Brodie Bunch

[BiketoBasics]

I'm really surprised that Brodie bikes have such a following on RetroBike. Why is that??

I live smack in the middle of Canada and have seen Brodie bikes kicking around over the years but I never paid them much attention. I had always thought they were sort of a middle of the road brand so to speak, like CCM.

Visiting Sampsons (a local bike shop here) to see about a few parts I mentioned to them that I was looking for a steel frame hybrid bike in an XXL. I mentioned that I had looked into the Jamis Coda and the KHS Urban Xpress. They aren't a Jamis or KHS dealer, but they do sell Brodie. I was surprised to know that Brodie is still a going concern. I always thought Broadie disappeared and that the bikes I've seen roaming around are leftovers. Maybe I'll buy a Brodie hybrid as they make a few models in a steel frame. We'll see.

Sampsons is also a Rocky Mountain dealer. I have been looking for a RM Sherpa 30 road touring bike in an XXL for over ten years. The Sherpa began as a hard tail mountain bike, then a touring bike and then finally a high end mountain bike. RM wanted to get mileage out of the Sherpa name I suppose.

 

[wesmamyke]

Most of the stuff you see on here is pre buyout, or hand made early stuff. Brodie bikes has basically nothing to do with stuff built by Paul Brodie. At some point he sold the company and/or rights to use his name for the brand. Paul Brodie has a youtube channel, and I think he covers the history in a couple videos.

Basically the same story for many small niche brands. Bontrager, Fisher, Klein, Salsa etc.

Also, if I recall Paul built early Rocky Mountain stuff as en employee there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brodie_Bicycles

 

[vtwinvince]

There are collectable Brodies and then everything else, apples and oranges.

 

[BiketoBasics]

They make an Omega 1.1 which is a modern steel frame fitness / street bike. I was entertaining the idea of buying one - BUT

 

[robot.hebobo]

As others have said, Brodie was until 1994 an exclusively high end, hand built bike by one of the legendary innovators and craftspeople of the early days of mountain biking, Paul Brodie.

Unfortunately the boutique steel hardtail market was shrinking by 1994, and Brodie entered an agreement to share his name brand with a local company making mass production bikes in Taiwan (not bad ones, but middle of the road affordable stuff), while Paul still built custom Brodie frames for the high end. Their branding and logo was different but the name was the same (I remember thinking the mass market Brodies logos and paint schemes were super ugly at the time, vs the elegant handbuilt ones). Then as demand for high end steel hardtails dried up completely toward the end of the 90's, Paul stopped making bikes, but the mid-range bike company borrowing his name chugged on. Paul eventually gave up any stake in the company, I think.

I'd say Brodie Bicycles is and has always been a good brand, much, much better than CCM, which basically makes department store/Canadian Tire crap. Also remarkable that they've survived as a smallish independent Canadian brand, through quite a few decades now. However, nothing they make is collectible. They are about as sexy as Giant or Trek.

 

[BiketoBasics]

I'm not a collector, just a rider. The Omega 1.1. looks ok, but they sure don't hold their value it seems.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/984801314906382/posts/24530648693228313/

 

[PanoIgano]

The Kinetic model specifically from 2002 it’s a very good one if you are looking for Brodies after the 1994 sale of the name.

 

[BiketoBasics]

The Kinetic model specifically from 2002 it’s a very good one if you are looking for Brodies after the 1994 sale of the name.

Hmmm. Interesting. That Kinetic looks like a 26" wheel bike. Nice though