Bike Aesthetics

Funny how the only person who likes the Ellsworth is the only one who had a previous positive experience with the brand

FTFY

After some consideration I have to say, my missus’s opinion notwithstanding, that whilst the Ellsworth looks like a massive rocker link with a bike attached as an afterthought, the Intense looks like a Specialized. So on balance I think I’d rather look at the Ellsworth; whilst it’s not appealing at least it’s interesting.

i cant see past the pathetic weedy, what is that a 26t, chainring on the intense.

to those who think its ‘purposeful’ you should be ashamed.

if i had to pick one, bloody hell its close, but i might plumb for the intense and fix it so its rideable. but if i only had those two, i would seriously consider a road bike.

Wrecker, don’t be a knobend. Yes the bike industry is wierd little clique and tony ellseorth is reputedly a bit of a cock and in the early days his rep for being a bit of an abrasive shit also affected yhe rep of the company. Yet they manufacture using alternative energy source, produce their kit in as environmentally responsible way as a manufacturer can and make some fantastic bikes. Some of the early problems eith rocker links cracking was down to trying to get stuff as light as possible, but rockers were replaced f.o.c without quibble on early bikes. A few of the early truths had issues with seat tubes failing, again a combination of light ad possible tubing and people sticking a long layback seatpost in rather than an inline like the owner’s documents tell you to. So yes in some cases there will be unhappy fools who broke their bike and got told to cock off as it was their fault. With reagrds to ride quality, guys like steve worland bloody loved it and he wasn’t given to talking bollocks ir bigging up bikes for the sake of it. Finally, freeborn the uk agent are top lads to deal with. So if you dont like the look of the elli, fair enough, but dont just regurgitate tired old internet forum crap as gospel without experience. For the record, ive also ownned an intense, nice bike, crap frame alignment, poor customer service in my personal experience.

Sod what they look like. Which rides better and suits your riding style is what matters

intense is beautiful

ellsworth is absolutely shocking, like some one else has said its like 2 bikes mashed together

don’t mind the swoopy front end end and curves, but that rocker on the back is absolutely one of the most disgusting designs ive ever seen, it looks like a kona from about 10 years ago (which were never pleasing on the eye!)

intense is very very nice (very spesh as someone mentioned), but that’s no bad thing

dare I say it but id almost be embarrassed to be seen riding on that ellsworth

danrandon – Member 
Sod what they look like. Which rides better and suits your riding style is what matters

Except in a thread discussing aesthetics maybe?…
Is everything you have utterly useful with no consideration to how it looks?

We’ve had plenty of good examples in history where function as the only consideration for things just doesn’t work. We aren’t machines, we appreciate beautiful things and how things look affect pretty much everything we desire (including other humans…)

That Ellsworth may be the best performing bicycle ever made, but if it’s utterly uncompromisingly excruciatingly hideous, a complete mish mash of ideas, forms and style then very few people will desire it.

Let’s not pretend that how it looks hasn’t been considered either. It obviously has. It’s just that, they got it wrong….very, very, very wrong.

Design is an evolution. It’s quite rare that something truly radical looking comes along. It may share similar lines to the latest Trek, or Spesh but what should it look like to be different for the sake of it?
It’s form reflects current technologies. Most manufacturers are doing things with carbon and they will tend to share similar traits due to what can currently be done with that material and the technology used to fashion it.

I think a lot of things at the top end of production can look similar. Cars, kayaks, food processors, bicycles… It’s often because they’re optimised.

That Ellsworth is optimised for ugliness… 😀

I prefer the look of the Intense, but it’s not astonishingly appealing . Those long chain stays for those cartwhee er 29″ wheels just look wrong despite obviously needing to accommodate the wheel.

I prefer the front triangle on the Ellsworth but the linkage and rear triangle look awful, so overall the Intense is more aesthetically pleasing.

Elsworth looks crap but why does that matter. I remember when I saw my first impezza wrx with its functional so ugly it would still be single in a room single IT engineers. However when you did pick it up…