55October 1, 2011

Visit us at booth #25088

Our Customers say it best:

“It’s amazing how the new Dual Eyewear is selling. They are a product that we never had thought of needing, but  y out the door once they are tried on. At $49.95 retail we make a full margin and the customers feel like it's a great deal for them as well; more important, they are immediately amazed with the glasses." Lester Binegar, General Manager University Bicycles, Boulder CO

"I am extremely happy with your product and can not believe the value for the money spent on this product. These are a high quality sunglasses that compares with any of the over-priced Cycling Sunglasses. I can not believe how clear and sharp the lenses are on a $50 product." Dave, Newark, DE

"Loved them! They �t great, the lenses were sharp and clear--and the magni�cation was spot on." Dave, Pennsauken, NJ

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www.dualeyewear.com - 855.774.1394 (toll free) - Distributed by

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By Jo Beckendorff

HONG KONG—It was in the 1950s when Jack S. Yuen, living in New York, met Daisy, a young woman from Hong Kong who was studying in Canada. � ey fell in love, moved to Hong Kong, mar-ried, and raised � ve children. � ey be-came involved with a company making shoe box-sized transistor radios.

But Japanese giants Sony, Panasonic and others began to dominate the in-ternational high-� delity sound busi-ness, forcing the couple to rethink their business model. � at led to the launch of their company, Dayton Industrial, in 1972.

“� e � rst product we made were timers for refrigerators we exported to Australia,” recalled Jack, laughing. “� ose Aussies love their cold beers,” he quipped. But soon they found a cus-tomer in the bicycle industry—Canada’s Procycle Group, which imported Peu-geot bikes at the time.

“� e � rst bicycle product we pro-duced was a stationary bicycle meter for Procycle and Schwinn. Later we began making wired bike computers and then wireless computers,” Yuen recalled.

Later, while working with Vetta, Day-ton added several U.S. customers and in 1986 picked up its � rst European clients. Most of them still remain its customers,

Phot

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Yuen family holds major stake in portable electronicssaid Paul Anthony, the couple’s son and a director at the company.

Today, Dayton Industrial is the world’s leading OE manufacturer and OE designer of portable micro-electron-ic products including heart-rate moni-tors, so-called ABC watches (altimeter, barometer and compass), navigation devices including GPS products, sen-sors for power meters as well as parts for smart phones.

It’s also a company that few retailers are aware of. It doesn’t even have a web-site. “Our business is based on nothing but word-of-mouth. People interested in the portable micro-electronic product world will � nd us sooner or later. As an OEM and ODM [original design manu-facturer] producer we keep a low pro� le,” said Paul Anthony.

It’s also a company with no desire to develop its own brand-name products. “We decided early on to be an OEM pro-ducer. Developing your own brand takes a lot of investment capital,” he added.

Jack, at age 82, and Daisy, who says she is close to 80, said Dayton manufac-tures most of the leading portable micro-electronic products sold in the bicycle, sports and outdoor industries.

Dayton employs about 1,000 people, servicing more than 60 customers, en-compassing a variety of premium brands sold at retail in many countries. And de-

spite their age, both Jack and Daisy re-main involved in the business.

“Jack is a workaholic. As a mechani-cal engineer he loves to be at the lab. He still reviews everything before it leaves the factory,” Daisy said during a visit at the company’s Hong Kong headquarters.

Jack spends the week—Monday through Friday—at Dayton’s factories in Shenzhen, plating and at plastic injec-tion molding facilities. As for Daisy, her schedule is hectic as well. “I work out of our headquarters on Mondays and Fri-days. From Tuesday to � ursday I work at our Chinese factories,” she said.

Daisy is proud of the company and

shows o� several premium brand prod-ucts Dayton makes. But she quickly asked that no names be mentioned. “� e world of portable micro-electronics is small, and we deliver to several direct competitors. � ey know about each other, but don’t want to be mentioned in context with us,” she added.

Dayton remains a family a� air, with four of the � ve Yuen children active in the company. “We have di� erent per-sonalities but we respect each other. We work very well together. It works because we respect our sta� , our customers and us. � at’s what our parents taught us,” Paul Anthony said.

Dayton Industrial director Paul Anthony Yuen, Dayton Group managing director Jack S. Yuen and director Daisy T. Yuen

AROUND THE

WORLD

HEWN FROM TRADITION Wooden shipbuilder Sueshiro Sano brings family heritage of Japanese craftsmanship to his emerging business creating custom lightweight mahogany bikes.

By lo Beckendorff

KOTO-SHI, JAPAN-Many Japanese think Sueshiro Sano is crazy. He's the ninth generation of a family that for more than 200 years has built tradition­al Japanese wooden sailing ships. What raises eyebrows is that Sano also bends, carves, grinds and polishes custom­made road bikes from mahogany­what he calls "the real stuff.ó

The process is so difficult and time consuming that Sano can make only four lightweight wooden bikes per year, which he sells at a very pricey 2 million yen each (about $25,300).

Money isn't the driving force behind his filigree-crafted one-man show, Sano said. òItõs traditional Japanese crafts­manship. As a carpenter and designer I want to present [my work] to a wider audience:' Because of his woodwork­ing skills, Sano said he can build bikes that can be ridden and at a weight that's comparable to what most suppliers de­liver to the market.

His company, Sano Magic, located southeast of Tokyo, is on the shore Japan's historic home for traditional wooden shipbuilders-Tokyo Bay. To­day, there's little left of the shipbuild­ing industry that once was famous for building oceangoing wooden sailing ships. What's left of Japan's woodwork­ing industry remains in the area, and from Sanoõs workshop the familiar sounds of grinding and polishing can be heard.

Sano was 14 when he began learn­ing his woodworking skills from his father, Ichiro Sano, who was a master craftsman and considered one of Ja­pan's national treasures. Ichiro may have been one of the last old time Japa­nese craftsmen who knew the secrets of building traditional wooden sailing ships and he passed that knowledge on to Sueshiro.

For Sano, finding a market outside Japan for his wooden boats was diffi­cult, so to learn the intricacies of West­ern markets he went to the Netherlands.

òTo get an idea about Western markets II asked for a job at one of the world's fin­est custom-made yacht builders, Royal Huisman in Holland. I learned a lot over the two years I was there;' he said.

òBut in 2007, due to the worldwide financial crisis, the business slowed down dramatically;' said Sano while pouring cold tea into two glasses.

Back home, Sano was sitting on some of the finest Honduran mahogany in the world. òToday you can't buy wood like that. I had bought it many years ago

and kept it stored here, some of it for 20 years. I was ready to do something with it,ó said Sano, now 54.

It was his childhood love for bi­cycles that gave him the idea to build bikes. òI thought the boat business was going through a temporary crisis, so I wanted to improve my techniques on another product. But the boat business didn't recover and I began to really en­joy building road bikes:'

But why mahogany? òShipbuilders appreciate this tropical wood due to its

long-term sustainability and resistance against biotic factors. Any other wood reacts directly to external influences like rain. Mahogany is a real exception,ó he explained. òBut I also wanted to build bikes that you just don't hang on the wall, but that you could ride:'

Sano recently finished bike No. 15. òAll in all, Iõve built 17 bikes but I've kept two for myself and for presentations:· he said.

His first Campagnolo Super Record­equipped mahogany bike, built in 2007, weighed 9 kilograms (19.8 pounds)

without pedals. Since then he has trimmed them down to about 7.7 kilo­grams, just over 17 pounds, by hollow­ing out some frame tubes, the seatpost and wooden handlebar. It takes about three months to build one bicycle. òI make three 700c and a 20-inch road bike per year. I can't do more,ó he said.

Besides lhe frame. he also makes wheels, valve caps and cable-end ferrules out of mahogany. The 20-inch model uses wooden aero-shaped spokes and wooden hubs. Some of the spokes are also hollow. òNext step is to build those

kinds of spokes for 700c wheels. Iõm still working on weight reduction,ó he said.

Before selling a bike, Sano test rides each for at least 300 kilometers. At 2 mil­lion yen each, crash testing isn't an op­tion. òThere is always some fine-tuning to do. I want everything to run smooth­ly when I deliver it to a customer.ó

His bikes are generally promoted by word-of-mouth and production is booked out unti l 2014, with three cus­tomers lined up for 2015. All are willing to wait.

Sano may also bring his craftsman-

ship to next year's North Am erican Handmade Bicycle Show, and he has twice shared a booth at Eurobike with another company.

What happens when Sano retires? Right now he has no successor. His two daughters have other things in mind be­sides building wooden ships and bikes. He could be the last Sano to earn a living as a traditional carpenter and de­signer.

For more information on Sano Magic, go to http://sanomagic.world. coocan.jp/englishindex.html. BRAIN