Catagorising the Mountain Bike Simply.

[Repack Rider]

There are two types of people.

There's the kind that categorizes everybody into two groups, and there's everybody else.

 

[andrewl]

Maybe over simplification, but,

I can't help feeling that they fall into four basic catagories.

Four categories is two too many!!

In reality they fall into two categories:

1. Good
2. Bad

or the more elabourate version "those which you would ride and those you wouldn't"

Country of origin and price point doesn't always mean one falls into one group over the other so loose sleep over such trival matters

 

[Augustus]

There are two types of people.

There's the kind that categorizes everybody into two groups, and there's everybody else.

I'm in the first group.

 

[scant]

There are two types of people.

There's the kind that categorizes everybody into two groups, and there's everybody else.

now thats a class quote!

 

[cchris2lou]

I think yeti are made in the far east now .

not all of em. yetitribe meet might be round my way for 08 chris

I know , see the Meet posts .

 

[Wold Ranger]

Quality

Sorry but I see it way more complicated, Yeti were very low volume, extremely expensive(yes I paid just short of £2000 for a frame in the early 90's!) They changed hands twice and I think moved factories in the US at least twice too, before the move East. All the time, quality and finish were reduced, my frame was totally hand finished, all the welds were ground out and polished smooth and were totally stepless from tube to weld before a major custom spray finish. Not so now!

Klein the same! Original Gary Klein ownership, the best Aluminium frames ever built, under Trek, total garbage, snapped like eggshells.

 

[shogun]

I'm quite happy to stick with twos and threes in this day and age. Perhaps its because I'm relatively new to this and by '93 when I started out the far-east manufacturers had their game together, but beyond the limited production category three stuff, I feel its a game of seriously decreasing returns for your money.

I don't give a rats arse for exclusivity, I like function, and in reality the two don't always go together.

Limited mass production, so your Yeti etc, probably is the ideal category. I feel when you're talking one offs, more often than not you're a guinea pig.

 

[No Longer Registered]

Iwas looking at the new Pace RC-406 frame today in Leisure Lakes, I was really taken back by the poor workmanship and finish to the frame. The welds were not at all uniform and there were marks in the alloys tubes that had been painted over and the paint finish had massive inperfections in it all over the shop. I know that cosmetics are not the be all and end all, but when you look at the workmanship and finish on the 17 year old Pace RC-100 hanging up a few feet away from it and it is spot on, you do have to wonder what went wrong. By comparision the Yeti ASR I was looking at was extremly well finished and looked like an expensive boutique frame. The Pace could be passed off as a cheap Muddy fox Rock'n'Roll if it was stickered up.
Three catogories, Good, Bad, Bad but once good.

 

[Wold Ranger]

Finish

Its just a sympton of the throw away World we have succumbed to! Have you seen what they are tackling with modern bikes these days! They get hammered, so frame finish is irrelavent really, as a couple of trips out and they're gonna have so many chips, dings and scrapes on 'em. A frame is for two seasons max now, if you ride this stuff every week, tackle it on even a half decent XC/Trail hard tail, it'll break in minutes. A lot of the Trails are now designed around extreme riding, with 10 foot plus drop offs jumps and North Shore extreme becoming the standard. They sell more 6 inch or more plus travel bikes now than anything else. Great pity, but that is how the sport is developing.

 

[shogun]

Re: Finish

A frame is for two seasons max now, if you ride this stuff every week, tackle it on even a half decent XC/Trail hard tail, it'll break in minutes. A lot of the Trails are now designed around extreme riding, with 10 foot plus drop offs jumps and North Shore extreme becoming the standard. They sell more 6 inch or more plus travel bikes now than anything else. Great pity, but that is how the sport is developing.

I don't really agree with this stuff... On point one, XC hardtails are lighter, faster and more focussed than they've been for a fair while; so yeah, you don't go out doing gaps and drops!

I'm not au fait with where you ride but where I am there may be a lot of "extreme" trails, but for every one there would be 5 XC/trail riding routes. And its been the same practically everywhere I have gone as you can only build so many downhill specific trails.

I think you'll find a hardtail with front suspension is still streets ahead the biggest selling thing in mountain bikes.

Great pity? Maybe, but only if you look at the past through very rose tinted lenses. Fact is we can buy more for our dollar, it generally lasts better, and a lot of things are a lot easier. An average $1500 XC hardtail now has 80-100mm front travel (oil damped and adjustable), a 3-3.5lb-ish frame, strong rims, great rubber, hydraulic discs, 27 speeds, 25ish lbs...Not much more than a decade ago that would have bough a 30lb + fully rigid straight gauge taiwan steel bike with STX capable of , well, not much.