[HardtailHack]

Just wondering what the one item you purchased that was so shit it made you sad inside?
I'd imagine many of you will have loads of parts that promised the world and gave absolutely nothing but try to think of that special one at the top of the shit heap.

 

[iRider]

Schwalbe (trail bike) tires. Ripping off knobs, fast rolling but no grip, fast wearing, waaaay heavier than advertised, large spread in weight between same model/width/compound tires. Although they win each and every test I somehow seem to always get the lemons.

 

[HardtailHack]

Schwalbe (trail bike) tires. Ripping off knobs, fast rolling but no grip, fast wearing, waaaay heavier than advertised, large spread in weight between same model/width/compound tires. Although they win each and every test I somehow seem to always get the lemons.

Haha, my first go at tubeless was with two Schwalbes, on blew straight off the rim while the bike was sitting unused.
First ride I sliced two holes through the top of the rear tire, that has never happened since with any other tire I've had.
Should never have strayed from the DHFs.

 

[sethimus]

a cheap trail bell from amazon, the fabric it was wrapped around the handlebar ripped after 3 days of riding.

 

[slimshady]

A Dia Compe ahead, external headset. It lasted me exactly 8 blocks. I ripped the upper cup off the neck inserting in the frame after jumping from the sidewalk into the street.

 

[jonKranked]

Duro / Arrow tires. It was the Razorback under Duro branding, can't remember what the arrow version was called. Worst tire I've ever used. Took two dh runs on it then took it off and never used it again. It had this stupid dual bead design that was so stiff it made the tire feel over inflated. To get them to feel right on trail I had to drop the pressure so low I got pinch flats.

 

[sethimus]

Duro / Arrow tires. It was the Razorback under Duro branding, can't remember what the arrow version was called. Worst tire I've ever used. Took two dh runs on it then took it off and never used it again. It had this stupid dual bead design that was so stiff it made the tire feel over inflated. To get them to feel right on trail I had to drop the pressure so low I got pinch flats.

worse than a schwalbe space?

 

[Inclag]

Tannus inserts

 

[StiHacka]

MRP Ribbon

 

[Cerberus75]

Tannus inserts

Me too, warped 2 new tires because the inserts jumped out of the rim in a rock garden. Back to cushcore after 1 ride.

 

[sunringlerider]

Not dh related but a Giant Revolt gravel bike. Loved how it rode, but after 4 broken frames all from “stresses of normal riding” I was ready to shove it somewhere sideways.

 

[gonefirefightin]

Anything softride, Anything gripshift, Anything Klein, Anything Jamis, Hayes brakes, Marzocchi Drop off, Suntour, bike nutz,

I will have some more in a bit

 

[jonKranked]

worse than a schwalbe space?

i have never used a schwable tire.

 

[Flo33]

Foes F1 fork. One crash and the whole thing was turned >20° sideways. Perfect for a beginner racer. Also can't remember how often the seals blew and the bath oil poured down on the brake caliper and rotor. Also also fuck 30 mm proprietary axle.

 

[iRider]

Foes F1 fork. One crash and the whole thing was turned >20° sideways. Perfect for a beginner racer. Also can't remember how often the seals blew and the bath oil poured down on the brake caliper and rotor. Also also fuck 30 mm proprietary axle.

Man, now it really feels good that I was too poor at the time to buy one of those. I sooooo lusted after it. A local guy had one and it seemed to be solid.

 

[jonKranked]

Man, now it really feels good that I was too poor at the time to buy one of those. I sooooo lusted after it. A local guy had one and it seemed to be solid.

speaking of components i'm glad I avoided, fsa gravity light cranks.

 

[Flo33]

Man, now it really feels good that I was too poor at the time to buy one of those. I sooooo lusted after it. A local guy had one and it seemed to be solid.

You can be glad you missed out on that one.

 

[FlipSide]

Marzocchi JrT 2002: 7" travel, QR dropouts, tiny stanchions, narrow crown, shitty damper. That's all I could afford at the time, but it was a truly horrible product that should have never been commercialized. I upgraded to a 2003 Sherman Slider after a miserable season on the Marzo.

Avid mechanical brakes: MTBR was filled with raving comments about how these brakes were wonderful, perfectly fine for DH and would make hydraulic brakes obsolete. Bunch of fucking trail-riding wankers pretending to ride DH. The braking power was far from being comparable to real hydro brakes and the red pad adjuster knobs were melting on the caliper. Again, that's all I could afford at the time and I was forced to upgrade to Hayes Mag ASAP.

RooX Torque Bar with the ergonomic (lol) bend for your hands. The only thing this bend was good for is preventing you to use lock-on grips. Another shit idea from the early 00's.

 

[Westy]

There was a lot of garbage out there in the ancient times. Thankfully modern shit is pretty good but there are still some stinkers out there.

Old Reverb post that shit the bed in a few months

Two SRAM GX cassettes whose tiny little rivets like to let go and let cogs break in half. I don't expect a cassette to be super light, or maybe even have the crispest shifting at that price point but it shouldn't be a time bomb.

Code brake levers that got sticky when the temperature was over 80 degrees.

 

[jonKranked]

Avid mechanical brakes: MTBR was filled with raving comments about how these brakes were wonderful, perfectly fine for DH and would make hydraulic brakes obsolete. Bunch of fucking trail-riding wankers pretending to ride DH. The braking power was far from being comparable to real hydro brakes and the red pad adjuster knobs were melting on the caliper. Again, that's all I could afford at the time and I was forced to upgrade to Hayes Mag ASAP.

i have a set of those original avid mechanical discs still in use..... on my road bike.

 

[Westy]

So I will complain about some old stuff. Hope Mono Minis were such horrible garbage. It was an adventure every time you pulled the lever to see where the bite point was, sometimes immediate, sometimes at the bar. I guess the good part is that they were never consistent so if the lever went to the bar and I had no brakes, I could release the lever and get a different answer quickly. No amount of bleeding ever helped.

 

[Fool]

Reverb. Never made it a full season without at least one rebuild. I kept it out of pure outrage at its shitiness.

 

[jonKranked]

Reverb. Never made it a full season without at least one rebuild. I kept it out of pure outrage at its shitiness.

i have a reverb and 2 joplins.

 

[Nick]

MOST disappointing?

I bought a CCDB air from a guy on pinkbike. It was going to be freshly rebuilt under warranty from Cane Creek, shipped directly to me, to run on my old frame. Received it, bolted 'er up and it was leaking from the gold adjusters before getting out of the garage. Seller agreed I shouldn't have to deal with CC, so I sent it back for repair and he credited my price.

 

[Sandwich]

2015 Boxxer Team. I had an AVY DHF before my 2008 boxxer WC, and I was shocked at how good that fork was and how light it was for the quality of the ride. Being an idiot, I killed it after a couple of seasons without maintenance. Replaced it with a 2012 Boxxer Team which was trash and progressively got worse. I chalked it up to using motor oil in the lowers, which I assumed swelled the bushings. It was so bad that it got replaced under warranty. The replacement fork was no better, even though I used exactly the prescribed lubricants. My hands would go numb from the stiction on both of those forks.

Old Hope DH04 brakes. Absolute shit. I was 4 finger braking by the bottom of a run at plattekill. They howled, the pads melted off the backing, no amount of bleeding made them perform well. Buying real brakes was an absolute revelation.

 

[Fool]

Chumba F4 was a letdown. Pocket full of pivot bolts and allen keys lest i had to change a broken one mid-race run. Weld finally cracked on the swingarm mount and when I sent it back to them to fix I got yelled at.

 

[boostindoubles]

Single speed chain tensioners. The Surly Singleator is the one coming to mind right now. Only works if you keep it in the garage.

Not gonna lie... my GG Shred Dogg was extremely disappointing. It rode intuitively but the way it went together pressed all my buttons.

 

[Redwood Mulch Chucker]

Crank Bros egg beaters; put them on, went out the door, went to hop up a curb and both feet flew out.
Turned around and took them off.

"But they're so light bro"

 

[FlipSide]

Reverb. Never made it a full season without at least one rebuild. I kept it out of pure outrage at its shitiness.

Reverbs are some kind of a lottery where you can't really win anything fabulous, but can lead to serious frustrations when you get a bad unit. I'm to the point where I don't change it right away if I buy a bike that comes with a Reverb, but I wouldn't buy an aftermarket one for a custom build.

I have an original one from 2012 that is still working fine. It got rebuilt a couple of times, but I'm pretty sure I did at least 3 seasons without a rebuild. No complaint for this one. I know I got lucky...but I have to say I got a very reliable and well performing unit.

I got a second one on my Spartan 2018. I can't get more than a few months without having to rebleed it and I do a full rebuild every winter as "preventive maintenance". Annoying...

The 3rd one on my wife's bike seems perfect, but it doesn't get ridden as much as mine...so we'll see how that one goes.

 

[gonefirefightin]

Oh, dont let me forget the Manitou 1

 

[6thElement]

speaking of components i'm glad I avoided, fsa gravity light cranks.

Somehow I had the only set of those which didn't bend.

Single speed chain tensioners. The Surly Singleator is the one coming to mind right now. Only works if you keep it in the garage.

I never managed to find one for a geared bike that worked properly all the time after trying several different no matter what the cost. I raced several 100 milers SS and quite often had issues.

 

[schwaaa31]

Crank Brothers Stamp flat pedal shoes. Fit great, but there was actually no grip at all. Terrible. Maybe they needed to break in, but I wasn’t up for testing that theory.

 

[iRider]

i have a set of those original avid mechanical discs still in use..... on my road bike.

Same here, on the cross bike. But there they are great. A friend rides them on his winter bike/aggressive trail HTs for years and really likes them for how little maintenance they are.

 

[boostindoubles]

Somehow I had the only set of those which didn't bend.

I never managed to find one for a geared bike that worked properly all the time after trying several different no matter what the cost. I raced several 100 milers SS and quite often had issues.

Yeah there are no good tensioners. *I never tried the Rennen Rollenlager though. The EBB tensioners were crap also.

 

[lux]

…Avid mechanical brakes: MTBR was filled with raving comments about how these brakes were wonderful, perfectly fine for DH and would make hydraulic brakes obsolete. Bunch of fucking trail-riding wankers pretending to ride DH. The braking power was far from being comparable to real hydro brakes and the red pad adjuster knobs were melting on the caliper…

JFC yes. My first trip to Snowshoe on a Kona Stab with those nightmares. Can you say arm pump? Sure you can. Can you say pucker factor 11? Sure you can.

 

[Andeh]

Tannus inserts

Came here to post the same thing. Ruined two new brand new Maxxis tires, warping the casing.

 

[Gary]

GT STS DH back in the day. Every alu part of those frames snapped at some point. and the rear ends were so flexy mechs often ended up in the spokes on sideways landings even when in high gears. Super deluxe coil shocks blew so often I got used to riding without damping at all. 4" travel elastomer sprung plastic damping cartridge Rockshox DHO fork was laughable. seatopst could not be lowered any lower than not far off XC bike height or the shock hit the saddle. Bushings squeaked every ride. BB lasted 1 ride. AC components BB lasted ONE ride and their Red anodized chainguide was utterly shit and needed ziptied to the frame so as not to fuckitself up. The Stupid 46T chainring was pretty awesome too. Azonic shorty stem that bent (twisted).

Nowadays: Every fucking shitty thing E13 ever made. and probably ever will. The only E13 product i still have is a chain guide on my Capra and guess what? It dropped the chain TODAY. yet again

And Hope hubs. FFS fit an actual dedicated short freehub body to your DH hubs instead of recessing it into the hub shell and requiring a spacer to fit a cassette at all. Actually Everything Hope do is a disappointment.
I don't own any but fit and service plenty of it

 

[6thElement]

Yeah there are no good tensioners. *I never tried the Rennen Rollenlager though. The EBB tensioners were crap also.

From 9 years ago, I think this was the most expensive I used.

 

[Gary]

i have a set of those original avid mechanical discs still in use..... on my road bike.

I guess you don't ride it much in the wet? and almost certainly not on salt treated roads

fsa gravity light cranks.

My old 04 Ironhorse SGS DH came with those and they bent 20seconds into it's first descent.

 

[jonKranked]

I guess you don't ride it much in the wet? and almost certainly not on salt treated roads

i only ride it on some relatively flat rail trails. no actual road riding. that's a death wish where i live.