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Spesh Epic - Just felt like a big, fat, heavy hardtail. I don't think the tyres helped though
Another Spesh Epic hater here. I ended up throwing it down more trails than I rode and just before it got lobbed off the Forth Road Bridge, I gave it to Mrs Rickmeister who now uses it to commute 9 miles to work.... I still hate even doing maintanence on the thing.... grrrrrrrr...
Oddly, after a few years of riding Orange Sub5s, I shifted to a turner 5spot. A year later, we test rode some bikes with a friend who was looking for something new. The new 5 was in there, and I hated it. Twitchy, scrabbled for traction under power on climbs, and spat out the rear wheel at times of peak output (something I disliked about the ones I owned anyway) too light in the rough stuff to hold a line properly.
YUK.
I acknowledge this may have had something to do with the 5spot as my regular ride.
I usually find something to like about the bikes, but I can think of 2 that I hated riding:
Charge Duster - felt dead and heavy, looked great though.
Giant Reign (mk 1) - worst climbing bike ever, sucked energy like a sponge. Not bad going downwards though.
a dave hinde custom built road bike. was just wrong!!
Orange Patriot 7+ felt really high and I didnt feel confident on it at all. It jumped pretty well though
higgo - Member
Yeti 575 - felt very similar to the Mongoose Teocali I was looking to replace except much taller - I was sat on top of it, not riding it.
At least you got some fool to take the Goose of your hands 😉
Test ridden
Meta 5.5 felt like I was having to wind it up, Giant Trance felt like it was short on travel, Whyte46 front felt detached from the back!(though if it was the same one that Higgo had that is possible 😛 )
Without exception all of them had the brakes and shifters set to close to the grips to the point where I was changing gear with my thumb knuckle by accident.
Bikes owned by mates I tried but didn't like. Spesh FSR up to 07 anyway suspension seemed stiff one minute then blowing through all the travel the next? Intense 6.6 though that could of been due to euro brake set up and faulty shock. Giant Carbon HT with all bling kit just way to skittery for me.
Liked all the Orange 5's I've tried though and I really want to try a Trek Remedy though
Spesh Epic - Just felt like a big, fat, heavy hardtail.
Yep. Sluggish and awkward, I found it. I hated the way the back end suddenly gives, I know it's designed to do that, but it just felt wrong. And they are a real PITA to set up propply.
My Spesh P3, I din't get on with. Just not my sort of thing.
Santa Cruz Chameleon; dead, heavy frame, just felt like a cheapo heavy bike. No give whatsoever. I woon't want to ride that to the pub, let alone for any real distance, and certainly not off road.
Basically, anything heavy. I want to ride a bike somewhere, pootle about, look at the view. I don't want something that I have to schlep about with, and slog away trying to get the thing moving.
I would like to throw the Whyte PRST 1 into the ring.
I never rode one but they just look wrong on so very many levels.
As for bike I have actually riddne and hated instantly.
Saracen Estay steel thing from 1990 ish in white with Maguras and orange forks. All wrong.
1990 ish Specialized Stumpjumper Team - it really was a gate.
An early Trek Liquid - just did not work for me.
Test rode a Trance X - really disappointed as I love my old skool Trance.
To be honest though I think it may have been something to do with the super-long stem - urgh -felt like it needed a shopping basket on the front.
All Oranges and Whytes. far too much metal
all oranges,whytes and marins anything with tires wider than 2.4 and 6inch travel plus and anything heavier than 24lbs.
mind you thats just my opinion.
Bruce
I think all bikes are mega!
GT hardtails... we've got a GT Zaskar '96/7 down stairs and an old steel GT summit-a-ruvva - just the frame though. both belong to a mate.
the Zaskar is harsh as **** - yeah, i know it's a 'race' bike but, he doesn't race. can't ride it down a set of steps or over drops without the chain ring almost scraping.
and the thing that i really don not understand with GT HT's is why do that stupid extra triangle? i remember reading in their blurb that it sends the vibrations from the rear onto the top-tube and not the seat tube and up to the saddle. load of twaddle.
also some norco thingymajig. heavy and dead feeling. ok, it was built up beefy but when my bike was kaputt and i only had the option of that i declined to par-take in any riding activity.
Hate's a bit strong but I disliked my Roadrat from the minute I slung my leg over it. So much so that I stripped it down and sold the frame and wheels (which I'd built specially) in pretty short order. That sort of decisive action is very unusual for me, usually things end up in the loft in case I decide to give them another try in a couple of years!
@ johnners....i think there are a lot of us who should be a little more like you making decisions to rid ourselves of bits. would certainly free up some space in this house...
GT hardtails is a good call- something wierd about the geometry I coud never get.
Perhaps the worst specific bike I've ridden was a Giant NRS- the suspension was disastrous and when you ride an Anthem you can see just how far Giant have come recently.
Without doubt though, as a genre, 29ers are an awful idea. Slow handling, slow acceleration, very dead feeling and substandard performance in every technical situation you can imagine. Not bad in flowy singletrack though.
Stoner's 29" gate with the rolhof and daft fork. I did not enjoy that at all. Niche yes, nice no!
Specialized s-works endouro sl carbon - pig of a bike which rode like a camel -it was one bike i was glad to give back.
This one . . .
[img] http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=yusij8&=1&nostamp=1&quality=70 [/img]
Cost me an arm and a leg and looked the absolute bomb. First ride out and wow, how fast!!! The day after, I took it to FOD with a friend . . . one run down the Sallow Valets track, my feet came flying off the pedals and I was cr@p . . . it was all over 😕
"@ johnners....i think there are a lot of us who should be a little more like you making decisions to rid ourselves of bits. would certainly free up some space in this house..."
I wish I was like that more often, but it's about the only time I've ever done it!
Cotic Soul, tried a mate's, felt like it was trying to spit me off the front. Borrowed a Explosif, wanted so much to like it, but it was only just average, no feeling it just felt dead, so disappointed.
Giant Trance and Scott Genius both felt horrible. Slow, uninspiring, made me feel I'd rather walk.
Then I got on a Spesh Epic and it felt like it had an engine. Fantastic. Fast and feels so surefooted. So I bought one 🙂
Cove Hustler
Just didnt get it, felt to big and it hurt me.
04 575, just didnt like it from day 1, spent a long time trying to like it. If I married it I would have been divorced/marriage of convenience.
It has to be the early Orange mr o, that bike was really poor! A lot of DH bikes back then were cr@p in hindsight.
orange O2 special edition, harsh ride and i hated it
Santa Cruz superlight for me, everyone raved about them but I hated every minute of riding it.
Also Litespeed Vortex road frame, I had wanted one forever, finally managed to find the cash for one and it was awful, really bad ride, wouldn't go in a straight line to save it's life.
Lots of people slating the Scott Genius, odd, it's one of the best bikes I've ever owned. Just goes to show it's horses for courses.
Whyte 46, was expecting great things but it felt tall, slow and soggy, and generally dull.
FSR Spesh's.
Marin Riftzone (2005)...great reviews, good kit but, when ridden, just felt awful IMHO
Mr Agreeable's Cove. Forks too short, bars to narrow, shocking brakes and as for that colour...
'08 & '09 Commencal Meta 55's they just feel like you're actually sat in the frame, bloody awful IMHO, nowt like marketing hype though 😉
Anything that my riding buddies Stu or Bill buy.
Stu's Orange Aluminium O had the weirdest handling of any bike ever, or so I thought until I rode his Norco (can't remember the name Spec FSR mk1 clone). It was just plain wrong.
Bill always buys bike that are way too big anyone. He's 5'6" and would regularly turn up on something designed for Arnold Schwarzennegger, like a 19" Giant Coldrock, the Marin B15 in XL size, or the piece de resistance: the 21" Cannondale Super V, complete with 170mm stem that could be flipped between somewhere just above the front tyre and a position almost but not quite in the stratosphere.
Norco A-line (tried to kill me)
Cotic Soda - Noodle
Turner 5 spot - creaky horst linked wallowing swamp pig (loved the look - still do, was ready to purchase, then took the shop owners personal bike on a demo - not good)
Marin Wolf Ridge - no Alpine link could ever save that piece of shit
Airborne/Van Nicholas Zion - Noodle
'...Turner 5 spot - creaky horst linked wallowing swamp pig...'
Lol - Brilliant!
Giant Reign, hired on in moab, ruined a perfectly good ride 🙁
Whyte 46, too much travel, not slack enough, never needed anywhere near 6 ins.
Trek Fuel, cant remember what the worse thing about was but can still remember hating every minute of it, sold it and bought a Spesh S-Works HT that i loved 🙂
2005 Stumpy,was light enough but blew through travel, having initially seeming too stiff for the small stuff.
I gave it away after trying all sorts to make it feel right
I demoed an Mtrax 4.0 a while back, horrible piece of s***. It gets great reviews, I have no idea why, it rode worse than the £300 Carrera I had at the time despite being dripping with bike jewelry. Just felt like some goon had attached a load of nice bits to a supermarket frame.
That silly Pace RC 200 frame from a few years back with the carbon seat tube. So noodle like was the flex in the frame, it felt like the Q/R's were missing! The seat post would unnervingly sway from side to side whilst riding, very scary...
Banshee Scirocco - very harsh ride
Dawes Edge 1 - singlespeed with scaffold tubed rear stays. ouch.
PA - didn't like the high front end for my short back end. and my friend said it looked like a girls bike.
Back in the day I got a steel Trek 990. Hated it. Tried a clapped out Cannondale M200 which was miles better and sold the trek pronto.
Also had a Aluminium O which was a nightmare (150 stem didn't help like). It was even harsher than the cannondale turned out to be.
Ultimately didn't get on with my Motolite (just never got the confidence on it sadly).
Had a Handjob that I really never got to grips with either. replaced it with my Soul (which I love).
Tried an Anthem X1 which I liked until I pointed it downwards... nah, not for me I'm afraid.
Oh and I never liked those old Pace hardtails. Just wrong. Seeing one seat tube separate from the bottom bracket only reinforced this for me...
Heres hoping my chumba turns out to be good!
After riding 29ers for a couple of years, I've tried loads of really 'nice' bikes at Laggan demo days and small wheels just feel wrong now.
They seem to get sucked into rocky stuff the big wheels keep momentum on and wash out on fast open corners much more readily. s spot was probably the best i tried.
Remember the Whyte 46 as particularly bad. Seemed like a waste of effort squishing it to the top of the red as the descent was all over the place. Felt like it wanted to spit you off on all the jumps and the forks were just nasty.
Cannondale prophet to many tubes plain ugly