The last bike that I had I now regret. It was a Gary Fisher Cake 2 DLX. I don't think there was anything wrong with it in general ie it got great reviews, but I never really liked it from the first day I rode it.
The bike was one of a number of factors that kind of put me off riding bikes for about 4 years.
Last summer I bought a new bike, which feels completely alive in comparison and makes me want to get out riding 🙂
Another indifferent Nomad owner here, felt like a hovercraft, (not in a good way), I swapped it for an old shape Yeti 575with the knuckle and sold it and used the money to buy the newer shaped 575 which I still have, so no regrets overall but the disappointment with the Nomad was palpable... I love my 575 though, saying that I spend almost all my riding time on an Orange P7 single speed made out of donor parts, this is probably the bike purchase I regret the least... the whole think only cost about $600 NZD...
I loved the 456. Rode the Ti456 and thought 'eh'? Bikeradar mags bummed it to the max.
456 Summer Season, wooden and rode like it was drunk even with 100s on it. Not a fan of slack, long travel hardtails but thought I'd get one anyway. Still own it mind, keep thinking about replacing with a regular 456
GaryLake - i think it may be time 'the family' headed down your way, and i can save pennies for a couple of months to make space in your garage! 😉
ps are you coming to the wedding...lots of riding up there!
Wasn't the Summerseason straight guage single-butted i.e. different to the 456? Summit like that.
Bought an Orange 5 without a test ride.
Used it for a year trying to get to like it because i must be wrong,its a fantastic bike.
A waste of a year when i could have been enjoying myself on something nice to ride.
I rode the Five- really didn't like it. I had a brief spin on a 5- liked it.
Ellsworth Moment has been my worst experience, the guy even let me demo it for a week, but I was star struck at that time. It didn't take long after to realise the BB was way too high for me and the shock didn't help. Also as above, the Summer Season I found to be a bit of a dead weight, so harder work the terrain, strength sapping and just uncomfortable. I suspect mine just weighed too much.
Oh gawd. Ellsworth's. Yes my I.D felt like it was on stilts. Stupidly I'd gotten rid of the ace Rocky Mountain Vertex/Psylo's for the ID thinking 'lets get core' 🙄
Erm
Turner 5-spot - the HL one. Not sure if it was the Romic, what I was riding it on or just the frame design in general but never really got on with it. Sold to a bloke on here who painted it green and still has it as far as I'm aware
Got rid of my On-one gimp trials bike for a proper competition trials bike. Hated it, the one bike I will ALWAYS regret selling is that on-one...
Olympia Speedy - see my other recent post. Bloody uncomfortable...just generally not nice.
Interesting, lot of Mk1 Nomad owners not liking the bikes. It was fairly common knowledge they were a bit of a dog to pedal, did people not research then first?
I got a lot of guilt when I bought my first bike to replace the rubbish one I had during Uni. I was pretty brassic at the time, so spending just over 200 quid on a Claud Butler brought on a lot of negative feelings. It was a great bike though and I was gutted when it was stolen.
For some reason felt a lot less guilty buying its replacement, a Merlin Malt 2, than I did with the previous one. Maybe it was because I needed a bike, or I was still feeling really angry about the last one being stolen.
Spent a while on a friend's Pace 405 and it genuinely the worst bike I've ever ridden, and I'm including my old Raleigh Tomahawk in that...
I think 405s really suit some people's riding style and not others. If you expect a floaty, magic carpet, sofa ride, you're in for a shock. You need to treat it like a long-travel hardtail and stuff it into things. It won't just float serenely along while you sit there enjoying the view...
...unlike a Reign - borrowed one of those for six weeks or so and hated it, not so much for its lack of capability, but it's utter bland neutrality. I was quite glad to see the back of it.
The Raleigh Tomahawk on the other hand? Pure, unadulterated magic.
I've either been quite lucky or else I'm too much of a numpty to notice the difference. The most controversial bikes I bought were a couple of Marin 140 frames - the first in a medium was a snug fit and too short in the top tube for me, but was an absolute demon on the descents. It fits the missus nicely though, so rather than sell it I gave it to her and bought a large Wolf Ridge.
The large bike is usefully longer in the top tube but it feels a lot taller and has lost some of the slow slung feel that made me love the medium bike on the descents. With a 160mm fork it's even taller. That said, the BB is quite low by AM bike standards, my old Enduro which I absolutely love has a very low BB but I've gorwn used to the way it handles.
Oh and I've just bought a Pure 7 frame and absolutely love it.
Only frame i ever regret selling was a Cove Stiffee, loved it to ride but all the paint dropped off in chunks, replaced it with a £150 new from CRC mmmmmmBop, which i could just not get on with at all, brutally stiff and unforgiving on a ride over 1 hour. Wish i had kept the Cove and just had it powdercoated.
Dialled PA. Hated the thing. It's put me off HTs a bit which is a shame.
I know this is prolly considered heresy but I never really got on with my Cotic Soul. I didn't have immediate buyers remorse as it was my first bike I bought following me getting back into mtbing. However I never felt that comfortable on it and felt that it didn't fit me that well (despite fiddling with all contact points, longer stem, shorter stem, wider bars, narrower bars, layback post, straight post). Most perplexing.
Became 29er curious and bought a Scandal s/h, found that I felt much more comfortable on the Scandal and sold the Soul.
many moons ago i bought a Marin Attack Trail, which just about fell to bits in a month. Grant at ATB Sales told me that I should not use even a low pressure hose but instead wipe it with a cloth after a winter ride in the peaks. He also said, and I quote, "some poeople only ride their bikes once a month".
Briilaint advice on improving reliability - just use it less!
Oh there's another - always wanted a Spesh Epic
the 'older' version with the shock mounted within the seat stay - not the newer design
Tracked one down my size a year last October - restored it over winter
Rode it for all of 30 miles - didn't like it one bit
straight onto ebay with it 🙂
GaryLake - i think it may be time 'the family' headed down your way, and i can save pennies for a couple of months to make space in your garage!
ps are you coming to the wedding...lots of riding up there!
Hello Mark! Yes we are coming to the wedding, sounds like the best wedding ever actually! (I was officially joking to Sarah, but seriously, do I need to bring a bike now?! 8))
I think the Summer Season might be a bit small for you, 16", unless you want something a bit 'braap' and jumpy I guess 🙂
Wasn't the Summerseason straight guage single-butted i.e. different to the 456?
Possibly, still means I bought the wrong one, but given the pocket money pricing, I was swayed by colour, not 'need' 😳
Specialized Enduro, so so dull and boring to ride
GaryLake
tried emailing and got a bounce back - mail me on bigvern52 at hotmail dot com
'maybe' having a ride day on the sunday...quite a few bikers coming 😀
oh and back on topic it had 'APOLLO' wrote on it
Sounds good, and if you guys are down in the mean time, bring the bike and we'll hit Bristol trails.
I got rid of mk1 PA and traded up to a Commencal Super 4.
While the bike itself was perfectly fine, I just missed the HT.
Since then got a Swift and haven't looked back (although I am now slightly hankering after another FS FFS)
I think with bikes I'm probably never going to be happy
Well documented on here, in Sept 2010 I built up and Intense Tracer VP to replace my 5.5.
Despite much fettling I never got on with it and eventually with regret sold it a year later. I so wanted that bike to be great.
I lusted after the Specialized FSR SWorks Palmer replica DH bike in the 90's and got one a season or two after it was launched, wasn't in his troy lee colours though. Never really got on with it, the wheelbase was absolutely massive and the front end too low. Loved it to look at but we just didn't get on.
Spesh SWORKS FSR 120, about 2005 model. Just didn't get on with it, too isolated and magic carpetty I thnk. I came off that bike more than any other I have owned, it just didn't seem to have anything in between "fine" and upside down in a hedge.
Have never bought a complete bike and regretted it but I have extensively upgraded a couple of POS that remained POS.
Expensive POS but still POS.
Specialized Enduro '11 with lyrics. Such a dull bike! Like ridding a sofa. Was okay on DH runs but everything else was just so boring.
Giant Reign '10 was a horrible ride. Really dont like the suspension platform. Could *maybe* see why people like it but not for me.
On-one SS 456 - Just handled like a pig on anything other than DH.
Had a Trek Fuel EX when everyone was raving about them... Nice bike, but it just didn't click with me... bit dead to ride and no real feedback... Shame really.
It also had the thinnest paint of any bike I have ever owned!
Garry, have you tried the carbon version? Need to try and make a cheesy ride sometime (or at least take my bike back to Bristol for a ride) if you want a try - it's a 16". But no big jumps as it's only got XC717 rims on at the moment!
Hob nob, not sure the pedal issues were that well known until well after the fact on the Nomad. Every mag or owner review i read made it out to be 5 stars niche defining bar setter. I've seen more negative comments about them in this thread than in the last 2 years on STW combined...
Bit of dillema recently...Swift / Pace RC129 or a Niner SIR9...
The Niner won, & its lovely. Big outlay for me & (daft as it seems) a few restless moments weighing them all up. Still wonder if I did the right thing, but the Niner is really ticking every box I set out.
I ended up with the Swift and the Sir9. I like the Sir9 but find the Swift is so much more 'alive' that it is my automatic 'go to' bike.
Mistake purchases.... Voodoo Wanga and Cotic Soul, never got on with either. I think it is a wheel size thing, I was going off mountain bikes altogether, slowly but surely until I discovered wagon wheels and have been sold on them ever since.
Orange P7 rode like a bag of shite, sold it within 2 months.
my current cannondale i bought becuase it was on offer - i don't so much regret it as i love the bike and the way it rides, just wish it had more travel - it's only 120mm front and rear and i'd like 140 - 160
For me was a Spesh Epic.
Lusted after one for ages, even had sleeples nights.
Plucked up the nuts to sell my XTC and buy one, what a let down. Rear shock was a piece of poo. Admitedly it was one of the first ones without adjustment but it really was horible to ride. It bobbed when pumping out of the saddle up hill yet went all hard-taily when you were descending down the other side.
Really put me off spesh to be honest.
Ive had a few bikes, but I have found my riding has changed so my choice of bike has altered. Bikes i used to ride would suit me less now than when I rode years ago.
I recently rode several mates bikes while mine was out of action, the ones I liked the most were Crashtestmonkeys HT Dialled thing, and the one I didnt like most was my mates 29'er. Id been led to believe it was going to ride over anything and just keep going, but in reality it was little different to an normal bike, just had wheels like flywheels and an odd geometry. Hes sold it now.
Problem with the dialled alpine is it tends to overjump doubles, eh trimix.... 8)
Oh yes !
I was more worried about having damaged your bike than not being able to breath though.
Having got the chance to recently ride a:
Cyclocross bike (made my eyeballs bounce out)
Roadie Fixie thing (scary as hell)
Orange ST4
Giant 29'er
Cotic Sole
and Crashtestmonkeys Dialled Alpine,
Its the Dialled Id buy, just seemed to egg me on to ride it faster and faster, I grinned all day even after faceplanting into a set of jumps.
In a race though the Cotic knocked 3 mins off my lap time at Bikefest, that was impressive.
I bought a Marin Wolf Ridge several years back. Test rode and was overcome by the joy of full suss. Months later I was permanently getting a sore back sue to riding like a begging dog. No amount of dicking about with the saddle/stem would solve it. Sold to a mate (who liked it!) and bought a 2nd hand Mount Vision. Loved it and rode it for 7 years until it snapped. Great XC bike. Now bought a second hand Superlight which may just be the best bike ever - fairly light, pretty tough, lots of fun 🙂
my current cannondale i bought becuase it was on offer - i don't so much regret it as i love the bike and the way it rides, just wish it had more travel - it's only 120mm front and rear and i'd like 140 - 160
I feel a tiny bit of buyers remorse with my current marin as I bought a 160mm model when what I really needed was more like 130-140mm. It was on very deep discount and I'd been holding off buying a bike for months with money saved up. I'd always wanted to own a 'proper' quadlink II so went with it and while its a great bike I'm massively overbiked and feel more than a little silly. Good fun though and its getting used.
I was about to buy a carbon nomad but don't think I'll bother now ,there's a lot of climbing on the trails I do Marin/pen Mach .all the articles would have you believe there 5 stars I saving me money 🙂 🙁
Some 6 or 7 years ago I bought I Bianchi. I was returning to mountain biking after several years off and had no idea that there was a significant difference between a trail bike and an XC bike, never mind all the other genres. Anyway, it was a very Euro style XC bike with long stem, narrow bars, V brakes and heavy (and poor) Manitou 80mm forks and had a heavy discount on it.
It was horribly unstable and too heavy and I spent quite a lot of money on rigid forks, disc brakes, shorter stem and wider bars before it was a bike I actually enjoyed riding (and I mean really enjoyed), at which point I stripped it all down and built up a Ragley instead. 🙂
