It really naff’s me off when someone slags off a bike brand off simply because of its name ..in particular Santa Cruz .
By all means go out and test one of their bikes and then give a considered opinion ..and if you don’t like it after that then fair enough .
There is a reason why they are popular and that’s because they make a fooking good bike !
I had a Nomad 1 from new in 2007 and it was and still is a tremendous bike which my 14 yr old son is getting as much pleasure from as I did and in my eyes it is still a work of art and never let me down .
If I had the budget at the time ( July 2016 ) I would have bought a 5010..still the best bike I have personally ridden ..but my Whyte T130RS..pushes it a close second…very similar in terms of geometry.
Now to the bike I would never buy ..an Orange 5 650b..based on a test ride I had a couple of years back ..
I’m not just Orange bashing for no reason here ..it was a demo day at Kielder ..the rep spent a good bit of time setting the bike up for me ..but Jesus it felt like a complete plank in comparison to the Nomad ..and up to that point I really wanted to like it ..

RaceFace and try to avoid brands distributed by Silverfish, even though I have an Evoc bike bag.

Evil because of the way they washed their hands of their customers early on and then bleated about being the victim.

Santa Cruz, well because most of my mates are SC fan Bois and I’m an Intense rider (at the moment anyway).

That’s about it, Giant and Trek are out at the moment because most of their FS bikes have vertical shocks which I think are ugly, Trek doubles-down on the fugly stakes with colour coded linkages BARF.

I’ve softened on Orange and may buy one next time around, I would have run a mile 2 years ago.

Contradicting myself even further…

…I’d be unlikely to buy a Yeti. Nothing to do with how they ride or the company itself; I’m a lover of the company’s heritage and what it’s done for the sport.

I just don’t like the colour.

Who actually buys Saracen bikes these days though? I’m sure they are nice enough bikes, there own brand Kore finishing kit is shite(i’ve had wheels explode) you just dont see any out on the trails…do you?

I used to say I would never buy a Kona, when they were still pumping out stinkies and the magic-link or whatever it was called. But now they’ve made the process.

Love watching all the santa cruz fanboyz getting riled up 😆

Anything by a physchopath and a bully

I just don’t like the colour.

This is brilliant. Perfectly irrational.

This was not intended to be a thread where anyone DEFENDED the brand they like. I have refrained from retorting to the various comments about the brand of bike I ride. Let’s keep it that way.

Irrational distaste only, please.

Who actually buys Saracen bikes these days though? I’m sure they are nice enough bikes, there own brand Kore finishing kit is shite(i’ve had wheels explode) you just dont see any out on the trails…do you?

I see quite a few, Ariel’s or whatever they’re called and I’m not much of a bike spotter.

I think the only thing stopping me now it the price, they used to be YT / Bird sort of money, but now they’re sitting mid-table like Spesh / Trek etc and with similar spec for the money they’re sort of lost in the mix.

Orange

Trek – for their habit of buying then wrecking once-great companies

Pretty much the On-One/ Plannet X ethic, no?

Ellesworth. Just couldn’t ride something that ugly.

I bought a plastic Specialized. Never really liked the Big S because, well, reasons. Anyway, the SWAT innovation finally changed my mind. It’s a really well thought out bike. I’ve had my mind changed.

Wouldn’t have an on-one. I’ve taken the pee out of them too much now, can’t go back.

+ 1 for YT

The Jeffsy Pro Race that has been sat in my garage unridden since delivery three weeks ago is a testimony of what can go wrong with direct buy. Bike was delivered with a bent REAR rotor. Worked from home today to make sure I was in for the delivery of spare rotor and headset top cap bolt, which some overzealous monkey had used a tork to fit rather than an allan key and shredded it, I hate to think how tight the headset actually is.

Only to discover they sent a 200mm rotor instead of 180mm. Their incompetency astounds me. Though I prefer to laugh rather than cry.

That said…… it is a stunning bike!

Surely you can get a 180mm rotor from somewhere in the meantime?

Rhyater ..
I tend to disagree ..you started out defending the brand’s you liked and then moved on to the very rational decision ( in your mind) as to why you disliked a certain brand ..

GT. I just don’t like the triple triangle thing aesthetically.
Trek / Specialized all very anonymous and not the best value for money
Raleigh. owned a craptivator, put me off for life

Anything else? I would say BSO brands, but my most recent buy is a diamondback, which arguably went through a BSO phase.

trailwagger – Member
Saracen – Because of the reputation they had (at least amongst my piers) back in the day. They were likened to Carrera. Reputations like that stick, as I can clearly see they make some decent bikes now.

Definitely a generational thing, I wanted one, and by the time I got one they were a Halfords brand, but I still rode it absolutely into the ground (you know those “Davey McRadface rides a BSO off jumps and breaks it”, that was me, keeping it together for a whole two years, by the end the freewheel barely had any clicks left and the chain wouldn’t engage in anything other than big-big.

Pretty much the On-One/ Plannet X ethic, no?

Naaa, they buy once great brands, and ones you’ve never heard of, and fail to absolutely anything of merit with them.

No one knows who Selcoff or SAB are/were, and most probably had no idea who Viner were. But they do know that they’re now just the same as a P-X frame with £200 more on the price tag. At least they tried with Titus, the fireline could probably sell like hotcakes if they just cleared the stock and updated the geometry.

Holdsworth they really should have done what Genesis did. Build really nice steel bikes that people wanted. Which they kinda did, although they seemed to be either priced way too high, or way too heavy.

It really naff’s me off when someone slags off a bike brand off simply because of its name ..in particular Santa Cruz .
By all means go out and test one of their bikes and then give a considered opinion ..and if you don’t like it after that then fair enough .

There’s a fair amount of inverse snobbery on STW – people who look down on those that have more expensive bikes than they do, even though those people probably don’t give a hoot what anyone else rides. It’s an odd thing as I thought we were all part of the same tribe…

Me, I ride a SC, but I’m also the guy that will stop at the side of the trail to help someone out who has bust a chain and has no tools with them. I won’t bitch at them for their like of preparedness, or the fact that the bike clearly needed a service…5 years ago. I’ll just try my best to get them riding again. But hey, I’ve got an SC so I must be a sheep following the herd and a bit of a cock. Ho hum.

Not really interested in playing the branding game, just being satisfied with the collection of parts I choose to ride. I don’t give a hoot about branding as my bikes get de-stickered and repainted a single, drab, matt colour. As long as i’m happy with the frame and components then it really doesn’t matter. There may be a correlation between some of the things I want, and a particular brand’s image or values, but that is just happenstance. I care about how the bike rides, and a degree of aesthetics (like which drab colour), but have no interest in what a sticker on a frame or rim might signal to others about my consumer choice.

Trek – boring
Giant – boring and ugly
Pinarello – poseur’s bike
Ellsworth – gopping font use

Never ridden any of the above, and probably never will.

Got a Saracen Zen steel frame in the spell when they were a total joke. £35 off eBay to throw all my spare parts on for a long travel HT. It’s still running many, many years later and keeps getting taken out the garage. Not my go-to bike at the moment but it has just got the lights attached for my night ride bike. Absolutely love the thing!

There’s nothing I wouldn’t consider if it was the right price and rode well. However, the one brand that would seriously have to turn round would be Muddy Fox. Saved up for so long from my paper round/washing cars to get one in 1994 and so disappointing when I came back to the sport in the early 2000s where they’d ended up. They would have had a lot of brand loyalty from me from the early days.

Would not buy IBIS as dislike the shape and expensive.

Yeti.
Don’t like the UK importer.

I’d buy one from the us.

I have an irrational dislike for the new generation of frame builders who paint bikes in fancy colours and have a big social media presence.

Rapha (although it’s also expensive).

Kinesis Tripster Ti, Mason bikes, Hunt wheels. I’ve probably been exposed to too much of the marketing, but they just strike me as MAMIL brands and nothing else.

Rational dislike for Specialized due to their dodgy lawyers and the Mountain Cycle/Cafe Roubaix/Epic Wheels sagas

Wow No Whyte or Marin on the list?

Whtye/Marin are great with warranty though.

I’ve snapped one Marin and two whytes and they’ve always looked after me very well.

trek

Specialized aren’t high on my list becuase of their litigiousness, never say never but I can’t see myself paying anywhere near their list price.

Other than that though I’m all about VFM, so if the price is right and the bike is good and I’ve not heard horror stories about the aftersales service then I’m game.

I’m on my 3rd Saracen now, I’ve got a Vitus, I’ve had a Calibre, I’d have a Carrera (but Voodoos are better – got one of them) I’ve got no issue with Giant’s being boring, or Santa Cruz being ubiquitous.

Ibis Frames are gopping
Yeti Dont really know
Santa cruz Fanbois
Any road bike
Anything that hipsters would ride

Cube – no idea why, I just don’t like them, about as irrational as you can get…

trek because of what lance armstrong and trek what they did to greg lemond and how they went about suing anyone who dared question lance and drugs.

**** trek

Orange.

Cube – no idea why, I just don’t like them, about as irrational as you can get…

Same here, but if I’m honest, I think its the god awful Eurofluro™ colour schemes..

YT

Stands for Youth Talent and I have neither.

Specialized (bully boy legal arses)

This. Bought the Café Roubaix Tee shirt.

Cannondale – BB30 on the CAAD8 is just awful. I’m out.

By contrast, I’m a Giant fanboi (road and mtb). Great performing bikes, backed up by decent R&D at a good price point. And they make fabulous plastic bikes (for everyone else).

I once would have said spesh and trek because of the big corp tactics, but my last two bikes have been a spesh enduro 29er and a slash 29er, because when I bought them they were the best bikes that met what I wanted. So now just “on one”.

Giant. Dunno why. I think the brand comes across as being totally mainstream. Like buying a Vauxhall. I can’t imagine looking at my Giant and feeling a swell of pride

there own brand Kore finishing kit is shite(i’ve had wheels explode)…

Ah, the great Wheelgate of 2014? I went through two hubs from that period.

I know what the issue was tho – ironically not really Saracen’s fault, as it happens. I’d buy another Ariel.

Giant. Dunno why. I think the brand comes across as being totally mainstream. Like buying a Vauxhall. I can’t imagine looking at my Giant and feeling a swell of pride

Fair comment.