Most prestigious brands

ValeTudoGuy

Considering something as prestigious is generally a personal thing. Often linked to factors such as performance, price, Style and quality "However not always."

In car terms I would personally consider brands such a Ferrari, Jaguar, Rolls Royce, Bentley and Lambourghini as prestigious "For differing reasons." but for example would not consider the Volkswagen brand as prestigious even though they certainly make cars that tick all of the boxes "This is no slight on VW, I have owned a couple and the best car I ever had was a VW."

I am interested to hear your thoughts on brand prestige within the bike industry "I will be asking this question in the MTB, Road and Commuter forums as I suspect the replies will be vastly different in each."

So just out of interest, in no particular order what do you consider the top five prestigious bike brands.

cooldad

What's with the "quotes"?

ValeTudoGuy

I'm breaking the fourth wall within my own line of dialogue.

ValeTudoGuy

On reflection I think Soliloquy is closer to what I am doing. Or perhaps I'm just misusing quotation marks to emphasise certain phrases.

Either way I think my post is at least mostly legible.

Keveo

Santa Cruz
Turner
Ibis
Orange
Intense

lawman

I wouldn't really call Orange prestigious. Expensive yes, but not prestigious. Kind of like a lexus. And lets be honest they're bloody everywhere, people seem to think they're going for a boutique brand with Orange but the simple fact is they are common as muck these days.

Imo a brand needs real heritage and pedigree, something that will stop you in your tracks and the ones that spring to mind instantly are Yeti, Santa Cruz, Ibis, Turner, Intense and perhaps Rocky Mountain. They have been around a while, Yeti have been around far longer than most and they have made iconic bikes in the past. Thats how I see's it anyways!

cooldad

Prestigious brands - Ferrari, Lambo, Porsche, BMW - and all branded on really cr4p bikes.

ValeTudoGuy

Santa Cruz and Turner are up there for me. As are Ellsworth and Iron Horse.

cooldad

Out of interest, why is it important?

ValeTudoGuy

cooldad wrote:

Out of interest, why is it important?

I don't think it is important, I just wondered what replies people would give. In my opinion the bike industry is quite unique in that there are such a vast array of manufacturers offering what is essentially very similar products, to the point of being damned as near it identical in some cases.

Wether you buy a Specialized, Trek or Cannondale, a Scott, Commencal or Giant your buying a product which is largely Shimano or SRAM. Your left with a Branded frame of which only a handful of materials are used, A couple grades of aluminium, A coupe of steel, Titanium or Carbon.

Beyond all of that manufacturer branding is vey powerful within the cycling world and can often sway sales in a given direction. A lot of cyclists I talk to are often very loyal to certain brands but equally quick to dog a brand because they have heard of a friends friends frame cracking.

Some brands are so powerful that their supporters appear to be making a lifestyle choice by riding them.

It boils down to me just being interested

supersonic

I tend to look more towards the custom builders as 'prestigious', or small builders like Seven and Merlin.

High end only brands seem to get this tag. Brands such as Scott, Specialized and Giant make a range form a few hundred to several thousand, but some people will not buy them as are not unique enough.

ValeTudoGuy

supersonic wrote:

High end only brands seem to get this tag. Brands such as Scott, Specialized and Giant make a range form a few hundred to several thousand, but some people will not buy them as are not unique enough.

Your exactly right, the top of the range from the brands you mentioned along with some other main stream brands are most likely as good as anything on the market and better than 99% of the stuff out their. I Wouldn't know as I don't buy at that end of the spectrum so have never ridden anything of that caliber.

Despite this they are sometimes not looked upon as being as prestigious as certain other brands. I suppose it comes down to a certain "X" Factor that can't always be quantified.

supersonic

If we look away from frames, then I'd say that brands like Hope, Middleburn, Thompson, Fox have a kudos associated with them that the average man can stretch to. A lot is market pitching though.

Levi_501

Aston Martin; the most prestigious brand there is.

TheJohnClimber

Jones
Singular
Niner
Ibis
Salsa

rockmonkeysc

I aspire to own an Apollo. One day....

pesky_jones

RockmonkeySC wrote:

I aspire to own an Apollo. One day....

haha +1

rockmonkeysc

Pesky Jones wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

I aspire to own an Apollo. One day....

haha +1

Wanna go 50/50 on one? I have it spring and summer and you can have it autumn and winter?

felix.london

it's a toss up between Santa Cruz and YT Industries

lawman

supersonic wrote:

I tend to look more towards the custom builders as 'prestigious', or small builders like Seven and Merlin.

High end only brands seem to get this tag. Brands such as Scott, Specialized and Giant make a range form a few hundred to several thousand, but some people will not buy them as are not unique enough.

I'd say brands like Seven and Merlin were more niche than prestigious tbh, like Caterham, Morgan or any kind of small scale car company. I think its as much as what the brand connotes as it is what they actually make. Say the word Caterham and it conjures up images of middle-aged men in their sheds and "oooooohhhhhh I've got to put the wishbones on today and do all the electrics"... and that's not cool.

Brands like Yeti and Intense have years of racing heritage and rider endorsement to draw on, John Tomac on early Yeti's is an iconic image, like Jim Clark in a Lotus or Moss in a Mercedes, they just have that special substance to them to that the tiny niche brands just can't stake a claim too.

Chunkers1980

My goodness, some proper sense from lawman ;-)

lawman

I have my moments

pesky_jones

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Pesky Jones wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

I aspire to own an Apollo. One day....

haha +1

Wanna go 50/50 on one? I have it spring and summer and you can have it autumn and winter?

Yeah sounds good. Ok il get my name in decals, you do the same, i'll have one side and you can have the other!

Chunkers1980

Sounds thoroughly homo to me.

supersonic

"Brands like Yeti and Intense have years of racing heritage and rider endorsement to draw on"

As do GT and Specialized - but I wouldn't call these prestigious.

Chunkers1980

I think that was more to illustrate the brand iconicness than to say they were prestigious, there are plenty of iconic images of people on specialised and GT bikes too.

lawman

It's a combo of everything though I think, a prestigious brand needs the racing heritage, the low-volume sales, exclusivity and that coolness. Very few brands actually have all those. Most of the ones I mentioned have been around since the beginning or early 80's and mostly from California where it all began back in the day, so you could even argue that location is a determining factor too. Halifax sure as hell ain't as cool as California!!

I think that was more to illustrate the brand iconicness than to say they were prestigious, there are plenty of iconic images of people on specialised and GT bikes too.

Exactly my point, yes there are many iconic images, but imo a brand needs the whole package to be truly prestigious.

pesky_jones

Chunkers1980 wrote:

Sounds thoroughly homo to me.

Theres your 33% gone...

The Rookie

lawman wrote:

It's a combo of everything though I think, a prestigious brand needs the racing heritage, the low-volume sales, exclusivity and that coolness.

Producing a decent bike would go a long way as well........

lawman

The Beginner wrote:

lawman wrote:

It's a combo of everything though I think, a prestigious brand needs the racing heritage, the low-volume sales, exclusivity and that coolness.

Producing a decent bike would go a long way as well........

Ferrari have made some shit cars over the years but are still a very prestigious brand... This is about the perceived image of a brand versus how good the bikes actually are. It of course helps that they largely make fantastic bikes of course, but when it comes to prestige, there is an awful lot more to it than just building a good bike.

Chunkers1980

I think this is part of the point the op was making.

Take the frame away and pretty much all is not made by the brand.

Perhaps you do need to make the frame yourself rather than have say Merida do it.