Specialized
Founded in 1974, Specialized started out importing bike parts, but by 1976 they were producing their own. In 1981 they introduced the first major production mountain bike in the world, the Specialized Stumpjumper. The Stumpjumper is still in production by Specialized, although it has evolved significantly since 1981 with both full suspension and hardtail variants.
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Marin
Hailing from Marin county, California, Marin bikes were established in 1986. Marin mainly focus their attention on building full suspension mountain bikes but do also create other types. All their bikes are named after locations in and around Marin county.
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Giant Bicycles
In 1972 Giant started off making bikes for other people. In 1986 they established their own brand and today are the worlds largest bicycle manufacturer. Giant Bicycles today are available in over 50 countries and from more than 10,000 retail stores, and in 2007 they sold over 5 million bicycles.
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Kona
Kona Bicycle company specialise in high performance mountain bikes, racing bikes, and touring bikes. Named after a county in Hawaii, Kona was founded in 1988, and their mountain bikes are sold in 30 countries around the world.
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Scott USA
Born in 1958, Scott began as a company producing ski poles, the success of which encouraged them to produce goods for many other sports. By 1970 they had produced their first motocross goggles, with other motocross products following. After expanding into Europe in 1978 Scott's first mountain bike was produced in 1986, they produced their own front suspension fork in 1991 and in 1992 they introduced their first full suspension mountain bike. Today, as one of the worlds leading cycling brands, they produce not only mountain and road bikes, but part accessories and clothing for all cycling disciplines.
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Raleigh
Originally from Nottingham in the UK, Raleigh started out in 1887, making 3 bikes a week. In 6 years they had become the biggest bicycle manufacturer in the world with a 7 and a half acre site. From 1929 to 1935 Raleigh also produced motorcycles and three-wheeled cars and produced mopeds and the 1950's and 60's during the decline in the bicycle market. Raleigh continued to expand through the 1960's with the ownership of brands such as Brooks, Sturmey Archer, Reynolds and BSA and in 1968 the iconic Raleigh Chopper was introduced. Initially unsuccessful in the USA, the Chopper sold well in 70's Britain, helping to revive the company's fortunes in a still declining market, mainly due to it's "exciting" features such as the frame mounted car style gear lever, long padded seat with a backrest, and sprung rear suspension. By 1987 Raleigh bikes were being mass produced and sold worldwide, and in 1997 Raleigh acquired the Diamondback brand. Today Raleigh produce over 60 bike models covering several riding disciplines.
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Shimano
The leading global bicycle component manufacturer with approximately 50% of the market share, Shimano were founded in 1921 as Shimano Iron Works, and started production of bicycle freewheels. Their first bicycle derailleur came along in 1956 closely followed by their 3-speed hub in 1957. In 1973 the world famous dura-ace groupset was introduced - although not a great success until the introduction of Dura-Ace S.I.S. (Shimano indexing system) in 1984, which was the first successful indexed-shifting system with the 6-speed indexed shifters mounted on the bicycle down tube. By 1985 Shimano began the process of introducing their new innovations at their highest quality level groupsets (Dura-Ace and XT), which would then cascade down to lower groups as the technology was proven and tested. Such innovations include freehubs, dual pivot brakes, 8-9-10 speed drivetrains, shifter and brake lever integration, and the aforementioned Shimano index system. Shimano is well known for introducing innovations into most areas of cycling componentry including Shimano pedalling dynamics (SPD), Nexus internally geared hubs, hyperglige (HG) technology on cassette sprockets to improve downshifting, and Shimano total integration (STI) to enable riders to shift gears without their hands leaving the brake levers. For the future, Shimano has developed Dura-Ace Di2, an electronic shifting system using switches, a battery pack and a small electric motor to drive the derailleur.
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Sram
SRAM Corporation is a bicycle component manufacturer founded in 1987 and based in Chicago, USA. SRAM is an acronym of the names of it's founders
Sott,
Ray and
Sam. In 1988 SRAM introduced it's first product into the mountain bike market - the Grip Shift DB road bike twist shifter. In 1989 Cannondale started using a variant of the shifter on its mountain bikes, and Trek and Specialized later also introduced grip shift as standard equipment on their hybrid bikes. By the mid 1990's SRAM grip shifters specified on roughly half of all the bicycles sold in the USA, and dominated the United states cross-country racing circuit. SRAM began selling its own derailleur in the spring of 1995 to compete with the then dominant Shimano and tody, through acquisitions and intense research and development, SRAM has extended its product line to over 100 different cycling componentry items. Major acquisitions have included Rockshox, Avid, Truvativ, Sachs and Zipp wheels.
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Campagnolo
Founded in 1933 in Italy, Campagnolo hold over 135 patents for innovations in cycling technology. Tullio Campgnolo, the company founder, was a road racer in the 1920's and concieved most of his ideas while racing, such as the wheel quick release mechanism, derailleurs, and gear change rods. In the late 1950's Campagnolo were manufacturing magnesium parts for cars, in 1969 they built satellite chassis for NASA, and in the 1970's they supplied wheels for the Ferrari formula one team. The 1990's and early 2000's saw an increased use of carbon fibre and titanium parts and a recent shift to 11-speed drive trains has seen the super record, record, and chorus become Campagnolo's flagship groupsets.
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Hope
For over 18 years, and from their factory on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, Hope Technology have been the market leader in the production of high quality bicycle parts. Hope originally started out as an aerospace company, but is now exclusively dedicated to producing a large and technical range of cycle parts, all designed using cutting edge 3D CAD software and produced on one of over 35 CNC machines. Proud of their heritage as a totally independent company wholly owned by engineers Simon and Ian, part of Hope's philosophy is "let the product do the talking"; despite the small size of the company they manage to produce a large technical range of products that are acclaimed by both the press and end user alike.
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Avid
Avid Technologies are designers and manufacturers of bicycle components and brake systems, including hydraulic and mechanical disc brakes, rim brakes, brake levers and cables and brake maintenance products. Avid offer brakes and levers for all types of road bikes, mountain bikes and cyclocross bicycles.
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Quad
Quad Technology were formed in the United Kingdom in 1999, and was amongst the first companies to mass produce mechanical disc brake systems. With years of design experience in the automotive industry, all of Quad's product design and development work is based in the UK and is tasked with the creation of an innovative product with the cost advantages of far east production.
In 2004, after years of producing mechanical disc brake systems, Quad embarked on a program of introducing a fulll hydraulic disc brake system and by 2010 offer disc brake systems for XC, Freeride, and Downhill riding disciplines.
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Thule
Thule AB, founded in Sweden in 1942, started off making pike traps for fishermen in Scandinavia. In the 1960's their first roof rack was born, and in 1992 they introduced rear mounted bike carriers to their range.
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Pendle
A British manufacturer of top quality award winning bike racks, Pendle produce 10 different types of rack to ease the burden of carrying your bicycle load. From roof mounted tandem carriers to 4 bike capacity tow bar mounted bike carriers, Pendle bike racks are built to last and most importantly are "STRONG, SIMPLE, and SAFE".
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