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Factory Tour: Wolf Tooth Components shows us around – we spy THREE prototypes!

wolf tooth components headquarters and factory tour lobby
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Our Wolf Tooth Components factory tour may not involve drones flying through their facility, but we get a much closer look at how they machine their parts in-house, from chainrings to dropper levers to tools and more!

And if you look closely, you’ll see a teaser of THREE new parts coming soon from the Minnesota-based brand. All three are brand new categories for them, and we even caught sketches of a possible line extension for their bottle cages! Think you can spot them? Let’s go…

wolf tooth factory tour building exterior

Located just south of Minneapolis, Wolf Tooth Components’ HQ doubles as their factory for most of their components. Bearings and such are brought in from other vendors, and they outsource a bit (more on that below), but they machine almost everything else in-house.

wolf tooth factory tour raw materials inventory

If we tour following the workflow, we start at the back where raw materials are received, checked, and stocked. Different size plates and bars of aluminum sit waiting to be turned into lightweight chainrings, seatpost binders, mini tools, and more.

wolf tooth factory tour raw materials inventory for a prototype part

Hmmm, wonder what these thinner rods could be for? Are they even aluminum?

wolf tooth factory tour machine shop

At the end of the staging area is the machine shop, full of lathes and mills, and they keep adding new machines to keep up with demand. Sometimes they use a combination of machines to finish a single part, allowing them to create intricate shapes, like on their DropStop narrow-wide chainrings’ tooth profiles.

wolf tooth factory tour machined parts

Much of what they sell is made here, even small parts like a Centerlock disc brake rotor lock ring. These are fresh out of the machine, but they’ll be sent off for anodizing into a rainbow of colors.

wolf tooth factory tour machined parts

Some machines run 24/7, dropping parts into a collection tray as they finish…

wolf tooth factory tour machining with robot arm

…with robots feeding new blanks in and pulling finished parts out as we humans sleep.

wolf tooth factory tour machined parts

wolf tooth factory tour machine shop smoothing station

Once a part is made, they’re put into tumbling machines with various mediums to smooth any sharp, rough edges. This polishes them, too, so the anodization is nice and shiny.

wolf tooth factory tour laser etching bicycle components

The laser etching machine was the first machine they bought and lived in Mike’s basement for years before they got their own building.

In the early days, they outsourced the machining of the chainrings to two different local shops. They still use those two shops, and have only increased volume with them even as they’ve added more and more capability and capacity in-house.

wolf tooth factory tour seatpost binder assembly station

Once the parts come back from anodization, which is one of the only major steps not done here, they’re organized and staged for assembly. A lot of Wolf Tooth’s assembly machines, holders, and tools are made in-house, either machined or 3D printed.

Their seatpost binders are slid onto a pin that’s pushed up by air, so it won’t jab the part if the assembler doesn’t line up the hole correctly…meaning, it won’t scratch the ano and end up in their periodic Scratch & Dent sales.

wolf tooth factory tour headset assembly station

Headsets are handled similarly, with upper and lower cups of every color lying in wait for the correct bearing size. Much of these are made to order since it’s quick and easy to prep and ship, and because there are so many options and choices of colors.

wolf tooth factory tour 8 bit pliers assembly station

Their 8-Bit System of multitools use magnets to stay closed and/or stack together…

wolf tooth factory tour 8 bit pliers assembly station

…so they sourced a Super Glue pump and applicator to apply a drop into the recess, then a pneumatic magnet applicator to push the correct size and shape magnet into place. It may not look fancy, but it gets the job done quickly and accurately.

wolf tooth factory tour water bottle tube bending station

Originally, they outsourced production of their Morse Cage bottle cages (which are excellent), but that very-well-known bottle cage maker simply couldn’t keep up with his own demand, so they came up with their own process and improve on the design. Now, they bend and tack their own cages right here.

wolf tooth factory tour chain lube filling station

Their chain lube is now bottled off-site, but this is how they got started. It’s still used if they’re low on inventory and need some extra to fulfill orders, but this workstation doesn’t see much action these days.

wolf tooth factory tour mountain bike grips storage

Wolf Tooth acquired the RedMonkey grip line a while back and now sell their foam grips in a variety of colors in multiple thicknesses.

wolf tooth factory tour packing and shipping station

Once everything’s prepped, assembled, and labeled, it’s sent to this guy to pack and ship. That’s most of what happens in the warehouse, but first let’s dip into the cubicles…

sneak peek prototype new parts from wolf tooth components

Behind closed doors is where we found a few folks designing new things…

sneak peek prototype new parts from wolf tooth components

Hmmm, wonder what they’re working on? Leave your guesses in the comments!

Otso Cycles is here, too

wolf tooth factory tour Otso bikes assembly and testing

Sister brand Otso Cycles shares space here, too, where bikes are outfitted with plenty of WTC goods. A series assembly stations let them build to order and test the bikes before re-packing them to ship to the customer.

wolf tooth factory tour Otso bikes assembly and testing

Naturally, there are plenty of Wolf Tooth Components to choose from to upgrade your ride. Even the Tuning Chip rear dropouts are designed by Wolf Tooth (and were originally made in house, but not any more), and are proprietary to their frames. They’ve recently added several new options for SRAM cranksets, including 8-bolt direct mount chainrings and the 107BCD rings shown here.

wolf tooth factory tour Otso bikes assembly and testing

Match the headset and spacers in black…

wolf tooth factory tour Otso bikes assembly and testing

…or whatever color you want, on whatever accessories you want.

founding partners of wolf tooth components

Huge thanks to (L to R) Dan, Brendan, and Mike for showing us around (and the gravel ride and burritos that followed).

WolfToothComponents.com

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dr_lha
dr_lha
1 year ago

Wolf Tooth are great. Quality American made kit that doesn’t break the bank, unlike some of the more established USA boutique brands. I just built up a new bicycle entirely using Wolf Tooth for finishing kit, and I’m very happy.

blahblahblah
blahblahblah
1 year ago
Reply to  dr_lha

“doesn’t break the bank” $99 bottle cage

Deputy Dawg
Deputy Dawg
1 year ago
Reply to  blahblahblah

Well, $69, but whatever. These guys are a great MN success story, following in Park’s footsteps.

John
John
1 year ago
Reply to  Deputy Dawg

Hopefully they don’t follow too closely or else we’ll see more and more outsourcing and re-branding as well as generally diminishing quality.

steve
steve
1 year ago

Pedals and stems next then?

OtsoDenver
OtsoDenver
1 year ago

I love my Stainless Warakin, and as a bonus Otso is probably the nicest and easiest to work with of all the brands we stock in our little shop

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