Thread goes from what you wouldn’t buy to someone telling everyone else what they shouldn’t buy 😆

Saracen – Because of the reputation they had (at least amongst my piers) back in the day. They were likened to Carrera. Reputations like that stick, as I can clearly see they make some decent bikes now.

superstar

Yeah, another arsehole I’d not buy from – though they don’t make bikes luckily.

Trek – for their habit of buying then wrecking once-great companies. Also the Lance/Greg Lemond thing.

Cannondale for, simply due to the lefty fork (even though they don’t all have them!)…yuk

Felt
Merida
Cube

No idea why – just prejudice and snobbery, really.

trailwagger – Member

Saracen – Because of the reputation they had (at least amongst my piers) back in the day. They were likened to Carrera. Reputations like that stick, as I can clearly see they make some decent bikes now.

Posted 7 minutes ago # Report-Post

You own piers? Wow, which ones? Brighton? Blackpool?

Shouldn’t you be on the yachting forum?

@daern

Not sure I get this…

1. Re-read OP
2. Note “irrational”
3. And the whole “see a lot of them about” thing.

Ta.

Lynskey

For getting the published geo wrong and costing me £400, and not taking any responsibility for it.

You own piers? Wow, which ones? Brighton? Blackpool?
Shouldn’t you be on the yachting forum?

hahahahaha…….. good one

Interesting thread!

I own an On-One from about 5 years back which I love. But I wouldn’t buy a new bike from them at the moment. Branding seems shite and wasn’t enamored with their customer service. Interested to see what is in their imminent new range.

I own a Specialized. It’s a nice bike. My wife then said she’s surprised that I went for something “so off the shelf and mainstream”.

She’s right. and in general I am not a fan of any of the American brands. I think it stems back to when at university, we were looking at countries that were crap at engineering (albeit in the automotive context). Ford and Chrysler had very high fault rates with their new cars….there for I Irrationally associate shoddy engineering and design with Americans.

Edit – also I think they don’t have a clue about building a bike for British mud.

(yet I still bought one, and keep it in the shed all winter)

Never really thought much about my own brand snobbery till now! It hit me how long a list mine would be! Much of which has no real basis other than I don’t like this or that.

It actually means a very small pool I would buy from. Although my road options would be greater than my mtb it would seem.

Every day is a school day!

Jones.

If i wanted a mixte i’d jyst steal my mums shopper…

*Runs for cover*

Rationally : any brand where the frames cost 2x what you’d pay from a direct sales brand, I’m sure SC and Yeti make great bikes, but be honest, so do Canyon and even Orange look cheap these days!

Irrationally: Oreba, Merrida, maybe BMC, don’t know why, I think it’s just the association with old school Euro XC geometry.

Keying into the other thread on light bikes, I still have an irrational dislike of unnecessarily heavy bikes from any manufacturer. It’s irrational as I know that a heavy bike won’t always be worse than a lighter one, but I’ve walked away from countless bikes simply because when I pick them up in the shop they feel…lardy.

In my mind, a good bike should feel nice and light and have a bit of “wow” factor when you do that first “shop lift”. If I groan and strain when picking it up, then I’ll always be thinking that the bike isn’t as good as it could be, and this would stop me buying it.

Oh, and matt paint finishes on carbon MTB frames. FFS, what are you thinking of guys – they look scruffy as hell after just a couple of rides!

I get why people reject Specialized as a big brand but they hardly ever build a bad bike

Interesting, this. I’ve test ridden several Specialized bikes, road and mtb, and all of them have just felt wrong from the off and I didn’t warm to them later. But I’ve owned 4 Giants, and they all felt right from the first pedal stroke.

Jones.

always wanted one. bought one. was very underwhelmed. sold it.
wish jeff would make a nice 29er/tourer.

Santa Cruz, Audis of the bike world… 😛

Orange for me…. I just don’t get it.

Evil – no direct experience, but their reputation for breakages and the most sucky of aftercare means I will never look at them.

Pace for the same reasons. I mean, it’s Pace – you’re on you own.

Orange for out and out cack aftercare. Acused me of breaking a sub 5 by jumping it, when I didn’t know how to jump. Slow, reluctant borderline rude and pretty arrogant.

Anything that looks odd or a hardtail or I can’t get a deal on. Never pay RRP, ever!

Orange – road a Five many years ago, it was ok but nowt special. Cant see why they cost so much.

PACE – They used to make nice bikes.

Saracen – Because of the reputation they had (at least amongst my piers) back in the day. They were likened to Carrera. Reputations like that stick, as I can clearly see they make some decent bikes now.

Ignoring the Piers / peers spelling…

I had a couple of Saracens back when they were absolutely superb XC racing bikes. The titanium full-rigid (I ran it with Pace forks for a while as well) was just incredible.

Then they went off into their cheap heavy BSO full sus piles of shite for a few years.

Now they’re back as I originally remember them so yes, I’d have a Saracen.

However to add to the list of brands I would never buy: Orange.
The way MBR used to fawn over every single iteration where each year’s model would have it’s pivot point moved by 1/4″ therefore rendering every previous Orange Five obsolete and the fact that they were common as muck on the trails for a few years – urgh.

Specialized. Not because of their bikes but because of the “crush the little guy” philosophy. Need to learn to keep their legal department in check.

I wont drink brewdog beer for the same reason.

Pinarello – Those gopping forks and Chris Froome.
Evil – Minging, hugely expensive & questionable CS.

Specialized; the new cross shaped enduro is sooo ugly bleugh.

Trek; annoyingly perfect (haha) and they’re bullies.

Santa Cruz; meh, although I like the new chameleon. Plus £££

Yeti; like some sort of club, like freemasons. PLus ££££

GT; omg bleugh.

Intense -bikes names after guns and ammo. Idiotic man-child stuff.

Neil Pryde. Yaughts, gads.

Pinarello – team sky or merchant bankers. All choppers.

SRAM. I hear the 1x stuff is alright these days, and the roadie shiz, but no.

Specialized (bully boy legal arses)

Saracen (I think theyre rubbish)

Carrera (but the one on my turbo is Ok as I don’t go outside on it

any BSO

Cube (no pedigree or history)

Santa Cruz (see Audi comment above)

Intense -bikes names after guns and ammo. Idiotic man-child stuff.

Slope style?
Hard Eddie?
Recluse?
Spider?
Primer?
ACV?
I don’t think the M DH bike series are, just coincidence.

I get they have some but really? It’s just a name…

I have no brand loyalty. I would probably buy any bike at the right price

However, I will avoid anything supplied by Raleigh due to terrible customer service in the past.

Having broken bikes in the past I am more interested in warranties.

If I am buying new I avoid anyone who does not have faith in their own product and will not give more than 3 years warranty.

I now look at companies like Orbea who offer lifetime warranties. Like most things it’s probably not as good as I expect and they will probably try and shirk responsibilities but it’s better than nothing or 2 years.

But the question is what irrational bike company would I avoid? I’d have to choose Pinarello just simply because in my head the road bikes are ridden by people with more money than sense and just believe everything they read in glossy magazines. Probably not true but in my head it is.

Brands such as Merida or Orbea never appealed but both have brought out much better bikes recently. Non-rational as allowed in the OP!! The appeal of brands often has an aesthectic appeal to me and designs / designers change over time so diffcult to rule brands out entirely for me.

Whyte would be a good example – older designs of theirs were fugley IMO but the last 2-3 years they’ve got some great looking bikes on the market.

I now look at companies like Orbea who offer lifetime warranties.

Typically these are 5 years, it doesn’t mean a bike for life

I don’t want to hijack the thread but…..

Orbea is pleased to offer you an lifetime warranty once your limited warranty term has ended, according to the conditions described below

https://www.orbea.com/gb-en/warranty/

There are plenty of other companies that offer this too, I just know Orbea do it as I nearly bought an Occam.

Saracen have put out some damn fine bikes since their relaunch six or seven years ago.

Shame people still associate them with BSOs and “ur bik iz saracin”, but maybe that means I’ll get a mad bargain on one of these…

I’ll get hammered now but…… YT, Canyon. I don’t like the direct sales model, I like having an LBS to deal with, get to know, sort any issues out with etc.

Funny with the comment on TLD kit, I’ve got a TLD full face, because it was the one that actually felt comfortable, tried all the others I could find but that was the most comfortable. But I’d not be see. Dead in the day glo full racer kit!! 😆

Don’t have any irrational ones, if a bike rides well and company aren’t dicks I’ll buy their product.

This.

There are companies that are very expensive and appear to have shocking quality/customer service standards, and I’d avoid.

There are companies that sell cheap stuff and have some quality problems from time to time, I might buy stuff from them cos it’s cheap – although recently I’ve noticed that they seem to have an unmanageable range of frames and thus rarely have stock of any frames/bikes I might want.

Owned a Specialized, won’t buy another after finding out where they had saved money on the spec and them using proprietary parts (shock size).

Got an Orange 5 and I love it but there’s no way I’d buy one now, the prices are just scarily big for the full builds.

Never liked Giants, ridden a few but they’re just dull to me.

Anything from On One!!

Would happily buy a Carrera or Raleigh as a budget commuter/pub bike, both have the odd one in their range that makes sense for that kind of thing.

Trek because of Lance.
Spesh because they are litigious dicks.

I have no very little brand loyalty. I would probably buy any bike at the right price

This.

My LBS is a Spesh dealer and Spesh make good bikes as a rule, so I’d buy a Spesh. Saying that, I won’t buy carbon because of the build horror stories and lack of eco credentials, and propriatry(sp?) stuff really puts me off.

Contradicting myself further, I also prefer to buy British is there’s a viable option.

I’ve dealt with Bird and would very happily buy another. There’s corners cut to hit price points (the paint is a little thin compared to my UK-made expensive hardtail, so I really am picking at scabs) but from a design and customer service PoV I think they’re bloody great.

I don’t trust a lot of cheaper companies because I have an idea of how they are claiming what they sell is made of what it is. On the flipside, I’d buy a Cotic or a Stanton for that reason – they’re down the line about every tube in their frames.

I love Orange and would very happily by another, but they ain’t cheap. I would also very happily buy another Saracen.