I typed my magnum opus last night, and something went wrong with my connection and it disappeared, I’ve been reluctant to re-type all of that again... but here goes. Mikes Bikes offered stellar service, the guy didn't seem to try to sell us anything until he had gotten an idea of what the bike might be used for, he didn't push any specific brand and if I recall mentioned some brands that he didn't carry in his store. He was the most negative about silverback, basically saying that the bikes are rubbish on every level, quality of frame material, construction and geometry. He seemed to say that if you rode this bike baby fairies would lose their wings. When we walked in to dunkeld cycles, I joked with my friend about how expensive the place (stock) looked and that they would probably just point to the door after learning of our budget... I was not far wrong. The guy essentially inferred that they didn't sell bikes for the common peasantry. After I pointed out a sub 10k Merida on the floor he worked very hard to not sell it to us, saying that if we went to linden cycles or cajees we could probably get the bike for almost R1000 less than he sold it for. I’ve never seen someone work so hard to lose a sale, without actually refusing to sell the product to us. He was less negative about the silverbacks, saying that you could buy the bike for the component set, sell the frame and swap the parts onto a better frame. Northcliff cycles pushed quite hard for a brand I’ve not heard of and forget the name of now. Ok componentry, and quite good deals on swapping out components, with rebates on tyres for tubeless conversions... not bad at all. Excepting that I’ve found them to be 15 - 20% more expensive on components compared to somewhere like linden. they were the most positive of the negative responses for silverback... basically the feeling talking to the salesman was that if silverback was the last bike on earth, and you have to repopulate post apocalypse earth by using the bike offroad... we should consider doing so. Then we went to linden cycles, and I’ve used them for all my component and bike purchases ever (1 bike and lots of components and servicing) they are the most helpful bunch I’ve met, with mikes bikes competing really strongly. All other shops seem less excited and focussed on helping someone get the right bike. They were absolutely positive about silverback, the guy we chatted to said that silverback did suffer from substandard frames in the past, which used to be the reason for the deals you could get, components unmatched in that price bracket by any other brand. But he said that for the past year or 3 they've worked hard on getting that sorted out... the biggest step is to get frames designed in germany. He claimed that it worked. they eventually sold my friend a merida tfs 800 hard tail for R8900. So none of the shops seemed to really try to push any specific brand, they put bias on the brands they sold for sure, but apart from dunkeld who wanted us out before the stench of our poverty infected the stock they seemed interested in selling what would suit my friend the best. Mikes Bikes even went so far as to deride the name brand fundies that refuse to look at bikes on their merit and not by their brand popularity (he included componentry in that as well) which is why his powerful aversion to silverback raised the alarm bells in my head. made me consider that the rumours might be true. But from what I can see here, the consensus is in line with linden cycles opinion, that silverback offers comparable quality frames to any other brand out there, price for price (sometimes even hitting above it's weight class?)
