Naw, Jan Karpiel, Alan Kang, Tony Ellsworth, and whoever it was that started Crank Brothers. That's the 4 horsemen. Get them together for a SUPERCO. Come up with a badass non-heat treated misaligned bonded monocoque frame with 3 shocks that bottoms out metal-on-metal just .5" shy of the theoretical travel with nylon bushings and a lifetime warranty. That's what I'm talking about.
Yeah, but SRAM, as bad as their brakes are, puts out some good stuff and actually does seem to develop and test products these days (except brakes). Avid doesn't get a pass, but SRAM as a whole does. Some of those "4 horsemen" guys are on the list not because of their bikes, but because of their absolutely horrid business decisions, marking/putting down of other brands and customer service. It takes a special breed to make it to the TE list IMO. Remember when he said his suspension was up to 100% efficient? Or how it didn't need a lockout (and subsequently came with one)? Or when he denied bikes were systemically cracking at the seat tube/shock mount? And of course most of all, how he denied warranties for all of the manufacturing flaws, like the seat tube, chainstay cracking, collapsed linkages, etc. All of these (and more) were redesigned to remove the flaws, but customers with the original bikes and "lifetime" warranty were forced to pay out for new parts. There's way way more to the story, like how TE claimed his wheels were made by Buddhist monks and so on(maybe a few guys in the factory were Buddhists), but I'm not including the poor products of SRAM in what constitutes the "TE" level.
Now, supposedly TE got much better in the last few years as far as running the company, but he did so much damage its difficult to ever recover from that.
My impression of Avid brakes is that sometimes you get a set that's fine, and your buddy gets a set that is unbleedably sh!tty, gets a warranty set, they're unbleedably sh!tty, gets another warranty set and sells them on PB in the box. If you got a set that is reliable, then chalk it up to clean living and/or good fortune.
Yeah, but SRAM, as bad as their brakes are, puts out some good stuff and actually does seem to develop and test products these days (except brakes). Avid doesn't get a pass, but SRAM as a whole does. Some of those "4 horsemen" guys are on the list not because of their bikes, but because of their absolutely horrid business decisions, marking/putting down of other brands and customer service. It takes a special breed to make it to the TE list IMO. Remember when he said his suspension was up to 100% efficient? Or how it didn't need a lockout (and subsequently came with one)? Or when he denied bikes were systemically cracking at the seat tube/shock mount? And of course most of all, how he denied warranties for all of the manufacturing flaws, like the seat tube, chainstay cracking, collapsed linkages, etc. All of these (and more) were redesigned to remove the flaws, but customers with the original bikes and "lifetime" warranty were forced to pay out for new parts. There's way way more to the story, like how TE claimed his wheels were made by Buddhist monks and so on(maybe a few guys in the factory were Buddhists), but I'm not including the poor products of SRAM in what constitutes the "TE" level.
Now, supposedly TE got much better in the last few years as far as running the company, but he did so much damage its difficult to ever recover from that.View attachment 118497
My impression of Avid brakes is that sometimes you get a set that's fine, and your buddy gets a set that is unbleedably sh!tty, gets a warranty set, they're unbleedably sh!tty, gets another warranty set and sells them on PB in the box. If you got a set that is reliable, then chalk it up to clean living and/or good fortune.
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