Behind the Scenes: VO's Factory Visits in Taiwan

I'll admit, I was slacking a bit on Instagram posts, stories, and updates over the past couple of weeks—but for good reason! Clint and I traveled to Taiwan, Japan, and Korea to visit partner factories, discuss new projects and product updates, and connect with friends and distributors. It was a long and busy trip, but incredibly worthwhile. So, let's start at the beginning—with our visit to Taiwan. 

A Bit of Background

We've been working with our partner factories in Taiwan for the better part of two decades. Each specializes in different products—one for fenders, another for racks, another for rims—you get the idea. And they are exceptional. These factories are family-oriented and salaries are good. The owners take pride in their craftsmanship, and we've built strong relationships with them over the years.

As you'll see, their capabilities are impressive and continuously evolving in skill, complexity, and precision. While I won’t go into every factory detail (due to proprietary designs, trade secrets, and brevity), here’s a behind-the-scenes look at some of the cool stuff we saw.

Chessie Frames

One of the biggest reasons for this trip was to check in on the production of our upcoming Chessie frames. Steel bike manufacturing is well-documented, but aluminum alloy (or just "alloy" for shorthand) is a new venture in our niche.

In the past, alloy bikes were seen as harsh and unforgiving. And, to an extent, they were—I've ridden a LOT of alloy road bikes, and they were indeed stiff. But that was largely due to narrow 23mm tires and oversized tubing. Of course, they felt harsh! Today, we can fine tune ride quality by selecting the right tubing and designing bikes with a more rider-centric fit rather than a pure performance focus. Pair that with wider tires, and you get a frame that performs well, rides comfortably, and sheds weight compared to a steel frame.

Now, onto the production pictures!

The production floor was buzzing—literally. The sound of aluminum TIG welding has a distinct, higher-pitched buzz compared to the relative quiet of steel TIG welding. The main triangles had already been welded before we arrived, and they were impeccable.

The seat and chainstays were impressively light, already mitered, and ready to be tacked onto the frame. Clint is excited!

Custom alignment tooling ensures precision. Notice the fender mount cutout in the radius and the absolute DIMES on the wishbone junction.

Three welders work simultaneously: one aligning and tacking (in the foreground), and the others finishing welds and any other accoutrements like accessory mounts.

An XL frame, fresh off the line, is headed to QC. Someone's getting the very first one!

Seriously, look at those welds—years of craftsmanship on display. I can't wait for these to arrive, which should be in April!

Chessie's forks are made in a different factory that specializes in, you guessed it, forks. Actually they do some of our other items including Klunker Handlebars and Faceplate Stems and they are darn good.

Hubs

The hub manufacturing process is mind-bending—one of my favorite factory visits. Everything is done in-house, allowing for precise quality control throughout the entire production process.

They have several cold forges for hub shells and freehub bodies. Most factories outsource forging, but they have been doing it in-house for many decades. This process makes the components extremely strong and lightweight - better than a fully CNC'd hub.

We start out with raw aluminum alloy stock. The ends are painted with different colors to easily distinguish width.

The rods are cut to length depending on their final use—some become freehub bodies, ratchet rings, and hub shells. These will be freehub bodies.

A massive 650-ton press (the largest I've seen) cold-forges the hub shells. The shells get hot in the process, so I had to wait before handling them. They have at least 3 other 330 ton presses doing other work, too.

Ratchet rings are forged, then cut in half to make two. These will be pressed and bonded into the hub shells later.

After additional forging steps, the components move to CNC machining, where they’re cleaned up and machined for rotor mounts. This factory has scores of machines running making pawls, springs, endcaps, and other little pieces.

One extremely important piece is that the spoke holes are actually punched rather than drilled. This provides a nice chamfer in the process which is best for J-bend spokes to prevent creating a stress riser at the elbow. 

Every hub is tested for smoothness and play before packaging—every single one. I had to edit this below picture because they were working on a new OEM hub that isn’t public yet, but let’s just say it’s a big deal in its niche - I think.

While our hubs weren’t in production at the time of our visit, we have new ones in the pipeline. Early samples are already in testing, and pre-production samples should be ready soon.

Fenders

As you know, we sell a lot of fenders in various shapes and sizes. Visiting the factory that makes them is always a treat—it’s also a great opportunity to brainstorm new styles and sizes.

The raw material arrives in rolls, pre-cut to the required width—mostly aluminum alloy, though some are stainless steel.

The material is progressively shaped through a series of rollers until it reaches the final curvature.

A specialized tool punches holes for mounting hardware, with quality control checks throughout the process to ensure precision.

Our mini velo fenders were in production while we were there. A sample was pulled off the line for inspection before moving to packaging—everything checked out perfectly.

Ready to get their packaging!

Like many factories in Taiwan, this one has a small shrine to the Buddha—a common sight and a sign of good fortune.

Our Neutrinos: The Ultimate Travel Companions

One of the best parts of this trip? Clint and I both brought our Neutrino Mini Velos along for the adventure. The Neutrino was the perfect travel companion. We put them through their paces, and they performed flawlessly. After meetings, I was able to get some spins in the city - the perfect environment for a 20" bike!

Just a taste...

This is just a glimpse into the manufacturing side of things. I can’t go into every meeting detail and project—some of it has been discussed before, and a lot has to be done behind closed doors. Design, quality control, manufacturing techniques, industry trends—and, of course, plenty of amazing food.

Next up, we’re heading to Japan for Orange Outside, hosted by our friends at Blue Lug. Stay tuned!