CUBE or GHOST instead of UK or USA mtb's?

[srands]

For many years the bikes sold in the UK (To generalise) were predominantly:

~ UK (Raleigh, British Eagle, Falcon, Halfords: Apollo, Carrera & Chris Boardman)
or
~ AMERICAN (Cannondale, GT, Kona, Giant, Marin, Specialized)

Very recently bikes from EU countries are now sold in UK bikeshops all over the UK:
~ Ghost
~ Cube

These are excellent, high quality MTB's, especially the Full Suspension models.
It could be said the Ghost & Cube full sus MODELS make the AMERICAN equivalents look expensive.

I don't believe this will start a price war next year, or anything.

Perhaps less people will stick to what they know, and buy a GHOST or CUBE instead.

Q1. What do other people think to this? (2012 USA models revamped spec to meet lower RRP similar to Ghost & Cube brands?)

Q2. What do the bike trade and mag's think to the arrival of Ghost and Cube on the retail MTB scene?

Cheers

 

[BertR00t]

How about Canyon. German and come with a nice toolkit inc a torque wrench when they are delivered. My boss is awaiting delivery of a Nerve model.

 

[giant-one]

Those Canyon's are getting awards left right and centre for there build spec against similar models. Look quite good too.

 

[hamster]

Don't tell Kona they are American...

 

[The Ken]

I built up a canyon for a friend last year, very nice bikes - very fast too, he went from always being the last on our weekly rides to leading it.

Nice to see euro makes making in impact but I think they do have a tax advantage over the american brands and that is why they are cheaper.

 

[graham1975]

Have not seen a bad review of the Canyon yet, just a little heavy ans a little strange either 120mm or a 150mm errr which would you go for?

 

[kaiser]

Rose bikes too are coming in.

 

[rienster]

I have bought a Radon (re-batched Cube frames for bike-discount.de, if I'm correct) hardtail. Not the prettiest bike, but a proper work horse. Good frame and excellent parts for the money. Only used it a few rides, but very happy so far.

 

[Rotwild 1]

Don't forget Rotwild, although they are expensive for spec, but good compared to other top end but not in same light ghost or cube are.

thing is that i think both have come out of german shops, so are like the wiggle own brands etc.

 

[Andy B]

I have bought a Radon (re-batched Cube frames for bike-discount.de, if I'm correct) hardtail. Not the prettiest bike, but a proper work horse. Good frame and excellent parts for the money. Only used it a few rides, but very happy so far.

Radon are not rebadged Cube bikes, having had a good look at the Radon (hardtail) range there are significant differences between the two (drop outs, mech hanger, down tube gussets...)

The full sussers are totally different designs too.

However they do appear to be as good value as a lot of the newer brands on the market, saying that Cube have been around since 1994 IIRC.

Cube have been in the UK for about 6 years IIRC, the brand just keeps going from strength to strength, I've not found a bad review on any of their bikes yet. The Cube Attempt road bike recently won a Cycling Plus bike test, since the test was published the bike has almost sold out for the year in some sizes!

I think that the big brands like Specialized, Trek, Giant etc who splash out a lot on marketing hence higher prices are maybe also are relying on brand loyalty so customers don't really mind paying over the odds for their new bike from their favourite manufacturer

Brands like Cube, Ghost, Radon, Focus, Rose, & Canyon can provide excellent bikes with superb value pricing due to a smaller marketing budget and maybe being less greedy than the mainstream manufacturers seem to be

The mainstream brands will need to book their ideas up on pricing sharpish as their market share will start shrinking once the consumers realise that you don't have to buy a big name brand to get a brilliant bike and that they've been paying over the odds just because of the name on the downtube of the bike