Not the LA party band famous for Blackout in the Red Room.
Tell us all about one brand you love, and on that you hate. But, most importantly - Why you love/hate them.
For me -
Love = Hope. Many years ago, I wanted a new hub. I rang them. They didn't make what I wanted. They then offered to make what I wanted. Asked if I wanted any custom logos on it. What colour would I like? etc. Superb customer service, simply superb.
Hate = Cannondale. Irrational, maybe. Many years ago, when I was in the trade, their customer service was the most pitiful in the world. Maybe it's changed, and I hope it has, but then it was essentially, "Meh". That a brand like that allowed its European operation to be so poor reflected really badly on the brand overall for me.
Love: Vans shoes even though I've not bought a new pair in years and none of the new styles appeal to me, I still feel "affiliated" to the brand.
Hate: Vauxhall cars. Some are fine, some are terrible, no way of knowing which is which! I'd quite like a zafira CDTI 150. We have some at work which are quite nice, but every vauxhall my mat has bought new has been crap, do they have special "half arsed at work" fridays or something?
Love - Hope and SRAM
Hate - loud clicky hubs WHY and now it is near impossibel to get aquite one even a HOPE XC seems loud to me
Flashy, you know Love/Hate are plain Camden Underworld in Feb?
Anyway
Love - Hope, just nice desirable stuff (but when o when will the Vision R8 actually ship?)
Hate - tricky this one, but think I may have to go with the glove division of Giro. Nice fitting things. But have the strength and longevity of tissue paper. Can't really think of a brand I just outright hate
Love/Hate are plain [playing?] Camden Underworld in Feb?
*Hits teh webz for tickets...!*
*Realises that they're not on the gig list, but Gilbey is.... Ponders buying anyway!*
Love: stuff that is designed to be great, then sold. (Castelli...)
Hate: stuff that is designed to be sold, then sold. (Rapha....)
Surely still not jizzy? Thought he would of popped his clogs long ago. The amount of drugs that lad must of taken beggars belief.
anyway - back to op - cant think what I love, but I know I hate Fiat.
bye
hate: superdry and the morons that wear it. a brand that means nothing, no heritage just ripping off bits of other brands but with the logo more conspicuously placed to say "look at me, i'm a style sheep and a nob too"
love: apple. makes my work a lot easier and really gets up the noses of I.T. types so a double win.
Yep, Jizzy is a) still alive and b) in the line up!
Already got my tix!
Love Maico, Caterham
Hate Ferarri
(Cheezy, they're not on the Underworld website. Am I missing something?)
Hmm...
Bikey:
Love: Again, Hope. Fantastic quality products, simple as.
Hate: Anything to do with Brant Richards, cos he was rude to me for daring to criticise the aesthetics of one of his 'designs'. 😆 Woon't ride one of his 'designs' if you paid me.
Non Bikey:
Apple: Computers and stuff the way they should be.
Miscrosoft: For making something as shit as it can possibly be, then having the audacity to sell it to people!
Hmmm, I have a ticket in my kitchen for 6th feb for Gilby Clarke and Love/Hate. Gonna be disappointed if they are no longer on the bill 😕
Love: Transition = just really like their bikes and they seem to suit the riding i like to do.
Hate: Not many really, not a fan of Urge helmets but that's just because they're ugly. Altura shorts are atrocious too.
Cheezemeister - http://www.theunderworldcamden.co.uk/gigs/eventdetails/6-feb-12-gilby-clarke-underworld/
Gilby Clarke
+ Badmouth + Guns 2 Roses
Love Shimano for shifting me for 25 years for all the boring reasons.
Hate my irrational bike lust, its like a constant annoying semi that wont ever go away.
Flashy, yep, saw that. Disappointed now. Still Gilby will be good
I think Underworld was where I once almost bottled some bloke; he waved a bottle in me face and was abusing me something 'orrible (nasty racist and all sorts), so I grabbed the bottle off him and wooduv done him had me mates not grabbed hold of me in time.
Not a very nice moment at all. Fortunately the bouncers threw him out, but let me stay as long as I behaved meself. 🙂
Cooduv had extremely serious consequences that. Just goes to show that alcohol and aggression don't mix well, kids...
Remember that joke in Kerrang? Usually they'd do a "where are they now" feature but for Gilby they had to do a "Where am I now" feature.
love, surly stuff, cheap and very tough.
hate, orange, for a few reasons.
Love: intense, and santa cruz. Fantastic frames and truly a joy to ride.
Hate: industry nine, because im still waiting for my wheels to be sorted after 7 months and still no news :-\
Love: On-One. I can email brant or dave. I can find out why and what. As to when, well Im never in any rush. And more to the point I genuinely enjoy riding their products.
Hate: Santa Cruz, cant stand the dishonesty of controlled distribution of products. Im sure some of their bikes are fine, but the US;UK pricing is shite.
Love- Salsa ace bike products that just feel right
Hate- Orange, ridden exclusively by Charlie Uniform November Tangos
Love: Cotic. You can take a 120mm trailbike, break it on an uplift day at fort william, tell them so and mention that it's both out of warranty and second hand and that it breaking might be connected to it falling off the chairlift earlier in the day... and they still express courier you a replacement part for free the next day. The most time consuming part was the mandatory conversation about how ace Scotland is 
Brilliant bikes, backed by brilliant people.
Hate: Nothing really. Don't like the cloud of fanboys that surround Orange but the bikes are good, just too expensive... Can't hate that.
Bike stuff:
Love - my tiny Titus: will always be all the bike I'll ever need.
Moots bikes: ti loveliness
minx-girl.com: for the best collection of girls biking stuff that actually looks good
(Plus I have a t-shirt with 'minx' written across the *ahem* chest!)
Hate - all the products which are available for 'average sized guys' which means if you're a petite girl you've got really limited options
Love - my tiny Titus: will always be all the bike I'll ever need.
You don't actually need it Sue, to be perfectly honest. 😐
Best give it to me then...
(Did your postie come today?)
Elfin - the chances of you (or anyone else) getting my Titus off me are about zero 🙂 That bike and I have a lot of shared history.
(no postie didn't come today - suspect they're a bit busy at the moment)
[u]Things Bike[/u]
LOVE: Gary Fisher. Because he was there at the beginning, and I like the whole West Coast mountain bike thing. I know the bikes themselves were made by Trek (not that this is necessarily a bad thing), and that they now no longer exist, but they worked well.
HATE: Orange. Because my personal bigotry runs the way of not being able to stand the whole Northern industry thing. That, and the image that has built up around their bikes, as referred to above.
[u]Things Not Bike[/u]
LOVE: Volvo. Enough said.
HATE: Anything that General Motors has ever even been in contact with. Devil's spawn that company is. FACT.
love....oh so many things.....turner, for being turner....Mavrick bikes for making maverick bikes both of these have the best customeer service ...singletrack mag for being singletrack mag infurating and brilliant...Mike ferrentino for being a great writer and for two stories catching trains across europe and the memories fo his latley deceased dog they really touched a spot ..... shimano hope magura all keep ing me going
hate.....the fan boys and girls...my desire for the neext best shiny thing...my fond memories of the bikes i have sold and think i should get that again....sram avid for not keeping me going and stopping
LOVE: Hope, a few years ago I somehow lost the pin from my seat clamp when stripping a d cleaning my bike. Phoned them up to order a replacement and they sent me a whole new seat clamp free via next day delivery. I've stuck with their products were I can ever since and I've not had a dud yet.
I'm also becoming a Cotic fan boy after the great service I got from Paul this week, even though my frame is pre-owned.
HATE: Hate is a strong word, but I steer clear of FSA after underperforming products and non-existent after sales.
MrSmith, hit the superdry nail on the head. But I envy the founder and his faux heritage idea, it's like those beers that seem like they've been around forever and imported by cleaver packaging and marketing.
What exactly is a "Northern Industry" thing???? 🙄
Are bikes not allowed to be designed in the North of England then?
And no, i've never owned or ridden any Orange product in my life (apart from my bright orange Marin!)
Love - the Northern Industry Thing
Hate - the Southern Stereotype thing (and their sh#t beer and rubbish pies)
Love - Mojo for their brilliant service & new free lowers when they upgraded me to kashima, & the 3 days it took them to sort my rear shock when it blew up. Also hope for replacing a seat qr that I snapped.
Hate - nothing comes to mind, guess I'm a lover not a hater...
Hope are doing very well here. My good customer service (see above) doesn't seem to be a one off.
Love: Apple computers, Maverick bikes , Ford cars.
Hate: Orange email not bikes and getting older and less bendy 😐
Love-hope, fox forks, turner..and my out of control poodles,staffie and lab...
Hate-avid brakes and salad with my fish n chips...
love - pies
hate- orange haters (never had an orange, but most of the reasons given suck)
Love: Good solid kit that works
Hate: when the above stuff gets discontinued for a crap new model.
[b]Love:[/b] Maverick American, best customer service ever, anywhere. Keep Pedalling in Manchester - no BS, lots of nice bikes and responsible for my Soma Double Cross DC, which is ace.
[b]Mildly Bemused By:[/b] Crank Brothers - a brand seemingly dedicated to things that don't work. It says everything that they bought the rights to the Maverick Speedball adjustable seatpost - the one Mav thing that was truly, deeply, flawed - and re-branded it as the Joplin.
Love: Hope, great service, long lasting parts, fitted to all my bikes.
Hate: Hayes brakes, for a mechanic bleeding and servicing is a pig, and they only feel wooden after that, especially the 9 and sole.
Love: On One, it's inexpensive, does what it says on the tin.
Hate: Still not enough women's products around. Trying to demo Women's bikes or small mens for that matter is difficult.
I'll add a +1 for Hope, had several excellent experiences with them. I'll throw in a +1 for Cotic too, delighted with my Soul and Roadrat -
And a -1 for those Giro gloves, as someone said above, made of tissue paper. Shite product.
But my own choice would be Lapierre. They've had a fair bit of criticism, much of it justified, but my Spicy is the best bike I've owned - and the attention to detail on it would put a lot of brands to shame. The cable routing is a work of art, and the bike comes already taped on the downtube too - little touched, that elevate what's already a very good bike. No doubt someone will chime in with a frame cracking issue - all I'd say to that is there are two was of dealing with those problems. Trek's response to some Remedy frames failing was to reduce the warranty on the swingarm to two years, reduce the fork travel to 150, and market the bike differently. Lapierre's was to increase the warranty (front and rear) to five years, and vastly improve their warranty service. Good brand, going about things the right way.
LOVE; Fox clothing i have been drawn to it for as long as i remember, i used to wear it the years i raced moto cross, and i still wear it now, it allways fits right is allways comfortable and just never seems to wear out.
HATE; Microsoft its just so poo, you have to be an absolute nerd to achieve anything with it and all the people that know how group together and s**** like supierior beings, when theyre not they just have spent too much time in front of their screens jerking off and learning how to erase their history correctly. Oh and the fact that microsoft seem to constantly be releasing "new features" and bragging about them when apple have had them for years. 😮
LOVE: Mondraker for making my Dune, which I think I'm in love with. Such an amazing and underrated bike. If they could just invest in a few pots of threadlock I reckon they'd have it cracked.
HATE: Not the time of year for hating things, but I'm not impressed with RockShox for changing all the names of their fork models for the third year running and seemingly dropping 20mm axles on the Rev.
Love: Another for Hope stuff here. It's pretty and works most of the time. If it doesn't, you can find the spares you need anywhere. Rockshox is also high on my love list too for the fact that they seem to go on and on with minimal fettling. My Lizard Skins Charger grips are ace too.
Hate: Too strong a word perhaps, but there is a special place in purgatory for the creators of ITunes. Anything from Raceface with splines or bearings is best avoided IMHO, like Shimano chains or expensive gloves that give up and die after the third ride.
Love:
Singular. (Not in a dodgy way, just for saving me the non-inconsiderable trouble of fabricating frames pretty much [i]exactly[/i] like those I'd make for myself, were I were to build frames).
Hate:
Hate costs effort, and it seems odd to waste time / effort on it so I only go so far as being indifferent about things, which requires no effort at all, and makes for a very long list of (subjectively) mediocre products.
It is annoying that you can't get exactly what you want sometimes; that's not through a sense of 'entitlement' either, it's just that some stuff simply isn't made, and there's only so much you can make for yourself.
(Actually I do hate, and it's a cruel, slow, intense and viscous hatred, but it's nothing to do with cycling). 😉
"viscous"
What, thick and pours like treacle? 😛
"viscous"What, thick and pours like treacle?
Absolutely (although I was thinking about something more like ooh, I dunno, say ... boiling oil). 😯
chakaping - MemberHATE: Not the time of year for hating things, but I'm not impressed with RockShox for changing all the names of their fork models for the third year running and seemingly dropping 20mm axles on the Rev.
They still make the 20mm Revs, but I don't think the distributors- Fishers?- are importing them.
Love: Singular, one man's guts and vision to go it alone and produce outstanding kit.
Hate: On-One...
Love:
Hope, for truly outstanding customer service. Fizik, for making excellent saddles and great customer service when two of them broke.
Hate:
Rapha. Clothing that is overpriced and so pretentious. The behaviour of their sponsored riders at SSCX was abominable too.
Found something I hate. Crank Brothers. Kit looks awesome, then the pedals die in 3 months and the headsets rust after a month. Any of their stuff without bearings might be good. Not going to try though.
Love: DMR and NS Bikes because they have roots in dirt jumping which means they make bikes that are fun to ride, rather than super slack/long/low geometry that makes the ride less involving.
Hate: Nothing really, apart from whoever prices petrol as it means I can't afford to drive anywhere good to ride any more.
Found something I hate. Crank Brothers. Kit looks awesome, then the pedals die in 3 months and the headsets rust after a month. Any of their stuff without bearings might be good. Not going to try though.
Read my previous post - Crank Bros actively seek out shonkiness, everything they make is terminally unreliable. If they made cars, they would be 80s Ladas. Or Polski Fiats. If they made motorcycle electrics, they would be 90s Ducatis. If they made a vegetable it would be celery. And if they made pedals, they would be Eggbeat... oh, hang on :-/
Love: Marmot. Such quality stuff. When faced between buying oil or a triclimate parka, why would you want heating?
Hate: Specialized. Does this need to be defended?
Love: Camelbak for the new bladder,so much easier to use.
Hate: When injury forces a lay-off from biking.
Love - Cotic. Amazing service. When my Soul dies (the bike, not my actual soul) I'll buy another one. Enough said.
Dislike - nothing bike-wise, it's all good.
Love - Hope for there customer service and outstanding availability of spares, i also admire the fact that they still manufacture in house. Quick releases are the only bad hope product i've had.
Hate - too strong a word but i'm not a fan of Crank Bros, from my admittedly limited experience of there products i feel they should spend more time actually making the product work and less time making it look nice.
oh dear lots of Orange haters out there!
I ride an Orange and wouldn't describe myself as a 'Charlie Uniform November Tangos' in fact i'm quite the opposite, Peace and Love.
Love: supporting British design and manufacture, Hope, Orange.
Hate: haters
Another hate... Gore. No, wait, hear me out! I'm sure 99% of their stuff is really good, but their waterproof socks are so unfathomably awful, it drags the entire company down into hell. It's great that they'll employ people with disabilities but giving the job of sock design to a man who must have been born without feet was a mistake.
Love: singular, hope, cotic and halo. You can tell when stuff is made with love.
Hate: nothing at all. Crank bros minipump comes close though
yep ride an orange as well [amongst others] - no idea why they get so much hatred tbh - over priced but what MTB kit i snot ?
Junk, I think you will found that the hate it geared towards those who usually own them. and the lack of terrain the mega bike sees. Maybe the mudgauards, waterbottle, under the seat pouch, and bar ends, too.. but it's your bike. Do with it as you please. 😛
we're all just a bunch of elitist snobs, us cyclists.
Love: Stanton Bikes. Such solid men selling a solid product.
Hate: Those sub companies that do all the DVLAs fining dirty work. Why do you exist?