Inside Devinci

So what is it like inside the Devinci factory? The unit sits on a quiet industrial estate on the outskirts of Chicoutimi, off the Boulevard Saint Paul and a stone’s throw from some XC trails where regular testing takes place. An unassuming white building, with a small creature burrowing under its main entrance (a marmot I think), houses one of the neatest factories I’ve seen. What struck me was how incredibly neat and organised everything was, there didn’t appear to be a nut, washer or welding rod out of place. OK the marmot might have been in the wrong place, but everything else was clinically clean. We visited at a particularly quiet time in the manufacturing calendar so the place wasn’t running at full tilt, but even so it was a case of wiping your shoes twice on the way in.

The whole Devinci creating process takes place under one roof. Raw materials, including the local aluminium, arrive at one end and complete bikes are wheeled out the other. Actually that’s not strictly true, the Wilson tube set is sent to the Far East for hydro forming before being returned for assembly, but everything else takes place in–house. That includes every process from design, fabrication, machining, heat–treating, fatigue testing, through to spray painting, wheel building and final assembly. And also includes a state of the art on–bike testing system which measures every stress and strain in real life situations.

You can see the value and efficiency of this in–house approach. Changes to a particular design can be prototyped then tested, altered and re–tested in days rather than weeks if a sample had to be continually sent over seas and returned. Here it’s a short walk down the corridor and ask Alex the welder to make the modifications (a simplistic version but you get the idea).

Having ‘Made in Canada’ stamped on a frame might not be as prestigious as it once was but for passionate people to be able to make beautifully crafted bikes in Canada for the same price as a product made in the Far East is still an important factor. If bikes like the Wilson or Dixon get the full carbon treatment then they will obviously be made overseas, but they are only a tiny proportion of the range. Boss Felix Gauthier has invested nearly 25 years of his passion and belief in Devinci and the people who work alongside him driving the big D onto the main stage of the bicycling world. With this close–knit spirited team I can only see things getting bigger and better for Devinci in the years to come.

-Devinci will be 25 years old in 2012

-The company has 90 employees

-The factory is 40,000 square feet

-One marmot lives under it

-Chicoutimi has five girls to every one guy in town

-Devinci don’t have a Code, like Da Vinci

-In Quebec they serve 325ml beers, but in Chicoutimi they serve 750ml beers

-Steve Smith (of the rounds he raced) was the only rider besides Aaron Gwin to not finish outside the top 10 this year

-There are 106 different models in the Devinci range

-Devinci make city bikes, the Bixi, which can be found in New York, Toronto, Montreal, Melbourne, London, Washington DC, Minneapolis, and Boston