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To be honest changing the spline is not that much engineering work, especially since Ochain has already done the work... It could be one small interchangeable part even. I understand and mostly agree with what you are saying, but in this specific case it is 100 % keeping the garden walled.

I agree with that analysis for almost every type of component but I would have thought O-Chain would be an outlier. I can't see that many OEMs putting O-Chain on bikes other than DH bikes, primarily because it's a large cost they can cut that a non-enthusiast consumer that walks into a shop will not notice if it's a regular chainring instead, but will notice the extra couple hundred dollars in cost. DH bikes are also so much less of the overall market share, and most of them are bought by hardcore enthusiasts that are likely to customize the components...

I think one of the largest "We're not in Kansas anymore" moments I had when I began working for a component manufacturer after years in bikes shops was when I had the insignificance of aftermarket sales explained to me. Don't get me wrong, every brand worth their salt is going to support aftermarket product bc why leave money on the table, but OE sales are king in the bike industry and ultimately OE sales drives every design decision. SRAM gets to push the convenience of full SRAM spec by limiting cross compatibility. For brands like Canyon, Specialized, etc., who are...

To be fair, the bicycle industry shares a TON of common parts. We are pretty spoiled with that. In a lot of other wheeled industries, there are not the compatibility opportunities that we have. In motorcycles, typically bars and tires are some of the only commonly compatible parts. To take forks from one dirt bike and put them on another often requires changing wheels or wheel spacers, crowns, brake calipers, and the stem. We just swap it over and are annoyed we have to remove a crown race. We question a brand for using a less common standard or a...

You are not wrong. If People For Bikes spent 1/4 as much advocating for safe routes to school as they did lobbying for Ebike access in skeptical communities, the shrinking American bicycle market might be expanding. Instead we seem laser focused on selling stuff to the same 10% of the population over and over again, each time with an extra battery or two.

I helped him install "rudders" on the back of his skate lid by slapping large ass Romic stickers on a long ziptie sticking out. Before 32", Sanjay continued the blazing pioneering efforts started my Morgan of BCD (Buffalo Composite Designs - look up his homemade carbon 29" DH frame) by racing on probably the only 29" bike in the downhill scene when we're still smoking 26 inchers. He didn't need social media, social media needed someone like Sanjay. LOL

I would say they are pretty boutique. They don't even have an e bike. I'd bet they're bottom 15% of units moved by brands not invited to MADE.

Just a warning relative to the credit scores / general life harassment field; FedEx will 100% send you to collections if you don't pay a customs / tariff bill. They have already paid those fees on your behalf and you agreed to pay them back when you chose to use them as your customs broker. As a general "this is how the world actually works" explanation; even if Raaw had a brand new USA distributor, that USA distributor would pay the tariffs, factor that as the landed cost of the frame and price the frame accordingly to USA customers to...