Ever Buy A Bike You Couldn't Stand...

[avalonracing]

Originally Posted by fourflys

I think I'm missing something here as it looks normal to me.. plus, this would be the first harsh words I've ever seen about a Strong.. not that he couldn't build a bad bike, just never heard anyone complain about one.

I was wondering the same thing.

The bike that disappointed me most was my 2020 Santa Cruz Chameleon. Beautiful carbon hardtail and people love them so I'm sure it just wasn't right for me. It was heavy as hell for a carbon HT with light wheels and XT parts and it beat the hell out of me unless the tires had less than 20 psi.

[Jaybee]

Originally Posted by avalonracing

I was wondering the same thing.

The bike that disappointed me most was my 2020 Santa Cruz Chameleon. Beautiful carbon hardtail and people love them so I'm sure it just wasn't right for me. It was heavy as hell for a carbon HT with light wheels and XT parts and it beat the hell out of me unless the tires had less than 20 psi.

You aren't the only one with that opinion of the carbon Chameleon. It seems perfect on paper for a slightly more rowdy than XC hardtail, but I test rode one back to back with the alloy version and dramatically preferred the aluminum. Not much weight savings, too heavy to make good on it's excellent power transfer, too stiff to keep the rear wheel down on chatter.

[tbike4]

I had a plan to get a fairly modern Italian frame with some cool paint and lugs, build it with silver 11 speed Campy and other cool bits. Found this Colnago on the bay with the right numbers, right price. I had heard about the way it will make you feel and glide along speaking Italian phrases- like questo fa schifo= this sucks.

Maybe the builder forgot something like installing the lively part of the steel into it. I tried to like it. Different wheels & tires, etc. I swear it rode like a block of wood. I had a Tommasini, it rode like a dream.

[m_sasso]

Originally Posted by fourflys

I think I'm missing something here as it looks normal to me.. plus, this would be the first harsh words I've ever seen about a Strong.. not that he couldn't build a bad bike, just never heard anyone complain about one.

Originally Posted by avalonracing

I was wondering the same thing.

CLIP

Elevated head tube and sloping top tube road choppers are not for me, Black bikes are not for me, fillet brazed frames are not for me.

It could have been the best riding bike ever for someone, just not what I enjoy.

[dcama5]

Originally Posted by David Kirk

In the early 1980's I worked at one of the very first Cannondale dealers in the country. I'd been riding a Merckx and a Raleigh when Cannondale announced and employee purchase program to promote their then new aluminum bikes (they mostly made bags and racks before "borrowing" tech from Klein and making framesets) that were so cheap at $150 for the frame and fork I just had to go for it. They were so light that they just had to be better!

I got it and hung a Superbe Pro kit on it and rode it for less than 2 weeks before I took the kit off and sold the frameset. It was so brutally stiff that even my hips and knees hurt. When you sprinted it the rear end would skitter sideways on the surface which scared your racing buddies even more than it did you. It fit well and the steering was good and it certainly was light but holy crap did it ride like poo.

I felt bad selling it and told the guy it was super stiff and he thought "the stiffer the better" so maybe it worked for him. If I had to guess I'd say that thing was like a fruit cake that gets passed around and never gets used.

Did I mention it sucked?


dave

Dave, I apologize but I have to take this thread in a diametrically opposite direction. Next is a pic of the new-to-me Kirk JKS. It's absolutely perfect. I was told by the two previous owners (why they sold it is beyond me) that I would love the ride because that was "where the magic was". They were right, what a smooth and comfortable ride - so perfect in every way. It won't be trading hands again anytime soon! I can guarantee that! I have two steel road bikes, this Kirk and an Alliance by Eric Rolf. Both have the smoothest and most comfortable rides imaginable. Eric is not as well known as some builders, but wow, what a ride! Thanks to you both from me!

[lorenbike]

Originally Posted by benb

Maybe my All City Space Horse, but I stubbornly still have it 9 years later.

I just got back yesterday from finding out I have a bruised right scaphoid, 99% I think it's from taking a hit on the hoods on the Space Horse. I hadn't rode it in close to 2 months because I was riding my new MTB instead. I'm probably off the bike for the next 3 weeks. It's somewhere between bruise/stress fracture.. very subtle on the X-ray.

So the gotcha is I bruised the Hamate on my left wrist back in 2014 in the first season I had the Space Horse.

In both cases I was riding 35s. I think in 2014 I was an idiot and didn't understand how low tire pressures should be.. that was likely me doing something like riding around with 60psi in a 35c tire. But this time I was probably riding 45psi. I was on a relatively easy/hard packed dirt trail but it had some bumps.

The bike is just a jackhammer. I'm not sure what's going to happen to it. Either it's going, or it's going to get a 2nd try at being a flat bar commuter, perhaps with parts taken off my old MTB. I have mostly held onto it all these years because I don't stress about locking it up places.

.

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by m_sasso

Elevated head tube and sloping top tube road choppers are not for me, Black bikes are not for me, fillet brazed frames are not for me.

It could have been the best riding bike ever for someone, just not what I enjoy.

fair enough..

[m_sasso]

Originally Posted by fourflys

fair enough..

And just to add, absolutely nothing bad to say about Carl, I purchased the bike sight on seen on his reputation and others recommendations alone.

[merckxman]

I bought a new Merlin Extralight. I never got along with it...."nervous" handling I called it. It was a dream bike for me, sold it in a few months. Size 57. Maybe I was too heavy at the time, 194lbs. I knew alot of people happy with theirs.

Originally Posted by mlc

Got a Merlin Extralight that was advertised as a 58, but ended up being a 60. I kept it, as I could stand over it and it was my dads size (he wanted to try it as a rider of a seven) and have quickly realized that, as has been said in this thread, fit matters most. Center of gravity is just too high. Now on the hunt for an equivalent frame in 57-59…

[ridethecliche]

Originally Posted by fourflys

fair enough..

To be fair, it could have been the best riding bike in his stable but he never even rode it so...

Not knocking it because you like what you like ya know? But this appears to be more of a decision based on anesthetics, which is what it is.

[skiezo]

Mine was a early to mid 90s lightspeed extralight. Spongey in the rear end, lots of BB flex when standing and sprinting or climbing and 23mm tire clearance.
Down hill at speed was scary, wobble after about 25mph.
1 week with that one.

[hellvetica]

Had this happen twice to me.

Once was a custom Rock Lobster 29er which was supposed to have the same geo as my Stumpjumper. Rode it twice, almost lost serious control on very technical trail, it did not feel right at all. Took it apart and sold it right away.

Second time was a BMC Teammachine ... rode awful, just could not get comfortable on it. I tried to like it, just could not. Let it go.

[Ddub66]

Originally Posted by Peter P.

...and got rid of quickly?

Decades ago, when I started to commute to work, my first commuter bike was a 1982 or so Univega Alpina Sport, a mountain bike with 2 1/8" knobbies, double clamp stem, quick release fore/aft adjustment seatpost; it weighed near 30lbs. and was just a slug on the road. I swapped out the tires for something skinnier but that still wasn't cutting it.

I had this bike! Bought it at Velosport in Berkeley cuz I didn't own a bike and had a girlfriend that wanted to ride. But I didn't buy mine until the early-90s...is it possible that they were still selling some crappy version of this bike by then? It was supposed to be a mountain bike but it was a pig. Rode it a few times and it was awful. Way worse than some of my frankenstein bikes I rode in the 70s as a kid! No idea what happened to it...maybe I just left it at one of the apartments I was renting.

[jwess1234]

Maybe this question falls in the same bucket

[callmeishmael]

My 2018 Spesh Crux cx bike. It was harsh, handled badly, the disc mounts were so badly aligned even facing them couldn't stop the rubbing, and I hated it so much I borrowed my wife's gravel bike and, with a ridiculous amount of post showing, every spacer I could find and a 120 stem, rode that for the remainder of the season. It still didn't fit me and was still miles better.