[Closed] What British mountain bike brand do you like?

Yep- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramo_Directional_Clothing

I can totally understand the grudge people have against Superstar, but that was many years ago and people do change - you just have to look at this forum to see that some people aren't quite the insufferable pricks they used to be.

Anyway, back on topic - I was delighted with the Superstar UK-made Nano X pedals for £30...
[img] [/img]

Their basic wheels are really bloody good now too.

We don't all have the budget for Hope so I'm glad they're doing what they do.

And the older I get and the more I ride, the more I come to appreciate Orange bikes.

Just wish the frames were one third cheaper.

Not a grudge but as I see they have at most 4 UK made products, wheels, hubs and all the other hardware is just imported and probably not that much of the UK made stuff out yet.

Oh OK then... Halfords. I bought a Carrera Krakatoa in about 1990 and a Carrera Kraken in I think 2010 to get back into riding, both brilliant bikes at the £300 point, still got the Krakatoa and the Kraken's frame. My Boardman hybrid's excellent, my Voodoo Limba was stupid value... And my brother's Saracen Raw 2 was comically bad, they cover all the bases!

[b]Whyte[/b] for stuff that works for me and [b]Royce[/b] for top quality.

Can I throw in [b]Lumicycle[/b]?

I've bought from them twice - so thats covered me for more than 10 years of night riding every week. Once I had a problem when some 4-year-old batteries started playing up. They replaced one cell and fixed them free of charge.

They are the single longest-lasting trouble free bit of kit I have ever owned.

[b]Ironworks Frames[/b]* 🙂

(If microbrand frames for friends and family count, stuck together in the shed).

Mostly build them with Hope wheels and seat collar (having recently had a couple of On-One collars snap), plus occasionally Middleburn cranks.

Lusso shorts are good.

R
A
P
H
A

I can legitimately include them, cos I wear the stuff CX racing and as we know that's almost like mountain biking innit 😆

Lusso shorts are good.

As I looked at this I realised that predictably I'm a typical STWer:

Hope - been buying their stuff for > 15 years.
USE/Exposure - have 2 sets of lights and love them
Whyte - Have a T-130 Works which I love riding
Endura - sizing issue hasn't really bothered me and the stuff they make is very durable
Middleburn - used to really rate their cranks but they seem to ahve all but disapeared

[b]failedengineer[/b] - [u]Member[/u]

It really annoys me to see a house with an English and/or British flag 'proudly' flying and a drive full of German cars.

I have the St George's cross on the number plates of my Ford*, but my wife has an Audi. Sorry about that! 😳

*Actually manufactured in Flat Rock, Michigan.

Endura - Decent, hard wearing, Humvee shorts and a jersey which is lasting well.

Hope - Generally happy, have used headsets, bottom brackets ( not convinced by their plastic spacers though) and hubs, which have all worked well. Wheel skewers always felt a bit awkward compared with Shimano and I have an odd noise, which I noticed last weekend from a 400 mile old from hub, on my Hopetech Enduro wheel set.

Superstar - Very impressed with their Nano pedals. Which I put on my girlfriends bike two years ago, still running fine in spite of horrid wet muddy local trails in winter.

Gusset - Now, pedals again, their Slim Jim pedals are ace ( well, the serviceable ones are) .

Carrera - My old ( 94) Furnace frame , was superb, wheel set lasted too. Was riding it up until 2007.

Genesis - I have their Caribou fat bike and although only had it a couple if months am really happy with it.

Howies - Great pack able showerproof / windproof. Lasting very well as an always in the back pack emergency layer.

Smaller great businesses, Epic bleed solutions. BETD Goldtech. Kaetech bearings.

That all said, my go to bike is a Trance, I'm on my second one now.

Stooge
Singular
BETD Goldtec
Fibrax

on-one in the good old days when they made nice riding cheapy singlespeedy things, before becoming a sea of turgid multi brand shite

relliott6879 - Member

failedengineer - Member
It really annoys me to see a house with an English and/or British flag 'proudly' flying and a drive full of German cars.

I have the St George's cross on the number plates of my Ford*, but my wife has an Audi. Sorry about that!

*Actually manufactured in Flat Rock, Michigan.

I always have a combined chuckle/sigh when I see one the modern Minis with Union Flag roof and/or wing mirrors - darn those pesky Germans for stealing them from us (and our stupid government for letting it happen)

Stanton and Renthal. And Hope for managing to keep up with the big boys whilst retaining most of the manufacturing in house.

Another vote for Hope after I bought their very first disc brakes, can't remember the year though. Now use their products on 4 bikes.

elliott6879 - Member
failedengineer - Member
It really annoys me to see a house with an English and/or British flag 'proudly' flying and a drive full of German cars.
I have the St George's cross on the number plates of my Ford*, but my wife has an Audi. Sorry about that!

*Actually manufactured in Flat Rock, Michigan.

I always have a combined chuckle/sigh when I see one the modern Minis with Union Flag roof and/or wing mirrors - darn those pesky Germans for stealing them from us (and our stupid government for letting it happen)

I used to think that, yes "we" did give away the best car that Rover had designed in a generation but at least BMW have kept production in the UK, and eventually moved engine production across as well.

Look at how well a British team looked after the remains. Asset stripped it to death, pocketed millions, laid off thousands and sold the carcass to china to put the labels on barely half arsed vehicles.

Curtis for producing such quality frames and to custom order too but at a price of course.

Whyte for keeping up on trend but not liking their colour schemes on the frames.

Renthal for starting to make mtb products even if I haven't tried them yet but know their hardware for motorbikes are good except the grips.

Superstar for failing to sell me a wheel set when I telephoned to order, basically not wanting business even though they needed it at the time. beats me 🙄

British? oh my god they are! It's as if these companies think that being British will lose them sales, for the amount they advertise it!

Had a very similar conversation on the way home from the Cycle Show, did not notice anyone using the 'made in UK' marketing approach.

[b]Reynolds[/b] Great company.
[b]Brooks[/b] Again great stuff
These guys are almost heritage status I think. Love Royce, Middleburn and hope. Too many good frame builders to mention, and so many good designers in the UK getting stuff made in the east.

Not one of them, British stuff is generally overpriced crap that can be bought else where, a similar product for less money without the foibles.

Customer support on disposable hobby items really?

Shouldn't your username be cynic-al.

Stanton - love my Switchback
Endura - My 2012 MT500 shorts are still going after 5 years
Madison - Really like their shorts (though sizing is a bit hit or miss) and jerseys
Hope - Both my bikes have Pro2's, they just work and it also means that I rarely have to worry about using my bell

I actually have a big soft spot for Saracen and I think they're moving in the right direction again now, be interesting to see what they come out with in the next revision of their trail bike frames.

Also Genesis is a brand that appeals to me, understated and no-nonsense.

Not MTB but Brompton.

Again not strickly MTB, but Rapha.

Hope are frustrating, it's not entirely their fault, it's the fanboys too... When their stuff breaks, they fix it, yeah? But it's not good customer service, selling something you know will break then fixing it when it does! At best it's a last minute save. If superstar did this stuff, there'd be octopuses everywhere but people love Hope for it. This ground me down a bit, I spat the dummy when they decided to try and charge me RRP for the "upgrade" parts to fix their not-fit-for-purpose 12mm rear hub.

This for me too, they make some great stuff....the QR seat clamp on my HT is faultless and has endured many harsh British winters and still works when others have seized, snapped etc....the mix and match head set cups concept is so obvious and genius i'm surprised nobody thought of it sooner, i went from a straight steerer fork to a tapered one in a 44mm headtube....all i needed was the larger external bottom cup, Hope to the rescue and although i now have a mismatched headset with a Nukeproof top/inner and a Hope bottom/outer they work flawlessly together.

However, how often do we hear of cracked hubs, disintegrated pawls, bolloxed freehubs etc on their hubs on this forum....barely a month must pass by....and yet its conveniently swept under the carpet with a cheery "i contacted Hope and they're sending me out a new one for free!"....as Northwind said, this is not a quality product but a last minute save by a company that has some decent customer service morals because lets face it their stuff isnt cheap!...if it was Superstar they'd be numerous threads on it....at least Superstar keep their prices cheap.

Anyway, back on thread. I like, have bought from and will happily by from again: Ribble, On-One, Superstar, Hope, Ragley, Nukeproof....i think thats about it, i tend to wander down to Trespass for outdoor/cycling clothing but i'm not sure if they're British or not...ditto Karrimor for rucksacks, boots and such like...i think i got about 4 years out of my last set of Karrimor walking boots, not bad for £35 and they remained entirely waterproof the whole time....finally binned them when the sole came away and none of the useless cobblers in town would touch them!

If superstar did this stuff, there'd be octopuses everywhere but people love Hope for it

DMR
Dialled
Hope

Great brands, great products.

I know there's others like Cotic/Orange/Superstar that sell good products, but the branding/marketing does not appeal.

Cotic-I'd love a Cotic Soul, been looking out for a second-hand one for ages. Lots of medium but no small frames coming up.

deviant - Member

ditto Karrimor for rucksacks, boots and such like.

I think Karrimor have been Sports Direct'd haven't they? Name bought out and applied to cheap crap.

However, how often do we hear of cracked hubs, disintegrated pawls, bolloxed freehubs etc on their hubs on this forum....barely a month must pass by....and yet its conveniently swept under the carpet with a cheery "i contacted Hope and they're sending me out a new one for free!"....as Northwind said, this is not a quality product but a last minute save by a company that has some decent customer service morals

Hope sell upwards of 50,000 hubs a year. You think they're all failing? when you make stuff, some stuff fails, even the best designed product in the world will have a few failures if enough are produced.

My marker of a quality product/company is not if I have a problem or not, but how a company deals with it. obviously if the same problem persists over and over again then it's an issue. I've never had a broken Hope part and I've used a hell of a lot of them.

Roberts, Hope, Middleburn, USE, Carradyce

I've still got a Genesis IOid and a Grapil and had an Equilibrium (that I wish I'd kept). Would have a Fortitude or Longitude if I could get away with it. I don't think Whyte make an ugly bike either.

[b]Blazin-saddles[/b] - [u]Member[/u]

Hope sell upwards of 50,000 hubs a year. You think they're all failing? when you make stuff, some stuff fails, even the best designed product in the world will have a few failures if enough are produced.

My marker of a quality product/company is not if I have a problem or not, but how a company deals with it. obviously if the same problem persists over and over again then it's an issue. I've never had a broken Hope part and I've used a hell of a lot of them.

This. The thing is, if something breaks, particularly something expensive, people are going to (quite understandably) moan to the high heavens about it. When something [i]doesn't[/i] break and just gets on with working, then we don't tend to hear about it so much. The working-perfectly components made by Hope, Shimano, Volkswagen, Apple and countless many more manufacturers vastly outnumber the faulty ones, but bad news travels faster and further than good.

I have a 16 year old Karrimor gilet, from when they made decent kit , use it every winter, zips work like new.

Blazin-saddles - Member

Hope sell upwards of 50,000 hubs a year. You think they're all failing?

Failure rate of the 12mm axle is high enough that when I phoned up for a replacement, they sent me 2 for "next time it breaks". Which is funny, but tells you all you need to know about the component. They eventually redesigned the hub internals to fix the problem, which [i]is[/i] good. But this all means that you're defending a component that the manufacturer themselves accepted was ropey.

The issue was (I am told; before my time) the hub was never designed for 12mm so all they did when maxles became a thing was put a bigger hole in an axle designed to have more metal in it. That's not bad design; it's just not design at all, it's a bodge that I might do in my garage. And how long were they on sale like that before they fixed it?

DT Swiss had the exact same problem, the difference is they fixed it literally years quicker and they didn't expect people to pay for the fix.

Travers Bikes
Wildcat
Alpkit
Superstar
On One
Howies
Troutie Lights
Brooks (Cambium)

Hope
Vulpine, not MTB but great kit
Rapha and Soho Bikes - coffee
Singletrack - amazing photos and good and sometimes great words
Four4th, just for the way they thought about a light they could make and would be great

Almost forgot, I don't own anything from Cotic but they are always totally in tune with my feelings. I was gutted when the UK manufacturing didn't work out for them. Hopefully they have ideas about how to tackle it differently.

Carbon and titanium would be good.

I guess I use (or have used) quite a lot of British brands (as long as we have a broad definition of British): Orange, Cotic, Hope, Renthal, Exposure, Lumicycle, Middleburn, Endura, Altura, Howies, Paramo (even a Brompton a Brooks saddle and some Rapha kit if you include road). But most of it wasn't because it was British, just that it was good kit that did the job and came from companies that wouldn't run away if it failed.

The only one that I'm tending to move away from is Orange, but that's really just a case of them moving away from me as they don't really make an XC mincing bike any more. It's all Enduro stuff. Can't blame them for following the market though.

I'm a big pace fan, own two rc129's and just bought a rc127, been buying there kit for over 25 years.

Same story with hope, you know if you get a problem one phone call and its sorted, must say I've never had that many issues, mostly it's a call to see what I can change to get it to be what I want it to be now.

Middleburn deserve a mention for excellent cranks, lightweight and so far no problems, uno ring is spot on.

I agree that the maxle thing was a cock up and no doubt people that bought them and failed felt disappointed but I wonder what percentage of sales the maxle version accounted for. Maybe in hindsight they should have just refused to do a maxle version.

Use to like Bird, but put off following a chat with Dave at the trailhead.

+1 for what's the story here?