Unless you’ve been on Jupiter, you probably have heard the news about President Trump and tariffs. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on Sunday, encouraged Canadians to buy from Canadian brands. Although after a phone call on Monday, the trade war is on hold for a month, it’s still a good idea to learn more about Canadian products.
Most cyclists can easily rattle off a list of some of the most common bike brands: Trek, Cannondale, Giant, Specialized, etc. Some cyclists will even know which companies have a Canadian connection—Argon-18, Norco, Devinci and so on.
What some people don’t know is that there are a surprisingly large number of Canadian bike brands. Smaller companies have more unique offerings and can be a great option when you’re looking for a personal relationship with those building and selling your bike. Here are five such small Canadian bike manufacturers:
Panorama
Panorama is a Montreal-based company that makes carbon fibre fat bikes and gravel bikes. The brand is focused on adventuring and exploring—its bikes are designed to be loaded up with all kinds of packs racks and waterbottle mounts. Recently, the brand collaborated with Vancouver-based artists Pellvetica to create a unique frame design for the Katahdin bike (pictured above.)
Naked bicycles
Naked Bicycles, based on Quadra Island in B.C., has been building custom frames since 1998. Founded by Sam Whittingham, Naked Bicycles makes road, cross and mountain frames out of steel and titanium.
Bike Check: Carter Woods’ titanium Naked Bicycles cyclocross bike
The raw titanium of the brand’s bike can be modified with a range of colours through anodization.Naked bicycles will decorate its frame with colours from deep blue, through violet to purple to light gold.
T-Lab
After Guru bikes folded in 2016, Tony Giannascoli created the Montreal-based bike company T-Lab. The brand builds titanium bike, designed engineered manufactured and finished all in their facility. T-Lab makes road, adventure and mountain bikes—all of the bikes are stiff yet light, made using the company’s proprietary precision forming method.
Landyachtz
Landyachtz was founded 25 years ago as a skateboard and longboard company. When founders Mike Perreten and Tom Edstrand took an interest in cycling the Vancouver based brand started making bikes. As of 2016 Landyachtz has grown its bike offering significantly, selling city, touring, road and…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Canadian Cycling Magazine…