In contrast to the other thread how about brands that you think are doing well, underdogs or big hitters....
I'll start with a small brand German brand Kavenz - really good social media marketing, product development and only hear good things. For my big brand Orbea (a few years ago I'd never have even considered them but now they are getting repeated best in test wins).
May I nominate the own-brands from various online shops? I'm not sure if they represent some sort of Amazonian nefarious business practice but Prime wheels are great and very decently priced.
Oh and controversially - Superstar.
X-Lite.
Went from manufacturing gee gaws and widgets that didn't always work to repackaging truck wash and never looked back.
Deviate seem to be doing pretty well.
Trickstuff, it seems, are doing too well for their own good.
Galibier for sure. Small operation making decent kit at decent prices with (in my experience) fantastic customer service.
And Lusso - mainly road kit but it doesn't catch fire if you wear it off road where its still rather good.
both Galibier and Lusso are really good shouts.
Pinnacle for me. Not sure what’s happened to them since the SD takeover of Evans, but in my local store they only have a couple of hybrids. My wife’s Ramin has been great as is my rigid 29er Lithium. For the money I don’t think they can be beaten (or at least that was the case before the takeover)
Pinnacle for me.
Sorry Tom, since the takeover and Jameso's departure, I think they really belong in the other thread. Used to be a proper range of decently designed, fairly priced bikes. Nothing notable now save a couple of Arkose models.
tomhoward
Full Member
Deviate seem to be doing pretty well
Coming out of nowhere with £3.5k frames was always going one way or the other. Fair play to them for making it stick!
Trickstuff are now part of DT Swiss. Suppose that shows they did ok to be worth picking up. Bumpy road to get there though
Coming out of nowhere with £3.5k frames was always going one way or the other.
The guide did come with a £1000 gearbox and a nice shock though. I paid £2700 for my preorder Highlander, inc shock. They sold more of those in its first month than they did of the Guide over its life. Current prices seem in line with everything else.
If DT have done anything with Trickstuff, it’s all behind the scenes. Nothing new out that wasn’t already being worked on pre buy. With a bit of luck it’s all in the background.
Add Intend to the list actually, he makes most things to attach to a frame now, an ex Trickstuff employee, formerly based out of his flat, now selling through all the major German resellers. And has brakes to compete with his former employer.
Prendas - now part of Santini.
Planet X - yes, I know; at times - incomprehensible pricing, customer service without much service, 'less than perfect' finishes including paint but have loads of satisfied customers.
Carrera. We like to think of them as crap BSOs but they have some pretty decent looking stuff for the money. Bikes I'd be quite happy to ride around town on.
Ragley... fantastic bikes and loads of bike for the money.
Nukeproof, prime, brand X, Ragley. Who'd have though CRC was mentioned in the other thread.....it's all Wiggles fault....
Carerra- a mate bought a £500 hardtail, on sale on bike to work and paid about £200 all in for it in 2004. She rode it to work almost every day for 15 years. She rode strait past tons of folk at trail centers on ££££ full suss bikes. Everything wore out, but it took years of riding almost every day. She might have done about 25,000 miles? She finally replaced it after a bike shop refused to open the fork to see if it could be serviced. A proper workhorse of a bike.
Nukeproof cos it's not just the frames, decent components and kit, especially their pants.
Galibier +1
7Mesh - not that big, high end, yet still have me going 'ooh, I like that'.
Ragley
Nukeproof - I've got a Nukeproof softshell jacket that is just ace
Bird
Decathlon. I have a pair of their MTB shorts that I now choose over the Troy Lee pair I mostly wore before. Son has some of their winter MTB trousers and they are really well designed and incredible VFM. Shimano brake pads and other consumables in there are half the price they are in my lbs. Their outdoor kit generally is superbly made and cheap as chips.
Intend is a good call.
Been looking at their forks recently and now I'm looking at their rear shock, brakes and stem.
Altura.
Microshift.
Been looking at their forks recently and now I’m looking at their rear shock, brakes and stem.
Shimano SLX.
starling cycles. they have captured worldwide attention from MTB nerds. when i lived in the yukon i thought no one would know what i had and i could fly under the radar. no. virtually everyone i met on the trail knew what it was and we’re excited to see one outside of the internet
prior to the starling i had an evil, no showed any interest in it. likewise my cotic.
Galibier, definitely.
Moon lights
Ravemen lights
Lomo bike packing bags
From the big places, Decathlon kit, DHB and Lifeline from Wiggle all just gets on with it.
Xert fitness training system. Definitely helped me with Reiver training and great value. Customer service/support also good.
Garbaruk
For a Halfords brand I really like my Vodoo Bokor. Helped that I bought it at a silly cheap price before COVID but for £600 it was/is awesome. I'm certainly still the limiting factor.
Planet X
Really, everything I've had from them has been great, and last a much better price than you'd get anywhere else.
Another vote for VooDoo, bought a bizango pro as a Dad bike for the kids seats and to commute with the odd after work lap at my local. It's been solid and a joy to ride. With C2W and a friend with trade price, Got it for less than the cost of my wheels on the full suss!
decathlon and wiggle/crc/hotlines/nukeproof/etc are big companies. offer good value for money, but i wouldn’t say that they punch above their weight.
From a value for money perspective I vote Polygon
The UK bike brands that aren't mega US corporations, thinking of Cotic, Airdrop, Atherton, Orange. I mean some of those are close to being quite big operations and some are teeny one man bands, but they all just chug along, making good stuff in a relatively small outdoor niche just doing their thing.
Oh, and not really a product really but, Downtime, the podcast, started off as a bloke rabbitting on, has now got world cup racers pretty much all the time, what started out (I think) as a pandemic side-project has now become a full time job. Cool.
2/3rds of the brands above are owned by/are big corporations. How are you going to judge whether they're punching above their weight unless you happen to know that they're starved of resources and funding by parent co? They could be pouring money into support and marketing for these brands (eg Nukeproof).
Big company brands:
Nukeproof
Brand X
Ragley
Trickstuff(kind of)
Prime
Pinnacle
Polygon
Decathlon
Voodoo
Carerra
Altura
Orbea
I'm going to nominate Forbidden. They're smashing it for a small company.
Some cracking answers, but I guess it depends how far back up the ownership chain you go to determine their "weight", as has been pointed out.
Also nominating Santa Cruz just for some variation on the theme. While they're a big brand/company (and owned by an even bigger one) in their own right nowadays, even then they still punch well above their actual size - They have become so prevalent in the MTB space despite the fact that they're still only a mid size operation. To be clear though (before anyone pulls me up on my previous comment) its the fact they're the #1 brand in the industry while not being the number 1 in anything else (Size, quite probably unit sales, innovation, number of models in range etc.) that makes them punching above their weight.
Thought I would see Bird mentioned...
Intend components are lush. Bít out of my price range though.
Nearly €2k for their trail forks https://www.intend-bc.com/products/intend-flash/
Edit of my stupid suggestion: Pipedream
The fb owners club is quite global
I'd say Bird bikes, had never heard of them until recently but found out you can demo them at Hamsterley not too far away from me so took a look into them, I particularly like that you can customise your bike to purchase from them, prices aren't too bad for the spec and they're made in the UK. From what I've read about them as well everyone seems to be very happy customers
Gotta be Rocky Mountain (unless they've been bought out by a mega-corp and I missed it, in which case, stop reading and move on!)
Proper Mountain Bike company, I dunno how they've survived continually producing desirable bikes from basic to "Weeksy" 😉
I would buy one of the Powerplays (self developed motor?!) if I had the money. Team riders always top of the EWS too on Altitudes.
Starling - Lovely bikes
Surprised no one has mentioned Hope.
Surprised no one has mentioned Hope.
A fair comment.
Nice to see the support for Galibier. They are my 'go to' for bibs/gloves/waterproofs and they keep sending me free socks!
Has no-one mentioned Cotic yet?
surprised no one has said Burgtec, for their Candy spruce Green that have hope have been failing at (given up on) for years..
will hope launch that dropper lever this decade
Yes, Cotic has been mentioned. Hope are probably swinging at the right level but took a long time to get there. Santa Cruz have been up there for years, they're not Giant but neither are they some company working out a shed in an industrial park.
I nominate one most probably won't have heard of but have seen their work all round - Fiveland Bikes.
Also nominating Santa Cruz
And just to add my tuppence to the fan-boying (although I don't own one currently) they are the brand that everyone compares their bikes to in more or less every category, and in every test. and there are some models in the current line up and past catalogue that have earned their place, Chameleon, Blur, Superlight, Heckler those are some pretty iconic names.
I love my Pinnacle Lithium. All Pinnacle bikes just seemto get the basics right and I lie t ht they always seem to get the full shimano group set .
I’d also say that the Lifeline range from Wiggle and pretty much all the Decathlon stuff is great value.
I nominate one most probably won’t have heard of but have seen their work all round – Fiveland Bikes.
Fiveland bikes isn't actually a *brand*, per se - although I completely agree that as a company they're knocking it out of the park (for those who don't know, they make a load of stuff for Cotic and a few other brands too out of a big shed in Scotland).
For brand penetration over size (and generally Doing Things Right), I'd also echo Cotic for their activism as well as their brilliant bikes, Deviate for the lovely, lovely design (the linkage system is a genuine engineering masterpiece) as well as being really a rather small company - and for supporting the legendary Matt Fairbrother, and possibly Renthal for general Mancunian awesomeness.
CRC/Wiggle brands punching above their weight.... for a company that has well over £500m p/a turnover...
Cotic. In the UK they seem to have driven all sorts forward and ploughed a unique path
And I guess among the 'aficionados' Singular - who were way ahead of the curve on 29er/steel/drop bar etc? It seems faded a bit now...
+1 for Bird bikes. I'd never heard of them until I hired 2 for me and my lad at Hamsterley, just hardtails but they were awesome. They're made up in Consett too I believe. My son was very impressed when he checked out their website on his phone on the way home. They weren't expensive to hire for a couple of hours and the bikes managed all the cack handed mincing we could put them through 🙂
Fairlight cycles definitely punching hard for a small co. I would happily own any/all of their four bikes. Like Genesis but actually decent/innovative/desirable.
For UK-based MTB-making brands, I have to agree with Starling, Orange and Bird.
I also happen to have one of each at the mo 😀
Another UK brand that I think is world-leading is Invisiframe. The quality and Lee's attention to detail is awesome, they really deserve their success.
Rimpact tyre inserts are great too, they got it pretty good at first then nailed it with the Pro version. That hits the sweet spot of weight vs. protection for me.
Stooge bikes, for making something pretty leftfield but actually great for nearly all my riding despite basically being one man.
To be clear though (before anyone pulls me up on my previous comment) its the fact they’re the #1 brand in the industry while not being the number 1 in anything else (Size, quite probably unit sales, innovation, number of models in range etc.) that makes them punching above their weight.
what makes them the number one brand if they aren’t the biggest or sell the most?
genuine question, btw
what makes them the number one brand if they aren’t the biggest or sell the most?
Good question. I would say (anecdotally) that they are the most recognised, most 'followed', most sought after brand in MTB. The reason they're not the biggest and don't sell the most is limited range, higher prices.
I would also say (Objectively) there are disproportionately more Santa Cruz bikes on the trails than any other brand which sells at its same price point.
Good question. I would say (anecdotally) that they are the most recognised, most ‘followed’, most sought after brand in MTB. The reason they’re not the biggest and don’t sell the most is limited range, higher prices.
Yeah, I certainly worry that they're the most nick-able MTB brand (possibly vying with Specialized), even when out on my possibly otherwise undesirable Highball.
I will second Garbaruk, their cassettes are ridiculously light, work well and really do last, I wouldn’t look elsewhere. Customer service is faultless too.
Invisiframe, just round the corner from me, great product and company.
Another vote for Rimpact too, their pro version is brilliant 🙂
Would Propain count? Pretty awesome company, presence and products considering their size.
Rapha, from nowhere to ubiquitous, absolute masterstroke/luck in timing, started in early 2012 and latched onto the UK public uptake in cycling with Wiggins 2012 Tour & Olympics, pressed on from there, Rapha-Condor Sharp, to Team Sky, to Canyon-SRAM womens and now to EF & Legion, haters will hate, but they changed the cycling clothing/marketing game
I really like the stuff that Albion are putting out, especially the stuff that's a bit different (lightweight packable jackets for ultras etc)
Another vote for Bird here.
For a small operation they do great things with excellent customer service and comms.
Plus the bikes are pretty good too 👍
Also Hope for similar reasons.
Gotta be Rocky Mountain
I'm biased, but having owned a few of their bikes now, I'm a massive fan. UK distro isn't great though. Which is a shame.
Another shout for Ragley here. ok CRC put the prices up last year to £350 per frame but £350 !!! half and them some against the Chameleon . £150 off the scout and almost half a Crush. Best hardtail frame ive ever had and there have been a few ........
Vitus via Wiggle? Just bought Jnr a Rapide VR for £1000. Yes an - albeit Alu - Deore shod, RS Sid SL equipped 29er HT with a Ron/Ralph tyre combo that at the family statistics in mind gets him to Adult races without another purchase*
* One would hope so anyway.