Coolwall Oct 2010 - Saracen

cool in the 80's but then ruined everything in the 90's with crappy full susers that weighed a metric ton so sadly uncool

Never on the radar BITD so not cool for me

Image definately tarnished in the 90s as well...seem to have become the chav bike of choice innit.

Although bitd I did rate the Kili Racer/Flyer I never thought of Saracen as a "cool" brand, and the depths they sunk to in the late 90's means that I vote UNCOOL.

cool, un-cool , but back and trying again

so cool for me

i didn't get them back in the day .but i see their contribution to
this nonsense now and appreciate them more
some things need to grow old to be cool

mike

mikee":oiluqzk4 said:

i didn't get them back in the day .but i see their contribution to
this nonsense now and appreciate them more
some things need to grow old to be cool

mike

Click to expand...

Well put fella

A bit like the Skoda of the bike world, very well-made, robust, reliable, but sadly never, ever cool.

My first 'proper' bike was a 1994 Saracen Eiger. Still got it, expect it to last me another 15 years and then another 15 years after that. Did I think it was cool when I got it for christmas back in the day? No. I wanted a Kona!

1987 & 1988 Tufftrax - COOL

'88 to early '90s definately cool for me. Still got my '89 Tufftrax, and gonna restore her soon.

This just goes to show how a brand can be damaged beyond repair with bad management and cost cutting. It's a bit of a conundrum because on a retro forum you could read it as a judgement on the other bikes but the question has been asked of the brand as a whole.

Personally I'll always think of saracen as cool although I think I'm in the minority. When I think of them I always visualise the early to late 90's period. I got my first proper bike (Sahara Elite ) in '94. The Saracens always seemed to do well in uk magazine group tests and were good value for money, the choice to buy it though was probably more born out of practicality than "cool". I had mates with Cannondales and Alpine Stars but after an initial period uncertainty and envy of I really grew to love my saracen and would still have it now if it hadn't been nicked.

The fact they were built in England meant something to me, they also had an uncluttered design with nice details like the cut through tube with the S and were very solid bikes. My mate had all sorts of problems with his al-mega.

Overall I can see why they are thought of as uncool, the sight of some of the shockers that came out really did pain me and a generation has grown up only knowing that . It will take another 10 years to undo the damage but they look like they are on the right track again. :shock: