Chinese Parts Create Tariff Risk for U.S. Bikes

In 2022, Brian Riley opened a bicycle factory in Seymour, Ind., shifting production of his Guardian Bikes brand to the U.S. from China. The problem for him now: Nearly all the parts still come from China.

- BY NATASHA KHAN

Riley had aspirations to use American-made components before the November presidential election of Donald Trump, who has vowed to enact steep tariffs on imports from China.

Riley, founder and chief executive of the children's bike maker, hopes these tariffs will help him shift to U.S. components faster by making American-made bikes and parts more competitive against Chinese-made ones. But it is still a tall order. Chinese manufacturers have dominated the bicycle supply chain for decades.

Almost all of the bicycles sold in the U.S. are imported, and the vast majority of those are made in China or assembled from Chinese parts, according to industry estimates and trade data. A typical bicycle is made of 30 to 40 parts, most of them from different Chinese manufacturers.

For now, components from China represent about 90% of the total cost of Guardian's parts. By the end of next year, Riley hopes that figure will be about 20%. Guardian is starting production of its own bike frames and is working to source parts such as grips and reflectors stateside. As a result of Guardian's new manufacturing, American-made parts could represent about 60% of the cost.

Riley moved his production to the U.S. because he wanted to build a safer bike that could prevent the kind of head-over-heels braking accident that had injured his grandfather years earlier. Many bikes sold at retailers such as Walmart or Target aren't fully assembled when they are shipped to the retailers from overseas, so manufacturers don't have oversight on the final assembly.