Bad bikes and components..

bottles and bottle cages were ok in the 80s, but come on… who really uses one now!? Totaly pointless IMHO.

I do and so do quite a few other folk. It means you don’t need to carry a rucksac.

I use both.
even more so when riding up Slovenian mountains in 37C sunshine.
3 litres of water in the camelbak, 2 bottles on the bike, and still needed refills from a spring and numerous stops at cafes.

Nothing to add as particularly bad (other than my old Peugeot road bike that would eat QR axles).
I take any user review (and certain “expert” magazine reviews too!) with a pinch of salt. Everything is always the dogs danglies and cheese at the same time.

Epicyclo – Crank Bros ISIS BB? Really? Mine lasted about as long as the RaceFace ISIS. 3 rides I think.

“IMHO” goes a long way for an opinionated disclaimer. But not from someone who thinks that Calderdale is better riding than the Ranger Path….

😀 to the ranger path.

I think my Hope Mini’s are great. over 6 years of great stopping.

Race king’s are great tyres, when used in the right place.

In fact I haven’t had a truly awful bike component since rock shox indy sl’s.

The cheap wtb prowler I got from CRC didn’t work so great at the weekend but then it was the light version and the trails were a bit much for it….

the intense uzzi vpx frame i had a couple of years back was utter junk. it rode ok but was extremely badly made. hand made in the us of a? thats clearly nothing to boast about.

I’ve got a set of 2.4 mountain kings, they are not good tyres, wouldn’t say that they’re a bad tyre though, just don’t give me a lot of confidence when really pushing them.

I love my Hope brakes, just bought another set (second hand) and having set them up properly, there’s plenty of power and modulation available.

PIMPMASTERJAZZ……..Some of us on here have mates, and when you have mates and they have bikes some tend to have used Hope brakes and as im sure you will now not all bikes come with the same brakes, for example, xc bikes have diffrent Hope brakes to DH bikes and so on and on and on.
I hope i have answered in basic English so you can understand. 😉

Love my Magura forks but the remote levers are absolute bobbins.

1 Nm recommended tightening torque… not enough to hold it to the bars and any more and it breaks the clamp. 😕

hutchinson bulldog tyres *shiver*

a race king in the depths of winter would be better than one of those things

High Roller 2.1 “XCeption series” – 3 punctures (one was actually slice rather than a thorn hole – not fixable) and a pinch flat today. Now I remember why I changed to the heavier dual ply DH version a while ago!

I’ve had good experience with Continental but I’ve only used the Race King. However I think that since learning the “proper” cornering technique their side knobs probably aren’t very good at keeping grip when leaning the bike over.

Pace forks utter utter crap I foolishly had 3 sets

1 elastomer jobbies siezed up every ride
2&3 Rc 36 proclass2 and Rc 39’s needed too much maintenance to keep em working every 3 rides and strip down

Orange bikes

Clockwork now I loved that bike
P7 4 framesets returned in as many weeks the first bikes to be made with dropper seatposts
Sub5 the pivots should not rip out when riding up hill were orange interested NO

Positive shout

I do like my maverick SC32 forks brilliant design with constant wet stanction lubrication

Planet X On-One frames had 4 of em total and utter ace love em

Pace forks utter utter crap I foolishly had 3 sets

I’ve had four, when one pair (RC38) needed a strip down after a ride I called Pace and asked them about it rather than trying to deal with it myself. One week later forks came back perfect, and stayed that way for years until the bike was nicked.

RC39s and RC41s worked perfectly until on the RC41s a suspected crash put them out of whack slightly. RC39s still buttery smooth as ever. I only serviced them because I was told the seals degrade after a few years.

Sounds like you have a confrontational attitude on the phone if Orange also told you to get lost 🙂

Orange Five. Wont go up OR down a hill.

I hope i have answered in basic English so you can understand

Superb.

It does under me, quite nicely thanks 🙂

Oh, and it has Conti Speedkings on and until very recently Pace forks. however did I manage?!! 🙂

MOlegrips

I never spoke to orange personally I left warrentee issues to the dealers

🙄 sorry

funny old thing both dealers dropped orange due to bad back up service

I left warrentee issues to the dealers

Interesting. I always call the manufs directly. Maybe a lot of LBSes were being arsey to either Pace or Orange.. hmm..

That reminds me I MUST clean up lube and flog the 39’s cos they are gathering dust

Thanks for the nudge

Ooh are they 100mm?

yes

Age, general condition, model? Black or gold stanchions?

Pace frames ( old ones and crap aftersales ) / onza rip n rail tyres / newer conti tyres / x7/9 sram drivetrain / shimano middle chainrings / a few king headsets scoring my steerers ( shame as bearings amazing – hope newer ones ok )…Fox forks stanchions wearing out…. Rock shox MOCO cartridges failing…. Egg beater pedals / non square taper bbs…. oh and the hideous onza HO pedals…. older style USE seatposts and Xlite handlebars bending !

hey ho…

paul

I hope i have answered in basic English so you can understand.

You did – thanks. Next stop is using paragraphs. 😉

I am starting to think the Rockshox Reverb may enter the hall of infamy

Mine failed yesterday after about 200 miles approx and looking on MTBR it seems to be getting common

mopuntainman – I have used hope minis, mono minis, M4s, and 6 tis – all work perfectly well.

I reckon Conti road tyres are great, but their mtb tyres seem a bit…meh.

I agree with the old cliche; strong, light, cheap, pick 2. It’s why I’ve started getting more and more 2nd hand stuff. The decent kit is astronomical these days.

A mate was looking at getting a new bike to replace his 90’s rigid Kona Hahanna and Allterrain didn’t have a solid bike for under £800!? I’ve not been properly into mtb for that long, but things were quite different about 3 years ago. £600 seemed to be the threshold.

Manitou Nixon Platinum forks from a few years ago. £500 and failed straight out of the box, and repeatedly after fixing.

The ones with the Infinite(ly useless) Travel Adjust? That travelled, rather cleverly, down to the bumpstops, even when you really would rather that they stayed inflated? Yep, had some of those, and I’ll not buy Manitou again as a result.

Anything by Crank Brothers. Their stuff looks great, but after my experiences I’ll never buy anything else from them.

I’ll not bore you with tales of broken Eggbeaters……but they’re just not very long-lasting. Never again.

Specialized make some great bikes, but after replacing the pivots on my Enduro every three to four months for a couple of years was an expensive chore. The replacement 5-Spot has never needed any replacement of bushings/pivots/whatever they’re called, and that’s after 5 years. Same rider, same conditions, same casual attitude to maintenance. I’ve not bought Specialized since.

Things I love and will happily use again? Thomson, Hope, Fox….they’re all expensive, all need servicing, but have never let me down, which is why I continue to use their products.

however did I manage?!! 🙂

sometimes wonder that about my bike!

Schwalbe tyres – surprised nobody’s mentioned them yet. Thought they were the ones that supposedly shred every time they touch a stone! Or at least that’s what you might deduce reading this (and other) forum(s). Schwalbe on my Soul and Conti on the CX seem perfectly OK so far. Or do we have special stones in Germany, and German tyres are made to work with them? 😉

XT Shadow Mechs – apparently they go out of kilter after 1 ride. Dunno what I did, but after about 1000km I think I needed about 1/8th turn on the cable adjuster.

Superstar Pads – Should I brake more often? My sintered ones are hardly touched after 1000km. Apparently they shred after 1 ride, according to the general consensus of here. Maybe it’s that we have special trail dust (as well as stones) in Germany that protects brake pads?

Tubes – any brand. They will pinch flat every other ride. Not had such a flat on any of my bikes since running 700x20c tyres on the roadbike back in 1992.

All the above are “supposed” to be cheese, but seem to be pretty reliable on my bike.

Pace frames

Lol, I had one of those.. AND it had X-Lite bars, a USE seatpost, Conti tyres (occasionally) and Pace forks! And Hope brakes too!

However did I get any riding done?

(In fact that bike was superbly reliable and I really miss it 🙁 )

Specialized shoes. Well designed, looked great, worked well, but kept on falling apart while I worked as a guide.

After two pairs died in quick succession I went back to Shimano footwear.

Specialized shoes – check, two pairs.

I’m not doing very well am I? 🙂

Conti Vertigo’s – Terrible tyres, they just didn’t work at all
Old style Hope QR’s – Couldn’t get them tight, pain to undo

Hutchinson Python road tyres. Had two sets and I’ve never EVER had so many punctures. Crunch time came when the front just rolled off the rim and blew the tube out, riding along in a straight line. Never again

Crank Bros – I’ve got a set of the Iodine wheels and whilst they’re quite strong, the design means they suck mechs into the back wheel like its going out of fashion. See my 3 week old XT rear that also did my nice ceramic jockey wheels….plus an SLX, a sram XO and an XTR. For the cost in mechs I could have bought some Enve’s….

I also don’t get on with Hope’s, but thats because I HATE bleeding brakes and my mono needing constant bleeding. My mates are of the same opinion. Mind you, my new avids are much the same, but I think I’ve got a dodgy batch.

Rock Shox – I’ve never known forks to piss oil out like it. Fox for me from now on.

but thats because I HATE bleeding brakes and my mono needing constant bleeding

I’ve never bled mine. Why would air get into the system if brake fluid’s not getting out?

The only thing I have noticed with Hope is that the pads are susceptible to contamination and can’t be cleaned effectively. However that can’t be purely a Hope issue can it? Only bike I’ve had with Shimano brakes doesn’t get much use so it’s hard to compare.

my only bad experiences have been headsets 1 cheapy from modus which was a joke and replaced with an expensive raceface one which was actually even worse and silverfish wanted 30 quid for new bearings – bin
also some fsa dh cranks which flexed lots though I use their headsets on all my bikes and they’re great
I haven’t used the tech levered hopes but the older monos m4 & mini are perfect ridden all weathers UK done 3 megas and several alps trips too, bled once a year whether they needed it or not, 30 minute job

On one 456`s, Continental tyres, Manitou forks, Shimano shoes

These are from my experiences only and are not necessarily the opinion of the management

INCONTINENT ROCKSHOX ! Cheap ‘o’ rings and plastic fork internals, really? How can a company admit that some chinese bloke assembled a load of bits incorrectly but still not do a recall !
I can’t afford ’boutique bits’ so I just use midrange shimano and swap it when its broke, works fine but no pose factor

Has anyone mentioned Race Face bottom brackets?
Utter pants!! Not even cheddar cheese – more like dairy lea

Conti Mountain King 2.4s Horrendous drag on hardpack, clog up with mud. Too terrain specific and they wear very fast. Same with 2.4 supersonic Speed Kings. Super light but useless. I went back to 2.5 Syncros Point’n’Chutes.
Anything American Classic – made of cheese!

Best bike component ever? SLX cranks!

The only truly crap component I’ve bought was a Crank Bros Cobalt headset, completely dead in less than a year. Nice piece of design but what is the point if it lasts about a fifth of the time as a similarly priced Hope headset.

Probably wouldn’t buy DT Swiss rims or Sram mech again either but I wouldn’t call them crap there are just better alternatives available