Where's the Lets-bash-specialized thread...?

Colinthecop

I quite like Specialized... I currently own four of them.

But this popped up on my facebook feed tonight -

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Specialized-40t ... 1431546830

You can buy an Allez steel frame for $4k. 'But it's more than just a frame' as apparently you get some sort of hat and a jacket to go with it. Not sure that's as good as a groupset or some wheels... :roll:

But $4000...? Seriously...?

Then I read a bit more and saw it was for charity. That's fine, donating $4000 to hungry Africans and getting a freebie bike may be good for ones sole... But it would seem they're only donating £1000 from each sale.

But anyway, i'm sold.... Or I was until I read that you pay in full now and you get your frame in 2015.

They're having a giraffe.

letap73

I don't have any specialized bikes - however, that is not an ordinary "Allez" frame and it appears the profit from the sale is going to charity. Sounds very strange to pay in full now and then receive the frame in 2015 - unless they are building to order. The terms and conditions are very clear. I would not buy it - I would go Ricky Feather/Donhou etc but I don't see as being totally unreasonable.

Grill

An overpriced Specialized? Perish the thought!

DavidJB

Bike company is quick buck making shocker.

carrock

Great marketing company. But some of their frames are rather good, as is their clothing. But they sponsor at leSt 4 high end race teams. Guess who pays for that.....

Anonymous

Colinthecop wrote:

I quite like Specialized... I currently own four of them.

What do you like about them?

Grill

madasahattersley wrote:

They are amazingly well marketed. I bet not many people know that Merida own Spesh and as such have total access to all the amazing proprietary technology they fabricated to sell to the masses. Makes you wonder who the real puppeteers are...

Merida do not own Spec. They have a 49% stake but the rest, and more importantly controlling shareholders, is Mike Sinyard.

Colinthecop

Carbonator wrote:

What do you like about them?

Mainly the use of the letter Z in their name. Makes them edgey and a bit mysterious.

Or possibily just American, i'm not sure. :?

ben@31

Carbonator wrote:

What do you like about them?

The Specialized's I have do the job, gets me from A to B. My fitness has improved. Whats not to like.

I bought them second hand so can't say they were over priced. Are they really much different to any other bike? They have the same groupsets, just a different label.

Anonymous

Why not Felt, or even better, Cannondale? Cannondale even has misspelt name too. They are also widely regarded as actually being special.
Do you like the irony in the name Specialized too?

From the outside it just seems that people buy Specialized because they are 'safe' and are scared to dip a toe in the water of what cycling is really about.
Owners tend to then rave about them so that:
A/'The huddle' do not feel silly for having bought an (or several) over priced mediocre bikes.
B/ 'The huddle' increases in size to further protect itself.

If you have four without any other reason than brand image, then forgive me if I feel you are acting in just that way.
I love my Focus to bits, but tend to look to other brands for its successor, even though I worry about bettering it.

Anonymous

ben@31 wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

What do you like about them?

The Specialized's I have do the job, gets me from A to B. My fitness has improved. Whats not to like.

I bought them second hand so can't say they were over priced. Are they really much different to any other bike? They have the same groupsets, just a different label.

Again, no real reason other than a lemming like reason for buying.

You seem to be shooting yourself in the foot by saying what you have said.
You seem to be admitting they are over priced and that there is no reason for them being so other than the name on the frame.

vimfuego

I have two Spesh in my stable - one is a roadie and does loads of winter training miles and I bought it because
a) it felt right/comfortable on the test ride
b) got a decent deal
c) had the groupset I wanted at a lower cost than on some other "edgier" / "I'm different" alternatives at the time.
d) looks good IMO

I love racking up the miles on it. It's a good all rounder (did Flanders on it this year with no issues). I like it & I couldn't give a sh*t what someone else thinks - works for me. End of.

The other is a MTB. And huge amounts of fun on singletrack - handles well, well built, good components, what's not to like. I'm sure there are other brands out there that would achieve the same end, but these work for me so I'm happy. A victory for marketing over substance? I think not to the extent that some of the naysayers would have you believe. Each to their own anyway. Are all Rapha wearers just sheep too? There seem to be enough of them.

I also have another road bike which is not Spesh, cost a stack more, and is "good" or "better" for its own reasons. Also a commuter from yet another brand for similar reaons (ie after sufficient research into what I wanted on it in terms of kit and components, assessing budget etc - the test ride worked out)

hmmmmm only 4, must be time for n+1.......

Anonymous

Of course you are going to get people buying Specialized bikes for genuine reasons, and thats great.
Its just the 'huddle' mentality that annoys me.

I personally do not buy things to be 'different'. That mentality annoys me even more lol.
Sometimes its nice if things are different, or if they are perceived to be 'desirable', but its just a bonus, never the reason for buying.

Colinthecop

Carbonator wrote:

Of course you are going to get people buying Specialized bikes for genuine reasons, and thats great.

I bought them because I knew what I was getting and I suppose i'm playing safe.

I've not been riding long, 12 months or so, so I guess safe isn't a bad thing.

When I grow up (cycling wise) I might get something a bit sexier or exotic but until then i'm happy with middle-of-the-road...

8)

Colinthecop

But I still think that Allez frame is a marketing con.... :roll:

Anonymous

Your honesty is refreshing

kammybear

I find it even stranger that they have an S-works aluminium Allez for £7k...why would anyone go for that?

bernithebiker

Had SL4 Sworks, really liked the way it looked, and it was one of the few frames to have a short headtube (140 in 54 and 120 in 52).

Now have the SL '5'.

I looked at other brands; Cannondale; not keen on shape of frame, Trek; don't like the brand, not sure why..(or designs), Cervelo; even more expensive, have heard of poor customer service, taller head tubes.

Canyon; good value, but can't be doing with long waits, and poor reaction times.

Colnago; just not for me
Look and Time ; I steer clear of French stuff
Bianchi ; nice, but some dodgy colour schemes
BMC; nice, bit odd looking
Boardman ; excellent kit for the money, was high on my list.

The geometry on the Tarmac Sworks suits me perfectly, so if it ain't broke don't fix it. The quality (paint, finish, bearings, etc.) is excellent. And above all the customer service is very good. On the fork recall they did, they handled it very well, and everyone got a £100 voucher to spend.

And also, in France at least, they're not that common.

So I like it and I have no need to join a 'huddle' to make me feel better. (For what it's worth I have never owned an Iphone and can't see what all the fuss is about (the 6)).

Grill

Should have bought a Scott Addict

veronese68

To answer the question in the title I'd say it arrived here at the same time as Carbonator did.
I quite like that frame, but not at that price. I don't own any Specialized bikes, but I have one of their pumps and a saddle. They do the job asked of them adequately.

Anonymous

bernithebiker wrote:

So I like it and I have no need to join a 'huddle' to make me feel better. (For what it's worth I have never owned an Iphone and can't see what all the fuss is about (the 6)).

Membership is automatic unfortunately. You do not have to be an active member though

Resisted iPhones until recently (although love all other apple stuff (Edit jury is out on the watch)). 5c was way in for me as it did not have stigma of 5s.
Wanted it for connected features on Garmin. Other than that its just a phone, text, email, browsing and sometimes game playing device.
It does do all these things extremely well but I won't be using it for much else...........and shoot me if I ever wear the white earphones!

Anonymous

Veronese68 wrote:

To answer the question in the title I'd say it arrived here at the same time as Carbonator did.
I quite like that frame, but not at that price. I don't own any Specialized bikes, but I have one of their pumps and a saddle. They do the job asked of them adequately.

Bit harsh!!!

I have a very nice pair of Specialized MTB shoes so you cannot call me a Speshist (tongue out smiley).

bernithebiker

They also make some excellent products;

Sworks shoes - the comfiest by far for me.

Sworks Prevail helmet - very light and comfy, although I now wear a Giro Attack Shield, the Prevail is used for the mountains.

Sworks carbon chainset - light, stiff, looks good, works very well.

And not so good; Sworks seatpost; bit of a lump and doesn't work better than any other post. (I use a USE!)

tangled_metal

Owning Spesh bikes a bit like ownign Apple products? Does that make me a Spesh fanbois because I like my spesh hybrid? I won't get an iPhone though, I'm not that stupid!!

BTW sounded a bit elitist talking about the huddle of Spesh owners. I am not in any club, don't ride out with anyone other than my partner and my toddler son (in a child seat or trailer) or on my own so I don't know any other spesh owners to huddle with.

I looked in all the local bike shops and went with the shop I found most helpful that had any suitable bike. I had a choice of a few things and was potentially going to spend up to £1000 which I decided against and got a spesh at half that with a few accessories included in the sales. It would have stretched me more than I was comfortable with at that time to spend more. I had very little choice considering I need to try out bikes as I am tall and have had bad back at various times. Need a good fitting bike. It was treks scott pinnacle ans spesh along with a focus I thing equinox too. I went cheaper with the same specs as a trek selling elswhere for a few hundred pounds more. With my constraints with money and other things I had a very good reason to buy this spesh hybrid and have been pleased with it despite it's compromises.

Don't Merida make a lot of bikes for other brands? That is what someone in the bike trade told me once. Curious to know if it is true. IIRC they said 3 out of the 4 biggest brands get frames made by them or something like that.

Grill

bernithebiker wrote:

They also make some excellent products;

Sworks shoes - the comfiest by far for me.

Sworks Prevail helmet - very light and comfy, although I now wear a Giro Attack Shield, the Prevail is used for the mountains.

Sworks carbon chainset - light, stiff, looks good, works very well.

And not so good; Sworks seatpost; bit of a lump and doesn't work better than any other post. (I use a USE!)

S-Works chainset is actually Lightning used under license.

S-Works shoes have the worst quality of any halo shoe I've seen and they don't stand behind them when they explode (I know this from the manager of a concept store as well as a clubmate who had warranty refused because they're not made for 'walking').

Anonymous

Tangled Metal wrote:

Owning Spesh bikes a bit like ownign Apple products? Does that make me a Spesh fanbois because I like my spesh hybrid? I won't get an iPhone though, I'm not that stupid!!

BTW sounded a bit elitist talking about the huddle of Spesh owners. I am not in any club, don't ride out with anyone other than my partner and my toddler son (in a child seat or trailer) or on my own so I don't know any other spesh owners to huddle with.

The only thing Specialized and Apple have in common is that people hyperventilate over them.
Apple products are quite special, but would not say Specialized bikes were.

Its kind of the lower end ones I am thinking of mostly. The uber expensive orange and black one with matching shoes, helmet and wall bracket was actually quite nice.

The 'huddle' is virtual, not an actual gathering.

I kind of assume everyone with a Specialized bike is a 'Spesh fanbois'.
Not all are of course but it just seems that way and I cannot help it.

bernithebiker

Grill wrote:

S-Works chainset is actually Lightning used under license.

And? So what?

Grill wrote:

S-Works shoes have the worst quality of any halo shoe I've seen and they don't stand behind them when they explode (I know this from the manager of a concept store as well as a clubmate who had warranty refused because they're not made for 'walking').

I have 2 pairs over 2 years, fine so far.

The Boa's on my Lakes did explode though.

Grill

Boa is a completely separate company that manufacture for many different companies. And they have a lifetime warranty (it's on the Boa website) so that can hardly be construed as fault on the part of Lake, especially when you consider that Specialized use the same system.

bernithebiker

Grill wrote:

Boa is a completely separate company that manufacture for many different companies. And they have a lifetime warranty (it's on the Boa website) so that can hardly be construed as fault on the part of Lake, especially when you consider that Specialized use the same system.

a) I know.
b) let me be more specific; it was in fact the plastic part that the Boa mounted onto that cracked and failed, so BOA weren't interested, the guarantee had to be done through Lake.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Loved my ~£300 Tricross Singlecross for just over four years, but almost 8 months on from my morning of doom, it has "gathered dust" in a semi-mangled state needing...
New stem
New front wheel (rim and cartridge damage)
New rear brake outer

Grill

bernithebiker wrote:

Grill wrote:

Boa is a completely separate company that manufacture for many different companies. And they have a lifetime warranty (it's on the Boa website) so that can hardly be construed as fault on the part of Lake, especially when you consider that Specialized use the same system.

a) I know.
b) let me be more specific; it was in fact the plastic part that the Boa mounted onto that cracked and failed, so BOA weren't interested, the guarantee had to be done through Lake.

The difference is that Lake honoured the warranty, Specialized did not, so your original comparison is baseless.

Fact is Spec changed their manufacturing facilities and practices in the past year and warranty claims have gone up. Claims being sorted have not. See the problem? Again, this is direct from concept store employees as well as rep letters.

I won't even get not how much they overcharge for sub-par builds (that's more on a shop level).