IB14: Level Nine Already Makes Others’ Components, Soon They’ll Make Them Just For You

Do they make syntace stuff by any chance?

looked at their site – the MTN stem looks nice enough, but the others not so much, in fact pricey for what you get, and not much selection in lengths. More work to be done on road stems.

I’d rather see them sell on performance and price point.

I know why they go for looks, OEM parts need to look better than they are. When someone looks at a bike, they can’t weigh the stem, but they sure can think that it looks really expensive and fancy. A good stem can look almost the same as a cheap stem, but it can also lead the buyer to think that the OEM cheaped out on that part.

Once you start selling the parts individually, I think people are more inclined to care about weight/stiffness/performance etc. It’s not just that those numbers are available, people who tend to buy those parts tend to be more performance oriented.

And ultimately, the reason most manufacturers have rebranded in-house parts is to meet a price point, so they can do it. Part of it is cutting out the middleman so the manufacturer can buy direct from the OEM source. Part of it is having items that are hard to directly compare to other things on the market.

Stem reminds me of SPANK. who I’m pretty sure orders many of their parts out of a catalog.

Ha! I really can spell but that sticky keyboard got me – it’s Kenny Roberts and NOT Kenny Roerts! :/

Hope you all get out on a ride today.

Cheers – Kenny

Good luck with the new parts! The carbon road bars look especially nice.

Article quote: “Level Nine is the consumer facing brand from Precision Bicycle Company Limited, a major Taiwanese manufacturer that makes a huge amount of components for OEM brands (think major bike companies that have house-branded cockpits) and other component companies.”

U.S. distributor KR quote: “Despite what Tyler said above, we are actually not a huge company but a family owned manufacturer which cares about putting outa great product.”

Yeah, what ever. I pretty much lost interest.
If you want my feedback, form should follow function. Function should never take backseat to form.
I don’t care how a tool looks. I care how it works.
I don’t know why but, somehow flowing shapely lines never turn out be beautiful. Please don’t bother.

@JensonR
I agree that function is key but I also feel that form should go hand in hand with function and judging from the direction bike design has gone over the last several years I that is evident. We worked to make a stem that had both. Nice lines are evident in most of the most popular bike brands and of course cars throughout the world. Funny, that I’ve worked for brands where people told me the opposite – that our product was TOO utilitarian. BTW though – feedback taken.

Best regards – Kenny

Hi @PFS

You have several good questions and comments so please let me explain the structure and the facts before issuing judgment if you would.

• Level Nine is a new brand which is owned by Precision Bicycle Company which is a family owned Taiwanese manufacturer with many years of experience developing manufacturing products for other brands from all over the world.

• Level Nine has high capabilities in 3D forging, carbon manufacturing, CNC machining and testing (really, I’m not lying!!).

• They have started Level Nine as their own brand drawing upon the years of experience manufacturing high level components for others (similar to VP pedals).

• We/I do not own Level Nine. We (me and several other people) work for Level Nine here in the US to manage the brand (sales and marketing, customer service, distribution, design, product development etc) for the global market but we are initially launching the brand in the US Market first.

• Some products that are in the current lineup have been developed already in the past and some like the new Team AM were developed by the team here in the US working closely with the factory. We are not just buying parts from a trading company and we are not just shopping catalogs. The Team AM stem was developed from the ground up with an experienced bicycle design engineer who is now part of our team. We did not just slap some logos on an existing design!

• I also own a company called Radsport USA which manages and distributes several German brands for the North American market including Syntace, Liteville, SQlab, 66sick and Trickstuff. When I say we manage the brands, what I mean is we handle sales and marketing, customer service, warranty, events and distribution. We also distribute some of these brands through major manufacturers such as QBP, BTI and Hawley.

• Level Nine is not a part of Radsport USA and has a different structure since we also work with them to design and develop products which they manufacture and test in their own factory. We will distribute Level Nine though and we will work with other major distributors to make the products available to dealers. Over the next year and beyond we will launch several new products which will include new stems, MTB and Road handlebars and seatposts.

• I agree with you that “Its also important to know who is offering the warranty, a new small company that only sources components might now be around in 5 years to honor that warranty.” but you can also say that about pretty much any new company coming into the market. The fact here is that Precision Bicycle Company has been around for much longer than most small companies out there.

• As mentioned above: I’ve been in the industry for several years and worked with many brands in different capacities. I’ve visited a lot of shops, done a lot of events and talked to a lot of consumers. I’ve also ridden a lot of products over those years. As a matter of fact today we got a killer ride here in Bend! One of my biggest gripes has always been that a lot, if not most feedback from the field often never makes it up to the designers, engineers, product managers and upper management. I’ve always felt that feedback from consumers, shops, grass roots athletes, etc was extremely important and our goal with Level Nine is to listen to that feedback and hopefully utilize it to develop new and better products which people want.

In the end, our goal is to develop products which will look good, offer strong performance and value, and hold up to the abuse that you throw at them. Whether you feel that we have held to that goal in the end is up to you but I hope you won’t judge us before seeing what we have to offer.

So now, I’m going to put my money where my mouth is. I’m going to offer every person that’s commented on this forum to this point the chance to get a Level Nine product free of charge and try it out and yes, give us feedback. All I ask is that you give us your real contact information and give us your honest feedback. The new Team AM stem is still production and we will expect to see the first of those in spring of next year so if you want to wait until then we’ll be happy to send you one that you can test and compare for yourself. Honestly, I’m hoping to hear from everyone here.

Thanks for listening.

Best regards – Kenny
Kenny@levelnine.bike