[Closed] Bike manufacturers and car equivalents

Oddly I have thought about this, but I don't think it compares well.

Most big manufacturers make £300 basic bikes and £6k superbikes, which car manufacturers don't do.

EDIT just checked Giant - they do road bikes from £625 which is Ford levels of everyday-ness to a whopping £9,999 which is top end. Even the £9,999 bikes come in a £2,999 version.

You could say that Giant/Trek/Specialized were like VAG insofar as they make both Polos and Bugattis but the brand isn't the same and not that many car companies do this.

What would Whyte be?

Vauxhall

What would Whyte be?

British Leyland.

Orange = Morgan.

Orange =

Starling = Caterham, expensive for a chassis made of old fashioned round steel tubes, but they work well.

What would Whyte be?

Dartmoor = FSO Polonez

Trek are Vauxhall. Perfectly good bikes but I just don’t like them. Image problem - somehow a bit boring, a bit stale, a bit cardigan (keeps you warm, but oh dear)

I often see Santa Cruz bikes and Volkswagen T6 drivers together so there must be something in that?

On One = Trabant? 😉

Trek are Vauxhall. Perfectly good bikes but I just don’t like them. Image problem – somehow a bit boring, a bit stale, a bit cardigan

I hear you, but I do think Whyte are much worse. Nothing inspiring about them at all - there is the odd Trek that looks decent.

Orange = Morgan.<

Nah, we often get compared to them, Moulton Bikes, old school engineering I guess and very small production numbers

 

I often see Santa Cruz bikes and Volkswagen T6 drivers together so there must be something in that?

Porsche. Their owners think theirs are special and unique, but are made in massive volumes by one of the biggest companies in the game.

Yeti are closer to Alfa Romeo, given their reliability record.

British Leyland

Weird, exactly what popped into my head for Whyte but genuinely can't think of a reason.

Porsche do their own bikes. The latest e bikes are some of the ugliest I've ever laid eyes on.

Porsche. Their owners think theirs are special and unique, but are made in massive volumes by one of the biggest companies in the game.

Just typed and lost a big post, where I said this in many more less eloquent words.

Yeti = Ferrari
Loyal fans based on historic racing success. These days you can get something just as fast for half the price from one of the big brands.

Yeti = Ferrari
Loyal fans based on historic racing success. These days you can get something just as fast for half the price from one of the big brands.

New owners also like showing off a bit, rather than just purely driving/riding.

Geometron/Nicolai = McLaren? High end, tech focussed, lots of weird/unattainable one offs on top of a few core models?

Land Rover = orange

Old models indestructible and gained a cult following.
Trying to combine new tech and historic design/styling has led to reliability problems.
A strong fan base, and an equally strong hater base.

Bird - Tesla
New to the game allowed them to observe and skip the mistakes / dead ends of the established brands.
Gone from attracting attention for being unusual/new (my first one always got questions anytime I took it away from the south east) to being one of the common sights on the trails in the space of a few years.

often see Santa Cruz bikes and Volkswagen T6 drivers together so there must be something in that?

Santa Cruz may be over priced like t6 but at least the Santa Cruz are good at their job 😉

T5/t6 more like a nice light rigid 29er.

Ok at everything but not very good at anything

But someone fitted SRAM brakes and gears so it's not very reliable

Sick = DeLorean.

Ti Salsa ??

Oh shit, Specialized are Audi or BMW aren't they?

Overpriced but otherwise a bit dull, and every now and then make something completely barking that goes well, and is a bit breakthrough, but costs a shit tonne to buy and look after and then every-one else makes it just a little bit better and for a lot less money.

Balls.

Scott = Renault
Nice high end stuff without going silly, can put together a good racing programme with the right talent.

The base/poverty spec ones must be spectacularly cheap in mainland Europe because they seem to have about 50% market share there.

Nobody who works there has ever considered the possibility than an owner might want to, at some point, partially disassemble the thing for the purposes of repair or majntainence. Resale value on the top models suck because of this.

I like this game, but I don't know enough about cars to play. Pinnacle, anyone?

Cove = TVR

Silly names, no longer with us but fondly remembered despite some issues

Pinnacle  are like 80s Nissan

Reliable, sensible but not terribly exciting

Reliable, sensible but not terribly exciting

Sounds like me!
... well, apart from the reliable and sensible bit.

Giant/Merida = Opel/Vauxhall

Why the two names?
Have they ever made an interesting one?
They make at least a biannual design/building cockup which hardcore enthusiasts use to berate them for decades on the internet.
Still sell in their millions, and very good for the price.

Giant/Merida = Opel/Vauxhall

Merrida and Giant aren't the same company.

Merrida do own 49% of Specialized though.

Why the two names?

Vauxhall were a British brand that made industrial kit, then luxury cars in the early 1900s. Then they were bought by GM in the 30s.

The Opel thing happened gradually, the last "Vauxhall" was IIRC a Bedford van in the 70s. Since then they've just been rebadged.

Giant/Merida = Opel/Vauxhall

Why the two names?
Have they ever made an interesting one?

Yeah but all the interesting ones were Holden's

Giant are not Ford. Giant make the full range from entry level to high end, but they are dead reliable and very good at their job. Giant are Honda or Toyota.

Giant are not Vauxhall - just shows how few people drive Vauxhall’s. Vauxhall’s are hateful dull horrible things designed to do a job to the lowest possible standard that is acceptable. Supermarket bikes ?

Audi - a brand that looks bling, very comfortable, but actually when you push them a bit, completely out of their depth

Sorry not sure which brand equate to them

Calibre - Daewoo

I think Giant are like Toyota - their products are pretty solid and reliable, but their real expertise is in running very efficient factories that let them undercut rivals.

Specialized are like Honda - they make competitive low-end stuff, but their company history is much more intertwined with innovative performance stuff.

Trek are like G.M. They do have some decent high-end stuff, but they are generally the epitome of mediocrity, with a bunch of brands that don't seem to make much sense.

Santa Cruz IMO are a bit BMW.

Slightly special, very accomplished, in the right hands can do amazing things, but really can you justify the premium?

Specialized = ford (nice but dull)
Giant = VW (Good, but again dull and make lots of other brands parts)
Trek = Chevrolet (big, flashy things that ultimately aren't any better than another brand)
Whyte = nissan ( good , reliable and often over looked until they get a top in class review)
Lapierre = Renault
Sunn = citroen (a little wackey but great)
Nicolai = porsche (great bikes/cars but all have a very distinctive look)
Uno = Bugatti (Italian? exotica)

Bugatti are a French brand, owned and made by ze Germans. Unno are Spanish. So, close 😉

Trying to be objective, Deviate = Lotus. Small British company with Far Eastern backing, couple of models based around the same platform. Very driver/rider focussed. Excellent handling.

Deviates aren’t light, mind.

I often see Santa Cruz bikes and Volkswagen T6 drivers together so there must be something in that?

Porsche. Their owners think theirs are special and unique, but are made in massive volumes by one of the biggest companies in the game.

This +1 (I have owned a Santa Cruz, but never a Porsche!)

Merida are the equivalent of something like Proton. You know they exist, but why, when so many other cars/bikes exist, why would you actually buy one? In the same way, Saracen are like Rover. Only the most dyed in the wool anglophile would buy one, knowing full well that there are better things they've had to pass over in order to get one. They both seem to be the brans a new bike shop stocks because all the other local shops got the brands people want.

I have a Trek Stache. In some ways Trek are a bit like Fiat and its empire- they're essentially dull, but every now and then they come out with something weird that's good (Trek Stache/Dodge Hellcat, Trek Fuel EX5/Fiat Tipo).

AMG Mercs, S-Works?

Ferociously expensive add ons to standard models

I was thinking something similar the other day.

Santa Cruz - BMW. Overpriced status symbols, common as muck. The company car of the mountain bike world.

Kingdom = Zenvo
Pivot = Hennessey
Atherton = Aston Martin

Having bought and used a 911 as a daily driver after paying £9k* for it I don’t think that porsche stack up well against the Santa Cruz analogy. Santa Cruz more like Lamborghini; brash and shouty.

*which would’ve bought me a newer Skoda Octavia Vrs used with similar mileage (70k) at the time.

Hope - McLaren? British, high tech and expensive.

That or Nobel, British, expensive but use the same parts bin as a Mondeo.

British Leyland - On-one. Too many brands. There's even some overlap in the Holdsworth empire which bought up seemingly every British brand going before folding.

Pivot = Hennessey

How so? Pivots tend to be pretty conservative, if premium, bikes with a big range, Hennessy make one totally out there hyper car, then addons for Fords.

Pivot = Hennessey

How so? Pivots tend to be pretty conservative, if premium, bikes with a big range, Hennessy make one totally out there hyper car, then addons for Fords.

I was just thinking small US producer, didn't think in depth about it, just spitballing for a bit of fun.

British Leyland

That seems a bit harsh on Whyte considering how progressive they are. I would have used BL to describe Orange considering their simple engineering and unwillingness to move with the times from their single pivot.

I was just thinking small US producer, didn’t think in depth about it, just spitballing for a bit of fun.

Pivot are pretty big in the US, I think distribution limits their reach over here.

Specialized would be Mercedes. Win everything at the racing end and produce nice but overpriced stuff for the masses.

Santa Cruz – BMW. Overpriced status symbols, common as muck. The company car of the mountain bike world.

Ouch. Although I sort of agree. They're definitely not as exclusive as some of their owners seem to think. In fact around me they're probably the commonest bike / car brand respectively. An alternative view though is that they're quality items that are more expensive but better made and generally nicer than their cheaper alternatives?

Caveat: I own both a SC and a BMW* though so my opinion is presumably void.

*it's 14 years old though...

Burgtec = Akrapovic

Brash aftermarket jewellery.

That seems a bit harsh on Whyte considering how progressive they are. I would have used BL to describe Orange considering their simple engineering and unwillingness to move with the times from their single pivot.

This is always a wierd argument. What manufacturers have moved with the times? You can stick on a load of acronyms on an old design, but it's still old.

Horst - 90s
DW/Maestro - ~2000
Split pivot/ABP - same idea as a kona with the brake arm. Just rationalized the shock and brake linkage into one.
VPP - Outland in the 90s (there was even a Saracen that used it before or at the same time as the 1st Santa Cruz VPP bikes).

Geometron - Alpina? Take a good solid product and embelish/refine?
Banshee - Noble - rare and faster than the sum of its parts?
Specialized - Jaguar, do some occasional good models but mainly overpriced for ordinary tech.
Orange - Ineos Grenadier - recreating a classic, which will be good, but it feels like the world has moved on (Rivian for eg)

Really want to play but no absolutely nothing about cars. Somebody do Kona or Stooge for me please?

Kona - awesome in the 90s, occasional returns to form (Process 111) but nothing that quite matches their glory days. Definitely Peugeot.

Stooge must be Morgan? Sporty, but looks like it's come out of the 1930's.

Sur Ron - Mercedes A35, looks like a fun piece of kit, bought by arseholes.

Oh shit, Specialized are Audi or BMW aren’t they?

And the sworks are the m series cars

Giant are not Ford. Giant make the full range from entry level to high end, but they are dead reliable and very good at their job.

Ford make a full range of cars, from the humble fiesta to the 400k GT.

Still can't think of a good car manufacturer for Cotic - perhaps Lotus in the post Elise era?

A different manufacturing technique to most of the industry (Cotic = steel when everyone else is aluminium or carbon frame, Lotus = bonded aluminium extrusions when everyone else is steel monocoque or tubular chassis) that becomes the USP for the brand.

Sonder - Skoda
Whyte -Lotus
Orange - Toyota
Commencal - Citroen
Mondraker - Izuzu
Sick -SSangyong

Still can’t think of a good car manufacturer for Cotic

Ginetta - still using steel tubes for most of their cars. Or Morgan. For the lols.

I always likened Orange to Porsche for the simple reason that their concept on paper really isn't the best (single pivot) but they've stuck with it and it's evolved over the years. Posrsche have the rear engine layout which, on paper isn't perhaps the best layout for a sports car but they've evolved based on that principle. I quite like it.

Favourite comparisons mentioned above are:-
Sick - DeLorean
Stooge - Morgan

Curtis = Spyker. Both handbuilt to the customers requirements and there both very exquisite.

Trek are Vauxhall. Perfectly good bikes but I just don’t like them. Image problem – somehow a bit boring, a bit stale, a bit cardigan (keeps you warm, but oh dear)

Trek are like G.M. They do have some decent high-end stuff, but they are generally the epitome of mediocrity, with a bunch of brands that don’t seem to make much sense.

Trek = Chevrolet (big, flashy things that ultimately aren’t any better than another brand)

Can't find anything about FIAT ruining a professional's career because he called out their top athlete for illegal practices years before they admitted it, then never apologised though...

Can you tell I hate Trek?

Sick= Delorean.

Both vanished abruptly costing a lot of people money

Surely Orange are John Deer or some other maker of agricultural equipment? I know they aren’t cars but Orange have always looked a bit like farm equipment to my eyes.

Whyte -Lotus

This made me chuckle, and I’m a Whyte owner. Lotus implies speed through lightness, Whytes tend to be tanks.

I’d say they are more like Citroen. Originally clever and quirk, then gradually lost in normality.....with iffy finish, hopefully going to regain some of what made them special

Canyon = Hyundai

Pole = Zenvo. Both will cost you a small fortune and both will break.

Yes to Giant = Toyota, that one is so obvious. Famously reliable and excellent engineering but slightly off on the aesthetics.

Also yes to Trek = Vauxhall, hugely successful company making fast bikes but plagued by blandness.

And Spesh = Ford. Solid products with a bit nicer design than their big rivals and drive/ride well.

Like the Orange/Porsche comparison. Wilfully awkward but very effective. Bit Marmite on the looks. Loyal fan base. Take the piss a bit on pricing.

SC is probably more BMW than VW?

Bird = Hyundai or Kia? Nice enough but not much character. Whyte could be one of them too.

Mondraker = Citroen. Quirky and inventive but you wouldn't really want to own one.

Yeti = Mercedes. Strong racing heritage, status symbols, but boring.

Whyte - Subaru. Handle well, go well, just don't look at it too closely lest you uncover some curious design issues.

Orange - MG-Rover. Assembled in a shed with some Halfords hand tools.

Pace - Lotus. Assembled in a shed from bits of kitchen foil.

Cotic - Caterham. Assembled in a shed from spindly scaffolding. Dragon slaying capabilities.

Specialized - Kia. Functional, soulless, mass produced... oh look a squirrel!

Pace – Lotus. Assembled in a shed from bits of kitchen foil.

Good one!

TVR = Trillion

Bought/backed by foreigners with massive wealth, promised loads and delivered **** all

So which bike brand has the misfortune of being range rover then?

...any ebike!

So which bike brand has the misfortune of being range rover then?

GT - Jaguar Land Rover: stubbornly adhering to questionable philosophies while simultaneously innovating through some mind-enhancing drugs-augmented design processes to produce some technically out there solutions (RTS, STS, Lobo, I-drive). Always constantly teetering on the edge of bankruptcy before being swept up yet again by some guardian angel. See also Turner.

Vitus =Kia. Good reliable cars, and good value for money. Therefore never 'cool'

GT – Jaguar Land Rover: stubbornly adhering to questionable philosophies while simultaneously innovating through some mind-enhancing drugs-augmented design processes to produce some technically out there solutions (RTS, STS, Lobo, I-drive). Always constantly teetering on the edge of bankruptcy before being swept up yet again by some guardian angel. See also Turner.

I like the thought that you've put into this and you clearly know more about cars than I, but I think we need a bike equivalent just for Range Rovers & variants.

Overpriced, unreliable, driven/ridden by fashion victims and entitled arseholes.

We've already had a few suggestions for Yeti though.

@cha****ng Nicolai perhaps. <bewareMassiveGeneralisation> IME there’s two categories of Nicolai riders: those who know what they are & have gone out to buy the absolute best product for their needs, cost no option; then there’s the (and we have many of these at work) bonus spending brigade who are out to fritter away as much of their commission payment on anything they can that month, again cost no option. So we had one guy fly out to Germany to pick up his helius and on the way back also picked up his gt3rs from the factory in Stuttgart He hasn’t a clue how to drive or ride either of them, he just wanted them as trophy pieces. </bewareMassiveGeneralisation>

Best thread in ages. Well done OP