Just how crucial to road cycling is THE BRAND ?
Comments
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Raffles wrote:Where Rapha is concerned imo its 100% the brand, the new sky kit by them looks visually pretty cr@p in my opinion and if that design was by altura then there are plenty who wouldnt give it a 2nd look. It even goes as far as how "Rapha" is pronounced by some, the brand snob prounces it as "Raaaaw-pha" in an elongated way, whereas the not so up their own anus rider sees it as good ole "Raffa"
Im sure its well made stuff, but that design is something a 7 yr old could have done a better job with and some people are just so gullible and blinkered that its scary. IMO being well wedged up your own backside when it comes to road cycling will cost you a fortune when there are plenty of less self effacing brands and products that do the job as well or better and give value for money, and who cares a toss if some idiot is looking down their nose at them.
And this post isn't snobby?
Have you tried any of their kit since your last post?0 -
There's the style bit but I don't get the snob bit, if you can afford it you wear it.
If i saw someone kitted out in Rapha riding an EPS C59 i'd think, "If only" but there would be zero animosity.0 -
SoSimple wrote:As a new convert to two wheels this is all so sad!
I read the first 3-4 pages on this post and quickly lost interest and jumped to the most recent posts- and d'ya know what, the same arguments, same points, same insults and counter insults continue to repeat themselves - and we are over two months on!
As someone who is using this forum to learn about cycling, all I've learned so far is that the 'designer' brands are nothing special, not worth the money, brilliant, well made, look and feel great. While the budget brands are only for losers, fall apart the day after you buy them, sell in huge numbers, are really popular and are great value......
You can't all be right....or maybe you are!
Yes, it is v sad. Sorry that you had to discover it but cycling seems to have all the ingredients for such behaviour.
Interesting that in your summing up you kind of outline two sides.
Imo I think its worth remembering two things about those sides.
One of them is usually open minded and is actually not on one side or another (only in the eyes of the other side), and the other side is usually the one that starts all these things off because of their jealous comments!0 -
I'm very new to cycling .... Maybe 10 months into it. I'm fortunate enough to have a good job so when I bought a bike I bought (what I consider) a decent one costing a few grand. I've got clothing by tenn, altura, rapha and assos. It all serves its purpose in one way or another. At the end of the day it boils down to choice and how much you have/ are willing to spend on it.
I don't look down or up to anyone because of what they wear .... As cyclists don't we measure ourselves and others by how we perform on our bikes?
I guess the only form of snobbery that I encountered was at a local club when I went along one day only to find the scheduled beginners ride wasn't on and the club run was going to be an 85 miler..... When I said I didn't have the legs for that..... Somebody commented that I certainly had the bike for it.
That's when I though "ah this must be the snobbery the forums talk about", my next thought was "we'll I'm only going to get better mate, but you will still have that piece of shit bike you are sitting on"
And that's when I realised that in a very short space of time I too had succumbed to snobbery0 -
Raffles wrote:Where Rapha is concerned imo its 100% the brand, the new sky kit by them looks visually pretty cr@p in my opinion and if that design was by altura then there are plenty who wouldnt give it a 2nd look. It even goes as far as how "Rapha" is pronounced by some, the brand snob prounces it as "Raaaaw-pha" in an elongated way, whereas the not so up their own anus rider sees it as good ole "Raffa"
Im sure its well made stuff, but that design is something a 7 yr old could have done a better job with and some people are just so gullible and blinkered that its scary. IMO being well wedged up your own backside when it comes to road cycling will cost you a fortune when there are plenty of less self effacing brands and products that do the job as well or better and give value for money, and who cares a toss if some idiot is looking down their nose at them.
You're so far out of your anus that you've gone full circle through your own mouth.. and ended up right where you started...0 -
Is there any way to prevent this thread from appearing in the "View your posts" list?0
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Too late for that, I'm afraid - I made that mistake several pages up the thread.0
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Raffles wrote:Where Rapha is concerned imo its 100% the brand, the new sky kit by them looks visually pretty cr@p in my opinion and if that design was by altura then there are plenty who wouldnt give it a 2nd look. It even goes as far as how "Rapha" is pronounced by some, the brand snob prounces it as "Raaaaw-pha" in an elongated way, whereas the not so up their own anus rider sees it as good ole "Raffa"
Im sure its well made stuff, but that design is something a 7 yr old could have done a better job with and some people are just so gullible and blinkered that its scary. IMO being well wedged up your own backside when it comes to road cycling will cost you a fortune when there are plenty of less self effacing brands and products that do the job as well or better and give value for money, and who cares a toss if some idiot is looking down their nose at them.
If cycling was simply about value for money we'd all be riding Tribans.
Rapha is quality kit and super comfortable. I happen to like the understated design (I can't always go out in Hill Killer kit) and am always happy to support quality local brands such as Rapha, Shutt VR, Vulpine, etc.
Of the 400+ members in my club there are probably around 50 who have Rapha kit and no one pronounces it with a long a. Then again I do pronounce "Porsche" Porsche-a, because contrary to popular belief it has two syllables...English Cycles V3 | Cervelo P5 | Cervelo T4 | Trek Domane Koppenberg0 -
These kind of threads crop up so often on Bikeradar:
- Why do people look down at my kit?
- Why do people look down on my bike?
- Why don't people wave at me?
- Cyclists are so snobby
- etc
I've been riding for as long as many on here and I have never, not even once in all my years ever seen anyone derided for cheap bikes/kit or whatever.
I'm pretty sure most of this is in your heads.
And as for the elongated pronouncement of Rapha, never heard that, either.
Oh, and it's Latte, not 'lartay'
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The only person that gets a slating for kit on our rides is my best mate when he wears his yellow and black HTC helmet and toxic green Liquigas wind jacket. That’s just plain wrong!
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thegreatdivide wrote:The only person that gets a slating for kit on our rides is my best mate when he wears his yellow and black HTC helmet and toxic green Liquigas wind jacket. That’s just plain wrong!
No doubt all done in good fun with no tears
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thegreatdivide wrote:The only person that gets a slating for kit on our rides is my best mate when he wears his yellow and black HTC helmet and toxic green Liquigas wind jacket. That’s just plain wrong!
I agree. What's required for completeness - Lampré bibs 0 -
This reminds of a bloke the other day, we both had the same bike, but he was busy slagging me off cuz he had all the 'fancy' clothes & clipped footwear, I was dressed in a pair of beat up 8 year old walking boots, a £6 pair of primark jeans, & a 9 year old Murderdolls hoodie thats falling apart (hey that's what I'm comfortable in). He then moved on to the lights & was busy telling everyone how brilliant his £200 front light (Hope) was & that somehow I wasnt a true cyclist because I wasnt dressed properly & my lights were obviously Chinese cheap crap.
He shut up when we turned our respective lights on. Yes my lights were cheap Chinese... but not rubbish. £20 for 2 unbranded lights from ebay (including mounting fittings & AAA battery cage if you dont want to use 18650 batteries), way better & brighter than his, better spread, wider close up, better spot for distance blah blah blah. He didnt like getting laughed at.
(Actually they are that good it makes me wonder how much better they would be if I had spent just a few quid more on getting some that actually had a reflector in them)
The point is, although more more expensive does have a tendancy to be better, it isnt necessarily so. Brands with a good name tend to have to have earned that good name, but you do need to do your research to find out if the product is any good or not. Just because it has a brand name doesnt mean it will always be better compared to the unbranded product.
If having a brand name is what floats your boat then go for it especially if not having that brand name is going to make your OCD twitch, but I personally go for function first & foremost, & being a cheapskate I would much rather have an unbranded product that performs just as well & costs less0 -
RonB wrote:thegreatdivide wrote:The only person that gets a slating for kit on our rides is my best mate when he wears his yellow and black HTC helmet and toxic green Liquigas wind jacket. That’s just plain wrong!
I agree. What's required for completeness - Lampré bibs
Haha! He's using the excuse that he's colour blind - he's never mentioned this in all the years I've known him so I think I'll call his bluff and buy him some of those and maybe some light blue oversocks 0 -
Ssscrudddy wrote:
If having a brand name is what floats your boat then go for it especially if not having that brand name is going to make your OCD twitch, but I personally go for function first & foremost, & being a cheapskate I would much rather have an unbranded product that performs just as well & costs less
Its not being a cheapskate dude, its removal of the blinkers from your eyes. Guys like Grill who endlessly post straight from their back passage and ive no doubt he is one of the "Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaw-pha" types with his preference for that staple diet every day meal of barbecued okra :roll: , you get what im saying here ? He is the type of hanger on to whom keeping up with the "Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw-pha" prounoucing and wearing blinkered buffoons is of the utmost importance. Hell Vtech here went out of his way to offer something great for members here and all that Grill berk could do was pour scorn on it and look down his nose, Grill would have been as welcome as a curry fart in a spacemans helmet if he had the balls to show his face.
Scud I totally get what you are saying, companies like Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw-pha are dependent on blinkered customers to whom being seen wearing Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw-pha is a lot more important than what you do wearing it2012 Cannondale CAAD 8 1050 -
Raffles wrote:Ssscrudddy wrote:
If having a brand name is what floats your boat then go for it especially if not having that brand name is going to make your OCD twitch, but I personally go for function first & foremost, & being a cheapskate I would much rather have an unbranded product that performs just as well & costs less
Its not being a cheapskate dude, its removal of the blinkers from your eyes. Guys like Grill who endlessly post straight from their back passage and ive no doubt he is one of the "Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaw-pha" types with his preference for that staple diet every day meal of barbecued okra :roll: , you get what im saying here ? He is the type of hanger on to whom keeping up with the "Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw-pha" prounoucing and wearing blinkered buffoons is of the utmost importance. Hell Vtech here went out of his way to offer something great for members here and all that Grill berk could do was pour scorn on it and look down his nose, Grill would have been as welcome as a curry fart in a spacemans helmet if he had the balls to show his face.
Scud I totally get what you are saying, companies like Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw-pha are dependent on blinkered customers to whom being seen wearing Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw-pha is a lot more important than what you do wearing them.
*sigh* Your talent for missing the point has been obvious from the start, but your new-found deflection is painfully obvious. If you're at the barbecue I'll be more than happy to spend a few minutes explaining the finer points of satire. :P
English Cycles V3 | Cervelo P5 | Cervelo T4 | Trek Domane Koppenberg0 -
Ssscrudddy wrote:This reminds of a bloke the other day, we both had the same bike, but he was busy slagging me off cuz he had all the 'fancy' clothes & clipped footwear, I was dressed in a pair of beat up 8 year old walking boots, a £6 pair of primark jeans, & a 9 year old Murderdolls hoodie thats falling apart (hey that's what I'm comfortable in). He then moved on to the lights & was busy telling everyone how brilliant his £200 front light (Hope) was & that somehow I wasnt a true cyclist because I wasnt dressed properly & my lights were obviously Chinese cheap crap.
He shut up when we turned our respective lights on. Yes my lights were cheap Chinese... but not rubbish. £20 for 2 unbranded lights from ebay (including mounting fittings & AAA battery cage if you dont want to use 18650 batteries), way better & brighter than his, better spread, wider close up, better spot for distance blah blah blah. He didnt like getting laughed at.
(Actually they are that good it makes me wonder how much better they would be if I had spent just a few quid more on getting some that actually had a reflector in them)
The point is, although more more expensive does have a tendancy to be better, it isnt necessarily so. Brands with a good name tend to have to have earned that good name, but you do need to do your research to find out if the product is any good or not. Just because it has a brand name doesnt mean it will always be better compared to the unbranded product.
If having a brand name is what floats your boat then go for it especially if not having that brand name is going to make your OCD twitch, but I personally go for function first & foremost, & being a cheapskate I would much rather have an unbranded product that performs just as well & costs less
On the light issue, I've been using a £30 Chinese Magishine replica for the past few months but it overheated last week and stopped working leaving me with a 20 mile ride home on often unlit country lanes with just my Smart Polaris backup light which really wasn't a great experience. Yes, the Chinese light was bright (although I don't think it was close to the 1200 lumen claimed and the light tended to be a bit dispersed) but I'd rather something more likely to be reliable for extra money now. Lesson learned I managed to get myself an Exposure Strada 3 (ex-demo). At £165 it was way more than I ever thought I would spend on a light even though it was £90 less than RRP but I really don't want to be left in the situation I was in last week ever again. I appreciate that the same thing could happen with my new light but I suspect the chances are far less as the quality control on the product should be much higher.0 -
I'm with Dodgy on this... I've been road riding for 15+ years, mountain biking for longer. Ridden with loads of different groups of riders, different clubs etc and never once have I even heard someone being slagged off for the bike or clothes they're wearing - whether they're perceived to be too good for the rider or being looked down on for wearing cheaper gear. (Other than my mate's 1980's pig-iron Raleigh which weighs more than the moon, but he deserves that)
I'm afraid it says more about people's insecurities than the wider world of road riding.0 -
meesterbond wrote:I'm afraid it says more about people's insecurities than the wider world of road riding.
Sadly true. I've never met a cyclist I didn't like.0 -
There should be a sticky in this forum that just says, 'everybody buy sportful'. Ticks all the boxes. Reasonably priced, same factory/brand as castelli, Italian, makes jerseys for actual cyclist's bodies, looks good.
Theyve teamed up with PBK too, making very classy looking stuff.
http://www.probikekit.com/uk/catalogsea ... h+by+Brand0 -
+1 for Sportful gear0
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Bertie wears sportful.. a custom kit with messages or support from fans when he was banned (mainly FrenchFighter?)
Just goes to show you can't really get away from the brand 0 -
Raffles wrote:Ssscrudddy wrote:
If having a brand name is what floats your boat then go for it especially if not having that brand name is going to make your OCD twitch, but I personally go for function first & foremost, & being a cheapskate I would much rather have an unbranded product that performs just as well & costs less
Its not being a cheapskate dude, its removal of the blinkers from your eyes. Guys like Grill who endlessly post straight from their back passage and ive no doubt he is one of the "Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaw-pha" types with his preference for that staple diet every day meal of barbecued okra :roll: , you get what im saying here ? He is the type of hanger on to whom keeping up with the "Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw-pha" prounoucing and wearing blinkered buffoons is of the utmost importance. Hell Vtech here went out of his way to offer something great for members here and all that Grill berk could do was pour scorn on it and look down his nose, Grill would have been as welcome as a curry fart in a spacemans helmet if he had the balls to show his face.
Scud I totally get what you are saying, companies like Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw-pha are dependent on blinkered customers to whom being seen wearing Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw-pha is a lot more important than what you do wearing it
hey Raffles, I'm gonna throw you a curve ball here.
Me and my brother, grew up in Barnsley, son of a miner. My bro now lives in Byker in Newcastle, drives a wagon for a living and is a 1st cat road man and also top 3 in the North East's Mountain TTs. So you could say he's a decent rider and from a working class, Northern background.
He wears loads of Rapha.
Kinda shits all over your Rapha stereotype doesn't it.Selling my Legend frame
http://owningalegend.wordpress.com/2014 ... ced-price/0 -
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Can I please take this opportunity to point out that Brooks will sell you a designer cycling jacket for £1000?0
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Simon Masterson wrote:Can I please take this opportunity to point out that Brooks will sell you a designer cycling jacket for £1000?
Does it take 1,000 miles to break in? English Cycles V3 | Cervelo P5 | Cervelo T4 | Trek Domane Koppenberg0 -
LegendLust wrote:Kinda shits all over your Rapha stereotype doesn't it.
No, it doesn't in the slightest. Stereotypes are justifiable but they are generalisations - that's sort of the point. The fact that your brother is an exception to the rule (if the stereotype is a true one) is irrelevant.Faster than a tent.......0 -
Ssscrudddy wrote:This reminds of a bloke the other day, we both had the same bike, but he was busy slagging me off cuz he had all the 'fancy' clothes & clipped footwear, I was dressed in a pair of beat up 8 year old walking boots, a £6 pair of primark jeans, & a 9 year old Murderdolls hoodie thats falling apart (hey that's what I'm comfortable in). He then moved on to the lights & was busy telling everyone how brilliant his £200 front light (Hope) was & that somehow I wasnt a true cyclist because I wasnt dressed properly & my lights were obviously Chinese cheap crap.
He shut up when we turned our respective lights on. Yes my lights were cheap Chinese... but not rubbish. £20 for 2 unbranded lights from ebay (including mounting fittings & AAA battery cage if you dont want to use 18650 batteries), way better & brighter than his, better spread, wider close up, better spot for distance blah blah blah. He didnt like getting laughed at.
(Actually they are that good it makes me wonder how much better they would be if I had spent just a few quid more on getting some that actually had a reflector in them)
The point is, although more more expensive does have a tendancy to be better, it isnt necessarily so. Brands with a good name tend to have to have earned that good name, but you do need to do your research to find out if the product is any good or not. Just because it has a brand name doesnt mean it will always be better compared to the unbranded product.
If having a brand name is what floats your boat then go for it especially if not having that brand name is going to make your OCD twitch, but I personally go for function first & foremost, & being a cheapskate I would much rather have an unbranded product that performs just as well & costs less
Yes Hope, that famous brand that churns our rubbish and relies on it's name :roll:
I'd rather a product with a proven history and great after sales support that does most of its work in the UK but each to their own.
I'm also yet to meet the above described person, do they really exist or are they only made up on forums to make a moot point?0
