Chris King Precision Components
- Year of foundation: 1976
- Company headquarters: Portland/Oregon, USA
- Employees: approx. 65
- Turnover: not specified
In the tiny little private museum of Chris King's already small component factory in Portland, there is a battered lathe. For the many fans of the brand, it is probably something of a relic: It was on this lathe that mechanical engineer Chris King turned his first headset in 1976. And although the word "sustainability" existed at best in forester slang at the time, the birth of the original bearing centred around a key aspect of this topic: durability. In view of the mountain bike that had just been born and the increased loads that came with it, conventional road bike headset bearings simply broke too quickly. A good headset uses about the same material as a bad one, but it lasts many times longer: one to zero for the environment.
The mixture of perfectionism, inventiveness and a hippie spirit permeates his entire company today. His tireless milling machines run on reusable and biodegradable rapeseed oil. The parts are painstakingly polished by hand before anodising, which makes the usual treatment with toxic chemicals completely superfluous. As aluminium, its main material, is extracted in an extremely energy-intensive process and 90 percent of the material is turned into chips during milling, King has designed a device that facilitates the low-energy recycling of the waste. Many companies recycle turning chips, but King Components also recycles the pressed rapeseed lubricating oil that runs out of the silver pucks. The ball bearings of its tuning parts can be adjusted and lubricated and, apart from the purchased balls, are manufactured in-house. The highlight: spare parts are available for every King part ever made, even if it is 40 years old.
King's perfectionism does not end with the hardware, however. The man with the grey hippy hair heats the building with the waste heat from his own machines and also pays attention to the social impact of his business activities. King buys his raw materials regionally, as well as the ingredients for the vegetarian company canteen. Anything that does not grow in cold, damp Oregon - such as the coffee - is fairly traded. Its contribution to the transport revolution is also really fair: If you cycle to work instead of taking the car, you eat for free at Chris King.
Chris King: "The most important thing is to produce durable products. My environmental advice: buy responsibly, buy good products - and buy less."
Also for eternity
The 18-speed gearbox from the German company Pinion is another example of extreme durability. It took around six years to mature from the initial idea in Porsche's gearbox development department to delivery from the start-up company founded specifically for this purpose. The central gearbox weighs an impressive 2.7 kilos. At 636 per cent, its gear ratio is significantly higher than that of a 1x12 derailleur. The Pinion gearbox is often used on full-suspension mountain bikes with a low-maintenance belt drive. Its advantage over a hub or derailleur gear system is also the low weight of the rear wheel, i.e. the sprung mass in the chassis. The comparatively large gear wheels in the encapsulated oil bath promise a long service life: "No wear, no adjustment", proclaims the website. Pinion offers a five-year guarantee, which can be extended by two years through in-house servicing. Any second-hand buyer can also rely on this.
