Makes sense. Completely forgot they are UK based. For some reason I always assumed they are a German brand.
Pole Bikes hates Ridemonkey
- Thread starter norbar
- Start date
Brexit, baybeee.
Has anyone here ridden a Privateer or know someone who has one? Opinions?
Has anyone here ridden a Privateer or know someone who has one? Opinions?
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I've talked to one guy but I know he's a sucker for hype cycles so I don't trust his opinion. Plus he doesn't ride steep shit often and I think it's there where having a too long bike may be a problem
My Meta might be longer than the Privateer, though the CS is shorter, per the specs. I like the length and stability with the rollover of the 29 in steep tech sections.
I wouldn't say it's nimble, but it turns pretty well.
Pluses and minuses.
I wouldn't say it's nimble, but it turns pretty well.
Pluses and minuses.
shocked, i am not. that said, i respected their fearless innovation. interesting bikes, but who was actually buying them?
When I commented negativity about my interaction pole here, MTG responded to me and I got a GG instead. I wouldn't have thought both would be gone by now. I never would have wanted pole to be insolvent, but if I was to pick one to go bust first my money would have been on pole glad I didn't have a bet going.
The local Foes dealer is the same way. Foes mutz is the best bike for summer and winter, whistler (i shit you not), schwalbe jumbo jim rolls better than 29er tires, etc…like, its a fun bike, a hoot in the winter, but this guy is totally fanatical.
Where's Kona? Brand sets up then breaks down at Sea Otter
MONTEREY, Calif. (BRAIN) — Kona Bikes employees were tight-lipped Wednesday after the brand's employees set up a display at the Sea Otter Classic expo (which opens Thursday) and then began breaking it down."I can tell you straight away we are not going to have a comment," Caleb Smith, a...
www.bicycleretailer.com
Yeah I thought they'd get cut from the Kent company.
Maybe I should buy a 153 27.5.............
That's hilarious.Where's Kona? Brand sets up then breaks down at Sea Otter
MONTEREY, Calif. (BRAIN) — Kona Bikes employees were tight-lipped Wednesday after the brand's employees set up a display at the Sea Otter Classic expo (which opens Thursday) and then began breaking it down."I can tell you straight away we are not going to have a comment," Caleb Smith, a...
Hopefully those Kona employees are hanging out in Monterey/Santa Cruz/somewhere cool and maxing the shit out of the company credit cards before they all get canned.
Is Pole going bust really a case of just the industry going down or are they one of those companies that invested a ton of VC money hoping the market will keep booming forever? Since it seems in recent years many companies have grown way faster than it was possible before free money days and most old smaller companies are still around.
The whole a-new-shiny-thing-every-year scheme needs to die. Who in the world replaces their equipment on a yearly basis?
After the 2008 crisis I think we all started to see our bikes as long term commitments. Also, if you check outside the US/Germany bubble, most of the world has been on recession even from before the pandemic hit.
Even when SRAM insists on bringing out products with shorter and shorter service lives, nobody who hasn't been cursed by the bike gods replaces a component once a year (except for the usual wear and tear ones). Or Fox, with their minute, incremental yearly changes, which have more in common with the software industry than with the mechanical one.
Are you a bike/components brand and you're afraid of losing some customers because you didn't stick a "NEW!" sticker on your product? Don't worry, both the newbies and seasoned bikers will jump into the lastest equipment once they grab a new bike, or are on need of replacing their tired, worn stuff.
Even changing the paint of a bike/component once a year just to slap the "model 202X" sticker on it should be deemed stupid. Just give us generations of components instead of yearly releases. We aren't talking about an app you can change relatively fast (and even those go down pretty regularly because their user base moves to a competitor). These are expensive, complex machines, with standard components and a pretty healthy aftermarket market, but still the kind of stuff you don't anticipate changing often unless something nasty happens.
/Rant
After the 2008 crisis I think we all started to see our bikes as long term commitments. Also, if you check outside the US/Germany bubble, most of the world has been on recession even from before the pandemic hit.
Even when SRAM insists on bringing out products with shorter and shorter service lives, nobody who hasn't been cursed by the bike gods replaces a component once a year (except for the usual wear and tear ones). Or Fox, with their minute, incremental yearly changes, which have more in common with the software industry than with the mechanical one.
Are you a bike/components brand and you're afraid of losing some customers because you didn't stick a "NEW!" sticker on your product? Don't worry, both the newbies and seasoned bikers will jump into the lastest equipment once they grab a new bike, or are on need of replacing their tired, worn stuff.
Even changing the paint of a bike/component once a year just to slap the "model 202X" sticker on it should be deemed stupid. Just give us generations of components instead of yearly releases. We aren't talking about an app you can change relatively fast (and even those go down pretty regularly because their user base moves to a competitor). These are expensive, complex machines, with standard components and a pretty healthy aftermarket market, but still the kind of stuff you don't anticipate changing often unless something nasty happens.
/Rant
A tiny brand requiring very expensive tools with very expensive operators with what I assume are long(er) production times, is perhaps not a recipe for success.
this is why i'm currently building a bike from a dead company with a fork from 2015.
Funny enough I was reading the article and realized I used to work for their now current CEO. He def is NOT a bike guy, let me tell you that...Where's Kona? Brand sets up then breaks down at Sea Otter
MONTEREY, Calif. (BRAIN) — Kona Bikes employees were tight-lipped Wednesday after the brand's employees set up a display at the Sea Otter Classic expo (which opens Thursday) and then began breaking it down."I can tell you straight away we are not going to have a comment," Caleb Smith, a...
It seams like it.
Nope. I know VC money is cancer to every industry and it's essentially a pump and dump scheme.
Unless it makes them money, of course.
That's uh... a weird thing to hate. VC money comes in with the expectation of failure generally. It's a "invest in 100 companies because one of them will be successful enough that the other 99 folding doesn't matter."
It's not a public company. There's no pumping going on. They're not fluffing it to make it look pretty to sell it to some sucker. This wasn't the fault of VC money. Like there's tons of shady shit going on in the VC world when it comes to moving companies from private to public while they get busy hiding skeletons - but in this particular case that's not really relevant, or the case.
Pole got an outside investment. Their job was to use that money to expand into a viable and profitable company.
Instead of doing that, they made bikes that folded in half, cost a ton to produce with long delivery times, picked fights with their customer base and then went under when the excess demand coming from the covid boom came to its predictable end.
It's not a public company. There's no pumping going on. They're not fluffing it to make it look pretty to sell it to some sucker. This wasn't the fault of VC money. Like there's tons of shady shit going on in the VC world when it comes to moving companies from private to public while they get busy hiding skeletons - but in this particular case that's not really relevant, or the case.
Pole got an outside investment. Their job was to use that money to expand into a viable and profitable company.
Instead of doing that, they made bikes that folded in half, cost a ton to produce with long delivery times, picked fights with their customer base and then went under when the excess demand coming from the covid boom came to its predictable end.
Think you'd be surprised. There's a bunch of decent young riders local to me who all have an Enduro bike, DJ/Pumptrack bike and DH bike. All high end bikes. The DH bikes and Enduro bikes seem to get replaced each season.
Last week I built a Supreme V5 for one of them. His parting comment when leaving with it was "What does a high pivot do anyway"... I just laughed.
But I felt like answering "makes your brake and derailleur cable routing gash"
Another is coming in to buy the last carbon dissent this weekend.
TBF these kids are all good riders who all ride, dig and race a shit ton more than us old whingers on here.
Their parents aren't particularly well off. (Certainly not poor - hardworking tradesmen etc). But very supportive.
Personally I've absolutely no desire to have any of the latest trinkets. Especially a high pivot or electric components but I don't grudge those who do.
I still see 12 speed as a complete waste of money and lesser performance
Its a lot different when you are paying for the parts and bikes vs when your parents are paying for the parts and bikes.