VP Components’ Taichung campus doubles as biking destination

TAICHUNG, Taiwan (BRAIN) —  VP Components’ facilities near Taichung surround a peaceful expanse of green grass, open spaces and awesome dirt jumps — a welcome oasis in this industrialized region.

The company, which is strongest in components for the BMX and gravity racing crowd, donated space for the 8-acre Iron Hill Cycling Sport Village, which includes an outdoor BMX track and practice areas for mountain biking, BMX, downhill and even balance bikes. There’s a shady area with picnic benches. VP also has two buildings used for indoor pump tracks and dirt jumps, plus showers and facilities for participants at events hosted at the area. 

The riding areas get used for everything from sanctioned racing to product testing to social events with industry clients and employees. And local riders and families simply stop by at lunch or on weekends to enjoy the space, on bike or on foot. During BRAIN’s recent tour of the facility, a young family from nearby brought their 3-year-old son to ride his balance bike on the grounds. 

“We want to promote bicycle riding,” VP’s president and owner, Victor Lin, told visiting journalists recently. 

Lin started the company in 1980, originally calling it Victor Pedals, but changing the name to VP after it expanded its product line. Lin now says he’s “semi-retired” but is still at the factory most days. His children, Eva and Isaac, are steadily taking on more responsibilities at the company. 

The facility in Waipu, Taichung, contains the brand’s global headquarters and manufacturing including a new extrusion plant and CNC machining facility. VP also has four factories in China, a surface treatment facility in Vietnam and a second factory in Taiwan. It has about 200 employees in Taiwan and 2,000 worldwide. 

The VP brand is used on the company’s pedals, headsets and bottom brackets, while the company is developing the Modus brand for road, mountain bike and fat bike hubs and wheels. The new extrusion machinery at the Waipu facility allows VP to extrude its own rims and headset and hub parts. Company officials are proud that they manufacture their own hubs and aluminum rims (spokes, nipples and carbon rims are outsourced) and build wheels in house on Holland Mechanics wheel building machines. The company also does alloy hub forging and heat treatment at the Waipu facility.

The company keeps up to date on product trends in the U.S. and Europe in part by hiring several engineers from those regions. 

VP also has a long history of making parts and complete components for a variety of well-known brands, including Specialized, Trek, Bebop and Cane Creek.