[trib]

Having been riding mountain bikes for a while I've purchased my fair share of parts which promised superior performance and at the time kind of delivered it, but with hindsight were absolute shite. Getting ready to buy a new bike with all the bells and whistles I can't help but think how time will reflect on what is supposedly the best technology available.

Whilst bikes now are for the first time, actually quite good I thought I'd ask about which parts you guys have saved for and lusted after just to bolt on and find terrible.

My particular favourite was a Magura HS33. The old chameleon didn't have disk mounts and I assumed a bright yellow german hydraulic rim brake would be the next best thing. Unfortunately, a greasy rim is never going to brake well, leading to locked up rear wheels in the wet and only marginally better performance in the dry. Of course I couldn't admit that at the time, only now can I admit how woeful the yellow beast was. I suppose it worked better than any of the front forks I had at the time.

So, let it out, which parts did you buy and suffer through? This is a safe place, no one will judge you for thinking a 100mm flex stem was a suitable purchase.

 

[TrumbullHucker]

right when i threw my leg over my brand new 26" un-shimmable VPP sunburnt carbon bike i knew i made a big mistake. it crumbled beneath my feet and my friends refused to be seen with me and i was kicked out of the bike park!


in all seriousness, i dont think i have bought an 'instantly shitty' component. alot of personal preference stuff (vivid>rc4.... easton havoc 35mm bars > chromag fubar osx 31.8mm bars) but thankfully nothing that broke/bent on the first or second run..
elixers were fukking terrible though

 

[dump]

e13 xc crank. After having great success with the e13 DH crank, the XC requires tightening every few rides. shit was expensive too. I have been riding it for a few years this way - it's annoying but I have an XT ready to bolt up. Why did I stray from tried/true shimano? new e13 is not old dw/jp e13.

 

[dump]

Still running elixir crs from 2009 - they've been solid. Guess I got a good set.

 

[trib]

in all seriousness, i dont think i have bought an 'instantly shitty' component. alot of personal preference stuff (vivid>rc4.... easton havoc 35mm bars > chromag fubar osx 31.8mm bars) but thankfully nothing that broke/bent on the first or second run..
elixers were fukking terrible though

That's the thing, most of these parts aren't instantly shitty. When I first got a psylo fork I thought it was the bees knees, compared to the Judy and the Pace RC37 it replaced. When the Psylo got replaced I quickly realised it was flexy, dived under braking and had serious damping issues. Damn Psylo.

 

[jonKranked]

e13 xc crank. After having great success with the e13 DH crank, the XC requires tightening every few rides. shit was expensive too. I have been riding it for a few years this way - it's annoying but I have an XT ready to bolt up. Why did I stray from tried/true shimano? new e13 is not old dw/jp e13.

are you tightening the e13 cranks to the right torque spec? i had that problem once or twice at first but then i found that they weren't as tight as they should have been. once i busted out the torque wrench on them i haven't had to touch them.

 

[Electric_City]

Giant AC2. After riding it and figuring out that the adjustable travel was a joke, shitty shifting and crooked disc tabs, I named it the F-pos... Fucking piece of shit.

 

[Westy]

Hope mono mini's. Most inconsistent POS I have ever touched. Never knew what was going to happen when I pulled the lever. Sometimes super powerfull and grabby, next time I touched the lever could get nothing.

 

[RayB]

Formula brakes.

 

[jonKranked]

arrow tires. completely unrideable.

 

[FlipSide]

2013 Fox34 Factory Series: Unacceptably shitty damping for such a modern and expensive fork. It should have been considered a recall-worthy issue, but FOX preferred to ask the unhappy customers to give them even more money to fix the forks. My confidence in them was lower than 0 at that time (it still is) so I decided to pay much more money to PUSH the fork with their bling-bling system that replaces the CTD crap with proper HS/LS compression adjustment. The fork has been amazing since this upgrade.

Apart from that, it may be too early to tell, but I recently bought a set of nice Profile Elite BMX hubs with 204 POE...Super nice, but the freehub drag is not acceptable. I've been told it is normal and they will spin better once they get broken in, but I am starting to find the break-in period to be longer than one might expect. We'll see.

 

[gemini2k]

Brand new hadley hub. After ~7 rides on my new megatrail the hub literally felt apart in my hand after I took the rear wheel and cassette off last night. Granted it just needed to be cleaned, regreased and tightened. But still really frustrating and ridiculous for a $300+ 'premium, made in the USA' product.

 

[kickstand]

shimano zee brakes

They came on my tr500, they've been terrible since day one.

 

[big-ted]

Likewise I had a couple of sets of Elixirs on various bikes that were 100% reliable throughout the 4-5 years I had them. However, they are now completely outclassed in power by more modern brakes.

For me it has to be DT 440 hubs. They're expensive, heavy, don't have spectacular engagement, especially with the 'standard' ring drive pieces, and my goodness they're a royal PITA to rebuild.

 

[dump]

are you tightening the e13 cranks to the right torque spec? i had that problem once or twice at first but then i found that they weren't as tight as they should have been. once i busted out the torque wrench on them i haven't had to touch them.

Definitely. Have been using a torque wrench from the beginning. They also give a god-aweful creak every now and then. Have emails w/ e13 going back to the first time I had issues with them back in 2012. Same issues continue to today. I've tried everything. Measured my bb shell, adjusted the # of spacers repeatedly, etc. The only recourse is to go through a shop and file a warranty claim. I can't give these things any more of my time. XT is waiting on the shelf. These will go in the bin and save the bb for the other bike.

 

[HAB]

For me it has to be DT 440 hubs. They're expensive, heavy, don't have spectacular engagement, especially with the 'standard' ring drive pieces, and my goodness they're a royal PITA to rebuild.

Interesting. I've only owned 240s, but they're light, have held up great, and are easy to work on. What was bad about the 440s?

The engagement isn't anything special, I'll give you that.

 

[schwaaa31]

shimano zee brakes

They came on my tr500, they've been terrible since day one.

Same here. Had my rear one warrantied for a Saint and that sucks too. More so than the Zee.

 

[IH8Rice]

2008 Marz 8888 ATA
Evil Revolt

 

[trib]

How soon before you realised that the Evil was a POS?

 

[Sandwich]

Hmm, recently...

A king hub. Great hub, light, spun well, but even with the fancy engagement and the 72POE, it didn't feel like a significant improvement over the 32pt hub I had before. I guess in the future, anything over 32/36 is fine. I got an onyx hub coming so we'll see if it's the bees knees. There's no doubt that it's a good product, but it was just kind of all hype and not a lot of substance after such a long wait.

Further back...Magura gustavs. They had plenty of power, but the modulation of a light switch. Trying to ride them in the grease was insane, I had to go so slow just to not lock both front and rear wheels and slide into a tree over and over again.

 

[jonKranked]

i've had a few components over the years that were so bad i straight threw them out, but enough trips to the bong shed have erased them from memory

 

[trib]

i've had a few components over the years that were so bad i straight threw them out, but enough trips to the bong shed have erased them from memory

how many bongs have you bought and then realised that performance didn't match the hype?

 

[jonKranked]

how many bongs have you bought and then realised that performance didn't match the hype?

i've actually never technically owned a bong.

 

[boostindoubles]

Rental duo stem comes to mind. I did not like.

 

[kickstand]

Same here. Had my rear one warrantied for a Saint and that sucks too. More so than the Zee.

I've had my brakes "fixed" twice now by the shimano guys at a pro grt and again at world cup.

I haven't even tried to warranty them....

 

[kickstand]

Hmm, recently...

A king hub. Great hub, light, spun well, but even with the fancy engagement and the 72POE, it didn't feel like a significant improvement over the 32pt hub I had before. I guess in the future, anything over 32/36 is fine. I got an onyx hub coming so we'll see if it's the bees knees. There's no doubt that it's a good product, but it was just kind of all hype and not a lot of substance after such a long wait.

what did you not like about it?

what spacing is it?

i have come to really like higher engagement hubs, mostly for the cool sounds and pretty colors.

 

[Westy]

Hmm, recently...

A king hub. Great hub, light, spun well, but even with the fancy engagement and the 72POE, it didn't feel like a significant improvement over the 32pt hub I had before. I guess in the future, anything over 32/36 is fine. I got an onyx hub coming so we'll see if it's the bees knees. There's no doubt that it's a good product, but it was just kind of all hype and not a lot of substance after such a long wait.

Further back...Magura gustavs. They had plenty of power, but the modulation of a light switch. Trying to ride them in the grease was insane, I had to go so slow just to not lock both front and rear wheels and slide into a tree over and over again.

The nice thing about King's is that they just last for fucking ever.

I am pretty disappointed in my I9 torch hubs. Freewheel bearing exploded after 6 months. The rest of the bearings are getting crunchy and loose.

 

[HAB]

Hans Damph tires. I demoed a bike with them and jesus fucking christ are those things terrible. Maybe if you always ride perfectly perpendicular to the trail they're okay, but at any kind of lean the stupid transition knobs and flimsy side knobs just leave them a squirmy, horrible mess.

 

[Sandwich]

It's not that I didn't like it, it's that it wasn't as impressive as I had made it out to be. It was a decent hub, forreals, but it wasn't like the extra POE allowed me to fly through the clouds and impress kidwoo with geometry numbers.

I've since sold it, and moved on!

 

[IH8Rice]

How soon before you realised that the Evil was a POS?

one month. it worked great in Morzine for two weeks despite not knowing squat about setting up the RC4 World Cup to the bike. then came the broken flip chip axles that caused me to totally eat shit, then realizing that the frame was aligned by this guy

when trying to install the "revised" flip chips

 

[Westy]

i've actually never technically owned a bong.

I knew a few kids in college who would have been 4.0 students if they spent half the time studying as they did trying to make bongs out of random things.

 

[blindboxx2334]

This is a safe place, no one will judge you for thinking a 100mm flex stem was a suitable purchase.

rrrrrrrrrrright.

 

[blindboxx2334]

Still running elixir crs from 2009 - they've been solid. Guess I got a good set.

frame that shit, wait 10-15 years, and PROFIT.

 

[CBJ]

2005 Boxxer World Cup was pretty shitty for a top of the line fork.

 

[schwaaa31]

I've had my brakes "fixed" twice now by the shimano guys at a pro grt and again at world cup.

I haven't even tried to warranty them....

Haha. I had mine "bled" by them at Windham. The guy actually told me that's as good as they get.

 

[big-ted]

Interesting. I've only owned 240s, but they're light, have held up great, and are easy to work on. What was bad about the 440s?

The engagement isn't anything special, I'll give you that.

You haven't tried to replace the drive-side hub bearing yet, have you?

 

[Da Peach]

spank spike pedals.

although, it seems they've tweaked the design to allow access to the axle nut now, but they're still running on bushings.

 

[HAB]

You haven't tried to replace the drive-side hub bearing yet, have you?

No, I have. What did you think sucked about it?

 

[kickstand]

spank spike pedals.

although, it seems they've tweaked the design to allow access to the axle nut now, but they're still running on bushings.

never owned a set, but the only friend I have who did bent the axle in pretty short order, I've been hesitant on any of their stuff since...

 

[kidwoo]

For me it has to be DT 440 hubs. They're expensive, heavy, don't have spectacular engagement, especially with the 'standard' ring drive pieces, and my goodness they're a royal PITA to rebuild.

At least the aluminum axle crushes easily and binds the bearings.