[Closed] Bike manufacturers and car equivalents

Oddly I have thought about this, but I don't think it compares well.

Most big manufacturers make £300 basic bikes and £6k superbikes, which car manufacturers don't do.

EDIT just checked Giant - they do road bikes from £625 which is Ford levels of everyday-ness to a whopping £9,999 which is top end. Even the £9,999 bikes come in a £2,999 version.

You could say that Giant/Trek/Specialized were like VAG insofar as they make both Polos and Bugattis but the brand isn't the same and not that many car companies do this.

What would Whyte be?

Vauxhall

What would Whyte be?

British Leyland.

Orange = Morgan.

Orange =

Starling = Caterham, expensive for a chassis made of old fashioned round steel tubes, but they work well.

What would Whyte be?

Dartmoor = FSO Polonez

Trek are Vauxhall. Perfectly good bikes but I just don’t like them. Image problem - somehow a bit boring, a bit stale, a bit cardigan (keeps you warm, but oh dear)

I often see Santa Cruz bikes and Volkswagen T6 drivers together so there must be something in that?

On One = Trabant? 😉

Trek are Vauxhall. Perfectly good bikes but I just don’t like them. Image problem – somehow a bit boring, a bit stale, a bit cardigan

I hear you, but I do think Whyte are much worse. Nothing inspiring about them at all - there is the odd Trek that looks decent.

Orange = Morgan.<

Nah, we often get compared to them, Moulton Bikes, old school engineering I guess and very small production numbers

 

I often see Santa Cruz bikes and Volkswagen T6 drivers together so there must be something in that?

Porsche. Their owners think theirs are special and unique, but are made in massive volumes by one of the biggest companies in the game.

Yeti are closer to Alfa Romeo, given their reliability record.

British Leyland

Weird, exactly what popped into my head for Whyte but genuinely can't think of a reason.

Porsche do their own bikes. The latest e bikes are some of the ugliest I've ever laid eyes on.

Porsche. Their owners think theirs are special and unique, but are made in massive volumes by one of the biggest companies in the game.

Just typed and lost a big post, where I said this in many more less eloquent words.

Yeti = Ferrari
Loyal fans based on historic racing success. These days you can get something just as fast for half the price from one of the big brands.

Yeti = Ferrari
Loyal fans based on historic racing success. These days you can get something just as fast for half the price from one of the big brands.

New owners also like showing off a bit, rather than just purely driving/riding.

Geometron/Nicolai = McLaren? High end, tech focussed, lots of weird/unattainable one offs on top of a few core models?

Land Rover = orange

Old models indestructible and gained a cult following.
Trying to combine new tech and historic design/styling has led to reliability problems.
A strong fan base, and an equally strong hater base.

Bird - Tesla
New to the game allowed them to observe and skip the mistakes / dead ends of the established brands.
Gone from attracting attention for being unusual/new (my first one always got questions anytime I took it away from the south east) to being one of the common sights on the trails in the space of a few years.

often see Santa Cruz bikes and Volkswagen T6 drivers together so there must be something in that?

Santa Cruz may be over priced like t6 but at least the Santa Cruz are good at their job 😉

T5/t6 more like a nice light rigid 29er.

Ok at everything but not very good at anything

But someone fitted SRAM brakes and gears so it's not very reliable

Sick = DeLorean.

Ti Salsa ??

Oh shit, Specialized are Audi or BMW aren't they?

Overpriced but otherwise a bit dull, and every now and then make something completely barking that goes well, and is a bit breakthrough, but costs a shit tonne to buy and look after and then every-one else makes it just a little bit better and for a lot less money.

Balls.

Scott = Renault
Nice high end stuff without going silly, can put together a good racing programme with the right talent.

The base/poverty spec ones must be spectacularly cheap in mainland Europe because they seem to have about 50% market share there.

Nobody who works there has ever considered the possibility than an owner might want to, at some point, partially disassemble the thing for the purposes of repair or majntainence. Resale value on the top models suck because of this.

I like this game, but I don't know enough about cars to play. Pinnacle, anyone?

Cove = TVR

Silly names, no longer with us but fondly remembered despite some issues

Pinnacle  are like 80s Nissan

Reliable, sensible but not terribly exciting

Reliable, sensible but not terribly exciting

Sounds like me!
... well, apart from the reliable and sensible bit.

Giant/Merida = Opel/Vauxhall

Why the two names?
Have they ever made an interesting one?
They make at least a biannual design/building cockup which hardcore enthusiasts use to berate them for decades on the internet.
Still sell in their millions, and very good for the price.

Giant/Merida = Opel/Vauxhall

Merrida and Giant aren't the same company.

Merrida do own 49% of Specialized though.

Why the two names?

Vauxhall were a British brand that made industrial kit, then luxury cars in the early 1900s. Then they were bought by GM in the 30s.

The Opel thing happened gradually, the last "Vauxhall" was IIRC a Bedford van in the 70s. Since then they've just been rebadged.

Giant/Merida = Opel/Vauxhall

Why the two names?
Have they ever made an interesting one?

Yeah but all the interesting ones were Holden's

Giant are not Ford. Giant make the full range from entry level to high end, but they are dead reliable and very good at their job. Giant are Honda or Toyota.

Giant are not Vauxhall - just shows how few people drive Vauxhall’s. Vauxhall’s are hateful dull horrible things designed to do a job to the lowest possible standard that is acceptable. Supermarket bikes ?

Audi - a brand that looks bling, very comfortable, but actually when you push them a bit, completely out of their depth

Sorry not sure which brand equate to them

Calibre - Daewoo

I think Giant are like Toyota - their products are pretty solid and reliable, but their real expertise is in running very efficient factories that let them undercut rivals.

Specialized are like Honda - they make competitive low-end stuff, but their company history is much more intertwined with innovative performance stuff.

Trek are like G.M. They do have some decent high-end stuff, but they are generally the epitome of mediocrity, with a bunch of brands that don't seem to make much sense.

Santa Cruz IMO are a bit BMW.

Slightly special, very accomplished, in the right hands can do amazing things, but really can you justify the premium?

Specialized = ford (nice but dull)
Giant = VW (Good, but again dull and make lots of other brands parts)
Trek = Chevrolet (big, flashy things that ultimately aren't any better than another brand)
Whyte = nissan ( good , reliable and often over looked until they get a top in class review)
Lapierre = Renault
Sunn = citroen (a little wackey but great)
Nicolai = porsche (great bikes/cars but all have a very distinctive look)
Uno = Bugatti (Italian? exotica)

Bugatti are a French brand, owned and made by ze Germans. Unno are Spanish. So, close 😉

Trying to be objective, Deviate = Lotus. Small British company with Far Eastern backing, couple of models based around the same platform. Very driver/rider focussed. Excellent handling.

Deviates aren’t light, mind.

I often see Santa Cruz bikes and Volkswagen T6 drivers together so there must be something in that?

Porsche. Their owners think theirs are special and unique, but are made in massive volumes by one of the biggest companies in the game.

This +1 (I have owned a Santa Cruz, but never a Porsche!)

Merida are the equivalent of something like Proton. You know they exist, but why, when so many other cars/bikes exist, why would you actually buy one? In the same way, Saracen are like Rover. Only the most dyed in the wool anglophile would buy one, knowing full well that there are better things they've had to pass over in order to get one. They both seem to be the brans a new bike shop stocks because all the other local shops got the brands people want.

I have a Trek Stache. In some ways Trek are a bit like Fiat and its empire- they're essentially dull, but every now and then they come out with something weird that's good (Trek Stache/Dodge Hellcat, Trek Fuel EX5/Fiat Tipo).

AMG Mercs, S-Works?

Ferociously expensive add ons to standard models

I was thinking something similar the other day.

Santa Cruz - BMW. Overpriced status symbols, common as muck. The company car of the mountain bike world.

Kingdom = Zenvo
Pivot = Hennessey
Atherton = Aston Martin

Having bought and used a 911 as a daily driver after paying £9k* for it I don’t think that porsche stack up well against the Santa Cruz analogy. Santa Cruz more like Lamborghini; brash and shouty.

*which would’ve bought me a newer Skoda Octavia Vrs used with similar mileage (70k) at the time.