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Who has the best quality full suspension bikes?

sanjuro

sanjuro

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After reading another "Ellsworth cracks" thread, I was wondering what are the best quality (not design) full-suspension bikes?

I mean the highest quality, best welds, alignment, bearings, and threads; and the fewest problems.

I will include this proviso: any company listed has to primarily make full suspension bikes. Companies like Moots and Seven definitely make the highest quality bikes period, but they probably sell 1 FS bike to 10 road/ht's.
 
Tame Ape

Tame Ape

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Can't say from my personal experience, but speaking from iExperience, Turner seems to do okay.
 
Echo

Echo

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Good question. I imagine just about everyone has a different perspective on this. As far as FS bike's I've not seen broken...

Yeti 575, AS-R SL, AS-X
Konas seem to be pretty tough, although I did see a cracked Stinky which Kona replaced no questions asked.
Transition bikes seem pretty bulletproof.
Turner and Titus seem to be solid.

Probably a better milestone would be if the company takes care of people who crack their frames. Cannondales seem to have a reputation of being fragile, however they always seem to honor their warranty. As stated above, Kona just seems to give out frames at the slightest suggestion of a defect. However it seems some companies, for example Intense, Ellsworth, Santa Cruz, always seems to try and come up with an excuse for you to pay $450 for a crash replacement whenever you try to make a warranty claim.
 
sanjuro

sanjuro

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Quality is not just "does it break?" BMX frames are near bulletproof, but looking at the welds, much less their alignment, puts them near last in quality.
 
S

skinny mike

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specialized and trek possibly? they can afford good quality control at the factories to weed out bad frames. granted they have issues, but then again look at the sheer numbers of them out on the trails compared to those of a boutique manufacturers.
 
Tame Ape

Tame Ape

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sanjuro said:
Quality is not just "does it break?" BMX frames are near bulletproof, but looking at the welds, much less their alignment, puts them near last in quality.
Click to expand...
true, I would never place the majority of the Kona offerings very high in quality. Durability, sure.

Unless you've had personal experience with a brand, this is really more of a conversation of perception.
 
maxyedor

maxyedor

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Oct 20, 2005
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It depends, Foes for instance have the best welds and straightest frames out there, they are also using the highest quality bearings and bolts. However you see broken Foes frames reasonably often, I thik it's because the frames are bough mostly by hardcore riders who thrash their gear, and they can and do break anything and everything.

If you wat to talk fewest broken frames no matter the circumstances, that's a different story. I worked at a fairly large shop (5-10 bikes a day sold) and there were a few companies that we never procesed a warrenty for, Moots, Bianchi, Marin, and Transition. Then there was Yeti and Mountaincycle, we did a handfull of crash replacements for each company, but the average age of the broken bike was 10 years. There was one however 575 that broke a chainstay, the alluminum part, not the carbon.

But if the absolute best welds and straightest frames are your thing I'd say Moots, Yeti, Foes for the top three.
 
Jeremy R

Jeremy R

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gnurider1080 said:
specialized and trek possibly? they can afford good quality control at the factories to weed out bad frames. granted they have issues, but then again look at the sheer numbers of them out on the trails compared to those of a boutique manufacturers.
Click to expand...

That is actually a good point.
I remember watching that show they did on Berrecloth on the Discovery Channel, and they showed Specialized testing the Demo 8 to failure on this high tech machine. Not only did they know exactly how much force would break the frame, but more importantly they knew exactly where it would crack and the outcome was something you could ride out of without injury.
These machines give the larger companies a big advantage in situations like these.
Plus Specialized has their pivot system dialed as well, so I would rank them high in quality.
As far as the smaller companies, Turner's bikes are filled with quality like a fat kid is filled with sugar. Their bushing system is awesome and requires no hassles at all. Everything is quality from the bikes to the service.
 
N

nycurse

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santa cruz makes nice bikes. i have never seen a SC ever crack unless you can prove me wrong.
 
Tame Ape

Tame Ape

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nycurse said:
santa cruz makes nice bikes. i have never seen a SC ever crack unless you can prove me wrong.
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I've had three of their frames now and would not say they are not the most trouble-free bikes out there. Laterally flexy rears on the hecklers and crappy paint in the past doesn't make for a good frame. Besides, all their VPP frames seem to have bad reputations in regards to bearing life. Certainly attractive bikes though.
 
Jeremy R

Jeremy R

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I have seen pretty much all the top Downhill bikes crack and/or have other problems. But again, that is just one aspect of a quality frame.
All bikes can break with the correct force.
 
w00dy

w00dy

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A problem like this is sometimes easier solved in the other direction.
Cracks I have seen or heard of directly:
Specialized, Iron Horse, GT, Nicolai

Add your own and we'll see what's left at the end. This should be interesting...
 
J

JRogers

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nycurse said:
santa cruz makes nice bikes. i have never seen a SC ever crack unless you can prove me wrong.
Click to expand...
Dude, are you drunk? I love SC (i've owned two), but I've seen and heard of a ton of broken ones. This is especially the case for some of the older ones. Bullits and (most particularly) old Super 8s broke a bunch.
 
Yeti

Yeti

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SC used to have lots of trouble with the S8, personally saw 3 crack at the crossing thingy in the rear pivot. but those were replaced without question...also saw an S8 cracked in half in the main trangle....but of course it s cause the bike felt down nearly 300m bouncing on rocks and we only found the front end...hehe, was funny (and sad).
 
sanjuro

sanjuro

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Jeronimo said:
Hilarious!

Welds that look like bubblegum count them out.

Maybe you should google broken santa cruz...
Click to expand...
Believe it or not JD, I would have to agree with you. While I like Santa Cruz designs and I think their customer service is good, I know their bikes are hardly perfect. As good as most, but not the best.
 
Zark

Zark

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Oct 18, 2001
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Specialized has some of the straightest frames, clean welds, a crazy amount of R&D testing. They sell toolkits for installing and removing bearings for their bikes. This is an important detail since any bearing will wear out eventually, regardless of quality.
 
monkeyboy424

monkeyboy424

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gnurider1080 said:
specialized and trek possibly? they can afford good quality control at the factories to weed out bad frames. granted they have issues, but then again look at the sheer numbers of them out on the trails compared to those of a boutique manufacturers.
Click to expand...

have you ever worked in a trek dealer? not being a smart ass...

2 years ago i would have 100% agreed with what you said, but as of the last couple of months, the shop i worked in had so many bad trek/fishers/klein/lemonds come from the factory with a number a issues that resulted in us warrenting the bikes before we could put them on the sales floor. I think it had to do with treks sudden increase in size.

to completely contradict myself, your comment about the sheer number of trek family bikes vs the amount that are actually ****ed is not that bad. basically, i have nothing against trek... its just there quality control seemed to have dropped recently.
 
S

skinny mike

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monkeyboy424 said:
have you ever worked in a trek dealer? not being a smart ass...
Click to expand...
i did work at a trek dealer for a while. a good deal of the warranties that we had to deal with for brand new bikes before they went out on the floor were components that were missing or messed up. and don't forget that it is all relative. say trek sells 1000 bikes and 50 of them end up being messed up. how does that compare to a smaller builder that sells 100 bikes and 10 of them are messed up? in order for anyone in this thread to have substantial proof that one brand is better than the rest when it comes to quality control i would like some solid #s, the number of a model from trek sold, the number of that model that had to be warrantied, and then the same #s for a small builder that sells at least 50 bikes a year.
 
sanjuro

sanjuro

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BTW, there is not a single major or overseas manufactured bike that I would put on this list.
 
B

blue

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Jan 24, 2004
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I agree with JD and Mike B...Ventana has some of the most amazing frames I've seen quality-wise.

Why do you think a lot of the boutique manus use/have used their rear ends?
 
MtnbikeMike

MtnbikeMike

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Mar 6, 2004
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Trek seems to have problems with their aluminum Fuels breaking, but looking at the attention to detail on my Top Fuel and my Diesel, I'd put Trek up there. The Sessions seem nice as well.
 
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