werent ridgebacks & muddy fox once cool

[topshifter]

how comes ridgeback & muddy fox are now budget bikes? when i started riding in 86/87 they were top makes with high spec components like the 603 ridgeback in the freewheel catalogue which had full xt throughout. why didnt they exploit the market when mtb were just taking off? now there just crap

 

[KermitGKona88]

It is the market, bike companies fall into difficulties then some other company buys them because of the name and tries to trade cheap Sh!t on the name You could go mad thinking of all the times it has happened Holdsworth, Clude butler (to a certain extent), Diamondback......... et al.

I had a Muddy Fox team alu with full XT and an oversized aluminium fork was one of the best bikes I ever owned. Sold it to get a frame with disk mounts

 

[Anthony]

Am I imagining it, or did the importer that owns the Ridgeback brand name invent a new brand called Genesis for its higher-priced items?

A bit like Toyota had to invent the Lexus brand to sell its most expensive cars?

 

[drcarlos]

Yep, depressing isn't. They once made stuff like the Sorcerer in my sig.
It started to go wrong in 1990 for MF as they produced a range of bikes with such extreme geometry that they were awful to ride off road. The 1991 year was a year with better bikes but with memories of the previous year the damage was done, right before the bubble burst, they sruggled on for a further couple of years before going bust and being brought by universal which has since disappeared and been replaced by the MF brand but selling the same cheap toilet.

Carl.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Am I imagining it, or did the importer that owns the Ridgeback brand name invent a new brand called Genesis for its higher-priced items?

A bit like Toyota had to invent the Lexus brand to sell its most expensive cars?

Spin off from Ridgeback and split out to look increasingly separate (don't know how separate now) by Madison from what I gather.

But it is a good way to stop dilution of a brand. Ridgeback have gone specifically for the lower cost end with leisure bike. the mass market I guess. Spin off your high end bikes that have and need street cred by the teens, adult and magazines to sell well.

Think of Marin and Trek and similar, there brand was diluted BiTD due to their cheap end and gained an image of 'crapness, not having one of them' from the yoofs (aka us lot). So now the image is tarnished with people of a certain retro age and it still holds strong today.
The likes of Orange, Kona probably the two largest(popular) mass market 'other' bikes at the time still hold a strong image. They didn't have such a bottom end.

Though Marin and Trek knew the cheap n cheerful leisure market was VERY profitable.

 

[Tad]

Am I imagining it, or did the importer that owns the Ridgeback brand name invent a new brand called Genesis for its higher-priced items?

A bit like Toyota had to invent the Lexus brand to sell its most expensive cars?

If you are imagining it we've both been having the same dream.

Toyota/Lexus
Nissan/Infinity
Honda/Acura
...

 

[Defender]

Spin off from Ridgeback and split out to look increasingly separate (don't know how separate now) by Madison from what I gather. But it is a good way to stop dilution of a brand. Ridgeback have gone specifically for the lower cost end with leisure bike. the mass market I guess. Spin off your high end bikes that have and need street cred by the teens, adult and magazines to sell well.
Think of Marin and Trek and similar, there brand was diluted BiTD due to their cheap end and gained an image of 'crapness, not having one of them' from the yoofs (aka us lot). So now the image is tarnished with people of a certain retro age and it still holds strong today.
The likes of Orange, Kona probably the two largest(popular) mass market 'other' bikes at the time still hold a strong image. They didn't have such a bottom end.
Though Marin and Trek knew the cheap n cheerful leisure market was VERY profitable.

I spoke to a guy from Genesis at the Earls Court bike show a couple of years back and they are/were very deffinitely a UK brand, being designed here specifically for the UK market, but like so many manufacturers these days the bikes are made in the far east.
The seem to be an 'emerging' brand and on the UP :?:

 

[terryhfs]

What happens is that companies go bust, the brands get bought and the new owners cash in on the brand value to make a quick return on their investment.

Let's face it, if you wanted to hit the high quality market with your own innovations and ideas you'd want to do it under your own brand, not someone else's you've bought cheap.

 

[Charlieboy28]

slight tangent or perhaps not, whats the deal with Carerra , i had one a while back, middle of the road steel thing, originally from halfords( though i didnt get it from there) good enough as a hack/work bike, I actually thought they were Halfords own brand for a long while, now it seems they have split with Halfrauds and some of their bikes are actually desirable, or at least cost a bit and fetch a bit?

on the recent Birmingham Sky ride, i actually made an effort to catch up with this girl with a lovely bum on this swanky looking modern thing with all gold bits on it, only to find it was a carrerrrarrarra , she still had a lovely bum though

are Carearra this phenomenom in reverse then?

 

[KermitGKona88]

Yes pretty much spot on, for a while back there some of their top frames were made by Merida (Zelos Magnesium= Mats)

And their frames are light and pretty nice I have one as a single speed and it goes some