Forum menu
Brooklyn Machine Works
I had a Park too - one of the few bikes I've owned I really regret selling, partly because it was an ace ride and partly because it'd be worth a shit ton now!
(Can’t do heart emoji’s on the computer)
Assuming you're not on a mac, press the windows key and full stop. ❤🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍💔❣💕💞💓💗💖💘💝
Not sure where or who is behind it but certainly not made in Nottingham!
Aren't Raliegh a dutch company or something now?
Edit: Yeah, company also owns Lappierre and Haibike. https://www.raleigh.co.uk/gb/en/about-us/history/
Cannondale is unfair though, they make among the best road and gravel bikes and the MTBs I’m aware of (Jekkyl, Habit) look very good. Seemed like they did more “weird for the sake of it” stuff in the past TBH.
CDale fan from back in the day but not been too inspired by their MTB stuff this past decade @cha****ng. Seems to be in a good place now though - one goated XC bike, new jekyll looks really good, don't know much about the habit tbh.
Jekyll has been a bit uninspiring for a long time though (imho), so they were definitely lacking something in that space that most MTBers would look at first and foremost. Missed opportunity as the jekyll 26 won a couple of the early EWS series, but didn't really innovate into the 27.5 / 29 models.
Their current CX offering is hopefully temporary, but more likely a sad commentary on the commercial realities of designing and selling cyclocross bikes. SuperX and CaadX were absolute mainstays of cross racing.
cough pinarello cough i would vote for from their lovely steel road bikes to now (wears flameproof outfit)
My local shop has one of the Raleigh TI team bikes for sale – fully restored.
I think that's one of the modern replicas actually, they can't have been that popular, they still seem to be available and they only made 250 of them!
Answer.
Remember when everyone fitted hyperlite bars and an atac stem?
Pretty much an "also ran" at best these days. Maybe say the same for Syncros
Raleigh still have a big place at Eastwood, Notts - no idea if anything is built there though.
And they have an extensive range of mountain bikes available!... 😬
https://www.raleigh.co.uk/gb/en/bikes/mountain-bikes/
Deffo Syncros, just Scott OEM bits now aren't they?
Hareydan
Chainreaction and wiggle…
A golden ST badge to this post please!
How about Panaracer?
Remember when the Smoke and Dart were the tyres to have? The Fire XC Pro too?
If they blew the Fire XC tread up a bit and got the compound and carcass right it could still be a contender I reckon.
orange. They were a competative brand selling bikes that had some advantages at competative price points. They're now just a brand for middle-aged bimblers who wanted an orange when they were young
cough pinarello cough i would vote for from their lovely steel road bikes to now (wears flameproof outfit)
I'm the other way round.
Retro road bikes look terrible. All that wavy cable everywhere, skinny round tubes. Urgh. Modern road bikes with their sleek lines and integration look great (well, most do - Pinarello still manage to look like the designer created a model out of liquorice then left it on the radiator overnight before the frame builder found it and went "yep, I can build that...")
Other way round on MTB. Retro bikes (mostly) look great - that Zaskar a few pages back for example. Modern MTBs however are mostly ever more generic shapes with increasingly ridiculous angles.
[img] 
[/img]
Juli Furtado's 1992 World DH-winning bike. That looks fast standing still.
[img] 
[/img]
That looks like a collection of filing cabinets were welded together then dropped from a great height at which point the wheels splayed out and the frame got half compacted and half splayed.
When I’m a billionaire I’m buying Muddy Fox off of Sports Direct.
Make Muddy Fox Great Again.
It'd be interesting to see what could happen to it outside of Sports Direct, as a small brand. There was talk of a revival when I was at Evans , not long after we were bought by SD. Did some work on branding and styling, range plan and so on but thb my gut feel was that it'd gone too far for too long to do much higher end, retro-revival will only sell a few Courier and Explorer inspired models for a while. There it would need to be street/urban influenced entry-level MTBs to sit alongside sportswear and trainers in SD and be Evans alternative to Carrera. The most fun model could have been the mini Explorer, a yellow stroller bike with a paw print disc wheel.
orange ... a brand for middle-aged bimblers who wanted an orange when they were young
I would be angry about this, except that I'm a middle aged bimbler who wanted an orange when I was younger.
Raleigh Chopper. It was never as good once they removed the double saddle and bollock-whacking gear stick.
IRC tyres
I remember loving the Kujo and El Gato. Another one that would still hold its own today with a tweak of the compound.
What I love about Orange bikes is that for all the complexity in sus bike design and people going on about jack and squat, for 15+ years there's always been someone around who's fast AF on a single pivot Orange, who doesn't care much for settings and hardly ever services their bike. Orange have stuck to what they're good at. Some of them are ugly for sure, could say that about most FS bike ranges though. That one up there ^ looks good to me, purposeful and no BS. Real shame they lost their place with steel hardtails though.
I think that’s one of the modern replicas actually, they can’t have been that popular, they still seem to be available and they only made 250 of them!
They were complete bike only weren't they, with a fairly poor build spec, considering where the heritage of the Raleigh Ti brand/bike came from. Should have been a full Record or Super Record mechanical build and priced accordingly.
I mean, Raleigh during the GOD and Peter Post team eras was one of the all conquering road brands (even if some of the frames were built by other frame builders!).
Raleigh Chopper. It was never as good
; )
...you're obviously not old enough to remember the EPIC wheelies you could do on them!!
...or the ability to transport 3 mates around the village!!
...and the day you upgraded from a Chipper to a Chopper!! 😳🤯
🙂
My local shop has one of the Raleigh TI team bikes for sale – fully restored.
The Push Cartel, in Ambleside, does a few bespoke retro builds, inc sourcing complete group sets (unused) from the 90s!
This one was very impressive, took me right back - used to have the same wheels..
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52907498595_6210bb6dc1_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52907498595_6210bb6dc1_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2oBfL4D ]Retro Cinelli @ Push Cartel, Ambleside[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52907260764_35f7dcf26f_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52907260764_35f7dcf26f_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2oBexn7 ]Retro Cinelli @ Push Cartel, Ambleside[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
Retro road bikes look terrible. All that wavy cable everywhere, skinny round tubes. Urgh.
*Removes gauntlet, slaps crazy-legs across the face
I demand satisfaction sir!
Manitou, I don’t think they’ve been mentioned yet
Kirk Bikes
X-Lite
…you’re obviously not old enough to remember the EPIC wheelies you could do on them!!
I am, just!
OK controversial and not sure if 'a shadow of' is right, but Campagnolo. Flaws aside (all parts brands had flaws) they made the most beautiful components. Now, a load of melted carbon HR Geiger-styled nonsense that does nothing for me. Athena 11 was the last elegant groupset they made. In the same period all road groupsets have got more ugly/technical styling so in a way they've kept up. I think SRAM's road styling is most appealing now? Maybe.
Anyone bought by Trek: Bontrager, Fisher, Klein, Lemond. Became just another brand, or killed off completely.
Brooklyn Machine Works
They've brought a new BMX out, would be good to see a revived Super Trucker to compete with WTP and Fingers Crossed. IMO the magic left with Doc, who would have had an Brooklyn AM9 over a Superco Silencer?
And Manitou have been famously shite since people realised seals could actually seal if you used the right ones. If you wanted them to work you had to spend a lot of time stripping them. Or just buy Marzocchis.
*Removes gauntlet, slaps crazy-legs across the face
I demand satisfaction sir!
This +1.
Each to their own and all that but I say Codswallop to your assertion. Skinny steel on anybike is and always be the sexiest of all the options.
Hareydan
Free Member
Chainreaction and wiggle…
Ohh Sir. You are SO spot on.
Field +Trek too whilst we're at it (another to be sucked into the Mike Cashley abyss of appalling everythingness just like MF, Karrimor, Slazenger, and several other other former quality UK outfits now under the Sports Direct hall of shiiite that I'd rather gouge my eyes out than buy from).
I have an emmelle in the basement to make into a retrogrouch pub bike thing. Now I know they have a reputation.
But the is tange tubing, tange dropouts and tange forks. Everything is Shimano ex300 from memory nice allow stem aswell. It's clearly wasn't a terrible bike that they ended up being famed for.
Skinny steel on anybike is and always be the sexiest of all the options.
And you are so wrong. FACT!
@crazy-legs I can stand second for you sir. What is your choice of weapons?
Marzocci surely? Buttery smooth game changer with an incredible 100mm of travel when everyone else was using terrible 63mm elastomers. Z1 was the fork of dreams.
Then RS and Fox figured out how to build air forks well, and Marzocci regressed into an MZ and MX line which felt like they didn't want to try to be nice forks. And now you hardly ever see them.
They’ve brought a new BMX out, would be good to see a revived Super Trucker to compete with WTP and Fingers Crossed. IMO the magic left with Doc, who would have had an Brooklyn AM9 over a Superco Silencer?
Yeah the Silencer was beautiful. Not sure who or what is behind the new BMX stuff - the brand just feels a bit hollow now.
And you are so wrong. FACT!
You could not be more wrong. You could try to be more wrong, but you would be unsuccessful.
Cove Bikes. They did some ace hardtails (Stiffee, handjob) but now just a shop selling GT bikes with nothing new for years.
I bought my Kona Munimula from their shop in Deep Cove, Vancouver. So I pretty much represent this thread. Like so many of us.
Genesis for me. A few years ago I could happily have gone to them as a single make for all my bikes. They've got a few nice gravel bikes and utility bikes currently, but one road bike, one rigid MTB, (out of stock) no kids bikes.
And the DayOne is made of Aluminium! 😨
I worked im Moores Cycles on a weekend as a teenager in the early 90s. We had some nice Emmelles I remember a pair with (or maybe three) with metallic mottled paint and ovalised/externally butted tubes. The 200gs kitted one was purple/black and looked great. I think the 300LX one was gold/black. My dad still has a Tange framed Emmelle but it has a more "grown up" paint job and regular tubing profiles.
We also sold a LOT of £99 BSOs. At Christmas we'd spend 5 mins cutting them out of the shrink wrap they arrived in and pretty much putting them straight out for Sale. I'm sure not a single one lasted until the next Christmas! 🤣
I thought Brooklyn Machine Works went on a ‘sabbatical’ in about 2016 and never came back?
Cove Bikes. They did some ace hardtails (Stiffee, handjob) but now just a shop selling GT bikes with nothing new for years
I had a Cove stiffee for 14 years.
I emailed them about a replacement and they got back to me with some factory built titanium jobs. They looked very similar to on one and sonders titanium bikes. Have they stopped doing them as well?
https://m.pinkbike.com/forum/listcomments/?threadid=212154
@ransos without the proper suffix your comment doesn’t stand FACT!
Anyone who makes their point by shouting is clearly an arriviste and unsurprisingly cannot appreciate the timeless elegance of a skinny steel bicycle.
i see a lot of Konas out and about and my formerly local shop stocked them, they look good to me. the shot themselves in the foot in the UK when they let halfords sell them.
santa cruz, though making good bikes just don’t seem to have the magic that they did in the past.