has everyone lost the passion?

[al-onestare]

Bromley Bike co - is that the one in Widmore Rd just along from the Market Square? Used to drop in there 1990 onwards and drool at what I considered to be hugely overpriced Oranges and Marins.
Only thing I bought there was a pump which broke during first use :evil:

I have to agree. I pop into my local (Bromley Bike Co) every now and then to pick up tit-bits and I'm instantly hit by a sense of "what a load of over-engineered tat" when I look at the new kit. As (another) Kona lover, I'm super disappointed with the state of them now, the lovely sloping top tube is lost to a host of ridiculous hydroforming and what looks like left overs of the Humber Bridge welded to the headset.

I'm convinced that things will come full circle and the return of simple, elegant designs.

Yep, that's the one. Full of Klein nowadays and other newbies. Nice enough people (there're removing my bottom bracket this weekend cause it's the only thing I can't remove before my frame goes to Argos) just not a fan of the bikes!

 

[Neil G]

have to agree too.. not a fan of the modern swoopy hydroformed frames that everyone seems to be making now! they just seem to be making them as a case of ooo look what we can do!

the clean simple lines of retro stuff is usually much nicer!! though i do appreciate the geometry of modern frames as i love the way my inbred 456 rides.. a titanium one of those would be nice one day!! either that or a cotic hemlock!

+1

There are some nice new frames around now though, I've just built up a Charge Duster and TBH when it was finished I loved how old school it looked....just simple.

 

[XCDave]

I haven't bought anything new this year, as even components are ugly. New XTR and XT looks gross and SLX and LX look cheap. 31.8 handlebars are everywhere and even forks look like a kid's gone mad with a sticker sheet.
But Nicolais will always look mint.

 

[digitalkreation]

I have to say, this is one of the reasons I decided to roll up my sleeves and really get out and search for my dream bike(s). I wanted very much to get back into the sport, as a passion and even as a means of fitness, but after checking out MBA and the LBS, I was very disapointed. Everything is black and I was never a fan of basic black or the carbon look. So, I said "To hell with this.." and not long after, found this site and then the bikes I had been searching for.

Fast forward a few months and the builds are taking shape..

 

[JeRkY]

People will collect them in 15 years. Its what the "youf" of today are growing up with, it is what they are going to hanker for when they are in our position of being able to afford the bikes we wanted when we were younger.

 

[mtbfix]

I suppose I should point out to all the 'retro Kona' fans on here that sloping top tubes were not well received across the board back in the day and there were those who thought they looked less appealing than a good old horizontal tube. As JeRkY notes, so much of what you like now reflects what you were brought up with as a nipper.

 

[mattbrown]

i think it all started going down hill, when classic steel hardtails were starting being made in aluminium, Cindercone is not the same, and big bold graphics, that are half underneath and half up the side of the down down, and 2 tone colours, usually white and silver or the like, just not the same. i look at the the steeds here, and all seem so clean and functional.

 

[utahdog2003]

Blame the computers...

Computer managed welding of aluminum wrecked it for me. You can now buy a Chinese made, aluminum framed Hard Rock with welds that would put Ellison and other small builders, from back in the day, to shame. Mass production has no soul. :cry:

I've done two HATE posts on the blog thus far...

Post 1:
Non-vintage Hates...

-black black black black BLACK everywhere! Bleah!
-The word "Trek" on the downtube.
-Non-standard Wheels with less than 28 spokes, or spokes in pairs, or wheels with the nipples on the wrong end of the spokes, or wheels with straight pull spokes, or wheels with black spokes, or crappy asian-made mass produced junk wheels labeled with mean-nothing names like Rolf or Bontrager or American Classic. (which of course, have less than 28 spokes, and spokes in pairs, and nipples on the wrong end of the spokes, and straight pull spokes, and black spokes, etc...)
-The word "Trek" on the downtube.
-Brittle imported mass produced Carbon Fiber garbage made by folks not afforded a living wage.
-The word "Trek" on the downtube.
-Heavy, overly styled, non-functional imported Hydro-formed frames made by folks not afforded a living wage.
-The word "Trek" on the downtube.
-Tubeless!?
-The word "Trek" on the downtube.
-The new Spooky. Are you kidding me? You're still not faster than my mom. Junk. Might as well have "Trek" on the downtube...

Post 2 -

"I dig small builders, generally steel, generally with high bottom brackets and steep angles for the twisties, and function. East Coast (US) geometry, like Fat and IF, EWR, Grove, Rhygin, Bridgestone MB-0 and MB-1s, early pre-Volvo rigid Cannondales not too dressed with goofy chi-chi. Pacific NW style is nice too. Early Rocky stuff, Toads, Brodie Sovereigns and Espressos, some Kona I guess, lets say pre-threadless just to be picky.

Parts I dig...Mavic 217 Sunsets, Altek, SDG Kevlar, Race Face Turbines, Deore DX, and pre 'SC' Shimano 105 derailleurs. Yum.

I don't like shi++y CNC boutique parts that aren't worth the pot aluminum they are cut from (and the trail head stitches and sutures that usually result!), and all the modern junk painted black...black spokes, black stems, black posts, black cranks, blah blah blah.... Don't like 100mm+ forks flooding the scene, nobody needs that on a cross country hard tail.

I don't like Trek, the butchers of Klein and Bontrager. Trek should fall off the planet. No like Diamond Back/Mongoose/Iron Horse/Haro/GT pretend BMX junk brands. Except the Tech Shop GTs, Zaskar, Xizang and Psyclone...some DBRs get a pass from the hate too...

Kooka. I don't like Kooka. Garbage from day one. All Kooka junk should be melted down and pressed into Mountain Dew cans, except I don't think the aluminum would pass canning quality standards. In their own words..."Get off the trail, you weasel!"

Spooky, never liked Spooky either. Bunch of plastic image junk. Fake straight-edge crud...like hiding in your mom's bathroom huffing on her hairspray and then proclaiming about how you're bucking the man by not poisoning your body with cigarettes and booze...all the while driving your retired plummers panel-van all tagged up with crap 3rd grader graffiti to McDonald's for a McRib. Brands like Spooky and Azonic are the fake boobs of the cycling world.

That about covers it...

 

[FluffyChicken]

For me, I just don't liek the way everything is over logoed.
I buy something to do a job, look nice, work well and preferably for not too much money. I do not want to advertise your company.

Just got a M701 front mech, geez it looks cheap and cheaply made. I see why everything is black now or why everything has the matt finishing (bollocks to the it 'may have better strength' marketing, it's is just less work for you to bother finishing it well).
The Shadow rear mech is better though still looks cheaply made and the SLX chainset is not to bad and actually looks like more love care had gone in to how it looks, but do the rings really need to be that engineered ?

I do like some of the modern bikes, ok they tend to look like the stuff I rode in when I was into the new stuff

Just where did it go wrong with my bike a Rocky Mountain Altitude ? (not not mine in either picture )
From this

To this

 

[utahdog2003]

Fluffy, those two pictures, and what they symbolize in the direction the industry has taken, say it all... :? :cry: :cry: