Coolwall October 2011 - Entry Level Groupsets

[stumpjumper1990]

Thats a True Temper tubed folding MTB sir...

C L!

Like your outdoor-sound-system too!!

 

[Neil]

so a low end bike, with a crap groupset is cool?

Possibly.
As to you being confused, well the original cool wall, that these votes ape (whether you buy into it, or no...) is from Top Gear. And here's food for thought - most "boutique" or supercars are automatically uncool...

 

[Rod_Saetan]

As to you being confused, well the original cool wall, that these votes ape (whether you buy into it, or no...) is from Top Gear. And here's food for thought - most "boutique" or supercars are automatically uncool...

No, thats not why I'm confused, I was pretty sure I had turned the hob off, but I just smelt burning and it turns out I hadn't.

But still, I understand that cool is relative, what I deem cool (as it happens:T shirts with animals on them; lamps; Heaven 17; Martin Parr) may not appeal to some (wrongly). However, I am confident if someone posted a picture of a Mountain Goat deluxe with California Yuppie paint job, a full Mavic MtB groupset and a Turbo it I am confident it would be universally considered as cool (except by those going out of their way to be contrary, in order to appear more 'cool' themselves according to their own inverted logic). Or something.

 

[JustKev]

There's nothing cool about pressed steel parts

 

[jax13]

I am confident if someone posted a picture of a Mountain Goat deluxe with California Yuppie paint job, a full Mavic MtB groupset and a Turbo it I am confident it would be universally considered as cool (except by those going out of their way to be contrary, in order to appear more 'cool' themselves according to their own inverted logic). Or something.

indeed it would be, however i fear you are missing the point of my argument.

the bike you describe would be a very, very nice bike to look at, for it to be ridden hard by the guy who slaved over it putting it together & fine tuning it to perfection is cool. for someone to build it up, take a fancy posed studio photo then leave it sitting in a garage purely to say "i've got XYZ at home" is a sodding tragedy and pretty damn pointless. same bike, different context, different outcome.

a shonky, heavy-ish late 80's entry level 'thing' restored & built up to its original (slightly below par on the grand scheme of things) factory spec that is paraded around like its something special is uncool, regardless of how pretty the pictures of it are. the same bike, lovingly restored to recreate someones first 'proper' mtb & it being given a good old thrashing at any opportunity making the owner feel like he is 15 again makes it cool, even more so if they got opportunity to embarrass someone on a high spec'd modern (or retro) bike with their 'uncool' chunk of pig-iron!

 

[CAPIN]

cool by 18% of votes. JESUS!

 

[Drencrom]

...a shonky, heavy-ish late 80's entry level 'thing' restored & built up to its original (slightly below par on the grand scheme of things) factory spec that is paraded around like its something special is uncool, regardless of how pretty the pictures of it are. the same bike, lovingly restored to recreate someones first 'proper' mtb & it being given a good old thrashing at any opportunity making the owner feel like he is 15 again makes it cool, even more so if they got opportunity to embarrass someone on a high spec'd modern (or retro) bike with their 'uncool' chunk of pig-iron!

Right, so we're judging the groupset out of context. Is that it?

 

[noteeth]

Shimano 200Gs adorned my first mountain bike (a 1990 Marin Muirwoods that was so yellow you could see it from outer space). The plastic shifters were the cause of much hilarity for the decidedly better (Deore) equipped Tangent, sometime of this parish.

But... that bike and its steel n' plastic groupset launched me into a whole new world of fun - and for that reason, I vote cool.

 

[Drencrom]

I absolutely understand the affection for low-end kit, we all started somewhere after all, and it was no different for me. But we moved on, mostly upwards.

I could get all sentimental about the floppy Nike trainers I used for the first couple of years before I could afford a proper pair of cycling shoes. Or the awful piss-pot lid I wore before I bought a Bell helmet (and then plastered with stickers). Or the crochet mitts that gave me calluses Eddie Van Halen would have been proud of.

But they aren't cool, just things that I used when I started mountain biking. I look back fondly on the kit I used to use, with varying degrees of suitability - but none of it was or is cool. It was (often old and tired) horses for courses.

All in my most humble of respectful opinions, of course.

But please, I refer you all to this:

 

[We_are_Stevo]

Coming, as I did, from tricycle>stabilisers>s/s freewheel>3-speed Sturmey Archer>Sachs Huret over the course of nearly 30 years then, yes, these did look pretty damn cool at the time...

...if you look at most of the bikes on here you'd think nobody ever rode anything that didn't have XT/XTR plastered all over it :roll:

I thought I'd reached personal nirvana on my DX equipped cro-mega (and before anyone questions the validity of my sketchy rose-tinted recall I bought the frame first and the DX was the best looking kit I could see in the 'removed from customers bike' cabinet; both from my friendly LBS in Sprowston...), but later even my Clockwork had Exage 500 on it; and that bike was a real 'must have' at the time.

Nowadays I think they're kind of 'anti-cool', like one of Clint Eastwoods dodgy heros...