Crank Brothes does an AMA on Pinkbike. Guess what happens?
- Thread starter norbar
- Start date
That has got to be the dumbest id of the year.
And its still early...
And its still early...
To be honest kudos for trying as I assume they expected that. From what they said the old owners had to stay in the company till last year as per contract so maybe the change will work as they acknowledged the old staff didn't listen to complaints by the engineers and were not concentrating on what their staff was saying enough.
On an unrelated topic one of the guys who started the CB company now works as intense CEO. Why am I not surprised?
That is a bit scary (Intense CEO)- I give those guys credit for facing this head-on, but why not start from scratch? Maybe they determined that there is enough of a dentite fan base that is still worth something.
On another note, I had no idea about the cranks, but I'm not suprised:
http://www.mtbr.com/cat/drivetrain/crankset/crank-brothers/cobalt-sl/prd_412782_115crx.aspx
On another note, I had no idea about the cranks, but I'm not suprised:
http://www.mtbr.com/cat/drivetrain/crankset/crank-brothers/cobalt-sl/prd_412782_115crx.aspx
Remember they were bought by a road company, 5+ years ago. That means that not only their opinion was better back then (a bit shit but still way better than now) but also the roadies might not have known much outside of the fact that their shiny parts sold well. Also they thought they will buy a company aiming their products at the same customer - the dentist.
I can't believe they're even trying to hang onto the CB name. By this point, it's synonymous with "crap". If they really wanted to develop a fresh properly engineered product line with different people, seems prudent to do it under a different name and get away from the CB public image.
A quick skim of the comments in that link should say it all. 95%+ dissatisfaction from the active mtb community. How could they possibly turn that around? Even if they made products from this point forward that were on-par or in excess of the quality of what everyone else makes, they'd still be in salvage mode permanently.
A quick skim of the comments in that link should say it all. 95%+ dissatisfaction from the active mtb community. How could they possibly turn that around? Even if they made products from this point forward that were on-par or in excess of the quality of what everyone else makes, they'd still be in salvage mode permanently.
I think SRAM overall has a WAY higher success rate than CB does. Probably lower than other companies, but I'd imagine CB is in their own league of dissatisfied customer rate.Sram still sells their products
See, this is what I just don't understand. Why go down with a sinking ship? Why not rename the company, "Reliable Components" or something other than "Crank Brothers". It's like the guys that bought out Ellsworth. For the love of god, name it something other than the name that is associated with crap and hate for how the old company (mainly Tony) conducted business. All this is fine, but if you buy the company, keep the same name, IMO you are saying that you are fully responsible for all the past wrongs, because you want people to associate the old with the new. The US regional airlines knew this pretty well, crash a plane, kill a bunch of people, re-name the airline it so people think it's different and forget that the past shit actually happened. It works for the most part, because we are so distracted by whatever the new hub standard is or what not. I know they want to pay homage to the past, but you gotta move past that if you are to come up with some actual good shit.
My take on CB was that they always had a "hook" to sucker you in, like lighter weight than any comparable product, but being woefully under-designed in many areas, it would just render said item "disposable". To overcome this is huge IMO. After you make your products reliable and strong, all you have left is fancy anodized colors, which didn't even work for Race Face in the long run, as even they had to move to Crab-On.
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I think the problem was bad customer servie + not correcting their mistakes. Ffs no one remembers 2011 demo that got destroyed when you mounted a fox 40 on it, then got destroyed again because they designed their quickly designed bumpers badly, it also had hub fit issues, shock fit issues yet everyone claims demo is a perfect bike.
Not to mention no one remembers how much Intense sucked back in the day. So it's more than just bad products.
I agree with Norbar, companies can have shit break, but if they take care of it, people are pretty forgiving. I think Evil pushed that theory to its limit, but looks like they're ok now.
I lost my receipt to a Joplin and they wouldn't fix it, and I've read plenty of horror stories that build a picture of a company with shit CS. I don't know how you recover from that, because you can't trust them when a product does shit the bed.
I think their little PB answer sesh was probably a necessity to get the story out about a new culture/investing in testing if they're going to stand a chance.
I lost my receipt to a Joplin and they wouldn't fix it, and I've read plenty of horror stories that build a picture of a company with shit CS. I don't know how you recover from that, because you can't trust them when a product does shit the bed.
I think their little PB answer sesh was probably a necessity to get the story out about a new culture/investing in testing if they're going to stand a chance.
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CB had great customer service throughout, they'd switch out the disposable components, it's just that everyone gets tired of having to mail components constantly.
And as soon as he got on board they outsourced production to the Far East.
And I don't know what you are all complaining about. CB pedals are made for today's bike: they will only last until your bike is outdated, which is about 2 months.
I guess I must have been really lucky with my candies lasting me a couple years before switched back to platforms on the xc bike.
Alu frames from them are also welded in TW?And as soon as he got on board they outsourced production to the Far East.
And I don't know what you are all complaining about. CB pedals are made for today's bike: they will only last until your bike is outdated, which is about 2 months.
@Kevin I have a 2001 Ellsworth Joker that is still uncracked so we all can be exceptions to the rule
I have never fucked up a set of pedals in so many ways, so quickly, as a set of CB Mallets. Ways I didn't even know a set of pedals could fail, all within 3 weeks.
I wish I had known that - I just sent two swingarms to scrap.
I have a set of original mallets that were raced/ ridden dh on for 5 seasons and still going strong (not to mention probably another six sets of CB pedals in the garage, none of which broke). And CB CS was always great to me. But I guess negativity is more fashionable.
It's true, having a positive attitude keeps their glued crank-arm halves from splitting.
If it's fashionable to hate CB, then call me fuckin Eddie Bauer!
I'm still trying to figure out what crankbrothers makes that I would even want.
If you say pedals, that's only because you're too new to the sport to remember times. You know that design they ripped off and then sucked at.
If you say pedals, that's only because you're too new to the sport to remember times. You know that design they ripped off and then sucked at.
Tracer 275A and Spider 275A is confirmed to be produced in TW since model year 2016. Uzzi and M16A seem to be still made in the US.
Naah I ride it as a trailbike. I have the xc version where they drilled the frame in a different place to get less travel and called it a trailbike. I'm super cheap and I still get a polish wage so I can't invest in all 4 of my bikes so I decide to live dangerously and ride an Ellsworth. Though I wonder why didn't they change their company slogan to yolo.
The worst part is the mallet is a decent pedal when it doesn't disintegrate. I remember the times where you choose between DX that always clogged in mud (old design), Times that desintegrated and CB's that desintegrated slightly slower than times. Fun fun fun.
I also think the CB pedals are decent. They are not as reliable as Shimanos, that's for sure, but back in the time when Shimanos were clogging easily with mud leaves, snow, etc,... the CB were a sensible choice. Now, I agree there is no good reason not to ride Shimano pedals and I am in the process of converting my bikes to Shimano XTs.
I am currently still riding a pair of Candy 3 that are several seasons old. They replaced some very old Candy (1st gen w/ resin cage) which I still have as backup. These are so banged-up from rock strikes that the resin cage is destroyed and barely holds the screw-on cap, but they still work.
Apart from that, I broke the spindle on a 1st generation Mallet (exactly like Jm_ 's picture above) after several seasons. It sucks that it broke, but it had a good life.
The only really bad pair I got was a more recent pair of Mallet 3 (Alloy body with set-screw pins). The bearing self-destructed rather early (2nd season maybe?) and did so much damage in the process that the pedal was impossible to repair.
I am currently still riding a pair of Candy 3 that are several seasons old. They replaced some very old Candy (1st gen w/ resin cage) which I still have as backup. These are so banged-up from rock strikes that the resin cage is destroyed and barely holds the screw-on cap, but they still work.
Apart from that, I broke the spindle on a 1st generation Mallet (exactly like Jm_ 's picture above) after several seasons. It sucks that it broke, but it had a good life.
The only really bad pair I got was a more recent pair of Mallet 3 (Alloy body with set-screw pins). The bearing self-destructed rather early (2nd season maybe?) and did so much damage in the process that the pedal was impossible to repair.
Lets not forget brass cleats wearing down crazy-fast, causing your foot to release at the worst times when you are mashing like crazy, at which point your knee flies up at about 50mph to crash into the brake lever and shifter, usuallly resulting in a bloody knee. Also replicated sometimes when you smash the bottom of the mechanism on a rock, releasing the mechanism. Then there's the rotational-release, which is good for people that need more float, but it also means twisting further to release, which is impossible to do rotating your heel inwards. Although much more rare, I've had to exit like this occasionally, with CB it usually meant falling, painfully. Good design? If you need disposable race pedals, you are willing to make some sacrifices.
Yeah, the old shimanos did jam up a bit more, but that's why Time pedals existed. Then people saw how light CB was and they basically couldn't help themselves from buying them.
Yeah, the old shimanos did jam up a bit more, but that's why Time pedals existed. Then people saw how light CB was and they basically couldn't help themselves from buying them.
I have a pair of Candy pedals which have worked perfectly for years.
they're on my road bike, but that's not the point.
they're on my road bike, but that's not the point.
They made an ok multi tool, but that's about it.
I've been using time pedals since about 1997. I've broken some of the big dh ones on rock hits that bend cranks but it was just the platform corner and the pedal still functions perfectly. I've bent some spindles in the same kinds of hits but that's a 12 dollar replacement and even if you don't do that, they still work. I've still got a plastic "little bike" pair I've been riding for 10 years, which is about the time Crank Brothers was born. That's in east coast rox, southeast dookie clay, and then west coast desert solar death rays. What disintegrates exactly?
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