Love: Hope, great service, long lasting parts, fitted to all my bikes.

Hate: Hayes brakes, for a mechanic bleeding and servicing is a pig, and they only feel wooden after that, especially the 9 and sole.

Love: On One, it’s inexpensive, does what it says on the tin.

Hate: Still not enough women’s products around. Trying to demo Women’s bikes or small mens for that matter is difficult.

I’ll add a +1 for Hope, had several excellent experiences with them. I’ll throw in a +1 for Cotic too, delighted with my Soul and Roadrat –

And a -1 for those Giro gloves, as someone said above, made of tissue paper. Shite product.

But my own choice would be Lapierre. They’ve had a fair bit of criticism, much of it justified, but my Spicy is the best bike I’ve owned – and the attention to detail on it would put a lot of brands to shame. The cable routing is a work of art, and the bike comes already taped on the downtube too – little touched, that elevate what’s already a very good bike. No doubt someone will chime in with a frame cracking issue – all I’d say to that is there are two was of dealing with those problems. Trek’s response to some Remedy frames failing was to reduce the warranty on the swingarm to two years, reduce the fork travel to 150, and market the bike differently. Lapierre’s was to increase the warranty (front and rear) to five years, and vastly improve their warranty service. Good brand, going about things the right way.

LOVE; Fox clothing i have been drawn to it for as long as i remember, i used to wear it the years i raced moto cross, and i still wear it now, it allways fits right is allways comfortable and just never seems to wear out.

HATE; Microsoft its just so poo, you have to be an absolute nerd to achieve anything with it and all the people that know how group together and snigger like supierior beings, when theyre not they just have spent too much time in front of their screens jerking off and learning how to erase their history correctly. Oh and the fact that microsoft seem to constantly be releasing “new features” and bragging about them when apple have had them for years. 😮

LOVE: Mondraker for making my Dune, which I think I’m in love with. Such an amazing and underrated bike. If they could just invest in a few pots of threadlock I reckon they’d have it cracked.

HATE: Not the time of year for hating things, but I’m not impressed with RockShox for changing all the names of their fork models for the third year running and seemingly dropping 20mm axles on the Rev.

Love: Another for Hope stuff here. It’s pretty and works most of the time. If it doesn’t, you can find the spares you need anywhere. Rockshox is also high on my love list too for the fact that they seem to go on and on with minimal fettling. My Lizard Skins Charger grips are ace too.

Hate: Too strong a word perhaps, but there is a special place in purgatory for the creators of ITunes. Anything from Raceface with splines or bearings is best avoided IMHO, like Shimano chains or expensive gloves that give up and die after the third ride.

Love:
Singular. (Not in a dodgy way, just for saving me the non-inconsiderable trouble of fabricating frames pretty much exactly like those I’d make for myself, were I were to build frames).

Hate:
Hate costs effort, and it seems odd to waste time / effort on it so I only go so far as being indifferent about things, which requires no effort at all, and makes for a very long list of (subjectively) mediocre products.

It is annoying that you can’t get exactly what you want sometimes; that’s not through a sense of ‘entitlement’ either, it’s just that some stuff simply isn’t made, and there’s only so much you can make for yourself.

(Actually I do hate, and it’s a cruel, slow, intense and viscous hatred, but it’s nothing to do with cycling). 😉

“viscous”

What, thick and pours like treacle? 😛

“viscous”

What, thick and pours like treacle?

Absolutely (although I was thinking about something more like ooh, I dunno, say … boiling oil). 😯

chakaping – Member

HATE: Not the time of year for hating things, but I’m not impressed with RockShox for changing all the names of their fork models for the third year running and seemingly dropping 20mm axles on the Rev.

They still make the 20mm Revs, but I don’t think the distributors- Fishers?- are importing them.

Love: Singular, one man’s guts and vision to go it alone and produce outstanding kit.
Hate: On-One…

Love:
Hope, for truly outstanding customer service. Fizik, for making excellent saddles and great customer service when two of them broke.

Hate:
Rapha. Clothing that is overpriced and so pretentious. The behaviour of their sponsored riders at SSCX was abominable too.

Found something I hate. Crank Brothers. Kit looks awesome, then the pedals die in 3 months and the headsets rust after a month. Any of their stuff without bearings might be good. Not going to try though.

Love: DMR and NS Bikes because they have roots in dirt jumping which means they make bikes that are fun to ride, rather than super slack/long/low geometry that makes the ride less involving.

Hate: Nothing really, apart from whoever prices petrol as it means I can’t afford to drive anywhere good to ride any more.

Found something I hate. Crank Brothers. Kit looks awesome, then the pedals die in 3 months and the headsets rust after a month. Any of their stuff without bearings might be good. Not going to try though.

Read my previous post – Crank Bros actively seek out shonkiness, everything they make is terminally unreliable. If they made cars, they would be 80s Ladas. Or Polski Fiats. If they made motorcycle electrics, they would be 90s Ducatis. If they made a vegetable it would be celery. And if they made pedals, they would be Eggbeat… oh, hang on :-/

Love: Marmot. Such quality stuff. When faced between buying oil or a triclimate parka, why would you want heating?

Hate: Specialized. Does this need to be defended?

Love: Camelbak for the new bladder,so much easier to use.

Hate: When injury forces a lay-off from biking.

Love – Cotic. Amazing service. When my Soul dies (the bike, not my actual soul) I’ll buy another one. Enough said.

Dislike – nothing bike-wise, it’s all good.

Love – Hope for there customer service and outstanding availability of spares, i also admire the fact that they still manufacture in house. Quick releases are the only bad hope product i’ve had.

Hate – too strong a word but i’m not a fan of Crank Bros, from my admittedly limited experience of there products i feel they should spend more time actually making the product work and less time making it look nice.

oh dear lots of Orange haters out there!
I ride an Orange and wouldn’t describe myself as a ‘Charlie Uniform November Tangos’ in fact i’m quite the opposite, Peace and Love.

Love: supporting British design and manufacture, Hope, Orange.
Hate: haters

Another hate… Gore. No, wait, hear me out! I’m sure 99% of their stuff is really good, but their waterproof socks are so unfathomably awful, it drags the entire company down into hell. It’s great that they’ll employ people with disabilities but giving the job of sock design to a man who must have been born without feet was a mistake.

Love: singular, hope, cotic and halo. You can tell when stuff is made with love.

Hate: nothing at all. Crank bros minipump comes close though

yep ride an orange as well [amongst others] – no idea why they get so much hatred tbh – over priced but what MTB kit i snot ?

Junk, I think you will found that the hate it geared towards those who usually own them. and the lack of terrain the mega bike sees. Maybe the mudgauards, waterbottle, under the seat pouch, and bar ends, too.. but it’s your bike. Do with it as you please. 😛
we’re all just a bunch of elitist snobs, us cyclists.

Love: Stanton Bikes. Such solid men selling a solid product.
Hate: Those sub companies that do all the DVLAs fining dirty work. Why do you exist?