Did anyone else think any bikes were lacking from the top 25 trail bikes list on the newest what mtb? I know in lists there is always something missing but it just looked like the usual suspects and manufacturers to me.

When ever there is someone on the forums asking for this sort of bike a few makes are always at the top list in suggestions, Namely Banshee, Knolly and Transition. They are always being talked about and are in on going topics right now.

I know they can only test what they get given to a certain extent but still. Was I expecting too much?

John

Mountain biking magazines and websites review and rate bikes that a) they get given to test ride, and rate highly the bikes that b) they get given to test ride, plus some cash too. That’s my opinion. Pretty much the same way any review magazine or website works I reckon. “Here’s a brand new ‘xxxx’ to test ride, oh and here’s £5k too, keep both and lets see some good reviews eh?! (or we wont send you anything again)”

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/wmb-trail-bike-of-the-year

Having been responsible for choosing bike stuff to send for review to UK magazines, and having also worked closely with some of the journo’s and seen the type of communique’s thrown around after both bad and good reviews, I can confidently say that in my experience thats bollocks!

I can think of a number of products we had that there was no bloody way we would send out for review, because we knew they were not up to scratch. I also recall one product that got a shockingly poor UK review and good ones abroad, and I was the one who had to explain to the product guys why – cue the team sitting open mouthed at how they missed something so obvious to a UK rider, nothing to do with cash stuffed envelopes at all!

Ahh cheers, hadn’t seen that thread!

Love to know what that was ninfan

I can confidently say that in my experience thats bollocks!

Sorry, what bit is Bollocks? (bit unclear)
Presumably they can only review what they are given or do they go out and buy some bikes? I don’t expect they are handed envelopes of cash, but surely there must be an element of editorial consideration towards advertising spend.
Possibly they bigged up one or two of your better products as a trade off to that product they didn’t like?, to try’n keep your employer sweet like.
Off the top of my head, howz about adorning some of the bikeradar poster boyz/testers with your gear to influence them a bit and as guerilla advertising? 😉 could work?

“Most” bike reviews are flawed either by the same subconscious thoughts most people on here have – I know what I like and I like what I know, the UK needs simple/single pivots as it’s muddy, anything not designed in the UK doesn’t know what mud is.
The second part is the bit where a bike gets a bad review – each section has something wrong and then magically it gets 9/10 at the end as if the person doing the marks wasn’t the person riding the bike or writing the review.

I met someone years ago doing a MBR long termer review, the rules were you had to stick with the bike as built unless something broke, he was one of the few doing that as most had swapped, stem, bars, tyres and even drive train/shifters within a week. Not exactly reviewing what you could buy. He was stuck with the shimano flippy flappy gearbrakes which we did offer to kick to death for him if he looked the other way so he could change them.

So if I’m going to read a review (rare) I try and stick to the words only and see if you can pick out what they are saying. then I’ll demo the damm thing or if it’s clothing try it on.

The final part of the problem is the consumer who wants to know what is the best thing for them to buy based on what one bloke thought who could have had a cold and a hangover and be out testing a bike for 2 hrs on a crappy Tuesday in the mud. Reviews are only opinions, if your going to buy a bike get out and try it.

what bit is Bollocks

The “Here’s a brand new ‘xxxx’ to test ride, oh and here’s £5k too, keep both and lets see some good reviews eh?”

Presumably they can only review what they are given

This is, IME, the key element – the companies who are most responsive get the coverage, the guys who aren’t, don’t. There’s reasons why, for example, planet X get in so many reviews, they keep in touch with the Journo’s and send them whatever they need when theres a review coming up, rather than having one press boke based abroad who doesn’t respond for a couple of weeks because he’s snowed under.

but surely there must be an element of editorial consideration towards advertising spend.

I have no doubt its happened space wise but not good/bad review score wise – the UK mags are supposedly a lot better than other countries on this front.

Possibly they bigged up one or two of your better products as a trade off to that product they didn’t like?, to try’n keep your employer sweet like.

No, if we sent crap, we got a poor review, if we regularly sent only the good stuff, targeted well to the magazine profile and its ‘niche’ then we got better ones. You would be stupid to send a product that you didn’t feel 100% confident fitted the review profile, even if that means sending nothing – thats a surefire way to get a bad review.

Off the top of my head, howz about adorning some of the bikeradar poster boyz/testers with your gear to influence them a bit and as guerilla advertising? could work?

You build a relationship, like everything theres an element of people skills, and by doing that and keeping responsive and sending stuff regularly you can enhance your coverage, you can even make a difference by dripping stuff through occasionally rather than one big load at once at the start of the season (unlike the german mags apparently, where you send it all in one batch and in classic teutonic organised fashion they have their review schedule organised 12 months in advance) but the same person, even if he’s a mate, will still happily give something a one and a half star review if its not up to spec, you don’t take it personally, and neither does he (and then you leave the company and hope that the press guy keeps up that positive relationship that you had built… :wink:)

In my experience the best ‘guerilla advertising’, delivering better and more consistent coverage with target customers is by sponsoring ‘exemplaries’ like tour guides and endurance riders rather than journo’s.