New bike regrets

my current cannondale i bought becuase it was on offer – i don’t so much regret it as i love the bike and the way it rides, just wish it had more travel – it’s only 120mm front and rear and i’d like 140 – 160

For me was a Spesh Epic.

Lusted after one for ages, even had sleeples nights.
Plucked up the nuts to sell my XTC and buy one, what a let down. Rear shock was a piece of poo. Admitedly it was one of the first ones without adjustment but it really was horible to ride. It bobbed when pumping out of the saddle up hill yet went all hard-taily when you were descending down the other side.

Really put me off spesh to be honest.

Ive had a few bikes, but I have found my riding has changed so my choice of bike has altered. Bikes i used to ride would suit me less now than when I rode years ago.

I recently rode several mates bikes while mine was out of action, the ones I liked the most were Crashtestmonkeys HT Dialled thing, and the one I didnt like most was my mates 29’er. Id been led to believe it was going to ride over anything and just keep going, but in reality it was little different to an normal bike, just had wheels like flywheels and an odd geometry. Hes sold it now.

Problem with the dialled alpine is it tends to overjump doubles, eh trimix…. 8)

Oh yes !

I was more worried about having damaged your bike than not being able to breath though.

Having got the chance to recently ride a:
Cyclocross bike (made my eyeballs bounce out)
Roadie Fixie thing (scary as hell)
Orange ST4
Giant 29’er
Cotic Sole
and Crashtestmonkeys Dialled Alpine,

Its the Dialled Id buy, just seemed to egg me on to ride it faster and faster, I grinned all day even after faceplanting into a set of jumps.

In a race though the Cotic knocked 3 mins off my lap time at Bikefest, that was impressive.

I bought a Marin Wolf Ridge several years back. Test rode and was overcome by the joy of full suss. Months later I was permanently getting a sore back sue to riding like a begging dog. No amount of dicking about with the saddle/stem would solve it. Sold to a mate (who liked it!) and bought a 2nd hand Mount Vision. Loved it and rode it for 7 years until it snapped. Great XC bike. Now bought a second hand Superlight which may just be the best bike ever – fairly light, pretty tough, lots of fun 🙂

my current cannondale i bought becuase it was on offer – i don’t so much regret it as i love the bike and the way it rides, just wish it had more travel – it’s only 120mm front and rear and i’d like 140 – 160

I feel a tiny bit of buyers remorse with my current marin as I bought a 160mm model when what I really needed was more like 130-140mm. It was on very deep discount and I’d been holding off buying a bike for months with money saved up. I’d always wanted to own a ‘proper’ quadlink II so went with it and while its a great bike I’m massively overbiked and feel more than a little silly. Good fun though and its getting used.

I was about to buy a carbon nomad but don’t think I’ll bother now ,there’s a lot of climbing on the trails I do Marin/pen Mach .all the articles would have you believe there 5 stars I saving me money 🙂 🙁

Some 6 or 7 years ago I bought I Bianchi. I was returning to mountain biking after several years off and had no idea that there was a significant difference between a trail bike and an XC bike, never mind all the other genres. Anyway, it was a very Euro style XC bike with long stem, narrow bars, V brakes and heavy (and poor) Manitou 80mm forks and had a heavy discount on it.

It was horribly unstable and too heavy and I spent quite a lot of money on rigid forks, disc brakes, shorter stem and wider bars before it was a bike I actually enjoyed riding (and I mean really enjoyed), at which point I stripped it all down and built up a Ragley instead. 🙂

Gaint anthem x, sold a lovely fast riding full sus bike that had lots of character for the anthem, and I know load of people love them so not putting it down per say, but for me it was a horrible dead lifeless bike.
Got caught out by all the rave reviews and thought that it would be better than my current frame/bike, for me it certainly wasn’t. It was just ate cash and time while I tried everything I could to make it ride even slightly as well as the last bike…or any other bike I have owned.

Also regret selling my principia road frame for a crosslight, not a bad frame at all, just really can’t get on with cross bikes. I keep being tempted as I like riding the road bike on really rough roads/farm tracks e.c.t but then the cross bike never felt as fun to do this on (and not as good on road) and preferred to ride more off road trail on an xc bike.

Had a second hand Trek EX9 frame which i rode for about 3 months and then decided to single speed the spare On One I had kicking around…..guess what..never actually rode the bloody Trek again. The irony is though that I do actually regret selling the trek as I now quite fancy a FS bike again.

The worst bike though for me was the Cannondale Jekyll with lefty which I spent a load on and then couldn’t handle the constant pedal strikes and creaking which was quite embarrassing so flogged that on…..and got the on one which was definitely the best, cheapest and most fun of all the bikes i’ve had.

Thinking back I seem to remember owning a Klein Pulse which I regretted buying….looked the shizzle but had so many little specific issues such as internal cable routing which never really seated or worked well and the flaming pressed in BB gave me all sorts of grief.

Still trying to get on with my Heckler…

Still struggle with the short/tall set up.

Think I may have to just buit the bullit and sell it.

Gutted, as I built it up as a dream bike, but I guess know its too much bike for my riding.

In 1998 I bought a Klein Mantra. It was the most lethal machine to ride! It used to jack you up and out the front door at the first sign of trouble.
Nevertheless I stuck with it (big investment!) and we did some fairly epic stuff together.

Hmm probably a Trek Scratch Air 9, unlike many comments here about people hating their bikes i actually love this one. Trouble is i don’t get to ride it as much and probably shouldn’t of spent loads on a bike that only see’s occasional use :\

Ti456…never got on with it. Sold a Cotic Soda as I got convinced by reviews it had a flexy BB area. It did, but it didn’t matter, should never have sold it. Ti456..ok, but just never gave me that big cheesy grin..

Singular Swift, because as a result I don’t ride my far more expensive Pitch anywhere near enough!

Twice.
1st An Alpinestars – dreadful dead feeling bike.
2nd My first Kona Explosif was Suntour equpped. I knew as soon as I put it together, that I’d made a mistake. Thankfully working at a bike shop meant it wasn’t too painful to sell and re-buy the following year when they went back to Shimano.

Cleggy the MK2 vpp is supposed to be much better than the old MK1 but well worth a test ride, vpp are a bit like dw links in being finicky to set up and get on with.

2010 enduro. Bought as a do it all full susser. It did it all, but took the fun out of most trails. Only came alive on downhill tracks, so I sold it.

Cotic Soul just couldn’t get on with the med, should have bought large. Kinesis Virtue/Versa had one of the first, the seat tube thinness scared me, thought it would break, oh they did! On-One Inbred had very poor quality finishing, owner of company was less than helpful, Voodoo Wanga brand new and the paint was falling off, disposed of very quickly after nail varnish touch up job. Specialised Epic oh why did I bother? Lastly Singular Hummingbird, bought on a whim, lovely bike but not for me.

Had a Mount Vision, fell apart dropping off the kerb outside the shop… Headset and rear shock within 2 weeks ! Worst bike ever made ?
Probably !!!
Bought an Anthem last year, strange until i changed the stem and tyres..
loving it now !

Specialized SX Trail. My build with Totems weighed 37lbs.

It rode like shit, had all the weight of a race bike without the ploughy goodness you get with an 8+ inch travel bike and the stiffness of a dual crown with an integrated stem.

I’ll never again toy with the idea of a mini-dh bike again. 160mm bikes are mini-dh enough, anything above that you may as well get a race bike.

Cannondale bad boy 650 disc (2008) – supposed to be a great do it all urban bike. In reality this meant it did nothing well (like one of those stupid dremmel multi tools!). Mtb gearing utterly wrong for roads, geometry far too stretched out and uncomfortable for commuting, discs uneccesary for road (and stopping power no better than calipers) and skinny tyres kill your back on londons 3rd world roads. Now turned into pub bike with high riser, short on one stem and fat 2.2 halo twin rail tyres