Coolwall Oct 2010 - Saracen

[john]

Next up on the coolwall we have a British brand which may not be familiar to members outside the UK. Saracen (named after the metal band - perhaps) were originally based in Warwickshire and are now owned by Madison.

So, cool or not.

Can the well regarded late 80s / early 90s models like this

make up for the late 90s / early 00s straight to Halfords 'Saracins' (there, I said it first ).

 

[Dr S]

That's a hard one. They made some ace bikes in the 80's. Those 89 models with bright pastel colours and 'Stock Aitken and Waterman' decals were nice to ride and looked good. From there on it went tits up. The earlier FW Evans bikes are cool in retrospect but at the time they didn't look as sexy as the Californian dream we were being sold.
As to being cool. Well, again the early bikes were very good but they just got on with the job, a bit like a Breville Sandwich Toaster. You couldn't call one of those cool. Also I owned one in 1989 but I also had a mullet so I can't possibly say it was I time when I knew what cool was

So in summary, workman like, even attractive at times but cool in general terms?

Maybe not.

 

[tintin40]

some where good but not cool

 

[brocklanders023]

Voted cool as my 89 Tufftrax was just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen when I got it and is the reason I'm on this site 21 years later.

Must admit I lost interest in the brand around 93/94 and was very sorry to see how low they sank in the 2000's but as this is retrobike they will always be special and cool for me.

 

[makster]

When they've got twin U-brakes like gravymonsters, then uber cool
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... c&start=15

Otherwise, some really good bikes in the 80's/early 90's but I wouldn't say as a brand Saracen are cool :?

 

[rosstheboss]

Never really liked them, they always seemed a bit generic, and Halfords sold them

 

[coomber]

The bad nearly outweighs the good, but most of us would have owned a "proper" saracen as our first bike so definately cool.

 

[xizang]

Never really liked them either
BUT I do like the more modern Zen and Mantra hardtails.
As for the new line up, they could well be resurrected with some really nice looking full bounce bikes (Myst DH and Ariel).
Got to say uncool for the old models though

 

[sinnett177]

Purely for their e-stay bikes of the early nineties i'll say cool.

 

[longun]

there cool as fook,miss my old andes fs but ive a new one ready for building