crap bikes - discuss...

[legrandefromage]

Its nothing to do with snobbery, crap bikes are just crap, they were crap then and are still crap now and no matter how you dress them up, crap they shall remain.

crap.

So what makes a crap bike then? Design? Function? Materials?

A Zaskar is crap to some because its a stiff as a board but for the larger more powerful rider, its brilliant.

A Klein is like riding glass to some but again, nirvana to others (those that ride them - some chose not to)

Are Manitou's crap due to chronic materials failure?

Is a Yeti C-26 crap due to its intended short working life span?

Thats just a tiny example of bikes that can still command a high price.

Then we get to the budget end of cycling - the really crappy stuff that Tesco sells, I'll leave. Its well documented that they are just not good at all - plastic components that are difficult to use, poor frame geometry etc etc.

So what of the in between? Those bikes that we saved ages for or that our parents thought that we'd grow into? Whats your worst memory and your best?

I took my first 200GS iron clad all over the place but it was awful, no rose tinted could make it better, but I loved it. Then I wanted more and moved up the ladder - yet, 'crap' bikes still came along - A Claud Butler that tore its rear canti mount clean off, non replaceable mech hangers snapping like twigs on expensive frames, the uber expensive Cannondale that simply didnt work as a bike, cracks in rear triangles, exploding shocks, all culminating in a hit list of crap bikes...

Aaaaghhh...!

Then there was Retrobike... all was calm... Then there was accusations of inverted snobbery, then snobbery, then any passing comment caused a riot just because someone had one back in the day etc etc - calm down dears!

Anyway, expunge yourselves here without fear! Name your crap bikes and why...

Go on, you know you want to!

 

[videojetman]

it wouldnt be a crap bike thread without the raleigh activator.
why just because its a piece of pig iron, more suited to boat anchors.

my mate from work just got an apollo slant from halfords.
dreadful bike.

 

[warpedboy2]

Raliegh Activator. This was my second ever mountain bike (after a raleigh Dakota that got nicked), and it was, frankly. shit.

Weighed an absolute ton, forks didn't work (along with the brakes), stupid massive saddle, steel rims. The only redeeming feature was the paint job, which I still rather like.

And before anybody tries to tell me I am wrong, the bike lasted me six months before it was utterly shagged, at which point it was also nicked.

Ghastly

 

[We_are_Stevo]

'Crap bikes' are so subjective... :roll:

Just because one person hates a Superstore BSO doesn't mean the kid who gets one won't love it...

...to most people a bike is just a bike; they certainly wouldn't understand our passion for scouring eBay just so we can pay through the nose for some obscure part that wouldn't even raise a blip on their radar; Hell, even the majority on here probably have partners who think we're obsessed with old crap they would much rather consign to a skip in our absence!

 

[t-stoff]

I havent owned that many to say good or bad stuff about them, so for me crap bikes = BOS bikes. Those are the ones who still come up every now and then on a phone call from a friend asking for advice "this for 70gbp or this full suspension for 90?"...

 

[DM]

I attended public events as a free walk-up "Bike Doctor", servicing punters' bikes (most seemingly recovered from canals). And also had a Raleigh Grifter as a kid... where to start the nightare stories...?

 

[cce]

zaskars: i dont like them, they're too stiff, and like all GTs the geometry is funny and the handling pony. Like the audi A4 S-Line of mountain biking. This doesnt make them crap though, just like the audi, plenty of people bought them

Kleins: all about the paint jobs, and i dont like the paint jobs - i'd be interested to see how they ride, especially given my bike was essentially one of a klein's major rivals. if anyone fancies a back to back trial around my way, klein v merlin, i'm game

Yeti C26. Planned obsolescence. You are only allowed to like this if you dont criticise the planned obsolescence of modern kit. It's a bit before my time, and by my time the game had largely moved on.

manitous: crap. it's not planned obsolescence in their case, it's plain old fashioned flawed design

I find LX and above kit much easier to get set up and stay set up than the cheaper stuff. i have ridden and used the cheaper stuff, but now i can afford it i will ALWAYS fit better, even on hacks.

gripshifts make me want to poke myself in the eye.

 

[FMJ]

Go on, you know you want to!

Al Carter.

There, I said it.

You know you wanted to.

 

[bm0p700f]

Crap bikes exists the seller does not care so long as they sell something. A lady came in a couple of weeks ago with a GT for to sort out. I said what the point you are 5ft7" and the frame is 20". It was bought new and the shop sold it to her husband who would have known her height/inside leg measurments if the shop had asked. If the seller does not care (or know better) and the customer does not know then it gives space for the crap bikes to flurish.

Maybe I am a bike snob. Tell me if I am, I just like a bike to work in the way it ios supposed without a faff. Anything that involves too much faff is probably crap.

 

[skywalker]

I find LX and above kit much easier to get set up and stay set up than the cheaper stuff. i have ridden and used the cheaper stuff, but now i can afford it i will ALWAYS fit better, even on hacks.

gripshifts make me want to poke myself in the eye.

Now that's the important aspect.
What does work in the (or some) attempted way, is not crap (this is true for Klein, GT and some other expensive stuff).

But all these badly designed bikes (as the Bikes from Italy in the 90ies with stupid geometries, stupid frame designs (remember the Bianchis) and stupid component assembly - as the builders knew race bikes very well, but not at all an MTB) - they are crap. The same in my eyes is true for all these heavyweight weakish watertube stuff floating around and for many early Aluminium frames that just broke due to bad design and craftsmanship.

Maybe it's not pure default, that some deigns, some brands and some principles have proven successful - and some others didn't.