[Closed] New Superstar bikes

No great surprise given the amount of components they offer. Seems a logical business step. Seems obvious now, not sure why they hadn't been pumping out rigid s/s bikes sooner.

If the prices are right then they're going to be cracking value.

It will be interesting to see what marketing strategy they're going to use, although I'm sure there are some customers that will just take a punt.

he did do frames before - they were 'off the shelf' ones so I'd be interested to know how much input SS will have in the design.

Really interesting, good to see some more new people coming into the market and offering 'cheaper' full sus bikes. My next bike will be from a 'value' brand like nukeproof / canyon etc...

About time the prices were dropped for frames really the bigger brands are asking silly prices now.

I hope the build quality will be better than the wheels I bought off SS though. Great value but a bit disappointing when you have to rebuild within a couple of rides!

will they utilise a floating octopus pivot design?

Assembled by a mechanic with a rock I assume?

Interesting, I like the superstar stuff I've tried.

PeterPoddy - Member

Assembled by a mechanic with a rock I assume?

I doubt they will get TJ in to build them up from them, although if he did he could apply his 'its the LAW' stickers to every bike.

Got to hand it to the chap (customer service aside) as quite impressed how he's managed to take the business from selling just ti bolts to now full bikes.

They better come with pedals then!

Frame looks nice IMO, bit Gianty/Mondrakery in the suspension department is it?

he did do frames before - they were 'off the shelf' ones so I'd be interested to know how much input SS will have in the design.

http://www.astroeng.com.tw/productsdetail.asp?id=51

and here are some others from the Astro factory

[img] [/img]

quite a few bike companies re-brand them.

Not only will this help to keep costs down, but it means it'll be possible to colour-match – or colour-clash – everything from bar and stem to disc rotors, seatpost, pedals, headset and wheels at point of sale.

I'm liking the sound of that, be able to make utterly horrendous looking bikes really easily!

Also 915mm wide bars??

😯

I hope they get a new wheelbuilder by then!

i could do a bar that wide, but I am 6'4" with monkey arms.

A 5" frame would be interesting.

Not many options for 5" frame only around (and the ones available are bloody expensive).

I saw a couple of prototypes at Fort William last weekend and they looked quite nice

Suspension unit looks a bit rubbish on that AFAMG 😉

looks perfect for "All Mountain" to me 😉

The "through the seatpost" dual link suspension design looks similar to the ragley far-eastern fs offering.
[img] [/img]

I guessed they'd be re-branding "generic" designs from a taiwanese factory and maybe tweaking them a bit.

Still think 'Superstar' is a shit name still.

Leku - Member
A 5" frame would be interesting.

Not many options for 5" frame only around (and the ones available are bloody expensive).

Crikey, how short are you? 😉

Had to laugh at the comment underneath. 🙂

Do you think they will supply a big bag of haribo if you buy a bike rather than the small one?

wbss - the pic you've posted is quite clearly an Astro AFDHA but I'm not sure what you are saying about it. 😕 Are Ragley selling these too?

the 1.5k dh bike sounds excellent

will sell like hotcakes with or without the giant bag of haribo

[img] [/img]

So simlar to the Ragley prototype, it's almost as if there the same frame, I mean their the same colour for a start, and err errr err well nothing else is similar is it really? 😉

Freeborn demo'd some of the "Yardstick" bars

[img] [/img]

I'm just comparing the through the seattube dual link sussler designs.

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]
/p>

[img] [/img]

edit with one last picture:

ragley linkage
[img] [/img]

he ought to sort the drainage out on his lawn.

will sell like hotcakes with or without the giant bag of haribo

No haribo, no order.

lol at the 'prototype' of a bike that's already in production.

Looks like the new Commencal DH bike to me.

No surprise that its an off the shelf frame from taiwan for that price, if it turns out to be even half decent i'd consider it a bargain (not my cup of tea though).
The `made in the uk' pedals that they are developing look bloody awful imo, they should stick with the proven winning formula of stamping Superstar logos on the nano pedals, have nanos on both of my bikes and rate them highly.

So, no issues with warranty on the bottom brackets as they will have been installed properly, never ending supply of brake pads as they constantly fall from the backing plates, caveat in the warranty preventing use of water to clean bike 😉

Riding it voids the warranty

DezB 😆

Great pic.

I was talking to them a while back about these and they start as off the shelf but then they tweak them as they see fit.

its all in the detail.

I do like the idea of a company buying a bike off the shelf, stripping it of paint and wrapping a chainstay with electrical tape for that authentic "prototype" look. 😉

That said, I just don't want to been seen on a bike called "Superstar" and sporting that god-awful logo up front. No offence to Superstar intended, but I wish they'd come up with a less kitsch brand identity. Those things really don't normally bother me (I ride a bike with the word "Special" in it) but this brand name does.

The Ragley has a similar suspension layout, but the tubes are straighter and aside from the coweled dropout I can't see much else shared with the Superstar / Astro.

I was talking to them a while back about these and they start as off the shelf but then they tweak them as they see fit.

I seriously doubt Superstar will "tweak" anything, I once went without a DH frame for months waiting for the "prototype" to be "tweaked" for production. I'd seen a sample of at various races and spoken to the "designer" 🙄 who had said it needed more CNC work and various refinements before going into production.. eventually I got pissed off calling/waiting/being fobbed off with excuses so bought one direct from the factory (under another brand name) a few months later I caught up with their team riders finally building up the first "production" frames, guess what? other than the colour it was exactly the same frame as mine right down to nasty misalignment issues and the entire production run later down the line was exactly the same.

GW

Them? who are "they"?
anyway, did you ask exactly what "tweaks" they do see fit?

I reckon they'll fully tweak the sh*t out of the colour and the stickers.

they might even lazer cut the dropouts into the superstar logo shape.

GW, name names, go on.

all the abysmal examples of customer service, buck passing, suggesting he has to pass bits back to the importer Pure for assessment (I assume he looks in a mirror and puts a different hat on) and people will consider buying a whole bike from him? Proof that price it cheap and they will come. I wont buy SS for the same reason I wont fly ryanair, I value customer service and there is enough competition that I dont even have to pay more to get it. Businesses that go that extra mile with customer service and support must wonder why they bother. Maybe Cotic, Dialled, On One, Pipedream etc should start shipping out their bikes with a nice fresh turd rather than a bag of haribo or genuine back-up.

I went off SS when he started putting reviews of his own products on MTBR under assumed names and was slagging off his comptetitors on here (again under assumed names).

Wouldn't. Touch. With. A. Bargepole.

On a side note, has anyone actually seen the catalogues from the far Eastern bike manufacturers? They are HUGE

wwaswas - Member

I went off SS when he started putting reviews of his own products on MTBR under assumed names and was slagging off his comptetitors on here (again under assumed names).

he does sound like a muppet but ive never had reason to complain about any of the superstar stuff ive bought its always been great

and i try and avoid ryanair but sometimes they are the only carrier that offer the flight i want at a price i can afford

likewise a cheap dh bike from the same far eastern factories most other dh bikes come from- id take the risk

houns, why dont we use it to spec up and sell STW-branded bikes. I assume it'll be range of 2; a singlespeed steel 29er, and a FIVE inch full susser, possibly coloured ORANGE 😀

kimbers, I thought the mods rumbled him and he was banned for doing exactly what was alleged?

nothing wrong with far eastern built frames - I ride a Giant and I'm pretty sure they are fine, they also make frames for Santa Cruz and lots of other 'cool' companies.

perhaps some would rather a nice hi-tech hydroformed frame made in the far east for a good price to a welded plate aluminium misaligned agricultural monstrosity made somewhere nearer! <runs>

I went off SS when he started putting reviews of his own products on MTBR under assumed names

I don't doubt what you say, but have you ever read anything bad on those MTBR reviews?
Complete waste of time I gave up reading them years ago, just lots of owners going "it awesome dude, best thing since sliced bread"

I value customer service and there is enough competition that I dont even have to pay more to get it

...and there enough cheap skates out there (I'm not suggesting all his kit is rubbish BTW), that don't care, which means they should sell like hot cakes if priced right (& not a complete dog).

bigjim, the point is far-eastern frames sold by someone with a reputation for appalling customer service, no one has expressed a problem with far-eastern frames. I have an ugly frame built by yorkshiremen from recycled filing cabinets, but I was originally going to buy a Heckler built in far east (I got a new Alpine with a CCDB for the price of a new heckler with an RP23...)

z1ppy sadly I think you are right.

Guys, why don't we cut Superstar some slack. Is it not great new that a british company is trying to do something new and expanding. Granted the first bikes might be a bit hit and miss but I bet so were the first Orange and Pace frames. I think good on them for giving it a go and opening up the bike market and showing all the big companies how much they are ripping us off by. Near enough everything is made in the far east now so not worried about quality, who says the design teams in Taiwan aren't the brains behind many of the suspensions designs anyway.

I know his customer service sucks - i've been there! And I just like teasing Orange owners about their [s]crazily overpriced[/s] comparitively expensive frames.

i've got lots of superstar stuff and most of it is great - just the customer service and wheel building isn't/.

Guys, why don't we cut Superstar some slack.

I don't actively dislike Neil/Fruit/SSC, and would buy kit off him (if he ever kept stock of the kit I wanted... like those cheap rings) but he did himself no favours on here TBH.
He was the one who shot himself in the foot, and so will always be a target for some here on the fourm

Others though still regularly recommend his kit, so I'd say that was cutting him enough slack, maybe more than he deserves.

kimbers - Member
proof?

It was pretty comprehensively proven at the time. Cross referencing of mobile numbers, email addresses and so on. It was never challenged either which given fruit's style would have been exceptionally unlikely otherwise.

It was also about 3 years ago, and he appears to have learnt from his mistake.

Not that anyone on here has ever done anything daft .....

and to be fair to him he seems to be going from strengh to stength.

Indeed and I do now occassionally buy things from him but only because it suits me - I just don't really have the goodwill towards him that I'd otherwise have had.

Customer service is still shocking though.

I don't actively dislike Neil/Fruit/SSC

I do.

I was going to mail him back the £40's worth of BB's that failed inside 2 weeks and which were apparently installed incorectly (How do you install a BB incorectly, it threads in, nip it up, fit correct spacers to RF axle or nip up shimano ones, job done?), allong with a nice steaming dog turd. But then I couldnt find a box big enough to contain the ammount of poop I thought the situation deserved.

nonk - Member

and to be fair to him he seems to be going from strengh to stength.

And Hinde is still in business too

fair point that 😆

woody, the issue is not far eastern frames. Have a look at some of the recent KS adjustable seatpost threads- people have returned posts to him under warranty and he's fobbed them off with "I've passed it on to Pure to look at". According to his own facebook profile he IS Pure so its dishonest for him to suggest otherwise. His customer service and product support makes a mockery of the 2yr warranty banner on his site, nearly every STWer who has posted about a warranty issue has a tale of being fobbed of by him (often user error, apparently using muc off invalidates the warranty on BB's, thats on the ones that he hasnt suggested were installed incorrectly). If he cant or wont support a seatpost or bottom bracket, why take the risk with an entire bike?

He will price it cheap and people will buy it. When the inevitable threads start about snubbed warranty claims on bikes I wont be smug, just sad.

Munqe-chick - Member

nearly every STWer who has posted about a warranty issue has a tale of being fobbed of by him

Mine was sorted on the second attempt after a [i]very[/i]weak fob-off attempt. Which isn't good but in all honesty is no worse than I've had from a lot of companies over the years. I got the impression they got their excuses from the same catalogue as the parts, very generic and not always totally suitable. (ie: You caused the fault when you serviced it to try and fix the fault)

But, I consider it a reasonable price to pay tbh, just a bit of dealing with the devil. Just like buying crack.

nice, good luck to him.
Always use supershart pads, and very happy with my two pairs of nano pedals.

after a rocky start and some less brilliant component options, hes got some good stuff going, hopefully the frames will be too.

(i would buy one, if i needed another fancy pants frame)

The guy won't even stand by a BB, why would anyone buy a bike he imported?

The guy won't even stand by a BB, why would anyone buy a bike he imported?

+1

I made a rule a long long time ago to never buy products from a company owned by a ginger man.

I'd happily buy a frame / bike.

He's going from strength to strength so he's clearly doing something correct or his business would have folded by now.

Hopefully they'll have the sense to have some nicer graphics on them. I like quality stuff for cheap prices and their pedals are great but their graphics look cheap and nasty.

ac282 - Member

The guy won't even stand by a BB, why would anyone buy a bike he imported?

Silverfish wouldn't stand by Raceface's terrible BBs, would you not buy a Cove 😉

Silverfish wouldn't stand by Raceface's terrible BBs, would you not buy a Cove

yes, but not from silverpish! i got my turner from the dutch importer.

The man is a numpty and I had those terrible aerozine cranks. Well technically I had three sets before he stopped answering emails. They worked themselves loose if you looked at them! Finger in too many pies and not a massively great fingerer, or something like that...a bike from him scares me

To be fair I have never bought any Superstar parts but god the mention of Dave Hinde got me ready to kick off. I thought I had forgotten about that crock. Really can't believe he is still in business.

Warranty and mountain bikes is always a dodgy area as there are just to many ways to knacker a part. Can't think of any time in the last 15 years of building a bikes when I have ever warrantied a failed part, maybe I should and not assumed it was just bad luck.

Talking about warranties is there not a European law that says manufacturers have to warranty a product for the expected life of the product and not just say 12 months. Love to see how that would apply with mountain bikes.

The pedal's are ugly tho...

[img] [/img]

The pedals look like a nasty attempt at a dark cycles rip off

The pedals look like a [s]nasty[/s][b]GCSE student's[/b] attempt at a dark cycles rip off

fixed that

He's going from strength to strength so he's clearly doing something correct or his business would have folded by now.

Selling dirt cheap BB's at a small profit and not providing refunds maybe...

sounds a winner,hope it works for em.

Someone really should engineer some great British products......

That pedal looks like [i]I[/i] machined it. This is not a compliment.

Silverfish wouldn't stand by Raceface's terrible BBs, would you not buy a Cove

Nope. I'd buy one if it were being sold via another distributor though.

Just to clarify I've never bought anything from SS apart from a BB back in 2008 for £20 which is still going strong. I've never had to call on SS customer support either.

That said, if I were about to buy a 7" frame for £1k+ of my hard earned cash then I'd pay very close attention to other people's experiences before parting with my money.