Orange Sub 3. Bob city.

Specialized Stumpjumper FSR (2004 ish)

Boingy crap.

ska-49 – Member

Specialized enduro ’11, On-one SS456 and Inbred, Giant Reign ’09 & Kona Major One. Hated them with a passion.

POSTED 22 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

How can you hate an 09 reign? Mine is the most capable allround bike I’ve ever ridden and I love the thing!

Nomad mk1, my own fault for buying without trying first but was too short and never felt right

09 Meta 6. Just didn’t feel right from the first ride, shame as I really wanted to like it and it looked awesome

If I could be arsed it would be interesting to see if you guys were this damning when you sold the bikes on!!!

For me most disappointing was probably the ti456- didn’t hate it just didn’t get on with it

pop larkin, i have always been pretty open in telling folk that i think orange bikes are crap. bloke who bought mine had read on here all my condeming of them prior to buying it.
and i gave the possum to my son, he hated it too.

I’m probably going to regret this as the frame in question is on eBay…but hasn’t budged yet!

I bought a Marin Rock Springs a few years back, one of the later Quad 140 jobbies and I loved it for it’s responsiveness and chuckability, the problem was that it was too short in the frame for me (medium), so I gave it to the missus and bought a large Wolf Ridge.

I wanted to love that bike, I really did…out of the box the stem was way too long and the front of the bike felt too tall, plus the head angle was noticeably steeper than the medium version. I spent a fortune getting it to ride right, with 160mm forks, a shorter stem, wider bars and a CTD rear shock. The latter was a revelation, the rear end of the bike suddenly felt superb but always it was hampered by geometry – the top tube was an inch too short and coupled with the tall head tube it felt vague and twitchy on the descents. I never fully trusted it.

My Spesh Camber consistently out rode it on the descents, despite having 30mm less travel at either end mainly because the roomy top tube made it considerably more stable at speed.

Only two I truly hated.

Cotic Roadrat

Thorn Raven Tour

Mk.1 Nomad. Coveted them since first seeing one in Les Gets, buying used it was still the most expensive bike I’d ever bought in one go. Climbed like a dog- the bottom link compressed with every pedal stroke in the granny ring, effectively shortening the chainstays 3/4″. Taking it to Colorado for 2 weeks there was a lot of granny climbing, sold the frame shortly after coming home.

Replaced with an Alpine 160 which is a keeper.

If I could be arsed it would be interesting to see if you guys were this damning when you sold the bikes on!!!

why would we be, and wheres the dishonesty? I hated the Nomad, there was nothing wrong that was limited to my example. I love the Alpine but there’s plenty of Orange FS haters on this thread – if I bought a Five off one of them I wouldnt care whether they liked it or not, just whether I was happy with the price and condition. Actually, if they didnt like it it’d probably be less ridden and in better nick!

Had many since 1988 but the Merlin XLM with AMP forks and XTR was truly garbage nearly stopped me from riding so much for the hype eh? Sold it and got one of the first Orange Sub 5’s after having a go on the prototype I was soon back up to 3 rides a week. A brief flrt with kona dawg was very disappointing soon sold that on ebay.

Ragley Ti 20″

Never really got on with it, was hoping for a longer travel version of my Litespeed Kitsuma, but it was a serious disappointment- the rear end was so harsh and lacked the feel of the litespeed.

Strangely, as I have posted before, I tried a mates 18″ with a different set of forks (mine had Revs, his had Fox Float 32, both 140mm travel) and it was a very different beast, much more supple at both ends. Never really did work that one out

Another inbred vote …

Heavy

Dull

Long

Heavy

Lifeless

Heavy

Too stiff

Agreed with the inbred- massively dull and heavy to be anything other than a commuter.

The only bike I’ve ever disliked was a 2006 Marin attack trail. Possibly because it was my first full suss, and I didnt feel any advantage from it, plus it felt very ‘perched on top’ and heavier than the hardtail it replaced.

Taken apart,and all the parts built onto a DMR Switchback frame. Never looked back, that was a great bike!

Ti456, my worst cycling investment, tried to get on with it, just didn’t work for me

No mention of a gt I drive yet? Amazing. mine was god awful. Heavy, weird handling, odd suspension action that really seemed to suck energy out of you and the bearing needs servicing every other ride. Utter garbage.

Back in the day (1989 ish) Cinelli Machine, every Columbus tube was a different profile to ensure the (very expensive) thing rode like a girder.

More recently a meta5, heavy and lifeless thing.

And yes both buyers knew my views of the bikes 🙂

This godawful piece of shit

[url=https://flic.kr/p/dtH9kM]IMG_0341[/url] by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

No redeeming features at all.

Some disappointments- my SX Trail got moved on very fast, my Camber was just a pointless experiment in reducing travel for no benefit, my Mmmbop was too stiff and my C456 had all the build quality of a trabant. But I didn’t hate any of those.

Giant AC1. Hated it from the moment i left the showroom which was odd as the test ride was good. Kept it for a few months but we never got on so sold it on.

My Heckler, first full sus, bought it and initially loved it but gradually grew to hate it. For a bike with a decent amount of travel it was dreadful on anything steep downhill, always felt like i was about to go over the bars. Knocked my confidence a treat. Sold it to a mate who loves it and has bought another for his g/f so go figure.

No mention of a gt I drive yet? Amazing. mine was god awful. Heavy, weird handling, odd suspension action that really seemed to suck energy out of you and the bearing needs servicing every other ride. Utter garbage.

had a ’99 I Drive as an insurance replacement for an FSR. Far better than I expected it to be, i got on with it and kept it far longer than I did the Nomad!

The big I-drive bearing was fine, the main pivot (bushing) was undersized, under specced and made of cheese.

Never owned a bike I actually hated, but here’s a few I owned that fell very short of the hype…

Cotic BFe (a lot of Cotics on this thread incidentally!). A bit of a bike that didn’t know what it wanted to be, except unreasonably stiff! When the nuclear holocaust comes, along with the cockroaches, the BFe frame will be the only thing that remains. Mine was about 6th hand by the time it came to me (one of the original 853 frames, newer ones may be better but I can’t confirm), I waited patiently and eagerly to be able to build it up with the bits I wanted and… Built it, realised it weighed a tonne (despite pretty light wheels and tyres in particular), was too short and twitchy for me, but most of all was less forgiving than Ghengis Khan on a bad day! It totally didn’t suit me at all, but it did lead soon after to one of my favourite bikes to date. Think it got 4 maybe 5 outings before it got culled.

Intense Tazer FS. For what it was designed for (4X racing on bumpy tracks) it was most probably awesome. It certainly looked the part too as mine was decked out almost entirely the same as the UK Intense team bikes of a year or so prior, with Manitou Nixons, Deemax’s, Easton etc. The thing is, I am not (and was never) a 4X rider, and the bike was so focussed there was no way it could ever turn its hand to anything else! The seat angle was a joke for instance… Rode it twice I think before realising I was wasting my time.

On One Inbred 29er. Cheap as chips, but dear god the frame was heavy, and the geometry a little too out of date. I’m an avid 29er fan these days, but buying a 29er inbred in 2010 ended up putting me off 29ers for a couple of years as it felt tall, unwieldy and didn’t inspire much confidence. Fortunately I got over the experience and have since discovered a whole host of very good modern 29ers.

1997 Pro-Flex Animal. Lusted after one of these something chronic as a teenager. Then in 2001 I got offered a frame and fork as new old stock by a friends dad. In 1997 it might have been (but most probably wasn’t) cutting edge suspension design, by 2001 things had moved on somewhat. The fact it didnt have an IS disc mount became the straw that broke the camels back after the notoriously shite Magura HS33’s pissed oil for about the 3rd time in as many months, and I got rid.

2003 Airborne Lancaster Ti. Quite simply good Ti isn’t cheap, and cheap Ti isn’t good. I got this one brand new in a Halfords sale, around the time they were almost going bust on a monthly basis and all the high end bike kit got sold off never to return. It looked nice, it was light, welds looked fine etc. Dear god though it was flexy! I remember riding in the FoD one weekend, constantly worried that the rear wheel was about to overtake the front! It felt like I was Mr. Soft in the Trebor soft mints ad! Lasted about 4 rides and off it went…

Never hated, demo’d bikes that I walked away from being glad I had done the demo to find out…
Orange 5/Alpine – Just don’t get it, especially for the money
White 46 – like riding on top of the world in a really bad way
Original Kona Dawg – just so dull
Kona Coiler – like riding a DH bike up the hill then an average trail bike down them

Of the things I got the 456 is the strange one, not really sure what it’s for these days, currently sat on a shelf half built it’s probably going to end up as a commuter bike.

Stumpjumper Evo 26″ worst, Stumpjumper Evo 29″ best.

2007 Stumpy FSR elite. Replaced an Enduro under warranty as the E150 forks managed only about 1 hour between overhauls!!

The TALAS forks were awful however. Harsh and horrible. I always suspected they weren’t perfect but then I rode a mates Cube at Cwmcarn with Revs on and I was amazed at the difference. Something about the geometry kept on wanting (and did several times) throw me over the front. I wasn’t alone in feeling that amongst riders of similar FSRs. Rear Triad shock not great either.

Some bloke nicked it pretending to be an ebay buyer. Did me a favour as the insurance replacement was an Orange 5 which I still ride today and love.

Excellent thread, some quite telling trends coming out “456TiFSR”

Anyway, mine was a Kona Kula about 5 years ago. I’d had a Kona Muni Mula from 1995 and it was utterly amazing. So light, responsive and just plain excellent. But I’d spent over a grand fixing it up over the years and it didn’t have disk brake mounts so I decided to spend the same cash £900->£600 on the up to date Kona model.

Utter piece of shit. So heavy and lifeless. Gears didn’t work well. Even the Deore disk brakes happened to be the only shit Deore brake Shimano has produced in years. I don’t know much about bikes but was amazed that one company could build such an awful bike 15 years after building such an amazing one. Progress huh.

In the end I bought an A2Z for the Muni Mul and built it back up again. Th ekula is in pieces in the garage. Didn’t even have the heart to sell it even though it was pretty much mint condition.

Made me realise that spec and components mean absolutely nothing on paper. Every time I see people posting links to cheap bikes on paulscycles it makes me cringe. Don’t buy without riding it.

Two bikes that I originally loved but quickly hated:

Specialized FSR XC Expert ’10 – was my first decent full suss and initially it was brilliant. I could cover more miles in a day than ever before and my back was not in agony! Very quickly reached the limits of it though, no good over small jumps or drops and the geometry made it very twitchy pointing slightly down. Had a big accident (not the bike’s fault, unexpected obstacle on a small jump) and after that I never got on with it. Final straw was when it randomly decided to eject me off it twice in about 5 minutes along a towpath!! Bought a 5 to replace it and never looked at it since. Still have the frame mind.

GT Avalanche Expert ’09 – cheap hardtail I bought as a spare bike. Great fun initially but quickly realised it was very short in the top tube. Meant I had to put the seat way back to avoid going over the bars, just never really gelled with it after the initial few weeks. Everything worked really well on it, no complaints about the spec, just missed that bit of magic. Sad to see it go.

Brodie Holeshot Ti:

I bought it to replace a tired Orange 5 and get back to basics. On paper it had the same geo with a slacker HA. It was also the first bike I built in swapping all of the parts over from the 5.

The cable stops were too short and tight making cabling a pain. That started it. I didn’t have the funds for a dropper at the time and due to frame stiffness I had a non QR seat collar which meant an Allen key every time I wanted to drop/raise my post.

Mainly though it felt too small. It was a 4X bike being asked to perform trail riding duties with me plonked ‘on top’. A few months in on one of the longer routes that required lots of seat post tinkering followed by a decent road stretch to link up the next part of the trails I knew it had to go. I spent more time grumbling and getting angrier on and with the bike instead of enjoying being out riding.

Wrong tool for the job. Moved on.

Thread turned out a lot more interesting than I first expected.

Inbred seems a common theme I have to say !

Mondraker Dune
Thank god that’s gone

Looked lovely and very light but made without the use of a tape measure and with pivots that would be too weak for a pair of scissors. Also too short.

postierich – Member
Whyte 46 £2600 of awfulness got suckered in with reviews it wanted to kill me on the downs!
I can’t actually believe this but I had that bike also! Was an insurance replacement for my stolen Spesh Enduro in 2005!
And I can attest to it trying to kill me at every opportunity whilst riding in Les Arcs.! however, you can’t argue with the value at £2600. Full XT, Carbon Easton bars, Hope Hubs, Expensive but life threatening Maverick forks….
You would struggle to get most companies base models for that cash now in 2014…..

Spent most of the time “on” it at that awful tipping point. You know the one where you realise you’re weight is too far forward, the world goes into slo-mo and you star to look for a soft landing spot as you fly over the bars. Dreadful, horrible, hateful thing. All the paint fell off too

Specialized s-works epic with terralogic forks , horrible twitchy thing to ride .
Dialed Bikes Prince Albert , very very hard backend .

Hated my 456 summer season. Hated it. Really really hated it.

On One Whippet – stiff in the wrong places (kicks you up the arse), flexy in the wrong places (noodles a fair bit). It’s still built up as an SS, but I haven’t used it in so long on accoount of hating the thing, that the headset’s seized completely solid.

Merlin Maven Road bike – flexy, heavy and harsh. How did they manage that? Oh yeah, by making it dirt cheap. I’ve taught myself to put up with it though, by putting in well over 4000km on it this year. But for anything longer than 100km I’d rather ride my old fixie converted Raleigh – shows how shit the Merlin really is.

Titus Rockstar, heavy unresponsive POS, That was 3 years ago, I’ve not ridden a MTB since.

To think, I chopped in a lovely Yeti 575 to get it too 😕

Specialized Hardrock. Bought when I moved to North Yorks and the biking obsession started to bite. Only bike I have bought from an LBS and therefore had help/advice finding the right size.

Was the wrong size and too big for me. For the money it was a good deal but I just couldn’t get on with it and it might have put me off. Got replaced with one of the original 456 complete bikes which was the right size and after that nothing to hate.

I really really want to love my Turner Sultan but for some reason, the DW link just doesn’t function correctly on the XL frame. It pedals like a DH bike.

Spesh tricross
White Preston 4

Airnimal chameleon – I thought it would do everything a road bike would do but would fold for work.
I found it heavy with twitchy steering, a horribly harsh ride and it didn’t fold that easy.
I should have bought either a proper folder or a real road bike.
Both maybe

Klein Mantra.

Wanted one for ages, bought an immaculate one about 5 years old second hand.

Whenever you rode it through a whoop it was terrifying – the rear suspension basically dictated the head angle, so through a compression it would go steep/shallow/steep etc… Over drops it was even worse – the front compressed, the rear extended, head angle went very steep and weight went very forwards.

Felt horrible. Quickly sold.

Hora’s old Heckler. Bought it thinking it’d be like my (brilliant) Chameleon but faster through the rough stuff. Felt like the Chameleon with a snapped back end. The bike Santa Cruz built which was actually like a full sus Chameleon was the Blur 4X which I bought further down the line.