calls the result complicated and messy. We would rather publish a company that says that than one that says nothing and lets you assume.
A company that told everyone it had moved
ALLIED Cycle Works started out making everything in Bentonville, Arkansas. It has since published a long post explaining that it now has two named frames, the BC40 and the ABLE, produced in Asia, while the Bentonville team handles quality control, finishing, paint, assembly and aluminium parts.
Nothing about that is hidden. It is on the company's own site, under its CEO's name. But it is the single clearest argument for dating every quote on this site. A directory that read ALLIED once, a few years ago, and never went back would still be calling it American today, and would have no way of noticing it was wrong.
The asterisk
Worksman Cycles has been building in America since 1898 and writes it as "Made in America*". The footnote sits on the same page, in smaller type: "using high quality domestic and imported parts".
That asterisk is doing exactly the job an asterisk is supposed to do, which is rarer than it should be. Compare it with Mosaic Cycles, which answers the question as a question on its own FAQ, "Are all Mosaic bikes built in Boulder, Colorado?", and answers that every Mosaic ever built has been.
What we did not record
Turner Bikes is not in the table. We read its page and it states no origin that we could find, which is a finding about the page rather than about the bikes.
Alchemy Bikes is recorded as varying, from its own LYCOS page, where it says it found a fabrication partner to build that model more cheaply than its handmade-in-Colorado bikes. It does not say where that partner is, so neither do we.
Waterford Precision Cycles carries the weakest label on this page on purpose. It says it handcrafts frames and places its builders in the San Juans, which is a mountain range, not a town or a state. It never writes Made in USA, so we have not written it for them.
Wyatt Bicycles would have been here. Its founder closed the company after fifteen years, and the announcement is still on the site. The About page next to it still describes the operation in the present tense, which is how a closed maker goes on reading as a live one.