M9 ride reports?
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- ask bradflyn bradflyn=al gore bradflynn loves justice built_to_last dhr thread is quiet gees_bike_43lbs haterade he ain't heavy i <3 intense i have an intense boner ih8looseeastcoastrox ih8rebound intense m9 fro m9 ships b4 demo 8 quickneonrt=heavy sooner than evil suck that taiwan wanda sykes who is bradflyn you can actually ride it
nice, that black chrome IS sexy.
Your frame looks awesome Christiaan! 
Blackohio, this m9 was built to last...period.
i like the black chrome, but ive become sick of painted bikes and having cables/hoses rubbing the paint off. its a pet peeve of mine.
I have a Large RAW on order but that black chrome looks great but i am of the same mindset as IH8RICE.
im already taking the stickers off the frame in my mind
Is the green one a large? It could be my friends frame we ordered for him...
Me? Raw for the reasons mentioned.
Me? Raw for the reasons mentioned.
wow, that really is a nice price for a us-made frame with a CCDB and the shmanz headset.
Are these bikes welded in house, or outsource to SAPA or whomever elsE?
in house. theres plenty of videos showing the welders doing their magic.
i believe their hardtail is the only one not made in the US of A
Really? that would surprise me that the HT Tazer wasn't made in house or in the USA
i've seen some work, but was unsure if that was a demo, proto, or what. Also, there seem to be very few in house builders nowadays...even the "made in USA" stuff is outsourced to other welding plants.
I am thinking of polishing over the long east coast winter. Not sure how that would be on the east coast rox.
i believe Stik said it was because of its low volume...im sure he can elaborate moar better tho
he also said they are welded in front of his office
i could also be 100% wrong. this is the internet
Yeah, they take pride doing stuff in house. I recently ordered a frame for a customer in a certain color. Sales rep told me to hold on he thought one just came out of paint in the back.
Had the frame in my hands a few days later.
Unlike other USA companies that tell you "i don't know when they are coming in" or not sure when they will be available. Well if they were made in house maybe you wouldn't have such vague answers.
i thought they only thing they dont do is paint.
I may have misunderstood him. I could be wrong I am human and this is the interwebs.
Stik, where are you? We need some clarification....LOL
well retardless, that's pretty cool. with the price of competitors frames being higher and of questionable origin, it's very cool that intense still does their stuff in house. makes me want one that much more.
M9s are indeed made in house.
Intense doesn't paint in house but they do get painted right down the road. I am guessing you misunderstood the guy slightly as he may have said they just had some come back from paint. They come back from paint and then they check / decal them up in house
Intense doesn't paint in house but they do get painted right down the road. I am guessing you misunderstood the guy slightly as he may have said they just had some come back from paint. They come back from paint and then they check / decal them up in house
Thats what I'm sayin!
It seems F'd up that these days people will pay 3k for a Taiwan frame, and Intense is doing this. If something is made in Taiwan it SHOULD be cheaper, end of story. If not, then whats the point of getting them done there?
3k for this frame is hugely respectable. In fact, seems Intense has lowered pricing on ALL their bikes. Thats pretty bloody rare these days, nevermind from a boutique US-made manufacturer.
PS: this is not a Taiwan quality vs US quality comment. Just pricing.
It seems F'd up that these days people will pay 3k for a Taiwan frame, and Intense is doing this. If something is made in Taiwan it SHOULD be cheaper, end of story. If not, then whats the point of getting them done there?
3k for this frame is hugely respectable. In fact, seems Intense has lowered pricing on ALL their bikes. Thats pretty bloody rare these days, nevermind from a boutique US-made manufacturer.
PS: this is not a Taiwan quality vs US quality comment. Just pricing.
markup. If you can get your product for $300 a pop instead of $1500, but people are willing to pay the same for each, you win.
No I understand that of course. There a thousands of examples of that in every industry.
I just think that as consumers people should stand up against that crap. People complain about the pricing of DH frames, but don't do anything to actually make a statement.
One thing I've always been curious about too. How come DH frames are so much more expensive then XC or AM frames? It is just volume? I can't imagine more work goes into a DH frame than xc or am, considering how much they tweak those frames for weight and such.
I just think that as consumers people should stand up against that crap. People complain about the pricing of DH frames, but don't do anything to actually make a statement.
One thing I've always been curious about too. How come DH frames are so much more expensive then XC or AM frames? It is just volume? I can't imagine more work goes into a DH frame than xc or am, considering how much they tweak those frames for weight and such.
Well I can guess that some of it is supply and demand. For every say 20 xc or am frames a company may only sell 1 DH frame. They make the money up by selling the xc am frames at a lower price and higher volume and raise the price on DH frames
Talking about the larger companies not smaller companies
Talking about the larger companies not smaller companies
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Here we go again. The bike industry it trying to rip us all off while they fly around in their corporate jets sipping martinis. 
Ok no one said that but whatever.Here we go again. The bike industry it trying to rip us all off while they fly around in their corporate jets sipping martinis.
Not what I said at all, or even inferred that. I'm just asking why Taiwan frames are now the same price as US made ones, seeing as most people see Taiwan as a lower cost option.
A full on race XC bike is usually as expensive or more expensive than a full on race Dh bike.
The thing is that most (not all obviously) DH bikes are sold as top of the line race bikes, while most xc bikes are sold as recreational bicycles, not the top of the line.
Go price a boutique 29'r steel hardtail. You'll pay a pretty fair dollar for all the "Hipster Soul" they weld into it...
Most of the comments here are correct and yes we do take pride in our "In House Manufacturing" some of you have noticed that our prices are staying reasonable and in some cases going down in spite of being made in the USA.
Over the last year we have been switching to a "Lean " manufacturing process and we are starting to see the benefits through out the company including our design & QC processes as well as customer service. The M9 is one of the first projects completed under our new Lean process and it is an ongoing process of improvement. Currently we do all processes in house and the ones we don't ( Paint & ano) we use local vendors in our business park as this help stimulate the local economy and keeps transportation costs down. The Tazer HT was a hard pill to swallow as this is a very price competitive segment and I had personally made these for our racers for years but we could never get the price where it needed to be if we produced them in house and I didn't think people would be willing to pay $1200.00 for a DJ frame, in this case the Asian production makes sense for us and also for Carbon Fiber .
Well thats my soap box very exciting stuff indeed!!
Over the last year we have been switching to a "Lean " manufacturing process and we are starting to see the benefits through out the company including our design & QC processes as well as customer service. The M9 is one of the first projects completed under our new Lean process and it is an ongoing process of improvement. Currently we do all processes in house and the ones we don't ( Paint & ano) we use local vendors in our business park as this help stimulate the local economy and keeps transportation costs down. The Tazer HT was a hard pill to swallow as this is a very price competitive segment and I had personally made these for our racers for years but we could never get the price where it needed to be if we produced them in house and I didn't think people would be willing to pay $1200.00 for a DJ frame, in this case the Asian production makes sense for us and also for Carbon Fiber .
Well thats my soap box very exciting stuff indeed!!
boutique vs mainstream is almost the same argument as xc vs dh.
xc/mainstream have a much larger selection, and a FAR wider range of price points.
boutique/dh companies are growing, but the availability of an entry level build / budget price is almost unheard of.
edit: a boutique 29'r steel hardtail isn't exactly your run of the mill bike these days, still a niche. Granted, the 29'r realm is certainly growing.
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Yay for SixSigma Lean!
What is a "Lean" manufacturing process? Inquiring minds want to know.
like a lean cut of meat.... all the fat trimmed
real answer: a "lean manufacturing process" is one that has been evaluated and streamlined to maximize efficiency, minimize errors (aka bad products), to ultimately increase production throughput / decrease processing time per unit. All of this ultimately leads to reduced costs per unit product.
6sigma processes are generally implemented as well if they are not already in place. This is just the concept of process control which validates product design and manufacturing processes to ensure that that nearly all items off the line will be free of defects (99.99966% to be exact). It's a lot of time and money up front, but in the long run it saves much more of both.
edit: more in depth info for anyone who is curious:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sigma
6 sig is a more defined method of statistical process control:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_process_control
6sigma processes are generally implemented as well if they are not already in place. This is just the concept of process control which validates product design and manufacturing processes to ensure that that nearly all items off the line will be free of defects (99.99966% to be exact). It's a lot of time and money up front, but in the long run it saves much more of both.
edit: more in depth info for anyone who is curious:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sigma
6 sig is a more defined method of statistical process control:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_process_control
"markup. If you can get your product for $300 a pop instead of $1500, but people are willing to pay the same for each, you win.""I just think that as consumers people should stand up against that crap."With all respect, Intense and six sigma probably don't belong in the same sentence.
That is not ripping on Intense, but six sigma is a another ball game.
That is not ripping on Intense, but six sigma is a another ball game.
Thanks Jon. Forgive my ignorance on that.
That is great news
That is great news
It's essentially a pretty generic buzzword used these days for companies that focus on stripping as much extraneous costs out of the entire manufacturing process/work flow but still provide the same value to the end customer.
The concept/practice is much more prevalent in larger and inefficient companies.
i don't know if I would consider company size and efficiency to be a direct correlation. Not saying they're inversely proportional either.
edit: I would also say that larger companies would do it because they have the resources to do so. Any time you don't have to spend time/money dealing with issues after production has started (complaints, recalls, etc) is time/money that can be spent developing and validating new products.
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