[Closed] Bike brands you don't hear of anymore

Merlin Metalworks were acquired by ABG along with Litespeed and Tomac. The brand was then resold to one of US mail-order houses. Some of the original Merlin guys formed Se7en, and the founder Tom Kellog also did his own thing.

Diamondback still going strong, in fact I just bought one

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Corratec still going strong in europe - albeit boring

Kirk.

A young kid rode past me on a brand new looking Iron Horse the other day, think it was this one:

[img] ?resize=1000:1000[/img]

£169.99 from Toys'R'Us

Interesting to hear about Merlin as my Jones was made by them.

Schwinn used to have a mountain bike range but haven’t seen any new ones for ages. I used to own a Schwinn Moab, and I saw one about the same age a few weeks ago in Moab, clearly being kept alive only for its name.

[i]£169.99 from Toys'R'Us[/i]

How the mighty have fallen 🙁

Both Royce and Control Tech are still going.

AlasdairMc - Member
Interesting to hear about Merlin as my Jones was made by them.

Schwinn used to have a mountain bike range but haven’t seen any new ones for ages. I used to own a Schwinn Moab, and I saw one about the same age a few weeks ago in Moab, clearly being kept alive only for its name.

The Schwinn 4 Banger was well respected back in the day. My brother had one when we lived in the US as kids. I had a Schwinn road bike - these were the days before they became Walmart specials (Chicago made)

Azonic were the bars / stems to have when I started riding but now have all but vanished.

Sachs were swallowed up by SRAM weren’t they?

Iron Horse had a massive fall from grace having been THE DH bike to have.

Are Goldtec still knocking about? Used to like their hubs.

DDG

Mongoose has disappeared to all intents and purposes in the UK, with no importer.

Still exists in the US, at least their BSO range. Dunno if they're still making 'proper' bikes.

Sachs were swallowed up by SRAM weren’t they?

Already done on page 1 🙂

Just remembered a brand you used to see in Europe - Heavy Tools!

Paul’s Components still going apparently
Not heard of Bula in a while

Are Goldtec still knocking about? Used to like their hubs.

BETD innit.

Mongoose has disappeared to all intents and purposes in the UK, with no importer.

Still exists in the US, at least their BSO range. Dunno if they're still making 'proper' bikes.

Greg Illingworth rides one.

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Looks "[i]proper[/i]". 😉

Looks like a kids bike tbf

Have we had Dekerf yet?

These tried to sell in the UK a few yars ago but disappeared. Big on the continent
http://www.stevensbikes.de/2018/index.php

Mongoose is still available in the uk via csg in Poole , along with charge GT and some others

Kore used to be a big brand but I hardly see their gear anymore, Club Roost was another. I used to really like Bow bikes especially the Ti which was probably horrible to ride but oh it looked nice.. I think the one that has fallen the furthest is Marin, they were everywhere in the 90's, Mount Visions and what not but they're just not a cool brand now I suppose.

Girvin (thankfully).

Didn't x-lite become Muc-off as they found they could achieve much, much bigger margins with the product.

Extralite. Was always a bit euroniche although I quite liked the saddle I had with the nose art popsie on it.

on one - back when the 456 was hot people were hanging off every release. it all went wrong some where around the time they restarted holdsworth and titus.

Feebal - still have the t shirt from Bike 2001.

Really you lot do disappoint!!

No ones mentioned

Univega !!! ( raleigh owned a few years ago)

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Oh and Lemond
Along with
Gary Fisher

Caloi, my brother has still got my early 90s one.

Hot Chili, anyone?

Set up by Peter Denk, who then went on to work all sorts of crabon fribe magic at Scott, Cannondale, and currently at Specialized (See the loony tunes light S-Works on the front page!)

Bionicon still around?

KHS are still about in USA. I lusted after a Montana Comp back in the day.

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This is tooo easy

Motobacane

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I think Saracen might still produce the odd bicycle.

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Kestrel, used to be super expensive carbon fibre versions of Stumpjumper FSR's, until Spesh made a carbon version and killed that market. Looks like a load of open mold frames now. Guy who owns the garage over the way has one of their road bikes, still looks expensive despite being 10+ years old!

Haro used to be proper cool back in the 90’s.

My 1991 Haro Extreme - they had 31.8mm bars and stem back then!! Bought this NOS not so long ago.

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My Dave Lloyd. Probably doesn’t count as he didn’t make many bikes and was really a road builder.

Super super sweet framesets though. Super light and amazing to ride.

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Already done Haro.

Kid on his Haro

[img] http://tinyurl.com/y9l52pmr [/img]

Al Carter.

I think it was Townsend's posh brand.

I had a Sacremento just like this one. First 'proper' MTB.

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Really you lot do disappoint!!

No ones mentioned

Univega !!! ( raleigh owned a few years ago)

First page 🙂

I also had a fleet of 30+ of these, bought daft cheap when the brand stopped iirc.

Reece. An Excocet no less.

[img] http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/download/file.php?id=399020 [/img]

Mongoose has disappeared to all intents and purposes in the UK, with no importer.
Still exists in the US, at least their BSO range. Dunno if they're still making 'proper' bikes.

Chris Akrigg is sponsored by them, they seem to hold up to his riding ok 😆

I hang my head in shame...

Dekerf are still definitely making bike and made some for Chromag recently.

Bob Haro* sold up afaik, now works in advertising.

*Childhood hero and still the greatest BMX'r in my eyes.

I also had an Al Carter, mine was a Cascade, black with paint flecked on it a la Jackson Pollock. It got stolen once but I got it back the same night as they just dumped it over a fence into the train tracks and a stranger fished it out and called it in. Loved that bike

My first mtb experience was on a borrowed Al Carter. So awesome I never looked back 🙂

Elan

Sugino, Onza, Mks, Ritchey, Irc,Kalloy apologies if they have been mentioned earlier or still selling loads

My first mtb experience was on a borrowed Al Carter. So awesome I never looked back

My wife had an Al Carter Pro. Tough build and well equipped.

Bike wasn't bad either.

Can't believe I typed that. 😳

Holsworth
Claud Butler
Elswick
Sun
Rattrays
Kalkoff
Gitane
Falcon

I was going to say Al Carter and scrolled through all the other [s]crap[/s] pages just to check it wasn't mentioned. Al Carter Sidewinder (Pro?), first mountain bike with some "trick components" - had shimano (GS?) "trigger shifters" which were a huge eye opener for me and I rode it miles and miles and miles. When I moved to Grenoble my Mum kindly shipped it out to me. It was largely unloved because I was a cheap-ass student but I spent a whole summer doing 5+ hours a day on it and less than 10 minutes a week looking after it. Looking back I love it now, though I never showed it, and I think it was finally left in the yard of the building I rented the apartment in when I moved on. I'm very very sorry about that.

EDIT : Am now awash with nostalgia. It was obscenely yellow and I'd set off from my apartment, blast up the road to Uriage (past the roadies - it was 20 years ago..) then continue on and hang a right up a mentally steep rocky section that I only managed to get up without putting a foot down about 10% of the time. It was then a run along some fairly fast tracks until I got to the top of a mentally long singletrack back down to Grenoble and then road back across Grenoble to "home"... *sigh*

Haro are still knocking out BMXes, as are Sunn. A lot of big name companies are stopping distributing in the UK due to being a small marketplace 🙁

Beaten to it but Mongoose - Chris Askrigg.

Does Jerry Seinfeld still have his Klein?

Are Kinesis still around?

Grafton
Topline
Bullseye
Ringle
Mountain goat
Mantis

Coyote (may have been a subsidiary to another manufacturer)

My mate bought one with a flexi stem on early 90's, apart from that it was pretty well specced with xt stuff.

I was going to mention a few old BMX names from the 80s, but see they have come up at least once: Haro and Diamond Back. Both of these used to have a bit of cache when I was a kid.

And I see, also, that someone has mentioned Peugeot road bikes, so that just leaves me:

Atala

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and

Miele

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EP-X

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Carbon and belt drive in 2000

Darkside, Slovak company responsible for some terrifyingly hardcore frames.

https://m.pinkbike.com/u/bado/album/darkside-frames/

schmiken - Member

Fuquay.

I had the pleasure of meeting Greg Fuquay and having a good old chat about MTB design, as well as getting the opportunity to ride one of his creations.
Once I'm a millionaire, he'll have the displeasure of being dragged out of retirement to build me a titanium hardtail, the likes of which we discussed 20+ yrs ago. 😀

Proglex and USE. I still have a use carbon post. Daren't use it.

Ammaco (my Dad used to have a hybrid/MTB one with able drum brakes. The name is still there but they are churning out £129 full sussers.

Peugeot, (MTB, not road) I had a full susser Origin (3?) around about 1998. I'm sure my mate had a nice hardtail as well.

RSP (Raleigh Special Products). I'm sure they used to do bikes, now just a components brand.

Ammaco (my Dad used to have a hybrid/MTB one with able drum brakes. The name is still there but they are churning out £129 full sussers.

My first dream bike was an Ammaco freestyle king, in chrome. The twin top tube was awesome for no handed stands. 😀

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Have we had trimble yet?

Orbea
Not massive in the UK anymore

RSP (Raleigh Special Products). I'm sure they used to do bikes

Yes they did. A friend has a Raleigh SP Torus FS titanium bike with triple clamp rigid forks on it. It's on RetroBike if you like that kind of thing

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=374862&p=2788026#p2788026

Saracen are still in the bike game. This year's DH World Cup junior winner rides one.

Feebal - still have the t shirt from Bike 2001.

Same here, brainchild of the martins I believe.

Brooklyn machine works (still make components?)
Karpiel

Stratos (of mx6 gold triple clamp DH fork fame)
Bullet bros xyzxx forks
Hannbrink (still going just making strange little fat bikes rather than mtb forks)

USE are very much alive , maybe better known now for exposure lights.

But make some very nice seat post and bars still

Superstar BMX, probably still going I just dont get the magazines anymore. Not to be confused with the purveyor of cheap brake pads and rubbish BB'S.

Always wanted one because it has my name on the frame!

Superstar Parkinson:
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univega bikes, don't see them about anymore.

Newrobdob where did you hear that nos it's lovely

Extralite? Boulder? I seem to remember seeing a really nice Boulder at a race at Lyme park in the early 90's.

Anyone mentioned Univega yet?

🙄

Univega?

Come on guys what's about

OVERBRURY'S

My 1st 2 mtb was a cross fell bike bought 2nd hand from a lad at school then a pioneer frame new from them
It was a amazing frame at the time .

Univega?

Still going (like a lot of these in this post) just not in the UK

[url= http://www.univega.com/en/models.html ]Univega[/url]

I will always miss Klein, innovative design, exceptional quality and (harsh) ride.. but it was an XC bike so hey..

Trek really handled all thier acquisitions with the same blanket “absorb and take away the brand out of the marketplace” practice.

Disgraceful, but blame lies with the owners for selling out.

Scanned through but haven't seen either Kirk (cast magnesium frame) or Formula (sponsor of Deb Murrell)

Orbea
Not massive in the UK anymore

I'd say the opposite! Probably at their peak in the UK just now, the new enduro bike has been very popular and saw a lot of press.

LeMond..

Didn’t Greg buy that back ?

Although I can’t find a website for him, but this article from 2014 suggests he’s making them again.
[url= https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/previews/lemond-bikes-return-2014 ]LeMond article[/url]