Finally getting the feel for and enjoying riding my new soul, and for a while I really did think I’d made a huge mistake!

So I was thinking, you know how when someone asks the classic ‘what bike…?’ question, most people seem to reply with what they’re riding. I wondered if anyone has made a big purchase and really real disliked it? I mean, you’ve spent £100’s or £1000’s on so you’re almost determined to like it, no matter what, but has anyone just thought “this was a huge waste of money and a massive mistake?

Hora to the thread…

My LBS owner had a Giant Defy for a while, he really really disliked that I think. Too rattly with the internal routing.

Yup. I bought a GT i-Drive (was tied into Halfords by insurance) and hated it. It allowed me to jump a bit further than my hardtail but it felt like riding a sofa. Eventually some thieving bastard nicked it and I got something half decent.

Funnily enough yep. My Cotic soul.

I have an El Mariachi that does everything I ask it to, but I feel no connection to it. My head says “keep it”, my heart says “sell it”. Is that close enough?

Weird. Soul for me too. Persisted with it for a couple of years, bought a Scandal to check out the 29er thing and sold the Cotic immediately thereafter.

Bought one of the early Marin Mount Visions back in the late 90’s – probably 98. Went downhill well, but bounced like a pogo stick everywhere else. Only rode it for a few months before going back to a hardtail.

Yup, my Heckler… Tried everything to love it, but it just wasn’t to be..
Was built up with a dream spec, but just never got on with it.
I should’ve sold it long before I did.

got a dialled prince albert, rode it once hated it so much I sold it after the 1st ride and bought another 456.

funnily enough I loved the love hate I got.

Heckler5. Never got on with it. The guy I sold it to still loves it. Different folks, different strokes.

You’re not trying hard enough. You can hate it without even riding it. Maybe even before it’s been delivered! 😉

Mongoose teocali super – hated it from the moment I rode it. An impulse online purchase as it was massively reduced and the price was less than I could get breaking it for parts.

Hated the suspension action, the weird moving bottom bracket, the geometry was wrong. Instead bought a Nicolai helius frame and transferred the parts over. Still got the helius cc and love it.

Did not get on with a Nukeproof Mega I bought. Not totally sure why, longer back end than I was used to? Dunno. Just didn’t feel quite right.

Ti456, blooming hated it, just couldn’t get it to work for me, sold it, got a Helius cc.

Yep, bought a Cotic Roadrat, all rat and cock-all road. Got it ’cause I’d loved my Soul right from the off, and was loving my Soda because it hadn’t yet cracked in a quite inexplicable way. Built it up, rode it a few times but couldn’t wait to get rid because it just felt so wrong. Went back to a bike that was actually good on the road. Luckily the STW new product BS (aware of the irony!) Was still in full flow so I didn’t take a bath on the resale.

Cove hustler for me.
Bought it as I broke my Meta and couldn’t afford something better (second hand purchase).
Never could get happy with the suspension or feel. Sold it to a mate and he loves it.
Much happier on my Bandit

Meta 5 and a Marin Attack trail. Disliked both for different reasons.

Would gladly have back the rest of the bikes I’ve had over the years though.

Another vote for my Dialled Bikes Prince Albert, I sold a Saracen Zen as this was supposed to be better and really didn’t get on with it!

heckler, was far too low at the front.
Nicolai helious fr, far too much bike for me
3 x fisher 29ers, all too long in the frame
cannondale tourer, stiffer than a stiffee
2 x cove stiffees, far too stiff
fisher fat possum, flexible noodly rubbish

I could go on.

I never hated it, but never got on with an SX trail, rode it about 4 times in anger, sold it pretty quickly.

Another Helius mention – I didn’t like mine at all when I first built it. Took loads of tweaking to make it right but now love it.

scotroutes – Member
I have an El Mariachi that does everything I ask it to, but I feel no connection to it.

I have a singlepeed rigid mariachi that Ive been bimbling around the autumn woods on and I love it.

On the other hand I hated my Titus FTMc from the first, as much as I loved its predecessor Motolite 🙂

I had a Scott Scale a few years back, I sat on it in the shop and it felt just like my Orange P7 which I really like. I new after the first technical ride I made a mistake. I tried adjusting the forks and changing the seat, bars and stem but I could never get happy with it. The head tube cracked when just out of warranty, I had all parts swapped onto a Kinesis xcthree and I started riding like I used to.

My riding had actually deteriorated as I didn’t get the feel of the bike and I found myself getting off for some techy bits. I would never have done that before!!

Ibis Mojo – the first one, after the SS.

I was the envy of my friends but I just didnt like the ride, totally unforgiving.

Turner 5spot dw (2009). Just couldn’t get to grips with it – not slack enough head tube to be a proper silly bike downhill but too short in the top tube, too heavy and too much travel to feel very xc like. Felt like a bimbling bike for a middle aged tubby bloke and I just wasn’t ready to admit I was on my way to that.

Intense traser 2, could never put my finger on it but never really liked it, releaved when the swing arm broke, still hangs in the garage waiting for the price of scrap to go up!

Pace Rc305 – looked like it’d be a similar ride to a Chameleon, which I loved. It wan’t. All the disadvantages, with none of the charm or finesse. The frames still hung up in the shed

SX Trail.

I hated it, I really really hated it. It wasn’t a downhill bike but it was equipped with a coil shock and weighed 36lbs. So it weighed as much as a downhill bike but didn’t perform like one. To top that the DHX5 was a pile of crap (I actually prefer my Pushed Monarch), it had no rear end feel. It pedalled like a mammoth stuck in quick sand. Etc etc etc ad nauseum.

Did I say I hated it?

Merlin Rock Lobster 853. Loved the paint colour, the details, the light weight and springyness.

I bought a 17″, should have bought a 19″. So along with it being too short it was also to steep and a ride characteristic best described as ‘unfriendly’.

My SX Trail too, it was pish. Pedalled like a downhill bike, descended like a trailbike, worst of both worlds. Maybe it was good in 2006, I dunno.

I never got on with my Scandal,mostly because I believed it when they said it’d work well with a 130mm fork. I tolerated it for a while, then one day I rode a Soul and that was game over. Shame as I’ve ridden a proper xc-built one since and it was mint, but mine just rode like any other 100mm bike with a long fork stuck in it would.

Wouldn’t say I hated it, but the one I expected most from and felt delivered the least (so sold it fairly quickly) was a Cotic BFe. Nothing to do with the geometry either I might add (though at 5ft 10 I really should have got a Medium, not a small) which was pretty spot on with a 120mm fork (though BB could have been perhaps a tad lower still). It was all to do with the fact that the frame was the most rigid, lifeless, hunk of steel I’ve ever slung my leg over!

Perhaps not helped by the fact I fitted it with Saint Cranks, Thomson Post, Wide/Stiff wheels, a 50mm stem etc. I’d have been far better off with a Soul with a much lighter build I think…

Did anyone buy one and hated it to begin, before loving it? I’ve liked my bikes, I suppose I clearly havnt had enough of them!

Like someone else on here i made the mistake of buying an early Marin Mount Vision, t’was a 1997 Mount Vision Pro, fully blinged up with top end kit but i managed 65 miles on it before i realised it was a bag of bouncy marketing shite and sold it to a mate, i went back to my 1994 Indian Fire Trail wi rigid forks running 1×8 with a home made chain device (lathe turned delrin rollers) and that lasted me till 2004.

Not been on a FS since despite selling/servicing them in the shop (zesty’s/mojo’s etc) and i have absolutely zero desire to ride one, in fact i plan to build up a steel rigid 1×10 when i get my broken/soon to be repaired Soulcraft back from Ben at Kinetics.

For my type of riding i just prefer something simple, perhaps i’m a bimbler at heart.

Despite everyones love for them, it took a hell of a lot of tweaking to get my Kona Lava Dome riding anything like when I bought it in ’97.

Narrow bars and low front end had me falling off on flat singletrack

thegnarlycenturion – Member

Did anyone buy one and hated it to begin, before loving it?

It took me ages to get properly into my Hemlock… Changes of forks, changes of parts, it always felt like it should be better than it was. Finally got it all sorted and love it (literally) to bits now but it was a bit shaky.

Rather pleasingly, none of my planned 2014 purchases are on this list 😀

I cracked a 1997 cindercone in early 2000. they, and it pains me to relive this, gave me a 2000 aluminium thing. It was night and day (day = awesome, night = **** shit)

If only I knew about framebuilders and repairs. foolish younger version of me.

Stumpy Evo 26″. Not even 5% the bike the 29″ is.

I bought a Trek 8500 a few years back as I fancied an XC bike, it fitted well and rode ok on smooth singletrack but it was it was horrendous as soon as it got rough. I hated that bike.