What bike brands you are loyal to?

I was thinking about this the other day and I am pretty loyal to certain brands for different bits of kit. Once I find something that works and lasts, I rarely bother looking elsewhere. A few of mine:

Hope (hubs)
Rockshox + Fox (shocks and forks)
Shimano (groupset and shoes)
Mavic (rims)
Maxxis + bontrager (tyres)
Troy Lee (hoodies and DH gear)
Renthal (bars and chainrings)

What brands are you loyal to and why?

Cinelli road gear. It looks beautiful, the first road bike I ever bought was a Cinelli and they have a real sense of fun about the company. Never seem to take things too seriously, and still produce really top notch kit.

Does not compute – surely it’s a case of appraising the best technology/price/service/fitness on a case by case basis?

Stella Artois. Why? WTF’s it got to do with you

OUTSIDE NOW!!!!

I’m not particularly loyal to any brand.

For a lot of purchases it comes down to what’s available at the best price at the time.

My main criteria is that it’s a brand I’ve heard of and has a generally good reputation, or at least the item I’m buying has a good reputation even if the brand overall isn’t fantastic.

None of them. Same with food, drink, music, books, tech, no matter what the brand if it’s shite I won’t buy it

Shimano brakes, fsa headsets

Fox
Kona
Hope
Mavic
Easton
Shimano

Shimano brakes

Pretty sure these will be added, once my avid/formuala’s die.

Canondale & Kona bikes, Hope products.
Used to be Specialized but they lost their way (IMHO)

Would have said not fussy and willing to go for what ever, then thought about and a pattern does emerge, still a bit of a mix:
Hope Hubs on most bikes
Shimano on all bikes
Avids on nearly all bikes
More Conti tyres than others
More On Ones than other makes
Mostly Fox forks
Mostly CK headsets

But definite pattern else where:
Mostly Macs for 20 years plus – only Macs for last ten
Only ever had Orange mobile and now prob 15 years, not sure but when ever they started
Only ever been eclipse broadband now 13 years,
And think i have only ever worn M&S underwear!

Apollo.

kcnc

Castelli, Scott clothing, Giro helmets, Oakley specs, Giordana shorts, Shimano groupsets and SPDs, Mavic wheels, Selle Italia SLR saddles.

Easton carbon.
Thomson
XT

on the flip side, used to religiously buy Specialized shoes, saddles and helmets, and had a few of their bikes over the years.

After the Epic fiasco stopped buying their stuff irrespective of how well it fits me. Reinforced by the Volagi business. Specialized have a big history of litigation

Specialized

My Enduro broke and the guys in Chessington fixed it for me (new fork sir – sorry about the inconvenience) and tuned the suspension while I waited

Then I bought a Stumpy and kept breaking spokes in rear wheel. My excellent LBS (Cycleworks) got on the phone to Spesh, who said sorry and gave me £350 store credit towards a new set of wheels of my choice

honestly – they are brilliant

Oakley glasses
Spesh shoes and helmets
Gore winter gloves
Stan’s rims
Schwalbe tyres

For clothing it used to be whatever was top of the ‘biggest reduction’ filter on CRC but now it has to be Endura for everything. The only MTB stuff I have worn that doesn’t fall apart,split,tear,shrink,run,come unstuck or generally look knackered after a few month’s riding.

Sunn (1990s) frames
TIME pedals
Magura Brakes
DT Swiss 240s

Ooooh, this is just what bike distributors want to hear!

I will only remain ‘loyal’ to my favourite products (rockshox, mavic rims, gore, kmc, spesh for shoes, superstar for all sorts) as long as they are good value for money in terms of performance and/or longevity.

If I could afford brand new bikes I suppose I might feel partisan towards a particular brand if their aftersales/warranty was good. (Specialized for example with lifetime frame garuantee, but only as good as your local spesh dealer!)

Hope, because of the numerous good experiences with them fixing my stuff for free when they were well within their rights to do nothing

Thomson, because their stems and posts are understated, and high quality.

Shimano cranks, ‘cos I’ve never had a problem with one.

Easton bars, ‘cos they’re the right shape.

661, not blindly loyal, but I do have a full face, pressure suit and armoured shorts. It does fourfill the good/cheep/fits criteria.

DHB clothing, it may be wiggles own brand, but like 661 it’s good/cheep/fits.

Specialized tyres at the moment.

Hope – but mainly 2nd hand, can’t justify new prices.

For me:

Hope – hubs and brakes
Mechs and shifters – SRAM
Forks – Rockshox

Sticking to the above (for me) keeps maintenance simple. I like the “feel” of them too.

Shimano cranks (usually) and SPDs

I like the Thomson stems and seatposts etc but that’s a case of what I can afford. Have been using Maxxis tyres recently and have been impressed.

Ooooh, this is just what bike distributors want to hear!

Not really, only 1 person distributes thompson posts, everyone else is wondering why their lighter, stronger, cheeper, better made posts can’t sell in the same way.

Hope, looks so nice and works

Nukeproof, simple, effective and a good price.

Fox clothing and Endura

Shimano SLX, can’t go wrong with it

not so much loyalty but brands that always get on a short list.

On-one/planet x – love my 456 and have had many small items from them (not necessarily on-one branded)

Bought a Cayo because it was good value and have since got a Mares cx bike because I liked the road bike (I looked at others but it fitted my requirements best).

DHB – because I’ve liked nearly everything I’ve bought from them clothes wise and when I need kit they are a first port of call.

Merlin cycles wheels – because they’re well built.

Montane – not so much bike related but I realised I own 5 of their jackets (2xvelos, dt velocity, extreme pile and pertex and now hyena) and a pair of trousers so that might count as loyalty

Not really trying to be loyal to them, but inadvertently, Specialized.

I replaced my 01 Stumpjumper FSR with a 2010 model. I really wanted to get an EX8, but I didn’t get on with the test one, whereas the Stumpjumper felt right straight away.

I’ve had Specialized gloves for years and they seem to last well & do the job (although my Gill and 661 gloves are just as good), I’ve got a Spesh jersey that must be 5 years old and is still in great condition and a pair of their tights that are really comfy and are lasting well.

Oh, their tyres seem to work OK too although I wouldn’t go out of my way to look for them (I normally get what’s going cheap).

My head doesn’t suit their helmets though and I’ve never had any Spesh shoes or anything.

Lots of companies make nice kit, really. I try & get stuff that does the job, fits into budget and looks nice. I like to say I don’t really care about the brand but if I can get a known one (e.g. Easton) for the same price as an unknown one and they are intrinsically the same, I’ll probably go for the known brand.

Specialized shoes
Shimano drivechain and pedals
Selle Italia saddles.

I wouldn’t say I’m loyal as such but I prefer known quantities over unknown, so once I’ve factored that in to whatever price point/quality range I’m looking at it does tend to be the same brands that come up.

Not really, only 1 person distributes thompson posts, everyone else is wondering why their lighter, stronger, cheeper, better made posts can’t sell in the same way.

…and Mr Thomspon disibutor is trying to work out how much more he can rack up the UK rrp before we stop buying them.

Not sure about “loyal” but always had a soft spot for WTB.

Suppose I like how they seem to do their own thing and have some great, underrated products.

Shimano for transmission stuff and Hope for hubs. Also getting hooked on Maxxis rubber.

Great after sales service keeps me going back to Hope and Turner. Other than that I’m open minded.

Where are all you Orange owners!

joeegg – Member

Where are all you Orange owners!

At ten to five on a thursday? Trying to locate their Audis in the works secure underground car park, I should think. No 3G down there 😉

Shimano drive and point one racing; I love the split second stem and podium pedals. Also like Chromag parts and Dakine clothing.

Specialized clothing and shoes – cheap, fits and good quality. Tyres are nice too
Cotic frames – ride well, look nice, made nicely, like the brand values too
Easton bars – just seem to do the job very well and fit me
SRAM drivetrain – like the way it works
Avid brakes – like the way they work, and they’re cheap used (due to the Hope tax)

I’m not completely loyal to any of them, but they tend to be the place I look first. Other stuff I’m less fickle about.

Hope hubs
Magura brakes
Specialized shoes
SDG saddles
Salsa bars, actually salsa everything

phil wood
goldtec
FTW
middleburn
shimano- old school last for years BB’s (none of this HTII bother) good no fuss disk brakes

stuff that just works

Cannondale
Planet x
Mavic
Torq
Rapha
SRAM on mtb
Shimano on road & cx

None now. I was Giant through and through, but loyalty can blind you to other good stuff on the market
I was Shimano now I’m SRAM
I was Vittoria now I’m Challenge.
Mavic rims have been a constant though