Hunter

Why is it on this section of BF does a majority of the users here reccomend primarily Giant, Specialized, Trek, and Kona? There are many many different companies that either make or have bikes made? There are also many models from different companies that are better or just as good for less than the above mentioned four.
I do think some more brands deserve mentioning.

forum*rider

maybe alot of people have started on those bikes?

Blue Thunder

I have a KHS and a Schwinn if it makes you feel any better

But yes, I have noticed the proficiency of those makes of bikes...

IMHO about those select bike companies:

-Giant: Decent bikes, frames, not bad in pricing
-Trek/GF/Klein: Okay bikes, cheap, but kind of a "You're supporting satan" feeling when you ride one
-Specialized: Overpriced, not any better than Trek
-Kona: I know nothing about Kona, but from what i've seen, their Trail/FR/DH/Urban bikes are quite popular

roadfix

Those names appeal to the younger crowd who frequent more to the MTB section. That's my take...

Jim311

I like anything but Specialized, Klein, and Rocky Mountain.



Boy, those guys sure blow.



*This post intended to irritiate Klein*

Blue Thunder

Why not Rocky Mountain?

I actually hate Specialized...however, if you gave me a free S-Works I'd take it...and sell it...

temp1

I like Gary Fisher, do dee do dee do!

Maelstrom 

I actually recommend less. But really it is based on watching many bikes get wrecks and other bikes lasting. In short I only recommend things I see as worthy....

Trek sucks. Their bikes break here like Canondales. I think both have a place in the market just not in this market. So I tend never to recommend them.

Kona - great, strong and cheap. Can't really beat their out of bounds series for price and quality except for

Specialized - p series. The best prices power bikes on the market hands down. The bighit series is hands down one of the strongest bikes on the market. How can you not recommend them.

Giant is the same. Decent bikes decent price. However if asked I would still recommend Kona or Specialized over Giant.

Now for me personally if they are more specific I sometime recommend 243 racing and potentially Norco (if available). I am limited by my experiences. I am also a cheapskate. I will never recommend anything by RM. Their bikes are average in quality, their suspension design is heavily outdated and their price is astonomical (Rm is not the only company to fall into this category, its just the easiest to recognize). Ti is another thing I would never recommend asI don't see a purpose for my price range / style (or lack theirof).

You will also notice nothing I talk about resembles xc. I stay out of almost any post in the arena of biking. I know nothing about light, expensive parts. I don't care nor do I want to learn. I look for posts resembling my style and post accordingly. Maybe if I was xc I would recommend Trek or Ti...but until then I will stick with proven tech and companies.

Just my two cents...and I am not young by any stretch of the imagination

Jim311

Everybody has their own specific choices anyway. We all ride what we like. There's no possible way for anybody to ride every bike that's out there so naturally we rely on certain brand names we trust.

Maelstrom 

Have you ever ridden the trek freeride series in comparison to the bighits. The differences is almost laughable...trek is years behind in strength for freeriding.

Oh and just so everyone doesn't think I am a specialized freak. I actually prefer Kona for just about everything except the 4bar rocker system it uses. I really like the horst link Specialized uses.

Maelstrom 

Curious...care to name some more? I don't claim to know all the companies. Like I said I just know what I watch on the mountain. Their are a million boutique bike companies I would recommend if someone came on this site saying "I have 7000$ to spend on a freeride bike, what do you recommend"...but for budget bikes that work and last...I don't think the list is that long...Of course I live in canada and most companies, by the time the ship up here, have a massive markup making them almost impossible to afford.

forum*rider

Maelstrom: Cannondales break alot over where you live? I have only had mine for about 2 months but it is a 2001 bike and its in good shape. Nothing shows any signs of breaking.

Maelstrom 

I don't really like to slam companies. I will simply say the canondale dealer for whistler dropped their contract to take up Devinci. I doubt it specifically has anything to do with the bike, simply put, whistler and the shore is extremely abusive to bikes. Very few bikes have the durability to last here for an extended period. It got to expensive for the shop to warranty and repair all of the problems. I doubt Devinci will last either, they had issues with those as well. I don't doubt they will be dealing Brodie by next year.

Jim311

I bash the **** out of my Cannondales without any problems. I've owned 3 or 4 in my lifetime and each one I passed on to somebody else who is probably STILL riding it to this day. I've never had any problems with them whatsoever, so I ride them. I won't, however, recommend Trek, Giant, or Raleigh. Just don't like em.

Maelstrom 

How much do you weigh? ...seriously I am not bashing the company, but I know a lot of ex canondale owners who won't buy a 'fr' bike from them again. All the xc guy love their bikes the fr bikes ... aren't.

Although with Gracia living here now, I imagine Canondales will start to flow through more often as he is so smooth he couldn't break the bike if he tried haha.

Jim311

If anybody could break a bike I bet Gracia could! You just don't SEE him crash.. doesn't mean he never does! The Gemini frames are super tough in my experience.

Dannihilator

But remember the stuff you throw your bike through is not quite the same as what they do at the North Shore and at Whistler. You may have jumps and stunts in Florida, but at Whistler and the North Shore they have big jumps, big stunts and big drops.

You'll find that the companies that focus primarily on freeride and DH generally do better sales wise in that area, like Kona, Intense, Santa Cruz, Balfa, Brodie, Iron Horse, Evil, 24 bikes, Giant*, Specialized, Rocky Mountain. While Cannondale makes a DH/freeride bike in the Gemini, it's reliability is questionable compared to the others, Giant also is in this category, but Giant also doesn't. With Giant it depends on who built the frame and when the frame was built as in different batch. One batch can be a really reliable bunch, where the next batch can be really crappy.

Companies like Trek, Gary Fischer, Klein, Cannondale, their primary focus is on XC. Not built to take huge hits like freeride or DH rigs can handle. But where they make that up is that they are much more lighter and more nimble than a freeride or downhill rig can be. XC bikes can be thrown around some, but they were not designed to take that abuse though, just like you don't want to go race 24 hour races on an Intense M1 or a Kona Stab Primo. You'd be in complete misery 15 miles or 15 minutes in.

There are some bikes that fit in the grey area between Downhill/freeride and Cross country. Those are trail bikes, You have bikes like the Cannondale Jekyl, The Giant VT1&2, Kona Dawg, Intense Spider VP5.5, Santa Cruz Blur, Specialized Enduro, Santa Cruz Heckler, Trek Liquid, Gary Fischer Cake, Rocky Mountain ESX.

So does it matter what brand you ride? Heck no, as long as you're riding a bike, you are taking part in a community with many variations in it. You just have to know the bike's function and limits. There is a said big four, but in reality there is no big four.

Oh btw hunter, one of the said big four is not Kona. The said big four are:
Giant
Specialized,
Trek
Gary Fischer

Dannihilator

That's because Gracia is not a full time freerider. You do not see riders like Wade Simmons or Dave Watson ride Geminis. Between those two they would break a good number of Gemini's.

crashing_sux

Actually, Wade Simmons broke a good deal of RM7's before they started building special beefed up rear ends for team riders. If you've ever looked at Richey Schley's bike sitting next to a regular RM7 you'd see the difference right away.

Since Gary Fischer is owned by Trek some people don't list them separately.

A Gemini would be destroyed if it was used for freeride without a 5th Element or a Swinger because it has a very linear linkage as all good DH bikes do, not very progressive linkage (or progressively damped shock) as all good freeride bikes have.

As for smaller brands, leave those for people that know enough about bikes to decide what they want for themselves. I ride a very rare bike, and would never want to put a beginner through the hassles I have in getting spare parts or any technical details on the frame, I've been waiting over a month now for a set of dropouts I ordered and can't even get an estimated date of delivery, probably a few months more before I have them. The bigger companies are so large because they make products that compell more people to buy their bikes, that alone is a damn good reason to recommend them. You can never tell what someone else will like but if more informed users buy brand X and you're trying to inform them of what to buy, brand X would be a reasonable choice.

That is unless you base your bike buying decisions on how rare and cool your bike is. Plus, buying a bike from a small name company that ends up out of business in 3 years when you need to get your frame warranties bites.

Kev

There are alot of reasons they are suggested alot, they are big names. They can easily be found at your LBS.. I own a Ventana pantera frame and I love it, but it is not as common as other brands out their. So you suggest alot of times what can be commonly found, people own alot of what can be commonly found at alot of shops for the same reason. So all in all they get mentioned more.. It's not to say those are the only choices.

Davek

I ride a k2

a2psyklnut

As mentioned above, I usually recommend these companies to questions dealing with, "I'm new what bike to buy?" type questions. I do this because chances are these bikes will be sold just about everywhere in the country (overseas as well!).

My personal preference is for a $1,500 to 2,000 +/- frame only! Companies like Intense, Ellsworth, Yeti, Titus and their ilk.

L8R

Hunter

Danka I never said "big four." I asked why just four? As in why reccomend just four?

Hunter

Well some were already mentioned.
XC
Jamis, Marin, Kelly, Independent Fabrications, Waterford, Fuji, Soil, K2, Haro, Iron Horse, Ritchey, just to name a few.

For DH
Intense, Iron Horse, Mountain Cycle, Yeti, Orange, Azonic etc.

For FR
Look at DH bikes with a little mod's to them.

Dannihilator

Take note of when I typed it. I was tired when typing it, and I still am tired as I type this.