Note: "late model" means decks made in the last dozen or so years from Cincinnati, "early" Erlanger decks would be (c) 2009 or 2010, "current issue" would be 2011 (or later, depending on how long this topic lasts).
I know everyone here likely has some form of a love-hate relationship to the classic Bicycle Rider Backs. They're cheap to buy, but some feel they're cheaply made as well. They're very recognizable, but boring as hell to look at after a while. Not often do we see a custom deck using Bicycle stock - most prefer to upgrade to Tally-Ho, Bee, Aristocrat or something else that isn't standard-issue Bicycle stock. Most of the best gaffed card/deck tricks use the Rider Back, or have been until the recent copyright issues. (The only gaffs axed by USPC were ones that made any alterations to the back design, Ace of Spades or Joker. No Twilight Angels, no marked decks, no distorted/warped Aces of Spades, no weird variations on the Joker like reveals, etc. The only major change with the Mandolin Back is that you can tweak the back as you want, but you can't tweak the AoS or the Joker in any Bicycle design - replace it, but not tweak it.) And the air-cushion finish nowadays can mean practically anything - most new decks makers want some other finish that's not covered by this restriction - a restriction that USPC seems to enforce randomly. E gets told that new Bicycle designs have to say air-cushion even if they're done with "Performance Coating", when meanwhile the Bike Brimstone says "Magic Finish" and half of the new Pro Bikes from CARC are "Ivory Finish".
But back to my point (wow, do I tend to ramble)! You've got your choice of three different types of the basic deck, and you're not concerned about the box design change. Which one do you feel is the best quality? USPC has finally acknowledged that the early Erlanger decks were flawed - I remember getting one that had a diagonal groove cut into several of the cards like the cut cards were fed wrong through some machine. (Yes, I got the guaranteed replacement deck, and surprisingly fast.) But they further state that the current issue from Erlanger is up to snuff and even better than the Cincinnati decks due to improvements in quality. Do you believe them? Do you care? Do you just hate the new box design enough to lose all interest in Bike Riders?
While you're here, please feel free to comment about your favorite (or least favorite) non-Bikes, Bikes, boutique brands/models versus the standard issue decks, etc. Heck, you can even talk about other manufacturers, though that topic seems to rarely come up around here - most of you are USPC-faithful, even if you don't like every decision they've ever made, and some explicitly would never buy a deck from another printer.
Poll
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