Behind The Brand: SERK Titanium
Автокөліктер мен көлік құралдары
I do lots of thinking about what makes a brand a brand. The thoughts and the ethos behind the brand that influence every decision of the brand and ultimately; the end product. I think if you want to get a good idea of what a brand stands for, you can start from the top. In this interview I talk with SERK co-founder Shannon Bufton about starting a bike brand in China, the pros and cons of working with Titanium and a bunch of other topics.
Shannon is a smart guy and has been living in China for a long time. He's one of the people at the core of Beijing's cycling community. This talk is really interesting, so you can either watch the video or just listen in the background as a podcast.
Hope you enjoy it.
Links:
SERK on Panda Podium: www.pandapodium.cc/brand/serk...
SERK website: serk.cc
SERK Instagram: / serktitanium
Chapters:
00:00 SERK: Frontier Cycling
00:50 Introduction
02:08 Who are you? Who are SERK?
02:35 The SERK Product Line
03:16 Why Titanium?
04:45 History of the brand
06:36 The beginnings
07:57 Bike fitting
10:11 Customization
11:32 Why China?
19:12 Riding in China / Frontier Cycling
21:50 Racing Roots
24:32 Sustainability
27:20 The size of the brand
27:50 SERK owners
29:05 Design Ethos
31:45 If you could ride any bike on any road...
33:00 Getting in touch
34:08 Outro
Пікірлер: 80
As the proud first Serk Titanium dealer in Western Europe and happy owner of a beautiful Serk A30, I can only speak highly of Serk Titanium. Communication with Shannon has always been smooth and very friendly. As for the bike I ride myself... well, it's hard to describe the feeling, but in 27 years, I've ridden many different materials and brands, and I can honestly say that this bike provides me with the absolute best riding experience. Additionally, I'm a big fan of the aesthetics with the round tubes and the option to add color to the splendid material of titanium, which already has an amazing appearance on its own. I use the A30 as a criterium racer, gravel racer, and commuter, and I don't see any reason to purchase another bike... although I do have a track bike, but that might be a step too far for the A30 ;-)
We should talk more about people behind the brands. Shannon is one of the top guys I've ever met in the cycling industry, if we had more people like him, all the experience with cycling would be even better! Thanks Shannon and thanks Joe for the video! Always good to watch.
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
You're one of the top guys too.
Have been riding a SERK for over five years. Love to ride it. Great bike with top quality. More than just a bike they've built a great adventure culture around the brand.
After riding my custom fit A30 with disc brakes for one year, just received the A10 with rim brakes. Very pure and customized to be a light as possible. Love the details of the bike and the dedication of the whole Serk team.
@michaellee7046
8 ай бұрын
What made you want to switch? How does it compare to carbon?
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
Was yours the white A10 with Schmolke and Tune components? Very tasteful bike.
@joasfritz4216
8 ай бұрын
@@ChinaCycling Yes. Thank you 🤩Took a while to get all bits and pieces together 🙈
@joasfritz4216
8 ай бұрын
@@michaellee7046 Wanted something to remember my time in Beijing/China. Titanium vs Carbon is like mentioned in the Video by Shannon. Both are great materials to ride. I like most the „smoothness“ how titanium rides.
I enjoyed this interview, the beautifully made bikes, and the riding potential in China. Very inspiring.
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
Glad you enjoyed it! They're great guys (and gals) at SERK.
Proud to own a Serk and to own the KOM on that road up to Everest 😎
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
That's the most Alpha comment of the day. Hahaha. You win sir!
@marcinurbaniak
8 ай бұрын
Happy you got the bike from me! Means I contributed to this KOM a bit!
Great story and philosophy. Would love to ride over there. Thanks for sharing. Viva gli architetti e viva il titanio!
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
Glad you enjoyed it!
This video is out just in time for the seri x-mas ride tomorrow. Good interview and good community around the brand.
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
For real, most SERK owners I've met have all been awesome people.
This more of the content I want to see in this channel. 👍🏽
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
More to come!
@natursyndk
8 ай бұрын
I second that. Great interview and content!
Interesting content and many thanks for producing the video.
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
Glad you enjoyed it!
My experience with Chinese Ti frames is 2 broken frames with no warranty replacements.
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
Which factory?
@guypolson
7 ай бұрын
Don't know, it was designed by a company from Canada. They warrantied the first frame but that one broke after 5 months. They then closed up the shop. Everti bicycles.@@ChinaCycling
Wow. Good intro footage. Looks like epic terrain. Cheers
Wow! Fantastic, thank you!
This is the first chinese bike channel I found and I glad YT show me this.
I've been around for a long time, and riding just as long. The thought popped into my mind when this video started: 50 years ago I watched TV and suffered though commercials, then with DVR I was able to record programs and FFWD through the commercials. Then I stopped watching any TV years ago and now watch a lot of KZread (Premium to avoid commercials). I find it fascinating how companies (large and small) have adapted to a population which will do almost anything to avoid the standard commercial formats. Adapted so well that now companies invest their time and marketing to produce long form marketing infomercials, some fo which are actually pretty good. When you actually get down to it, most of the cycling review and info channels are just the new form of marketing. I'm okay with that, as long as they are interesting and honest. Now.... Back to the video/commercial.
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
Haha. Most of the content we consume these days is designed to market in some way or another. I personally don't think its a bad thing as nobody is forcing you to watch it. If you wanna listen to some guy talking about his brand because it's interesting; thats cool. If that makes you want to buy their frame, its probably because you agreed with the points he made when talking about his product. I think thats less "marketing" and more "match-making" - helping you find your perfect (2 wheeled) partner.
Another great video! Titanium is an very interesting material... the A10 is also very interesting, especially the geometry fits perfect in size L. If the price wasn't so high, I would buy it straight away
@ChinaCycling
7 ай бұрын
Yeah, as always, wish everything could be cheaper.
A very sympathetic guy talking about very interesting things.
Just a silly question, where is that road at 0:30 ...it looks amazing. Thanks
So many takeaways from this story! Can't wait to ride my Serk
@VovaNovaque
Ай бұрын
it has arrived and I am over the sky.
Can still get rim brakes and the guy is actually onto what I think people want too imo
Super interesting!
Amazing! 👌
Amazing frames, love it.
Anyone know what that beautiful crankset is shown at 4:23?
riding without a helmet.. GENIUS!
Excellent
We have a similar brand here in the UK, called Sonder. I've got their gravel bike called the Camino. Truth be told, it looks a lot like the A21 featured here. Perhaps made by the same factory?
@joasfritz4216
8 ай бұрын
Titanium bikes look mainly the same. Need to checkout the details.
18:41 I remember my professor in either a history or economics class mentioned that, that Japanese products were regarded as low quality as Chinese products are now, but that that's changing.
Interesting Brand 😎👍
So Joe, Serk vs Waltly vs Xacd for a custom frame 🤔
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
I think the first question is do you really need custom? Then the second question is, if so, how much help do you need? I think maybe SERK can offer more help with the design process than your average factory. If you already know exactly what you want, down to tube thicknesses and everything, then maybe just get a factory. Although, I haven't looked at Waltly prices in about 3 years, so I'm not sure what the cost difference would be!
Love the look of Ti, hope to get one one day, but always wondered....as a carbon hater, why no Ti forks?
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
I think Ti takes the bigger bumps better... good question.
@warwicksworkshop9511
5 ай бұрын
Simple - it's too expensive. Carbon forks you can pump out of a mold, whereas a Ti fork of any repute would cost twice what a carbon one does and weigh 1/3rd more. Nobody wants that.
Would be nice to scale and feature on ecommerce shops like 京东,淘宝, and Aliexpress.
Any plans on future developments? Like 3D printing or Carbon ISP?
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
Can't give away all their secrets, but if you listen to Shannon talking about how he thinks China will be at the forefront of manufacturing, you'll know they're looking to future developments.
Who makes their frames? 😮obviously not in their Beijing office / assembly workshop.
@ChinaCycling
7 ай бұрын
A factory near Beijing
Can you make a review on chinese bike helmets? Do they offer MIPS?
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
Usually good helmets, good quality, questionable branding. PMT have very good technology in their helmets.
@lichang4110
8 ай бұрын
I own 2 GUB M8 mips helmets($80USD on aliexpress), really like the first one, bought a 2nd one for my riding partner. I owned Giro and Bell Mips helmets previously. The skinny Mips strap on my $150CDN Bell Formula helmet snapped at 6 months. Local bike store where I bought from couldn't replace the strap, had to trash the whole helmet. The GUB helmet is more round, while the Giro/Bell shells were more oval (long front to back). With Giro/Bell, the gap at the front was big enough to stick my fingers up in front of my forehead. Not a problem with the GUB helmet, fits very nicely all around. GUB helmet is ~270g.
@CarsandBikes
8 ай бұрын
@@lichang4110 I like to see the Chinese release their version of the Bontrager Wavecel helmet which is better than the MIPS.
Where is this twisty road in China in the video please ?
@patricksullivan6390
6 ай бұрын
Tibet
That forest ride looks like it could be in the yarra ranges
If titanium is so good in vibration dampening, why is it very common to see a carbon fork on titanium bikes? What about fixing cracks in a titanium bike frame that also could happen?
Is serk a sino Austria brand? Even this video talking about China doesn't have a Chinese version. For a brand , either you be very local ,or you leave Chinese market , both okay because cost matters. But not in between.......
I'm not sure I can come at AUD4380 for a Chinese made titanium frame. Then again that's how much Curve wants so I guess the market has spoken 🧐
I think my 2024 could involve an A10 build.
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
They're stunning bikes.
@newson7248
8 ай бұрын
Ever since i saw your SERK vid, i've been interested in getting one. @@ChinaCycling
Looks like the writer Mr Yang Hengun is in China for the long haul too, unless of course his death sentance isn't commuted to 20 years in prison. Lets hope it all turns out for the best for everyone, including our Chinese friends. PS nice bikes I hope to ride one someday.
GR9 Titanium light weight bikes are cheaper than you think they are.
It's not all titanium. The forks are carbon.
Maybe i'm boring. But a roadbike influencer without a helmet is the worst thing
no helmet
@ChinaCycling
8 ай бұрын
Yeah, don't do what I do. I was just heading around the block, but always wear a helmet kids!
Helmet alert.
bla bla bla ....! the price ! its what we want to known.