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I think the Charge Duster does fill a nice wee niche, can't think of any other tough, XC race shaped frames that can also take 2.4" tyres. Makes for one hell of a lot of fun through singletrack where you enjoy sharp angles and whippy handling, but with the grip and cushioning of big tyres.
Its maybe only a relevant niche if you also own a slightly longer travel mardtail for trail centres and bigger/steeper mountain trails, I'd now be seriously torn between my Duster and my Marin Rocky Ridge if I had to choose.
What I'm trying to say though is its perhaps a bit unfair to dismiss the Charge mtbs as cookie-cutter Taiwanese catalogue jobs, I think they've got a bit more individuality than that...
I personally would bracket Charge with One One and Cotic, my perception of all these brands would be 'straight forward with a perhaps little british eccentricity and design savvy...' where as i would put Trek, Cannondale and Specialized as 'big brand, mass produced but refined and good value' - I would happily own any of these bikes and would buy whatever meets my needs, I place value and ride quality over british made so currently ride a Cannondale and Santa Cruz. As a graphic designer I am seduced by Charge's grasp of marketing and overall design flair. Bulls--t... dont think so - it is a product that needs to be sold after all and marketing is a part of that process. I love the Cotic Soul (desirable) an One One Inbred's (stunning value), but both products also market themselves in different ways, just that Charge are much more obvious and i think that many of the big players could use a bit of Charge's design savvy to improve the look of their products!
As for niche bikes, I think One One and Cotic also fall into this category, and have you seen some of the stuff Trek and Cannondale are putting out (belt drive singlespeeds!). The important thing is that nearly every company is improving what they do... whether it's an all round hardtail, a cafe shop fixie or a race ready DH bike, there is less need to go down the custom build route than ever... all good 🙂
Just to come back to one early point:
All I've heard about charge is that their customer service is sh1t.
Erm... you couldn't be wronger. I bought a new Ti Duster frame 2.5 years ago through Wiggle. In getting the headset cups professionally inserted by an LBS it came to light that the headtube had been incorrectly reamed (cups were too slack). I approached HotWheels about the issue and before they could do anything, Nick personally intervened. Because I was bike-less he lent me a spare bike so I could still go for a planned weekender in mid-Wales. He also personally brought me back a replacement frame from HotWheels, and fitted the headset. And BB.
My 2p.
We are a funny lot aren't we? Forums like this can create all sorts of viral opinions that can freely market or totally erode a product. Sometimes that viral marketing is the vital thing when something is new and fresh but can easily turn bad for a number of reasons.. Colour options, perceived service, value, perceived audience, wrong rad/sick^gnarl ratio...
Given a choice of X, Y or Z, penty of folk who've just tried Z will say; "Yep, Z is amazing, buy Z!" and plenty others will go; "Z failed [maybe for a valid reason nothing to do with the performance, manufacture or function of Z] so Z is shit. Don't buy Z!" These people have some validity at least..
Some will merrily pipe up that "I bought a Z when I should have bought an X. I bought an X in the end. I liked it. Therefore Z is shit." I get the horrible feeling that these people are the most vociferous of them all.
Although I probably agree with the "concentrate on bikes for people who love bikes" outlook I did enjoy the interview a great deal - it was the first industry interview for a long time that didn't read like all the other industry interviews. As I read it NL was trying to think about mountain bikes in a different way at a time when thinking about bikes differently has pretty much come to mean a degree difference here or there. Which is refreshing even if I don't agree with all of it.
Mind, so far, I have enjoyed the Jenn Hopkins and Chipps articles more.
I'd wager the STW hate for Charge is down to all those video ads that were running a while back - a lot of moaning about those I remember.
"Urgh, look at all those young, good looking, aspirational and far more talented cyclists than me having far too much fun on those rather good looking bikes"
Or something like that... 🙂
(And big up the Radstock massif!)
Cycling is only cool to (some) cyclists. To everyone else we're weird. The more i cycle, the more i think that. We go out in the rain, get muddy and risk our lives dodging them in their cars. You either get it or you dont and it usually takes something major to change your view. Personally i know that to the wider world im a bit weird and i like it that way. To me theyre all missing something.