BoTM Novemember 09 Nominations - Mid Range Special

Dr S":19ym3azy said:

Did the judging panel notice it was hung from a £3000 frame?

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I have got the answer :idea:
after having bought the frame, he could not afford XT or XTR anymore

bduc61":2nhydgbi said:

Dr S":2nhydgbi said:

Did the judging panel notice it was hung from a £3000 frame?

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I have got the answer :idea:
after having bought the frame, he could not afford XT or XTR anymore

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..or food for that matter and was caught stealing nuts from next door's bird table :?

mid-range should be $650 in 1990 on a dollar adjusted amount MSRP with the onus on the submitter to prove the price. This contest, by contrast, had the definition solely on the group, so a nicely spec'ed KHS wouldn't be eligibl.

no-LX u-brake, btw

is anyone going to post a bike?

John":2n9njv6y said:

Neil":2n9njv6y said:

Bike magazines always seemed to do it on price?

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Maybe so but how on earth would we find the price of any bike any user might enter??

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Well most people, here, seem to have a handle on most of the bikes that come-up - either in (rough) terms of price, or where they were in the range.

Mid-range bikes are pretty much going to be production fodder - I'm fairly sure we all know mid-range when we see it.

John":2n9njv6y said:

Groupset it is. Easy to define. Good for debate

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Thing is, though, sometimes you'd get a mid-range bike that had a groupset slightly outside of your tolerances.

For example, my first real MTB (a 91/92 DB Apex, uncannily enough, I'm soon to acquire one...) was a mid-range bike. Cost, new, somewhere between 500 and 600 pounds. Had a steel frame, double butted. Groupset was Deore DX throughout.

Now that was a mid-range bike - there were two models above it (Axis and Axis Team), yet by merit of it being DX equipped, is outside of the mid-range BOTM criteria.

That's just an example, I'm not saying this particular case matters, I'm just saying we know mid-range when we see it, it tended to cost around (loosely) the £500 mark, if it was steel had a double butted frame, and a reasonably good groupset on. Some mid-range bikes had slightly up-market groupsets on, and some high-end bikes (I'm defining that on the spec of the frame) had mid-range groupsets on.

Bike mags new fairly well, when they were group testing mid-range bikes, the bikes they'd line up alongside each other - and they did it all by purchase price (that was within a certain range). People on here (myself included) can probably no doubt tell roughly how much bikes were, or where they fitted in the range (for the bikes people individually know about) - after all, somebody new posts a bike in the Reader's bike forum, and before long, you'll get several peole commenting on the likely year, spec, originality of kit, and price of it.

Neil":bdb77tst said:

Thing is, though, sometimes you'd get a mid-range bike that had a groupset slightly outside of your tolerances.

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or, for example, a manufacturer who would up-spec the rear derailleur on a mid-range bike just to be able to advertise it as "XT-equipped". The mid-nineties Kona Cinder Cone springs to mind:

http://www.bikepedia.com/QUICKBIKE/Bike ... &Type=bike

Still, it would only take a derailleur swap to make that qualify.

Muddy Fox
still as bright as day 1

I am enjoying the discussion.

Unable to enter a bike because I have none that qualify, I am a bit flattered that my 88 Deore equipped Fisher HKEK and the DX equipped Ritchey Aspen are considered a touch more than midrange.

I always consolidated DX and LX together into the same group but different years. XT was the goal and XTR when it appeared was nothing more than a way to spend money that wasn't necessary. We each have a little different perception which is good.



Keep the entries and the dialogue coming.

T

John":18pnv86m said:

BarneyRubble":18pnv86m said:

GUTSKIP? I feel unwell.

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Ditto, just enjoying my fifth coffee of the morning when I read that. Did make me feel a little queasy.
Tempted to change your rank to "King of the gut skip monkeys" but I'd imagine it's not something you'd want reminding of...

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It was a special time - my first week there they asked me to clean this metal walkway as I was the only one small enough, so I walked along this walkway washing it down with a mop. As I neared the end they pulled a lever and the walkway dropped at one end turning into a chute and I slide down and ended in the gutskip feet first. 6 ft deep in pig bits and I was only 5ft tall!

If there's one thing I learnt that day it's that you can't doggy paddle in pig intestines.

Now I could tell you about the day they put me inside a still warm cow carcass and stitched it up (sort of empire strikes back stylee), but that's way too far off topic and it's nearly dinner time :shock:

Anybody prepared to tolerate this?
I know it's 1999 and Alu, but it has a silly long stem, is a Cindercone underneath the powdercoat, Sugino Impel chainset and Deore brakes (Avid speed dial 5 levers)
The wheels have Hope hubs, but I will replace them with some Alivio wheels if you feel offended...but the rims are X317 so the cheapest possible.

And the powdercoat was midrange, being £20 as they were doing some gates at the time...and I promise the P2s are not triple butted.

For those who think a Race Face stem is too upmarket, it was £4.84 from Wiggle.