Top 15 brands

drop bh and add pegoretti, and find room for baum

I hear you on the baum, love thier work! But they don't have huge international impact, hence my choice to leave them out. Huge number of super high quality custom builders, internationally famous, but not a huge impact like other brands.

BH made it in on my list for sponsoring a protour team that ALMOST made it to another le tour this year.....therefore a bit of extra international exposure.

Agree about BH and theirs international exposure, but it's a bike rarely seen in Mexico.

You should add Litespeed instead and maybe get in a pool to choose one of them between Merlin, Serotta and Eddy Merckx

Difficult question, I agree with you almost in everything with the exception of the Giant thing ... their own race category??? come on ... Cannondale has the right! :-)

Best by what criteria?

Innovation-Cannondale (first commercially successful big tube aluminum bike), Kestrel (pioneer in full carbon frames--but now cheap made in China stuff like the others. When it first came out the original Kestrel EMS carbon fork was the best single bike component), Merlin (the original titanium)
Craftsmanship-Richard Sachs
Classicism-Merckx MX leader
Marketing-Trek (the Lance factor)
Value-Leader or Giant
Exoticism-Lotus (not UCI legal, but still never been anything quite like it)
Fastest--Ridley (when ridden by Robbie McEwen)
Durability--Litespeed or Merlin (now basically the same thing)

Panache--too subjective

In Australia Felt and Avanti would have to be on the list.

In no particular order:

Parlee
Crumpton
Moots
Look
Time
Spin
Colnago
Cyfac
Holland
Kirk
Sachs
Ruegamer
Pinarello
Vanilla
Strong

All build great bikes. Some are at the cutting edge of bike development, while some are craftsmen in the old sense.

alienator said:

Parlee
Crumpton
Moots
Look
Time
Spin
Colnago
Cyfac
Holland
Kirk
Sachs
Ruegamer
Pinarello
Vanilla
Strong

Now that is the type of list I like. Although makers like Colnago, Look, and Pinarello have too high of a production volume for my tastes.

alienator said:

In no particular order:

Parlee
Crumpton
Moots
Look
Time
Spin
Colnago
Cyfac
Holland
Kirk
Sachs
Ruegamer
Pinarello
Vanilla
Strong

All build great bikes. Some are at the cutting edge of bike development, while some are craftsmen in the old sense.

You don't like Cervelo?

artemidorus said:

You don't like Cervelo?

Yeah, I like Cervelo. I thought long and hard about 'em, but I decided that I'd like to see them go a year without any real problems with their new frames. I think the problems they had w/ frames having bonding issues is the only fly in their ointment. They are definitely cutting edge.

As it stands, honorable mentions would have been Scott, Cervelo, Scapin, Storck, Canyon, De Rosa........and others. I still get a headache, though, when I picture the De Rosa Tango. On the other hand, I still get a chubby when I remember the De Rosa Prototype 1D that I saw. Time should also have a place, as should Waterford.

I understand the urge to avoid big manufacturers when thinking about the best brands/bikes, but Colnago, Look, and Pinarello have a history replete with fine bikes and devoid of any real stinkers.

I wouldn't put Trek in there because no matter how good their bikes are, they completely lack style, IMHO. Neither do they have the look of a purpose built tool. It just seems they fall in the bland land somewhere between those two ideals. Giant is the same for me. Specialized bikes look better and apparently work well, but they do some stuff that just makes no sense to me.

I believe Bianchi officially calls their color Celeste Green.( or just plain Celeste) 🙂

Blimey, I've only ever heard of 7 of these bikes!!

alienator said:

In no particular order:

Parlee
Crumpton
Moots
Look
Time
Spin
Colnago
Cyfac
Holland
Kirk
Sachs
Ruegamer
Pinarello
Vanilla
Strong

All build great bikes. Some are at the cutting edge of bike development, while some are craftsmen in the old sense.

alienator said:

As it stands, honorable mentions would have been Scott, Cervelo, Scapin, Storck, Canyon, De Rosa........and others.

So you rate Canyon? I was considering getting a Canyon in, but since they are European only, so far can't see or ride before I buy, not to mention lack of back up!
I'm not bagging Canyon, rather asking why you give them a "honorable mention"?

Obviously Mr Alienator rates craftsmanship over pure sales at the top end. If we were going to list a top 20 or 25 then I'd start getting into the custom and crasftsmen brands others have listed. Small high quality brands may have the world wide respect, but I felt the need to rate on world wide sales more.

This is an interesting thread because I'm seriously thinking of getting a new Road Bike around December or January, I bought my Six13 without riding one so I guess I was lucky, I really like it...

I'm really quite stuck right now, there are SO many Brands available and I haven't got a budget...this time I think I'm looking for a "Century" Bike...something that rides more like the Synapse?? But I'd like to maybe buy something other than a Cannondale next time...
I'd like to try some of the Brands listed that I've never heard of a try!

Question: I've heard some good things about Seven Cycles, if I asked them to build me a "Century" Bike, would/could they do it??

Phill P said:

So you rate Canyon? I was considering getting a Canyon in, but since they are European only, so far can't see or ride before I buy, not to mention lack of back up!
I'm not bagging Canyon, rather asking why you give them a "honorable mention"?

Obviously Mr Alienator rates craftsmanship over pure sales at the top end. If we were going to list a top 20 or 25 then I'd start getting into the custom and crasftsmen brands others have listed. Small high quality brands may have the world wide respect, but I felt the need to rate on world wide sales more.

I'd have all the brands that do well on the EFBe fatigue test

http://www.efbe.de/testergebnisse/rennwiege/enindex.php

In no particular order:

Ridley
Time
Look
Cannondale
Specialized
Roi
BMC

I'll name a few,

De Rosa
Baum
Serotta
BMC
Cannondale
Litespeed (ecept their pavia)
Pedal Force (Their Fusion is a spectacular looking bike)
Colnago
Cervelo
Pegoretti
Orbea...maybe
Bianchi
Giant....maybe
Specialized.....maybe

There aren't that many different 'unique' brands here in WA

Phill P said:

Giant
Trek
Cannondale

Your top 3 brands are like pubic hair, every c*nts got one...

As for 'Top' brands... in what way? popularity or quality?

At the end of the day, a frame's a frame... as long as it fits, don't matter what sticker is on it...

fauxpas said:

Your top 3 brands are like pubic hair, every c*nts got one...

As for 'Top' brands... in what way? popularity or quality?

At the end of the day, a frame's a frame... as long as it fits, don't matter what sticker is on it...

Depends what YOU think makes a brand one of the 15 best.

Yeah my first three are popular......for good reason perhapes?

Phill P said:

Depends what YOU think makes a brand one of the 15 best.

Yeah my first three are popular......for good reason perhapes?

Maybe.

Giant's are very light but comparitively flexy (eg TCR frame is 1.2kg but VERY flexy)

Trek's are boring to look at and, from what i have ridden, ride

Cannondales are very good frames, stiff and light, but overpriced