Osella
Senior Retro Guru
Do many, many modern bikes all look the same..?
I know there's a fair amount all produced in exactly the same Taiwanese factories, but even so, have we reached such a point in bike design that they all follow much the same geometries, tubing & features?
I keep seeing brand new Specialized's - and I think they are boring and homogenous, I see Cannondales that look like Spesh's, Focus/Cubes that look like either, and they all look f'ing boring!
I know that perhaps some of the more 'interesting' designs are outdated and obsolete these days, but I remember disctinctly you could always tell a Saracen HT from it's top-tube, likewise a GT or a Haro or a Schwinn.
Trek Y's and Specialized FSR's looked amazing (I SO hanker after a good lightweight box-section full-suspension frame!!), as did Cannondale's V's, and even Sunn's square-all-over tubing, and you could always spot a Klein Mantra or HT from a mile off.
So, what went wrong? And is there any reason why some of the more 'niche' manufacturers couldn't create something more interesting in an HT, or even the front triangle of a full-sus (even despite suspension designs being fairly limited in scope by practicality nowadays..)
I'd love someone to develop a non-URT Mantra-style design for example, or a new S-works box-section FSR XC!!
I know there's a fair amount all produced in exactly the same Taiwanese factories, but even so, have we reached such a point in bike design that they all follow much the same geometries, tubing & features?
I keep seeing brand new Specialized's - and I think they are boring and homogenous, I see Cannondales that look like Spesh's, Focus/Cubes that look like either, and they all look f'ing boring!
I know that perhaps some of the more 'interesting' designs are outdated and obsolete these days, but I remember disctinctly you could always tell a Saracen HT from it's top-tube, likewise a GT or a Haro or a Schwinn.
Trek Y's and Specialized FSR's looked amazing (I SO hanker after a good lightweight box-section full-suspension frame!!), as did Cannondale's V's, and even Sunn's square-all-over tubing, and you could always spot a Klein Mantra or HT from a mile off.
So, what went wrong? And is there any reason why some of the more 'niche' manufacturers couldn't create something more interesting in an HT, or even the front triangle of a full-sus (even despite suspension designs being fairly limited in scope by practicality nowadays..)
I'd love someone to develop a non-URT Mantra-style design for example, or a new S-works box-section FSR XC!!