(Email message tone)

- Oh look, those guys at (beep) have a new bike.

- Let me guess.

This one's five millimeters longer

and one degree slacker, Kaz?

- Let's see; actually, six millimeters longer.

- It's ridiculous.

All these companies, they're trying to cram

evolutionary down our throat as revolutionary.

Just jump in with two feet already.

- Wait, aren't you the guy that's always saying

that bikes are getting too long and too slack?

- Seriously, why are we wasting our time

with this bullshit, Kaz?

I'm gonna make an Enduro bike.

I'm gonna make it slack and long.

It's gonna be like it's from the future.

- You're gonna make an Enduro bike?

Yeah, I'd like to see that.

(chimes)

- Dude, be the judge you wanna be, dude.

(intense humming sound)

- Do you guys remember that old guy

that used to work for Pinkbike a few years ago?

He went over to Taiwan to look into this.

- And we're gonna use this to start our own brand.

So, what would that cost?

- $250.

- That's 250? - 250 U.S. dollar.

- You've got to factor that in.

It's not a case of coming here with your suitcase

of cash and saying, "Make me some bikes."

- So, how hard can it actually be, right?

(chimes)

(upbeat techno music)

To figure out what bikes are gonna be like

in a decade, all you have to do is

go back ten years and apply that change

to what we're using now.

It's simple math.

(upbeat techno music)

So these days, okay sixty-nine degree head angles.

Now they're sixty-three, so in ten years,

they're gonna be fifty-seven.

Why can't these idiots see that?

Fifty-seven.

(upbeat techno music)

It's so long, it's so slack.

So many water bottle bosses,

I'm getting hydrated just thinking about it.

(upbeat techno music)

Yes, okay.

Off to Taiwan.

(jazzy drum music)

After thirteen hours in the back of the plane,

I'm here in Taiwan, double-fisting bubble teas

at the Taipei Cycle Show.

Now, if you want a frame made, this is the place to come.

It's full of people and companies.

Follow me inside, and let's get it done.

Hey, I'm Mike, how are you?

- I'm Jamie. - Jamie.

- Yeah. - Check this out.

What do you think of that?

- So, you want to make this bike, or...

- [Mike] I would want to make this bike.

This is my dream bike.

What do you think?

- Hmm...

This looks weird.

- It's your design?

- This is my design. I came up with this.

- I think it's not good for normal bikes.

- All right, so you want a bottle on your down teeth?

- Yeah, it's really important to stay hydrated.

- This looks garbage. - Garbage.

I thought it looked pretty good.

It had all the right angles.

You could put three bottles on there.

- No one designs like this.

- Your downhill is totally a disaster.

- So, minimum order quantity, five hundred frames,

that's where I start, okay?

How much money do I have to bring you?

- $600 per frame.

- Per frame. - Yeah.

- Without a shock? - Without shock.

- So, $100,000 to $200,000 to start?

- Yeah.

- Because you wanted to have a fiber--

- Custom carbon.

- So, I think the minimum cost you're gonna take

is at least $100,000 U.S. dollars.

- $100,000, okay.

So, I should go back to the drawing board it sounds like.

(laughs) And come up with 100 grand.

- Yeah. - Okay.

Garbage, garbage my ass.

Look at these things.

This thing's the (beep) future.

How slack it is, it's got all those

(beep) water bottles in it.

I'm gonna find somebody.

So, I've just got back to the hotel room

after spending all day walking around

the Taipei Cycle Show talking to frame manufacturers,

and you know what?

It's not looking very good.

Not only do they not like my frame design,

they also don't like the suspension design.

So, we're back here, and I need some advice,

so I'm gonna call up some industry experts

and get exactly that.

Hey, Cesar.

- Hey, how are you doing?

- So, I'm in Taiwan right now, and I'm trying to get

my dream bike made, like we came here,

I've got a drawing.

I know the general idea.

I've gone to a few factories, and I'm having a hard time

finding somebody who wants to make my bike (laughs).

And I have heard that you kind of went through

the same process, and you ended up actually

deciding to make your bikes in Spain.

- Yeah, right, I mean, for us, for sure,

for a small brand it's hard to start in Taiwan.

It's a lot of investment there,

and getting all quantities, and all that.

It's doable, but still, for us, it was a matter

of doing it ourselves and learning the process,

so it was not actually the pain of going to Taiwan,

because it ended up being more pain doing it here.

But, anyway, still we know it's a big struggle.

I mean, the difficult part of all this

is that the know-how is in Asia.

- It's not here with me, that's for sure (laughs).

Okay, so, would you do it again though?

Let's go back to where you started.

Would you do it again?

- I mean, being honestly, I would say

I would probably make a couple.

You know, when it was (audio cuts out),

we're just finishing the last model in this week.

- [Mike] Yeah.

- Took us a long, long time, so being honest,

I would definitely do one or two of the models here

ourselves to kind of learn, but I would have

probably done one or two in Asia and then switch

slowly into completely manufactured in Barcelona.

- Okay, all right, so it sounds like

what I should do is maybe stick to Taiwan manufacturing,

see if I could find somebody there,

and see what I come up with.

It's probably not gonna end up being that dash

that you made, but it'll be fun anyway (laughs).

- Yeah, for sure.

- All right, Cesar, thank you for your help, man.

I'll let you know how it goes.

(Skype ringtone)

- Hey, Mike, what's up?

- [Mike] Hey, Dave, how's it going?

- Good, buddy, what are you doing?

- I'm trying to make my dream bike,

and the suspension design that I came up with,

I'm getting a lot of no's from the people here.

- This looks garbage.

- It's a high-pivot, dual-link with a chain idler design,

but I don't think it's gonna work,

so basically, I'm wondering if you could help me

with the suspension design.

So, I'm looking for something long traveled,

about a hundred and eighty millimeters,

so obviously like Enduro, all mountain intentions.

You know I would like it to be a high-pivot in idler,

'cause that's the way that all the fast bikes

seem to be going.

- Amen. - Yeah.

But I don't know where to start.

I don't have a clue here.

- You know, normally, with a fab shop,

with a really good fab shop, you can build some

aluminum test mules, and that might

take you about a year to get to the point--

- A year. - Where you're ready to start

actually designing your bike.

Like 50 to 75 K per iteration

of just being able to go and ride test this thing.

What about patent protection?

Is that gonna be important to your company?

- I haven't even thought of it,

but I think I would like the design

to be exclusive to me, wouldn't I?

Doesn't that make the most sense?

- You're talking a minimum of 300 K, U.S. dollars

for worldwide protection and a low level.

It's a super expensive prospect,

but for exclusivity, you pay.

- Dave, I'm gonna be honest with you.

All those numbers are much higher than I expected.

- [Dave] Yeah, it's real--

- Those are big numbers.

- I think those are real numbers, like you can spend more.

- [Mike] Yeah.

- And, you know, it kind of depends.

You gotta kind of decide what you want.

- Okay, Dave, I've got some thinking to do about this.

Thank you for your help.

I'll let you know how it goes.

- My pleasure, good luck, Mike man.

- Take care, Dave, see you later.

Okay, so I just got off Skype calls

with Cesar Rojo of Uno and Dave Weagle

of a hell of a lot of suspension designs,

and they've given me some great advice.

Some things are good, some things are bad.

Dave said I need a ton of money to start.

Probably 500 K.

I don't have any money.

Cesar recommended sticking to Asia for the manufacturing.

So, I think what all that means is we're gonna have to

start thinking about catalog frames.

Well, we're here in Taipei for the Taipei Cycle Show,

so let's head back into the show,

see if we can find some interesting catalog frames

that might work for what we want.

I've drank about ten bubble teas,

and I've been shut down about ten times.

But we have one more place to stop, and that's Genio.

They're a smaller outfit.

They produce about forty to fifty thousand frames a year,

compared to other places that do hundreds of thousands.

But they're known for their quality frames.

Hi. - Hi.

- Hey, I'm Mike. - Calvin.

- Nice to meet you, Calvin.

- What are you gonna show me?

- Well, it's my bike design.

Nobody else seems to like it.

I'm hoping you can make it for me.

- Okay.

- Let's have a look. - Let's have a look.

- Are you ready? - Yep.

Wow.

- What do you think?

Give it to me straight.

Wow, this looks pretty dumb.

- I put my heart and soul--

Oh. (both laugh)

Yeah, the setting is quite extreme,

and very forward thinking.

And three water bottles.

- Gotta stay hydrated.

- Wow, that's something pretty unique, yes.

- Can you help me with this?

- Yeah, we can have a try, but

there's a lot going on.

- There is, all right, let's sit down,

let's talk about this.

Show me what you got.

- [Mike Voiceover] When a new brand doesn't have

the engineering resources to design a bike