Hong Kong Mountain Bike Association

Our research group is attempting to manufacture some tubular bike components (especially the frame of mountain bikes) such as top tubes, head tubes, down tubes, and their joints by using our self-developed equipment and technology. We should be able to make the steel, aluminium-alloy tubular components at this stage, and will further extend the ability to make the titanium-alloy components in coming year. The success is not only the demonstration / evaluation of the capacity of our development, but also helping the Hong Kong’s bike manufacturing industry.

We are looking for some 2nd complete MTB or frames, so that we can prepare the mould/die drawings after measuring the actual size and geometry of MTBs. Any HKMBA members can help? If HKMBA can organise a MTB’s factory visit, it would be most appreciated.

Thank you.

There isn't a manufacturing base in HK. Frames are made in China. There are some outfits in Shenzhen that do carbon and steel/aluminium. Otherwise there is a HK based company called Chiru, but I don't think they manufacture here.

I'm not sure what you meant in your second paragraph- if all you want to do is measure a frame, then you can probably do that if you spend some time talking to bike store?

Well, I can let you measure my mountain bike if that would help you, but like Jeff said, why don't you check with a bike store? Also, almost all geometry (headtube etc.) information is available online.

Factory visits may be difficult. Biking is a big-money industry and a lot of design and manufacturing is done behind closed doors. You may have to go through some shops to see if any of the manufacturer reps are willing to let you have a look at a factory.

Thank you both. We understand there is no HK based manufacturing plant, and hence we are approaching the mainland manufacturers (especially in Guangdong province). Chiru seems only targeting to the carbon fiber frame, which is not able to be produced by our equipment, and we only can make the metal/alloy frames.

We want to measure the frame’s dimensions in the bike stores also. However, the measurement may take several hours, since we not only require the length and width of the frames, but also the detail cross-sectional geometries of the tubes. We think this may disturb the bike stores, as we are not their paying customers. Therefore, we are looking for the 2nd-hand bike frames.

Slayer, this is a good news that you can let us to measure your mountain bike. Can you send your contact to my email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ? Thank you very much for your help.

Hmm... I thought you were just interested in taking some angle measurements.

I'm pretty sure that it's unethical to just to take someone else's bike design, down to angles and tube cross sectional geometries, and then copy them for production (which is what your two posts amount to suggesting).

Hi Jeff, thank you for your reply. You might misunderstand. We are not doing the business on mountain bike’s manufacture. Our aim is to evaluate the capability of our developed manufacturing technology, and would like to find some actual samples for the trial. We think that the frame of mountain bike is the most suitable choice, as its material, geometry, and size are fit for our requirements. The samples produced by our developed equipment are not for sales. We are welcome to cooperate with any bike’s brands, and manufacturers. However, if there is no company, which is interested in the cooperation, we may have the alternative that is to measure the dimensions of the actual bikes (modification must be necessary, as your mention of ethical problems).