Have you ever just 'not got on' with a bike?

Bit like you can do with some people…
My Soul is ace, always feels great, my summer road bike, ditto.
My winter road bike, I’m always fiddling with the position but it’s lovely to ride.

The commuter I bought in February I’ve just never been comfortable on – feels ponderous and isn’t much fun to ride… I rode in on my winter bike today instead and the ride was so much more enjoyable…

I’ve decided the commuter has to go – prob going to replace it with a singlespeed for simplicity…

Yep, a Spesh Tricross – weighed a ton (literally, 1000kg) and the geometry was ridiculous, head tube was 3 miles long. Also never liked my 2001 S-Works FSR as much as I’d planned. It was flexy and bobbed lots, just never felt right.

Never clicked with my 456summerseason… It’s just a bit shit.

many many times….. 😆

3 x fisher 29ers
1 x tricross
1 x nicolai freeride thing
2 x cove stiffees
1 x revolution tourer

and there are more.

Had a Spesh FSR XC…Couldnt get on with it at all

Trek Top Fuel 69er – I always wanted one, bought a s/h one off here.
A nice bike, I’ve spent a fair bit on it too, but every time I get out on it I always end up wishing I’d taken something else.
I can’t explain why but it just doesn’t do it for me – it’s my first (and only F/S) and maybe I just prefer hardtails/rigid.

Yeah a Trek Y5, fugly, wobbly, flexy POS, it was one of those bikes I thought I needed, thought it would help me ride longer and harder, simple fact of truth it made me ride less and shorter 😈

Ragley Piglet. Geometry just didn’t work for me. My thoughts on it were that the angles probably worked well on the 16″, but not on the 20″, where the head angle was so slack that it felt like a chopper and just wandered all over the trail.

The bloke I sold it to reckoned it was the best bike he’d ever had.

I have to say that I’ve never owned a bike that felt as ‘right’ as my present (22″ Kona Unit 29er HT). I’m in no rush to get rid of it.

I tried an On One summer season but it just felt dead, and very heavy! I’ve also got a Kaffenback that I just can’t seem to get quite right.
I’ve had Scandals in 26″ + 29er and both were great.

Any of the 3 Konas I’ve ridden. Just seemed too short and upright to me, obviously didn’t fit with my size and build.

meta 5.5. seat angle was too slack.

It was built fairly heavy but it just didn’t seem to climb well at all – unless it was stupidly steep where it would dig in a find traction when others were struggling.

head tube was 3 miles long.

some road bikes are ridiculous bars can’t go below the seat height 😯

Orange Clockwork reissue from a few years back. It looked brilliant but was stupidly heavy, unwieldy and was only a joy to ride once. Could probably have set it up better but couldn’t get past the weight issue so sold it on.

Spesh SX trail, I think it was a bit big for me for the style of riding I was using it for. Sold it after 14 months, the shortest time I’ve kept a bike.

Sunn revolt gt was great fun but couldnt stay the right way up on it im sure i crashed every day on it.

06 S-Works Enduro, although I reckon it was under-sized (large, but small based upon my current large frame) for me.

And where is Hora when we need him, although probably still assembling his list. 🙂

Kona Expolsiv

Wanted very much to like it, wasn’t the bike I thought it was

B r nah, it’s a short list.

‘all of them, except the blur 4x’

Bought a 2001 FSR when I didn’t really know what I wanted/needed. It felt good to me at the time and was fine for a while.
But the more technical riding I did the more I struggled with it. Always felt a bit too ‘weight forward’ and the rear shock always felt on a knife edge between being too hard and ‘kicking back’ or too soft and ploughing through it’s travel.

Used to spend a lot of my time going over the bars on that bike!

My first FS bike, a year 2000 Intense Tracer. I blew loads of cash on it, kept it pretty light and it looked brilliant. But I always felt that I was perched on top of it, the suspension (or rather, my setup of the suspension) wasn’t up to much and I had more silly, low speed offs riding that bike than any other. If I had it all over again I would have run more sag and fitted a shorter stem and more forgiving forks (80mm travel was a big deal then). I was glad to see the back of it.

Never really like my inbred, it just feels lifeless so has been demoted to rack and pannier shopping duties.

passtherizla – Member
Never clicked with my 456summerseason… It’s just a bit shit.

Fixed it for me. BFe is much much better.

I had a ’97 Zaskar a couple of years ago and it was crap at everything apart from making me dislike cycling.

Yep, a Cannondale Rush. Just couldnt explain why i could never go as fast on it. It was the last year they made them in the USA, and i can see why they moved to taiwan, it was very badly made.

Ragley Piglet for me.

18″ frame and it felt like a boat on the flat and XC with only 115mm travel forks.

Good downhill but a pain anywhere else.

Have now got a 140mm forked C456 so should also be a boat but feels a lot better than the Piglet.

Spesh FSR. Hated the thing. I’ve tried a Camber and detested that too (in fact the only bike I’ve tried that I didn’t enjoy riding).

the wife’s stumpjumper fsr, wallowy old thing yet she absolutely loves it 😕

2005 Specialized Stumpy 120 fsr.

Giant trance 29er, was a boat, a concrete boat. Also, it kept wanting to fold in half around the headtube.

on-one 456 just a cheap and nasty piece of crap, no redeeming features at all.

SC heckler, angles were too steep and the top tube too short, but very well made. It was my first full suss and quite early after I got into mountain biking, so it was a learning experience about what would work for me.

There’s a disarming number of comments about Brant keepin-it-real Richards’ various offerings here on this thread… 😯

Never liked my heckler, went from a patriot 66 to the heckler, 18 months hating it, bought a 5 frame, back to loving mtb.

There’s a disarming number of comments about Brant keepin-it-real Richards’ various offerings here on this thread…

I think they are cheap collections of gas pipe. You get what you pay for. i’ve built a couple for people and they make great cheap pub/beater bikes, and i suppose if you’ve never had anything else then they are ok.

There’s a disarming number of comments about Brant keepin-it-real Richards’ various offerings here on this thread…

Snobs, the lot of ’em.

Lots of specializeds too mind…

Yup. Built up a Ragley mmmBop frame (yet another Brant offering I believe) as a bit of a play bike experiment (well it was only a 100 quid for the frame.) Heavyish Flow wheelset and a big 160 Lyrik fork. It was rubbish and I hated it. Swapped the wheels for some lighter Crests, put a RS Rev fork on it at 130, changed the 710mm bars for some 680mm carbon bars, swapped the stem up from 50 to 70, 1×10 drivetrain, a smidge under 25lbs, and now it’s a properly awesome trail bike! Beats me up a bit but it’s fast and very involving. Put all the other stuff on a big bouncy bike where they should have been all along.

Quick edit… I did buy the above stuff with the intention of then getting a Soul. I think there was a stock issue so thought as I had the parts I’d stick it on the mmmBop whilst I waited for stock to come in. Was such a good ride I never did bother getting the Soul.

I guess if there’s a lesson to be learnt it’s that a frame may well suit one build more than another, and if you try and build it up to be something it’s not then it may well be rubbish. OnOne do tend to sell bikes that cover a broad spectrum of setup, frames like the 456 for example, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be good for you at the extreme ends of that scale.

On One Whippet. Hated every mile on it and got rid of it after less than 200 miles.

There’s a disarming number of comments about Brant keepin-it-real Richards’ various offerings here on this thread…

Snobs, the lot of ’em.

The price on one sell their steel frames for does not buy you a decent frame. It buys you a utilitarian work horse that is heavy, dull and un inspiring. These are suitable for lots of applications, but i dont believe quality mountain biking is one of them. Just my opinion, i hope thats not too snobbish for ya’ 😉

My Charge Tap commuter is just a bit to draggy to be fun. I’m planning to change the wheelset, adapt the sliding dropouts with a doofer and go 1×8. Just dumping the Nexus should make it much for enjoyable.

Ibis Mojo is the one I’ve wanted to like the most, yet got on with the least. The sizing is just madness, an XL Mojo has a similar wheelbase to a Medium Stumpjumper FSR. I was somehow in a position where I was over the front downhill, yet somehow off the back uphill and completely unable to do tight switchbacks on it.

Loving the amount of Tricrosses and Stumpy FSRs in here 🙂 Ride both at the moment and love them!

Marin full suss jobbo with the quad link. Mount vision thingy…mags raved about how good it was won best bike in some publication. ..bloody hated it…just could not not get on with it all. (May well be that I have an allergy to common though as I replaced it with lovely niche and sun came out, birds started singing and everyfink) may also just be that it was cack!

Wasn’t a massive fan of the five either. The sinister and ellsworth widdled all over it on the ups and the massive rocky downs..nice bike, can see why some folks like them..just not for me at all.

yep – A 2006 spesh FSR Stumpjumper.
I just hated that dull POS from the 1st ride (i’ll never buy another bike on spec/cost alone)

the other was a 2012 Giant TCR Advance carbon SL roadbike.
I just didn’t gel with that bike at all, could never get that one spot on for fit or comfort.