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What bike / frame manufacturers or brands are there still out there that don't have a UK distributor? Are they all niche singlespeed 69er titanium home made bikes? or are there any bigger brands out there that we don't really know about?
Yeah, loads. Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch, etc. Saw someone on a custom steel Aussie bike last year. It's not just Spesh, Giant, Trek etc with a smattering of One-One, Cotic and that.
Short travel XC race type machines aren't as popular here as on the Continent, as Brits tend to favour comfy 'no skill needed' AM type bikes. Sunn used to be quite well known here, but what's happened to them? Likewise with Orbea; see them all over the place in Spain. By the same token, you won't see yer Cotics, On-Ones and Ragleys over there nearly as much. Maybe US brands aren't popular in France and Germany, and vice-versa. I dunno.
Sunn, solid UK importer, ditto Orbea.
A major problem here is exchange rates. It can be very hard to sell stuff overseas. For example, Hope kit in France is heinously expensive!
yeah - kind of figured that - but do any of them do a cushy 140mm 67 degree HA brit friendly bike...? or is it all straight back 100mm flying machines?
If you go to the Roc D'Azur and the exhibition there you will see plenty of kit without UK distributors although the number has been decreasing over the last few years as Lapierre, Cube etc. have come into the UK market.
Do you have...
...[url= http://www.canyon.com/_en/ ]Canyon[/url]?
...[url= http://www.mondraker.com/10/esp/index.html ]Mondraker[/url]?
...[url= http://www.corratec.de/en/bikes2010/mtb/index.html ]Corratec[/url]?
Local distributor has road frames badged up as [url= http://www.macario.com/ ]Macario[/url]
They're the only ones I can think of at the moment
Batavus
Olympia
MBK
Bulls
Off the top of my head.
Corratec are brought in with Raleigh now.
Short travel XC race type machines aren't as popular here as on the Continent, as Brits tend to favour comfy 'no skill needed' AM type bikes.
Sorry I forgot people living on mainland europe have more skill than use brits when it comes to riding bikes. I also forgot that no skill is required to ride an AM bike or a bike with long travel of any kind.
For example, Hope kit in France is heinously expensive!
If hope stuff is expensive for UK riders in france its not just the exchange rate at work.
Sorry I forgot people living on mainland europe have more skill than use brits when it comes to riding bikes. I also forgot that no skill is required to ride an AM bike or a bike with long travel of any kind.
I think there's more of a heritage of racing in countries like Spain, Italy and France. Certainly in the road scene, and this spills over into MTBing. As for 'all mountain' bikes; they do tend to have proper mountains there, not just a few hills. And I'm sure there are plenty of weekend warriors there as well.
I'd imagine, from what I've seen at least, that the European markets are shaped more by what people actually ride, whereas the UK market is influenced largely by people who think they [i]need[/i] a 6" travel bike to ride a poxy trail centre that I could do on a rigid hybrid with me shopping on the back...
It's always quite disturbing watching a French bloke in lurid clothing heading off on a run in les gets on a super shonky v-brake hardtail whilst the brits in armour are talking SQL at the top.
Oh, Stevens are pretty big in northern Europe.
"whilst the brits in armour are talking SQL at the top" 🙂
I also forgot that no skill is required to ride an AM bike or a bike with long travel of any kind.
I think the point elfin is trying to make is that [b]some[/b] folks seem to need these kind of bikes to ride easy trails.
motobecane (the real one),Peugeot and puch. - yeah unlikely im sure.
Canyon
I'm pretty sure Canyon don't do distribution or shop sales.
I've got a Orbea Alma and love it. I wanted something slightly different and certainly don't regret choosing the Alma.
BMC. Big in the road world but you don't see many mtbikes about. Might be a distributer but just not a popular brand.
BMC. Big in the road world but you don't see many mtbikes about. Might be a distributer but just not a popular brand.
[url= http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/gear-news/evans-cycles-takes-on-bmc-for-2010/4707.html ]Evans import BMC[/url]
Peugeot as a bike brand died on its arse years ago; PSA licensed the name to Cycleurope (who I believe are the parent company of Bianchi). I understand PSA are trying to re-establish the brand & they will be sold from the car showrooms, which could be interesting.
KTM bikes look good* & always get written up well in the mags (or MBR at least) but don't seem to be officially imported.
Andy
*[url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/unfortunate-model-name-of-the-month ]odd model names aside[/url]
[url= http://www.merida-bikes.com/ ]Merida?[/url]
[url= http://www.conor.es/ ]Conor?[/url]
[url= http://www.bhbikes.com/en/ ]BH bikes?[/url]
These are some brands we have here, going on the forum I've never seen them mentioned so I don't really know if they exist in the UK or not. 😀
What about Carver?
Airborne? I love the Lucky strike But the new ones look a bit poor.
Airborne? I love the Lucky strike But the new ones look a bit poor.
Airborne = van Nicholas, which you can get in Leisure Lakes in Bury.
Merida?
Conor?
BH bikes?
Merida distributed direct in the UK; I believe they are unavailable in the US as they part own Specialized & part of that deal is that they don't compete. BH distributed by Raleigh. Never heard of Conor.
Andy
I used to have a massi I liked that a lot
Mr_Mojo - MemberI've got a Orbea Alma and love it. I wanted something slightly different and certainly don't regret choosing the Alma.
I love mine too, it took a while to get used to it but now I love it. I was looking at anotherone this morning all blinged out with gold and weighing in a 8,90kg
Never heard of Conor.
so that's a no then? 😉
Both Dutch Brands American Eagle (what's in a name) and Idworkx do not have a British importer for their MTBs as far as I know. Santos now has some touring bikes, but I am not certain if their MTBs are available as well.
[url= http://www.bergamont.de/cms/ ]Bergamont?[/url]
[url= http://www.ghost-bikes.com/2010/ ]Ghost?[/url]
Ghost sold in our LBS
Riding high used to do Bergamont but don't appear to any more.
Carver are available via Rock Star racing
KHS are also available in this country as well, although the dealers on there website are a bit thin.
Wilier do a few MTB's but the UK importer won't even supply the Shimano equipped (just Campag) versions of the road bikes, so there's not much chance of seeing the MTB's.
Carver are available via Rock Star racing
Is Trev still trading then? Thought he was working for a big chain store now.
I just got the info from the carver website, so not sure. There bloody lovely bikes.
[url= http://www.steppenwolf-bikes.com/mountainbikes/ ]Steppenwolf[/url]
[url= http://www.noell-fahrradbau.de/ ]Noell[/url] custom-made steel frames
[url= http://www.rotwild.de/en/ ]Rotwild[/url], very lovely looking bikes
Bergwerk used to be there but their homepage is empty, maybe went bust
Airborne is a company in its self though isn't it?? [url= http://www.airborne.net/Products/Product.aspx?p=9 ]link[/url]
Bored with niche.........mainstream,cheap functional is where it's at!