Forum menu
Much as I like Cotics (former solaris owner) and I like what they do as a company (for the most part) - everything you've typed I could easily apply to my Carbon Santa Cruz.
Less about choice of frame material (as my previous, aluminium Bird was much the same), and more about a design ethos of longevity and user servicability/repairability* and customer service support.
Oh totally, I'm not suggesting that Cotic is the only good call out there - thought obviously it is the best 😉 - I guess my unconscious bias against carbon is because 1. It's basically plastic with all that implies for the planet. 2. It's the frame material of top-end choice for all the big players in the market.
There's also a bit of me that loves steel-tubed frames as a throwback to the days when bikes looked like proper bikes, which is of course, irrational and biased, but there you go. I'm basically in favour of any brand that doesn't treat its products as disposable commodities to be replaced every couple of years by something newer and supposedly 'better'.
For context, I still drive around in a 1990 Mk2 Golf GTi, so I have form 🙂
Expensive bike/part specific tools -
- there seems to be a specific tool for servicing my DMR Vault pedals. £15+ please.
- specific lockring for Shimano EP8 motor, that'll be £30. Buy new bike with next gen of motor (EP8000) and it now needs a different lockring tool (though at least this is common with Shimano's XT cranks, though the crank lockring tool existed before the first motor so surely could have used it then rather than creating something new)
at least Aliexpress means there are cheap alternatives for a lot of these now if you can wait.
Also, bike designs that are are un-necessarily difficult to maintain. It looks like my Orbea Rise has a bolt on the inside of the shock yolk that needs to be at 12nM. But it also looks like even a small torque wrench and standard hex key attachment is too long to fit in the space - so I've got to seek out a super short set of 3/8 hex attachments or try to cut one down. To compound the pain I'm not sure you can get even a standard hex key in while it's on the bike without undoing the shock as the seat tube is in the way. Pretty sure this could have done up from the outside with a slightly less slick aesthetic.
re torx bolts : I think what you're probably seeing here is poor tools rather than poor fasteners. I'm not exactly a fan of torx but mostly just because their use isn't consistent. If everything is good quality, the torx is a better fastener in isolation.
This is just life in the 21st century. You see a product advertised anywhere - TV, mag, website whatever - and it won't be the entry level or mid-specced one, it will be the one with all of the bells and whistles which costs twice as much. Flick through a hobby mag and you'll see adverts for top end stuff which costs ten times as much as entry level. Do you think people aren't aware that cheaper stuff is available?
That's not really the point I was making. I've tried googling and can't find the term for it though I've read it in the past but just can't remember it.
Of course companies will market with a focus on their highest level and shiniest product. But what I'm talking about is companies generating and even higher level product way beyond what there market can bear and sales will be negligible for in order to engineer their actual top model to be perceived as 'normal'. To inflate norms by engineering a perception that excess is not unreasonable.
How it was explained to me was if Macdonald's was trying upsell Big Macs and get more people to buy that instead of buying a standard burger one way of doing it is to introduce some sort of mega 4 patty burger. You don't expect to or care if you sell many but suddenly the Big Mac doesn't look so gluttonous. People come in attracted by the mega but can't really justify it so settle for the big mac where they'd previously have just bought the standard burger. The norm has been shifted to the right.
Why does it matter? Well as you say consumers can make choices and think for themselves. But as a sport over time the perceived cost/equipment threshold that it 'looks' like you have to be prepared to spend has gone up. This is at a time when bike design advances and manufacturing improvements means it should have gone down. As a total noob who walked into a bike shop tomorrow it 'should' be the cheapest in relative terms time in the sport'@s history to walk out with a tool to do the job. I'd argue it's the exact opposite at the perception level - what you'd think you have to spend the get going as a weekend warrior.
A loss leader? Usually costs the company to make as they don't make any profit on it, but it brings people in to buy other 'lesser' products.
to introduce some sort of mega 4 patty burger.
Oh, Halcyon days...
McDonald's is bringing back the Double Big Mac - but it won't stay for long | Metro News
Gone through my bikes and changed every possible bolt to 5mm hex. Too many weird and wonderful fasteners. Yes, it's a compromise as not every bolt is as light as it can be, but it helps.
Speaking of Park tools and Torx 🙄
It was just a chainring bolt as well, my Aldi centre aisle special ratchet set finished the job...
one thats slipped through in the original article
"Although other brands are hopping on board this aesthetic, I think Spesh was the first to bring out helmets with peaks set bizarrely far-too-high. High to the point of actually being pointless. Even if you don’t live anywhere that sunny, these high peaks now make dusk rides an exercise in squinting and, quite frankly, dangerous."
Totally agree with this.
Apparently the "cool kids" in BC, if they have an adjustable peak, ride with it in the up position. If true, then I'm happy to be labeled old and uncool for having a usable peak.
I remembered narrow wide jockey wheels this morning. All they do is cause noise and grumbling when the chain skips off them in bumpy terrain and is on the wrong teeth.
As for e-MTBs - they're such a waste of a crucial resource we need for the green transition and have so much higher emissions associated with their production compared to normal MTBs (which have fairly low impact and aren't robbing key minerals from more important uses) that they should stop existing. E-bikes for transport, fine - they're a key part of the green transition, E-mtbs are a total waste. The benefits they bring a minutely small number of people with health issues does not outweigh the environmental damage to the wider population.
Has anyone mentioned flat mount disc brakes? Just change for change's sake in my view and a more faffy than post mount.
And while I'm at it, cables & hoses down the underside of the downtube in the way of everything that comes off the front tyre & stopping you heli-taping. If they must come down the downtube, why note the topside of the tube? They'd happily run either side of the bottle cage bosses so shouldn't cause a problem.
Apparently the "cool kids" in BC, if they have an adjustable peak, ride with it in the up position.
More lift for the big sends
I remembered narrow wide jockey wheels this morning. All they do is cause noise and grumbling when the chain skips off them in bumpy terrain and is on the wrong teeth.
Up until now I was unaware of the existence of narrow wide jockey wheels and I have to say my life was better for it.
I would like the cycling industry to stop peddling both electric Mountainbikes and road bikes.
I don't, eMTBs are just better IMO. Not better in every way, but over-all better. I'm 50 now, but I'm fit and well, I don't need one, but I love them.
remembered narrow wide jockey wheels this morning. All they do is cause noise and grumbling when the chain skips off them in bumpy terrain and is on the wrong teeth.
This. Whoever signed this design off deserves to be made to set up every mech with them on forever. A truly stupid piece of design engineering
More lift for the big sends
Probably goes without saying that I don't do big sends... but do have my peak in the high position if using goggles. Adjustable peaks, so you can pop you googles up there, or drop the peak down for low sun, have their uses. It's the "always high as to not stop sun or rain" peaks that Benji was complaining about, I think. Adjustable is good.
Adjustable peaks, so you can pop you googles up there, or drop the peak down for low sun, have their uses.
goggles and half shell helmets is something I thought (and was happy) went away. not sure we can blame "the industry" for that, more likely it was minor gravity pros and influencers with goggle sponsors who didn't want to wear a full face helmet on easier terrain.
Has anyone mentioned flat mount disc brakes? Just change for change's sake in my view and a more faffy than post mount.
Yes, it was mentioned earlier, as was the lack of access to post mount bolts when mounted on chainstays. Now as I see it, because flat mount bolts from the bottom upwards, it solves that issue.
Of course what it doesn't solve is having mismatched calipers on the front and back of your MTB.
Those Specialized helmets (and similar brands) look terrible and the visors are just a waste of time like that. I’d rather have a smaller, lower peak that works better both aesthetically and practically.
goggles and half shell helmets is something I thought (and was happy) went away. not sure we can blame "the industry" for that, more likely it was minor gravity pros and influencers with goggle sponsors who didn't want to wear a full face helmet on easier terrain.
I think it went away once the ews mandated full face helmets.
Another one. The way the axle on fox 36s narrows so it’s harder to line up and then needs a pinch bolt tightening up as well. Why? Has anyone ever managed to drop a front wheel out of a fork that doesn’t have a pinch bolt. Just more unnecessary complications
It’s not to keep your axle in, it’s because it’s a floating axle: to accommodate the (small) variations in hub widths, the axle floats in the right fork leg, until you do up that pinch bolt.
If it bothers you, you could switch to the QR axle, that uses a sleeve you fix with the pinch bolt, and ever after all you do is unscrew the through axle.
All the ‘standards’ that are anything but standard
Trying to sell bikes at silly prices based on the assumption higher paid people will buy them on salary sacrifice
An industry led by people who don’t appear to be able to learn from the past
All the ‘standards’ that are anything but standard
Heres the rub though.
Would you like still riding about on a 26 1 3/8's cottered cranked sturmey archer'd bike with a 1inch threaded headset and loose ball bearings all over the shop?
"Standards" don't mean it comes as standard. It means that within tolerances separately engineered items, constructed to the same specification, will function together.
Stop making pedals that can only be removed or installed with an Allen key, my knuckles prefer it when I can use a nice big pedal spanner!
i just use a socket set with a massive breaker bar, keeps the knuckles plenty far away
I grease the pedal axles when installing. Then remove pedals with a multitool.
Do you like being miserable?Do you find climbing miserable? I find it to be one of the most challenging and fun (type 2) bit of cycling in general...
And on the "pushing of e-bikes" subject, just been chatting to a colleague about him getting into mountain biking.
He's been "researching" and had decided that the best thing for him to get is a Levo Turbo and chipping it. This has come from some of his other mates and a couple of shop guys that he spoke to. (I'd hope they didn't suggest the chipping).
He's also not yet 30 and runs on and off road marathons and ultras.
I was somewhat taken aback at the instant leap to a 6 odd grand ebike from his current riding to work and back on a 3 speed town bike...
As for e-MTBs - they're such a waste of a crucial resource we need for the green transition and have so much higher emissions associated with their production compared to normal MTBs (which have fairly low impact and aren't robbing key minerals from more important uses) that they should stop existing.
Surely the same logic applies to recreational cycling?
Would you like still riding about on a 26 1 3/8's cottered cranked sturmey archer'd bike with a 1inch threaded headset and loose ball bearings all over the shop?
Ah yeah, but have you tried to buy a bottom bracket lately? Or a headset? OK, with your own bike that you're familiar with, but **** me, the number of combinations to choose from is quite ridiculous.
eg. one brand, top level, there are multiple options below most of them
Ah yeah, but have you tried to buy a bottom bracket lately? Or a headset? OK, with your own bike that you're familiar with, but **** me, the number of combinations to choose from is quite ridiculous.
This is where the industry as a whole has truly shot itself in the foot.
They've made it pretty much impossible for a shop to have the right parts in stock for a repair, whether that's one the customer wants to do themselves or they want to take the bike in for repair.
No shop can ever have every BB or headset or freehub now. Everything needs to be special ordered. This makes it frustrating for the consumer and more likely that they'll shop online which in turn puts the shop under financial pressure.
He's been "researching" and had decided that the best thing for him to get is a Levo Turbo and chipping it. This has come from some of his other mates and a couple of shop guys that he spoke to. (I'd hope they didn't suggest the chipping).
He's also not yet 30 and runs on and off road marathons and ultras.
I do wonder if riders who've gone straight to eebs will really appreciate the assistance? And if they ever try a neeb, won't it feel like absolute torture?
have you tried to buy a bottom bracket lately? Or a headset?
Or direct mount chainrings? Why oh why oh why couldn't they just have settled on one standard pattern?
No shop can ever have every BB or headset or freehub now. Everything needs to be special ordered. This makes it frustrating for the consumer and more likely that they'll shop online which in turn puts the shop under financial pressure.
So distributors need to step up, not the LBS. In my (B2B IT) industry, I can place an order with a distributor up until around 5pm for next day delivery to my customer.
So distributors need to step up, not the LBS
What a weird argument. Weird because this is thread is about what we would like the industry to stop doing - we say increasing the number of "standards" - you say the distributors need to step up. So, the increasing standards is a good thing for us and we're just being idiots? Fair enough.
So distributors need to step up, not the LBS. In my (B2B IT) industry, I can place an order with a distributor up until around 5pm for next day delivery to my customer.
If I'm going to a bike shop, I want to take the part home with me. Otherwise I'm spending an hour of my time travelling somewhere, just for someone else to do an internet order on my behalf - aren't I?
Actually two of my LBSs are actually among the biggest UK online retailers, and I still don't go there in person unless I'm really stuck. So perhaps I'm not the best sample customer.
So distributors need to step up, not the LBS
What a weird argument. Weird because this is thread is about what we would like the industry to stop doing - we say increasing the number of "standards" - you say the distributors need to step up. So, the increasing standards is a good thing for us and we're just being idiots? Fair enough.
the issue was that LBS’ couldn’t hold stock of every standard? Distributors can. So you could go to your LBS, discuss what you need, they order it and it could arrive at your house the next day. Or it arrives with them the next day, they fit it and it’s ready for you to pick up.
So distributors need to step up, not the LBS.
Agreed
In my (B2B IT) industry, I can place an order with a distributor up until around 5pm for next day delivery to my customer.
Like this, for bike stuff - https://www.freewheel.co.uk/about
Order anything from the UKs largest distributor and have it delivered to your LBS (as one option). Or, ask the LBS about what you might need and they can order it in for you.