What MTB Marketing Works On You?

I submitted my response but I have no idea if it worked since it cleared my answers but gave no other feedback.

Shame there isn’t a category (is it too late to add one?) for “Brand supports mountain bike advocacy and/or trail development”. It’s always nice when a mountain bike company actively invests in better access or places to ride, and conversely a lot of the industry is often awkwardly silent about this.

Pretty much all of it

This. Embrace it.

Should probably look at the article now

Missed the “only one I could find during the great bike shortage of 2020” option

For me it’s got less than zero about which person I’ve never met and doesn’t have a real job has been given one to schill.

Negative news on poor quality and poor customer service will put me off.  No amount of marketing BS will overcome that.

Actual negative experience of a company (eg faults not fixed or shiiiite customer service and distain from them = never ever ever again ever (ENDURA are you listening ??)

Knocking stuff out in sweatshops and using kids to make stuff in the far East, or in oppressive regimes will put me off.

Being British kit (and I mean actually British, not just Chinese stuff with a union jack variant etched in it… you know lots of deceitful companies out there doing that) is a positive.

Chinese with the fakey Union Jack and claiming to be British after having been assembled / boxed / labelled in GB is a massive put off. Lying barstweards that I then cannot trust.

If not British then European (as I’m a supporter of the EU).

And if not that then actually USA or Canda made. (Got to look hard to be sure).

Result ?

Last 3 bikes:

– Shand with a Rohloff hub and Hope bits where possible.

– Brompton

– Orange 5, again Hope bits where possible.

robertajobb – are you me in disguise? 🙂

Edit: same as BruceWee.

Like others on here, I probably pay more attention to unmarketing than marketing.

I’ll typically look for a good warranty and evidence that it has been put into action.

I have two bikes, my Swarf 155 was selected using criteria similar to those of @robertajobb. (My other is a 2008 Indy Fab that I bought because I always wanted a Fat Chance but they’d packed up long before 2008.)

I did however find myself buying some Rapha baggy shorts in a sale the other day. On reflection I was heavily influenced by marketing despite thinking that I’m not. The process went like this.

Step one: become aware of, and irritated by, Rapha due to their pretentious and overly stylised black and white marketing in the road sector.

Step two (some years later): see a press release, followed by a review, for their new range of MTB clothing.

Step three: reminded that Rapha make mountain bike clothing when they sponsor the Pinkbike field test.

Step four: sit next to Jill Kintner at a wedding (excuse the name drop), afterwards I followed her on Instagram and found that she’s supported by Rapha. It’s at this point that I finally make it to the Rapha website and, later, buy the shorts when they are on sale.

I don’t think that any of these steps would have worked on its own, but collectively they resulted in me spending money with Rapha.

A wedding full of mountain bikers

It’s more things on bikes that are a massive negative for me.
Press fit BB
Internal cable routing,especially any cables and hoses that go through the headset.
Any electronics.
Find it quite difficult to find much enthusiasm for buying complete bikes as I like to chose my own components.

Stunts like the Pit Viper put me off a bit. I’d rather bike brands just stick to bikes. Especially when it comes to politics of whatever the latest thing causing outrage on Twitter is.

Patagonia’s doings are nice, but when I see it, cynical me just thinks look at these doing good things and bragging about it to everyone.

Sponsored athletes, influencers and racers also cast their sparkle – or shadow – on a brand’s image. Make a wrong move and they might get dropped – which might work either way to affect how you feel about the brand. If they’ve dumped your favourite rider perhaps you think twice about buying that brand in future? Or maybe dropping riders behaving badly makes you think the brand has principles?

Remaining associated with riders I don’t like does dim my view of brands, but not enough to change a buying decision which I’ll base on product, support, etc. I was already going to buy Hayes brakes, I like Remy Metallier and he’s sponsored by them, that’s nice but doesn’t change anything. I was already going to buy an Ergon saddle, I don’t a certain person they sponsor, bought it anyway.

Another thing that puts me off a brand or product I like is marketing squarely aimed at people and lifestyles I feel very different from. For example, one brand did a promotional video of their bike in some urban bike park with a bunch of laddish folks, another did some weird hipster video with lots of coffee, beards, and check shirts.

What influenced your last bike purchase?

STW forum largely responsible for me buying a Bird.

Not a pro rider but definitely a bit of me likes the Deviate Highlander because I’ve watched on YouTube all the awesome rides McTrail Rider has done on one in Scotland. He now also has some Vitus ebike but I don’t feel the same about that. Maybe there’s a bit of finding him in lockdown and watching tons of his videos. But really aside from the bike being too expensive, I’m wise enough to realise that buying that bike won’t give me his riding lifestyle – I live in the flatlands and don’t have the skills.

G13 in extra longest. Actually big enough for me

Hello dave. Actually big enough.

Cannondale synapse alloy. £300 on ebay for a bike that had clearly been ridden once or trice and stored in a garage.

Carbon Cannondale synapse. “Cheap” on eBay. Similar geometry to the alloy one but takes 28c tyres and hovers about 8kg.

So a mix of fitting and more of the same, but better

More seriously:

Does the product make me go ‘Corrr!’?
Do I get on with the person I speak to when enquiring about said product?

If both are yes then I’m happy to buy.

Who else uses the kit matters little tbh

I’m on my (I think) 11th Cotic frame.

I was reeled in by the ‘steel frame that rides like my old Kona Explosif’ schtick BITD, stayed for the 29er and LLS thangs. Not been tempted by the Cascade or new Solaris though (although the pink BFe I hummed and neighed over!).

Hope (hubs, stems, headsets and, when i can afford it, brakes) and Shimano (SLX but XT cassettes and rings/cranks).

Endura clothing (bought mostly when on sale).

Took me ~10 years before I finally bought a dropper post though (would not go back now…). Only thing I was adamant was it wasn’t going to be a Reverb (anti-marketing)!

Like others, warranty issues would put me off.

I have developed pretty specific requirements for a bike (frame and component-wise) so a mass market ‘fixed’ selection is of no use to me. I chop and change bits and pieces frequently. Nearest whole mtn bike I got from Cotic was a mk1 solarismax with fair amount of stuff specific orders ‘off’ available choice list (‘negotiated’ direct with Cy). I did buy a complete ti Sonder Camino but had to ditch the mental bars in short order (Venturemax to save the day…) but that wasn’t too bad (and I could’ve taken a less angled set had I wanted from the off…).