AMD strikes back at Nvidia by releasing... bicycles

[mongeese]

WTF?! AMD’s decision to diversify their product portfolio comes hot on the heels of Nvidia’s announcement of the ground-breaking RTX 3000 series. Is AMD admitting defeat and surrendering the GPU market? (that’s a joke – hopefully)

In addition to their main website detailing their processors, AMD operates a special fan store that sells AMD-themed merchandise. Mostly hats, shirts, water bottles, and the like. And from now on: bicycles, for some reason.

The two bicycles on offer are the AMD Custom Cruiser Bike and the AMD Custom Mountain Bike. Both are available for the surprisingly reasonable price of $299 and cost only $50 to ship to anywhere in America, but they won’t ship anywhere else. Both come in black and white frames with orange accents and AMD detailing. The mountain bike also has an option for some pretty snazzy bright orange wheels.

As far as bikes go, though… they’re both kind of lame. Although it’s a little lazy to judge them without testing them out myself (hey AMD, send me a review model – I dare you) they’re pretty simple and uninteresting. I say this as an avid road cyclist and hobby mountain biker.

The mountain bike is probably the worst offender, but I’ll admit you’ll struggle to find many useful mountain bikes at $300 anyway. The bike has dual suspension, a three by eight gearset, v-brakes, and 26” wheels.

The biggest problem is probably the brakes, they simply don’t look trustworthy and because they’re v-brakes they’ll suffer if the track is muddy or dusty. The tires look like they’re a little lacking in traction, too. The result is that the bike is too dangerous to take down a technically difficult trail, but if you don’t, then you’ll never use the full suspension and gear range. At this price bracket, I’d recommend a hardtail for endurance riding instead.

The cruiser bike, which is a commuter or town bike, looks to be okay. It also has 26” wheels but that’s where the list of features stop. The only brakes are the pedal-backward kind and there’s only one gear. These aren’t necessarily bad things, if the money has been invested in making the frame lighter and thus more comfortable to ride. What bugs me most about this bike is the geometry. It looks like it seats the rider quite far back and low down. It’s not a riding style many cyclists I know like much, but if it suits you, well, this isn’t a bad bike.

To answer the question I posed at the beginning: what do you want more, a new GPU or a mountain bike? I’d have to say a mountain bike because the biggest thing impacting my gaming performance tonight isn’t my 2070’s performance, it’s the massive bruise down my right arm from crashing on a trail this morning. But, uh, I’m gonna have to pass on AMD’s mountain bike. Maybe stick to CPUs, AMD?

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/86650-amd-strikes-back-nvidia-releasing-bicycles.html

 

[Shadowboxer]

This is bizarre, is there a healthy profit to be made from cheap bikes?

 

[kimo1]

I guess it's just a marketing gimmick to sell brand name. Or give a push to some other product.

 

[Shadowboxer]

I guess they should have sold AMD tissues for all their fans to cry into when “Big Navi” goes the same way as Vega 64!

But in all seriousness I guess they are making an attempt to push their brand, maybe one day feature on a list like this;

BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable US Brands (2019) on rankingthebrands.com

The Brand Rankings, BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable US Brands - 2019 by Kantar

www.rankingthebrands.com

 

[BookofNeat]

I'd get the commuter bike if it came with the orange tires and shipped where I live (though I'd have to detail and remove the AMD branding). The world needs more bikes than GPUs, after all.

 

[Shadowboxer]

I'd get the commuter bike if it came with the orange tires and shipped where I live (though I'd have to detail and remove the AMD branding). The world needs more bikes than GPUs, after all.

No it doesn’t!

The Bike-Share Oversupply in China: Huge Piles of Abandoned and Broken Bicycles

Gigantic piles of impounded, abandoned, and broken bicycles have become a familiar sight in many Chinese cities, after a rush to build up its new bike-sharing industry vastly overreached.

www.google.co.uk

 

[VitalyT]

 

[Squid Surprise]

During the pandemic, bikes have sold out in almost every store in Toronto... wonder if that’s the same in US cities?
Perhaps this is a way to get some brand recognition on easy sales...

 

[Endymio]

Will these bikes suffer from driver problems like the cards?

/duck

 

[BookofNeat]

No it doesn’t!

The Bike-Share Oversupply in China: Huge Piles of Abandoned and Broken Bicycles

Gigantic piles of impounded, abandoned, and broken bicycles have become a familiar sight in many Chinese cities, after a rush to build up its new bike-sharing industry vastly overreached.

www.google.co.uk

Read the article you linked and it seems to be related to a bike-sharing program that is subsidized by the Chinese Government. This happened as a case of oversupply and they then had to dump them. When I say "The world needs more bikes..." I am referring to the lack of a climate and health-conscious culture in general, where the use of a bike would become a stepping stone in achieving a better overall health of the population. My statement stands.

 

[Uncle Al]

Man, that's a heck of a good deal so I ordered my white with orange wheels! Love it!

 

[Endymio]

No it doesn’t!

I'll second that. My GPU is helping to develop new medical therapeutics (thx folding@home). Not many bikes can do that.

 

[BookofNeat]

I'll second that. My GPU is helping to develop new medical therapeutics (thx folding@home). Not many bikes can do that.

I understand the sentiment and it's cool you're contributing to the folding@home project. I still think that more people dedicating their money in healthy lifestyles is more important than buying a GPU, considering most people won't dedicate them to altruistic means. I just find it outrageous that most people will spend hundreds on frame-rates rather than staying healthy year-over-year, hence my original statement.

 

[dankbot420]

That cable management tho...

 

[Endymio]

I just find it outrageous that most people will spend hundreds on frame-rates rather than staying healthy year-over-year, hence my original statement.

The wonderful thing about a free society is that people are allowed to devote their time money to what it most important to them, rather than having other people's priorities forced upon them.

 

[BookofNeat]

The wonderful thing about a free society is that people are allowed to devote their time money to what it most important to them, rather than having other people's priorities forced upon them.

Another wonderful thing about free society is that people can live their own lives without having to cave to other people's opinions, even when they are carefully articulated and respectful towards others.

 

[Nobina]

Hmm, how can we implement jokes about AMD drivers and them running hot into bicycles?

 

[Bulllee]

RTX 3090 powered hovercraft.maybe?

 

[Carmaine]

The wheels are turning over there at AMD for sure!

 

[OneSpeed]

I say we have both the bike and a new GPU. What the hell, add a case of beer as well.

 

[emmzo]

You may laugh now, but this will be their best selling product in a couple of years...

 

[poohbear]

I guess they should have sold AMD tissues for all their fans to cry into when “Big Navi” goes the same way as Vega 64!

But in all seriousness I guess they are making an attempt to push their brand, maybe one day feature on a list like this;

BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable US Brands (2019) on rankingthebrands.com

The Brand Rankings, BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable US Brands - 2019 by Kantar

www.rankingthebrands.com

Lol is that still a thing? Fanboys? I guess if it happens in sports it can happen in geekdom.

 

[texasrattler]

I understand the sentiment and it's cool you're contributing to the folding@home project. I still think that more people dedicating their money in healthy lifestyles is more important than buying a GPU, considering most people won't dedicate them to altruistic means. I just find it outrageous that most people will spend hundreds on frame-rates rather than staying healthy year-over-year, hence my original statement.

You do realize that folding @ home can give a person a better/healthier lifestyle. Thats its purpose to gather data to better help in a multiple of ways. Science or in life. So using or buying a gpu to help is never a waste of money, ever. Without ppl helping, that would be a wasted opportunity to gather the data that could one day save someones life or impact them that could make a difference.

 

[BookofNeat]

You do realize that folding @ home can give a person a better/healthier lifestyle. Thats its purpose to gather data to better help in a multiple of ways. Science or in life. So using or buying a gpu to help is never a waste of money, ever. Without ppl helping, that would be a wasted opportunity to gather the data that could one day save someones life or impact them that could make a difference.

In the statement I made and the same you quoted you will notice that I view the folding@home project favorably. The subsequent consideration constitutes a comparison between what the majority of people would do with a bicycle as opposed to a GPU, since one has a more immediate impact on a person's lifestyle and the use of the other depends on how the user decides to run it. The idea that I frown on people "...buying a gpu to help..." is a gross mischaracterization of my original comment at best and decidedly defamatory at worst, since at no point in any of my comments did I equate people that buy GPUs (or any computer hardware) for the purposes of science and research to those that do so purely for vanity's sake, I.e. higher frame-rates, bragging rights, etc. My thoughts are that I would rather spend my money on a bike than a new GPU and in my own worldview this is a net-positive, they are not to be read as an indictment, accusation, censure, prosecution, rebuke, condemnation, or a call-to arms for those that choose to do the opposite. I have stated what my perspective is and how I feel about it; nothing more and nothing less than an honest opinion, acknowledging the right of any other individual to dissent, formulate and express their own opinions on the issue. I wish you all a good day.

 

[Endymio]

The subsequent consideration constitutes a comparison between what the majority of people would do with a bicycle as opposed to a GPU, since one has a more immediate impact...

I think what concerns people is the statement "the world needs bikes not gpus, in order to save the environment", is one small step away from advocating for government regulation to coerce and enact that opinion.

Perhaps not in your case, but plenty of other people have made that treacherous leap -- and in a thread about a GPU maker suddenly deciding to sell bikes, the concern is apropos.