Burls ti Road frame. Late, poor welds, not enough material on the derailleur hanger. No real comeback from the builder/commissioner. Noodly and just not nicely finished.
In comparison the Rourke 953 frame is superb and the customer service has been great.
Specialized SX trail.
Pitched as a DH bike you could pedal all day, felt like an XC bike with the weight of a DH bike.
Early orange patriot. Felt all wrong horrible pedal feedback, way too heavy, way too high bb. not even any good DH. Bought second hand so didn't lose much.
So in answer to your question, no 😀
Yep, orange stage 5
should have been amazing, instead it just wasn’t ‘right’. Good bike but just wasn’t for me, lost 50% in 6 months and 200 ish meh miles.
bought a bird am9 and everything is right again.
Ellsworth ID was one i never got on with, looked great but was pretty much a dog in most ways, just lived with it being an inefficient trail bike.
Not a small fortune, but (just to really upset some folks) a Longshot Cotic Solaris Max frame, built up with existing bits - use it plenty, just still feels like a bit of a barge and always slightly disappointing - too tight to get rid of it though, so will just persevere!
Not a small fortune, but (just to really upset some folks) a Longshot Cotic Solaris Max frame, built up with existing bits – use it plenty, just still feels like a bit of a barge and always slightly disappointing – too tight to get rid of it though, so will just persevere!
You could port most of the bits onto a Soul. I demo'd both and much preferred the Soul, much more maneuverable and lively allowing you to pick your line rather than 'smash over everything'
I have a spreadsheet of all the bikes I've owned in 20 years. It's a fairly sobering document 😉
Stand out didn't like would include
- Voodoo Wazoo Singlespeed. Rode it once. ONCE. Had all sorts of issues with rear wheel alignment. Sold it for peanuts
- Pace 405. I even demo'd that but never really got on with it. Looking back it was a short bike
I've had a few bikes I've really liked including my Solaris Max. Most of the other ones have been somewhere in the middle.
Pipedream Sirius with Rohloff hub, XTR everything else, and shiny kashima fox fork.
Turns out I hate hardtails and hate a Rohloff hub.
Sold it after a few weeks and very few miles for less than I'd paid for the Rohloff.
Still hurts.
My mate has a Nicolai with a Rohloff. He was really looking forward to that bike. He absolutely hated it. Became known as the elephant due to weight and fleetness of foot.
Oh I'd like to add Bird Aeris 120LT. I liked my original MK1 145 although I was never really good enough to get the best out of it, but the shorter travel one just felt heavy and dead. Even with some carbon wheels.
Bought a 2009 GT Avalanche from Pauls as a cheap hack hardtail back in 2012. Didn't cost a fortune compared to others on here but it was all the spare cash I had at the time so to me it was so I'm letting it count. Felt great when it arrived and I'd rode it round the local streets, even felt great round the local park. Took it out round the local trails and it was horrible as soon as the terrain got rough or even slightly steep, never known a bike be so twitchy and unstable! Even tried using it as a commuter but for some reason it just felt like pedalling a lump of lead despite it being lighter than my then commuter bike and having the same tyres.
Sold it after using it for 47 miles. Then realised that I could have swapped all the bits over to an old FS frame I had back at my parent's house. Total muppet.
2011 turner 5 spot. Bought to replace a brilliant 2004 HL 5 spot. Hated it.
Bronson V2. Was a crash replacement frame for my Bronson V1 which was one of the best bikes I've ever owned. The V2 just didnt fit me. Changed all manner of things on it, stem, bars etc. Pedalled like it was in treacle and gave me back ache.
Transition Patrol Carbon. Went from a succession of Reigns to try something different from the shop I race for & hated it. No idea why, as on paper they were very similar. Just crashed a lot & my results went backwards 10/15% for that 6 months. Sold it & went faster again.
Bought an '08 Marin Rock Springs. I was advised to go for a medium by the dealer, it turned out to be too small for me, I kept hitting my knees on the bars, so I gave it to MrsPJM1974 and bought myself an '09 Wolf Ridge in a large.
I ended up with an absolute pig - the head angle was noticeably steeper than the medium Rock Springs (the frames were the same model aside from sizing), there was a fair amount of flex around the back end and I spent a fortune trying to get it to ride right and was only partially successful at addressing he numb steering and unpredictable handling. Such a shame, the same bike in a medium was excellent - indeed we still own it - but the large was an absolute monster that put me in A&E more than once.
Mk1 Cotic Rocket 275. It was just too big and baggy so I stripped it and built my (long since nicked 😥 ) mk1 BFe 275 back up. Fortunately I bought the Rocket second hand so I didn't actually lose money on it when I punted it on.
Another vote for the santa Cruz blur ltc. Still cannot understand the positive reviews, it seemed so flawed.
I bought half price in a sale though and those positive reviews helped move it on.
Cotic Soul. I had an on-one inbred at the time, Cy posted a wanted ad looking for a laptop and I had one I wasn't using so we agreed to a swap. Knew very quickly it wasn't the bike for me. the Cotic is made for people who ride bikes, attacking the trail, riding the fork through the corners and so on. The inbred much more suited my style of pointing the bike down the trail, hanging on for grim death amd hoping to god you were still on at the bottom. I persevered for a few months but eventually swapped it for an 853 inbred. That bike was superb
Not a fortune but my Bird Zero mk1. Good bike to be fair just felt tiny under me (medium frame felt more like as small!) rode it for about 6 months before stripping it to build another hardtail. Still got the frame/forks sat in the garage actually need to pull my finger out and get it sold.
Wouldn't say I absolutely hated it but the Mondraker Dune I bought (thankfully in end of season sale but still cost enough) just didn't work for me.
The suspension was brilliant but too much for the riding I do, and although in theory the reach was spot on for me it just felt too cramped. I put a longer stem on it and that just screwed up the balance & handling. Tried all sorts to fix it but just couldn't get it right for me.
My current GT on the other hand fits like a glove 🙂 🙂
Can totally empathise with the 'over-biked' feeling. Had a Mondraker Foxy XR and it was complete overkill for my local trails, but took it to Coed-y-Brenin and fell it love with it and thought it was the best thing ever.
Had it for two years and only really properly enjoyed being on it that one time. Sold it and went back to a steel hardtail and have been much happier on the day to day.
Jimmy, a fellow Chas Disappointee....
I bought a Chas Roberts Genesis - the one below the DB. Was meant to be 20 inch ... but was like a gate, road bike geometry, and paint that chipped when you looked at it.
I spent so much on it, 550 gbp in around 1992, I had to stick with it.
And you had to put the BB is the wrong way round so the cranks cleared the chain stays.
The straight bontrager forks were the highlight
Genesis Day One with Alfine hub. Biggest pile of sh1te I've ever ridden.
Ibis mojo carbon. Just couldn’t ever get on with it, everyone who rode it loved it but it just felt too small.
Dave Yates Diabolo. It had 753 tubing and to describe it as whippy would be an understatement. That, and the head tube was way too short for me. Looked great, though.
Roberts something or other. It was the worst handling bike Ive ever had but it was very comfortable for long rides and looked great.
I had a pace as well that I didn’t like.
Yep another snag Cruz, first gen Branson. No matter what I did back felt choppy and out of control on any rough ground. Put expensive shocks on to control with little success. Got a ally transition scout and loved it. Test rode a 5050 and hated that as well. I guess I don’t get on with Santa cruz
Considered a Soul as I have a Rocket 275 which I love, but let the decision be driven by the fact I had 29" forks and wheels to transfer from a 29er full suss... should have bought the Soul really!
Last 26" bike was definitely this. Demo'd a Remedy 8, think it was 18.5" virtual size. It was amazing, did the enduro trails at Inners faster than on the bike I knew inside out. Back in the shop I bought the 19.5" Remedy 9 ex-display bike, we had them standing against each other and couldn't see a difference size wise.
Rode it around reds and loved it until I went down a steep enduro trail where it just didn't feel right. Although it was great round most of what I rode it actually set me back a considerable amount on riding steep stuff. Guess there was nothing wrong with the bike/frame just the size didn't suit me.
I had a Pro-flex as an insurance replacement back in the late 90s. The Girvin linkage fork never moved unless launched off a cliff. The rear suspension refused to work if it was cold. The Magura rim brakes were mushy and weak. After I fitted a coil rear spring, Bombers and a front disc brake it was tolerable but I’d got fed up with it by then and flogged it on Ebay.
I've had a couple of bikes i didn't get on with but neither cost a fortune.
A second hand Giant Reign (a 2010 i think), i really didn't get on with the linkage, the rear wheel felt like it hungup on ledges/roots/stones/the whiff of uneven ground. I didn't get around to selling it as i crashed it into a tree and folded the frame in two places first!
The other was a second hand Ragly Blue Pig, just found the steel frame too flexy for my taste, especially when cornering. Sold it on for about the same as i brought it for.
Not a small fortune because it was a bike to work bike, but a 2013 Zaskar 29er. Had had GTs forever at this point, and was still loving my 2003 self built Zaskar. And had loved every Zaskar I had ridden, tbh. And then, this, this city bike, that was just cumbersome. Wasn't heavy, just dead.
I'm still not loving my warranty replacement Foxy 650b yet, either. Nowhere near as lively as the old 26" wheeled one was. If I could find an uncracked frame I would have another in an instant.
My first 'dream bike build' was a Charge Duster with mostly Deore parts (it was a dream build on a budget...) but nice XC717 wheels with Hope XC hubs and Mono Mini brakes.
At first I hated the frame, I had hoped for the magic steel ride but it just felt overbuilt, stiff and heavy at almost 5lb frame weight. Also didn't get on with the Hope brakes, can't remember why, think they just faded badly on descents and made a racket in the wet (a common complaint of mine!).
However I adapted to the bike as I couldn't afford to sell it. Eventually it became my all time favourite and co-incided with when I felt I was at my best as a rider, it just required a very aggressive riding style to get the best out of it, that and a ti post, some XT brakes and fatter tyres run soft!
Loved the frame but it eventually got moved on to a mate who was an even more aggressive rider than me and still couldn't break it.
A Cinelli "The Machine" back in the day, just the deadest collection of steel tubes.
A Commencal meta 5.5 vip frame that was just the deadest collection of aluminium tubes.
Thankfully I love my Pivot and am skint these days so 'new bike disappointment' is a thing of the past!
Yup - Hummer, Soda, Ti456,
Actually I take it all back, just been on a nostalgia trip through my old photos, any time I spent hating that bike was eclipsed by my love affair with it by the end.
Funny side note, I can't even run the bars on my road bike that low any more...
bought my five29 a month or two before going to Verbier on holiday.
bike rode like a bag of spanners all week, no grip, no compliance. Still enjoyed the holiday but was playing catch up all week.
Turns out the OE Tyres (2.2 Rubber queens were rubbish, hard plastic compound)
Swapped to some 2.35 Schwalbes (HD and a MM) after a while once we had come back home and it transformed it.
put a Corset sleeve on the shock to make the shock more linear and it bumped it up a notch again.
Its lovely, had it.... 4.5 years now.
Intense 6.6 original frame was black, lasted less than 3 months, replacement frame took 10 weeks to arrive, equally shit, but this time silver as waiting for a black frame would have added months to my already long wait. Quality control was non existant, rear triangle flexed so much under hard cornering that I learnt how to fall off using the 6.6. Total build cost was over £3.5k back in the day when you couldnt spend £5k on a mountain bike. Sold it for less than grand 20 months later, it was and remains my biggest waste of money. Intense are triumph of style over substance.
My only one was a 1999 GT XC4000. Not a fortune but felt it at the time!
I bought it to re-ignite my cycling fire having drifted away from the sport in my late teens. My previous bikes were a Saracen Tufftrax followed by a Orange Clockwork and my period away from MTB's coincided with the rise of full suss so I thought I better get in on the action. Fail.... Going from a light and responsive rigid Clockwork to a soggy boat anchor GT put my bike riding ambitions back another 5 years.
My only one was a 1999 GT XC4000. Not a fortune but felt it at the time!
I bought it to re-ignite my cycling fire having drifted away from the sport in my late teens. My previous bikes were a Saracen Tufftrax followed by a Orange Clockwork and my period away from MTB’s coincided with the rise of full suss so I thought I better get in on the action. Fail…. Going from a light and responsive rigid Clockwork to a soggy boat anchor GT put my bike riding ambitions back another 5 years.
I had one of those, assuming you actually mean XCR4000. Looking back now it was probably an awful bike but I loved mine, but at that point I was just into ragging it around the woods on all the DH bits I could find. It ended up with a short (for the time) stem, bomber z3s (then Psylos), Magura brakes and the infamous Tioga DH tyres. Frame is still probably sat in my dads garage.
My tracer 275c
Bought as a 50% off sale bargain.
Just never got on with it..... had it 2years n went the Alps on it and it was awfull to twitchy n short
Santa Cruz Heckler. Was my treat for first proper job out of university. Pretty top spec for the time. Was great fun on xc and twisty single-track but on the steeper jumpy stuff i wanted to progress on, it just felt super short tall and nervous.
After a few years of trying to fix it with a coil shock, bigger forks etc I have up and sold it to a mate for bugger all.
My first 29er. Bought a nice looking Titanium frame from a fairly well known Chinese frame builder. I bought it used from someone in the UK it was well priced, obviously for a reason. I hadnt really done my research in to what made a good or bad 29er. So very quickly I learned about toe over lap and BB drop.
The Ti frame had a crazy high bottom bracket and a really short top tube. it also had a fairly steep head angle. It would go into a speed wobble and I crashed it almost every ride sometimes going in a straight line.
Once I understood what made for a better riding bike, i rebuilt the donor bike (On One Parkwood) and even though it was probably a bit on the big side for me it was a great bike and I ended up keeping it for ages. Now got a Santacruz Chameleon and at last have a nice riding bike that fits properly and takes 29 and B+ wheels. It was certainly a learning curve!
Mine was a Cannondale Jekyll 27.5 from Pauls Cycles and a PSA from here. I swopped out the SRAM drivetrain for 1x XT/Saint, Renthals, minions, offset shock bushes and still absolutely hated it. Cracked it after 3months at Antur Stiniog. Paul's swopped the frame under warranty.
Took it out to Morzine and it was still crap.
The shock was great on big slow hits but spiked on fast sharp edged stuff. The geometry was crap as well, large offset forks but fairly steep headangle even with two offset shock bushes.
Sold it when I came home from France and effectively stopped riding after 30years it pissed me off that much!
Bronson 3 cc. Spent around 6.5k on it. Just kept swapping bits to try to make it better. Carbon everything and sub 30lb. Great on flow trails, just awful in the rough, harsh, did the opposite of inspiring confidence, kept crashing and going otb.
Reviews said it was great, other owners said they were great, the V2 I tested was great.
Binned it off for a massive loss a few month back but kept the reserves, which now fitted to my new bike make that feel harsh also compared to the alloy wheels it came with.
I had a frame made by a very experienced and well respected UK frame builder. I wanted a 26" tourer with Rohloff, good clearance, but fast and lively to ride.
The resultant frame cost £1,500 and built into an impressive bike. But it didn't look quite right with a steep head angle and low offset forks making it look oddly snub nosed. It rode OK but wasn't anything special and not what I was hoping for. I sold it after a year or so and stuck all the bits on a Troll which is probably closer to what I was looking for.
The problem was that I told the builder what I wanted and he interpreted my ideas differently to how I had envisaged. It was my fault for being to hands off and letting him just get on with it. It was also around the time that I began to realise that my ideal off road tourer would have bigger wheels....
If I ordered a new custom frame today I'd spec or discuss every detail like BB drop, off set, trail, tube diameter, etc. More likely, I'd probably just buy off the peg or from someone like Shand who specialises in the sort of bikes I tend to like. Or buy a Tumbleweed.
