Coolwall October 2011 - Entry Level Groupsets

[dbmtb]

The hardware itself is totally uncool. Personally- I started with 300LX!

However, the knowledge that comes from knowing you used to be able to drag yourself up a gnarly Peaks climb that you know you would be struggling to get up today on a bike costing 5 times as much - makes the concept of "cool" pretty irrelevant TBH.

 

[ringo]

Uncool

Only acted as an impetus to get the better gear...

As previously stated cool isn't a measure if something is good or not...

 

[NAILTRAIL96]

I so wanted to vote cool.
Ultimately, functionality for a price but uncool.

 

[petitpal]

After much deliberation, I'm going to have go uncool. If we topped out at Alivio I might go cool (the Alivio cranks I have in my box are just a pretty as the XT of the day) but given the general 'black-not-quite-plastic' nature of this sort of level, and the nearly-but-doesn't-entirely-work nature of it all, I'm going to have to give in to my 'uncool' urges.

 

[jax13]

...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?

not so much out of context but in black and white rather than seeing the whole plastic coated greyness of it!

my point is simply that in the right situation, on the right bike and with the right reasoning, they can be considered cool by those who appreciate the picture as a whole rather than looking past its function to what it 'means' rather than what it 'does'

 

[Tc]

Low end

Still run 200gs on a Dale & since 92 when I bought it never changed anything & it's done thousands of miles! But it looks crap and is made of pig iron! So my votes negatory good buddy!

TC

 

[TheGreenRabbit]

IMHO not cool but neither is XTR, DX and XT are the only cool ones around.

 

[Drencrom]

my point is simply that in the right situation, on the right bike and with the right reasoning, they can be considered cool by those who appreciate the picture as a whole'

Any examples you can post up?

 

[Carge]

I started with 300LX on my Trek 830 - and somehow I caught the mountain biking bug. It got me riding and my love of MTB was kindled - mostly at Swinley Forest pre 1990.

We all started our MTB career somewhere - and generally - it was with kit that most of wouldn't put on our retrobikes now.

It might not be "cool", but - i put it to you - that we all owe it a debt of gratitude. And we now appreciate the better kit we can now afford, because we can still remember (just) what it was like in the beginning.

 

[Drencrom]

I started with 300LX...

Pedantic as it may be, this is about the groupsets below, which weren't a patch on 300-500LX.