"cult" bike brands .....

lawman

arent they just great. cotic and pace are showing the industry giants how to make a great looking well perfoming bike and the new evil sect looks immense i reckon all these little brands should get more coverage than they do, in terms of buying them that is. i mean spesh are goood but boring and to some extent the same can be said about gt and giant. surely these niche brands are what we want, not some mass produced piece of taiwanese made crap. what happened to individuality inm our bikes ehhh?????

Andy B

And where are Pace and a lot of 'niche' frames made?



Taiwan.


Poor rant/10

lawman

good point lol but you know what i mean, these brands have to go to taiwan to compete with the "big brands"

thejesmonddingo

I bought a niche Trek Remedy 2 weeks ago,it works for me.
Ian

supersonic

I want good value, well made kit. The far east factories do that better than anyone.

Mass produced Taiwanese crap? I am not sure you know what you are saying.

dave_hill

I'd hardly call Pace and Cotic "cult" or "niche"!

If you want cult, think of the likes of Yeti, Foes, Mythic, BMW (as in Brooklyn Machine Works, not Bayrisches Motoren Werke), Curtis, Evil, Corsair, 2-Step, Ibis and so on.

Going back even further how about Mountain Cycles, Fat Chance or Mountain Goat?

Anonymous

i wouldnt specifically buy a bike because of its percieved image, but thats because im not an idiot.

That said, if a boutique brand offered what i was looking for id be happy to buy something unique.

That said, if i owned something rare or unique i wouldnt cut about like 'charles grande pomme de terre' because of it.

Also, the thing about the more cult bikes is that if they were really all that good, everyone would be riding one surely?

BlackSpur

dave_hill wrote:

I'd hardly call Pace and Cotic "cult" or "niche"!

If you want cult, think of the likes of Yeti, Foes, Mythic, BMW (as in Brooklyn Machine Works, not Bayrisches Motoren Werke), Curtis, Evil, Corsair, 2-Step, Ibis and so on.

Going back even further how about Mountain Cycles, Fat Chance or Mountain Goat?

What makes Yeti a 'cult' brand?

Torres

If everyone bought a cult/niche brand, wouldn't that stop them being cult/niche brands?

realnumber 1

Torres wrote:

If everyone bought a cult/niche brand, wouldn't that stop them being cult/niche brands?

Exactly what I was thinking as I read the OP's post lol :? .

fatwomble

It's nice to have something that you don't see each time you hit the trails, not met anyone else yet riding a Dialled Bikes - Morning Glory

But I wouldn't limit myself to just a niche bike, my full suspension bikes have always been mainstream bikes

starbuck

I have an orange Evo2 that I love.

It's not one of the more rare brands, but I wouldn't say it's common either.
You don't see a lot of orange bikes round and the quality is great(and there's something about it being british that I love).

One thing that made me like them more is that when I bought mine, the guy in the shop phoned the factory directly to place the order, asked if I wanted to wait 2 weeks(as they were just bringing out a new one with hydraulic instead of cable discs) for same price.

Don't know how many years now I've had it, but it's never let me down and will go anywhere.

bomberesque

well, ermmmmm

I have an IBIS and an Evil so I suppose I'd have to vote yes .... twice :oops:

as for reasoning, I'd have to admit to a certain search for rarity in the Evil. There are several bikes out there that can do similar things to the evil. As well? Probably and certainly too close a difference for me to be able to tell. so whatever really, it was the right price for an 853 frame and does what I want. Funny that if I bought it so's people would wow and coo on the trails then I've failed. Only one person has recognised it on the trail in 2 years. In fact, last year in the Purbecks I was guarding the bikes outside the takeaway curry house after the ride, this guy starts audibly drooling behind me. I turn and he says "god, that's a lovely bike" .... my feathers puff up with a bit of what I could only call pride ... "I've got the aluminium one" ..... hold on..... this guy really didn't look like the Evil Imperial type .... realisation dawns .... "but in carbon the (Giant) XTC is just the nuts" ..... :oops: "erm, yeah, it is nice" I manage, embarrassingly crestfallen. That said, the bike itself has constantly paid back my decision to buy it in the first place and I wouldn't swap it for any other steel hardtail, certainly not any other that I have ridden so far.

The IBIS was a bit more rational; I wanted a lightweight singlespeed frame and have been scared off alu by 2 decades of riding very stiff frames. I didn't know that the Kona Explosive came with sliding dropouts at the time either or I may have fallen for that.

I can't deny there's a fuzzy feeling owning something unusual and I'd definitely be lying if I said it had no effect on the joy of ownership, but in the end it's a bike and it needs to perform. Both of mine do.

I test rode an IBIS Mojo 3 weeks ago and that's gorgeous but I've decided that 2 IBISs would make me a fanboi so I'll have to find something from someone else :P

Joe_Pineapples

It's form follows function for me, so if the best bike for my needs is a Spesh or a Trek then that's what I'll buy. I'm no particular fan of Orange bikes for example, a brand that seems to have plenty of fanboys here in the UK, and I'm not overly enamoured by the way they look, but I bought one anyway because it does what I need at a price I could afford.

I'd have to raise an eyebrow at someone who bought a bike solely because it was 'niche'.

starbuck wrote:

It's not one of the more rare brands, but I wouldn't say it's common either.
You don't see a lot of orange bikes round and the quality is great(and there's something about it being british that I love).

Where are you riding then? I'd say behind Specialized and Trek, I see more Oranges than most other brands.

stubs

Arent most of these cnut niche brand frames just ordered out of the Taiwan Bike Guide with a custom badge stuck on. All that guff about custom drawn tubing a small company couldnt afford to have custom tubing made its just ordered from a tubing suppliers catalogue.

I ride a Commencal super 4 and an On-One Scandal neither are big companies but they arent small either are they mainstream lite or niche extra

_Ferret_

Define cult brands!
are these just small bike companies who make good bikes? Or are they brands that once had a good idea for a bike which other brands copied, improved and then sold loads of?

I buy a bike if it works for how I ride - simple.
Besides, how full must your local trails be if you see more than one of the same bike! I personally see loads of different brands here, maybe on a bad day you see 2 Cubes but still...

Stuey01

I have a Pace RC405 and love it. I'm yet to see another one on the trails, that means one of three things:

1) I don't ride enough
2) I bought the wrong bike and everyone else was in on the joke
3) It is "cult" and not many people have one

I do get a kick out of having a different bike to the majority, and it's car park kudos.
My riding buddy has a 09 Spesh Stumpjumper that is a truly excellent bike, easily on a par with my Pace, but it is only ever mine that people ask about.

Most common bikes that I see on the trails:

1) Spesh
2) Commencal
3) Orange
4) Giant
5) Trek

Marin, Santa Cruz and Cove are pretty common too I'd say.

REMF

supersonic wrote:

I want good value, well made kit. The far east factories do that better than anyone.

Mass produced Taiwanese crap? I am not sure you know what you are saying.

agreed, there is a world of difference between taiwan and cambodia. i would be happy to buy a taiwanese frame.

lawman

REMF wrote:

supersonic wrote:

I want good value, well made kit. The far east factories do that better than anyone.

Mass produced Taiwanese crap? I am not sure you know what you are saying.

agreed, there is a world of difference between taiwan and cambodia. i would be happy to buy a taiwanese frame.

my maxlight is made in taiwan, and i love it, and i do see a few at xc races, but i think im being a bit "sceney" here tbh. the likes of spesh etc just dont excite me at all, in fact the only spesh i would ever buy is the 06 enduro. but these "cult" brands have their own style and identity, and tbh im a bit of a bike tart so im happy to pay more a bike that makes me feel good. i dont spend my money on anything else (i am only 17 lol) so i figure why not buy something you love and can really cherish, and the fact no other bike will ever be the same as yours. personnal preference i know, but come on if you guys had the money to buy a yeti, foes etc over a spesh you would wouldnt you

oh and i hardly ever see commencal's when i go for rides so where are they all???

MacAndCheese

I'd like a bit of a rare machine just to be a bit different on the trails, I think the 'cult' brands are probably quite good for things like Hardcore hardtails (fairly basic frames like DMR trailstar etc..). But people like Specialized etc. will obviously have a lot higher budget for R&D for developing complex suspension designs, carbon fibre production methods, hydroformed tubing etc. I'm not saying this true for all, but that's my opinion.

Stuey01

lawman wrote:

oh and i hardly ever see commencal's when i go for rides so where are they all???

Holmbury hill as far as I can tell.

ride_whenever

several are used for commuting in oxford, therefore not a cult brand.

supersonic

OnOne used to be called a cult brand.

lawman

supersonic wrote:

OnOne used to be called a cult brand.

yer but know they are pretty common i dont blame them for being so they are great bikes, but they are still a small company, even more so now brant has left. this is the thing on ones were cult now loads of people have one and are genrally very pleased with them. i just think its coool that these cult brands give people choice and as retarded as my arguement maybe, they are far cooler than any spesh or gt ever will be. yes they may not have the resources but that makes them what they are.

supersonic

Cooler than a Zaskar?! They were called cult once ;-)

I have no problems with 'cult' brands and equipment, as long as people don't automatically assume it is better than say a massed produced equivalent. Of course it might be and there is always be subjectivity. Add to this that many will not review as bad anyway ;-)

Basically if you want something different, don't mind paying a bit more for something unique, or handmade, or made in Britain because that is what you want, go or it! But still doesn't mean they are any better hehe.

lawman

sonic the zaskar is cool but not the carbon one sorry

to me a zaskar frame has to be small, ali and jump/trialsable ..... hans rey style 8)

lawman

actually on further looking this is amazing



i would buy it right now if i could

supersonic

I have an alu one too lol. But a big one!

You might like my Ruckus then, which was at first a reinforced Zaskar:



I think it was those early 90s ones that were really 'cultish'!

supersonic

Yeah, Zaskar trials is nice!

GHill

I guess I would buy a bike from a boutique brand if it ticked all the boxes for what I wanted. If they are more expensive (not all are, e.g., On-One, Ragley) then it needs to offer me something special in terms of ride, customer service etc. It just being a bit different isn't enough to blow the moths off my wallet.

mac_man

Cult brands become mainstream. Look at Apple Computers.

Where did Giant, Specialized etc start? I don't know their history but I'd bet good money a lot of them were started by 2 blokes in a shed.

Ragley Bikes might just be the next decade's Specialized or Giant. WHO KNOWS?

Anyhoo... I like something with a bit of personality, whether it be the design, the company, the marketing. Whatever you buy says something about you. Cult objects are cool because you're in your own little clique that nobody knows about... except somebody else who has one.

Kinda perverse I know.

If you ride a full suss Spesh, people's stereotype is 'mid-life crisis, middle aged, all-the-gear etc'. (apologies to all that ride one).

Turn up on a Ragley Ti and it's a different story.

But as others say... I wouldn't buy if I didn't believe in the product.