Mmm, a couple of £1k XC oriented hardtails and a £2.5k FS trail bike.
Guess what wins as the best bike for trail riding?
And yes, yes, yes, I know you don't have to read the mags, it's a free world, blah blah blah.
Bike Forum
WhatMTB test shocker....
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Posted 10 months ago #
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It might help if you could tell us the bikes.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Didn't know WhatMTB was still in print. Are they still filling up 1/3rd of the mag with that idiotic "buyers guide"?
Posted 10 months ago # -
I bet it's not a "Clown Bike."
The only reason I still bother to read it is that I can get it free from Tesco with the loyalty points thingy. It's bearable for the length of time it takes to squeeze one out in the toilet.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Saracen?
Posted 10 months ago # -
I have given up reading all bike mags.
I bet they're gutted.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Do you really need a bike magazine to tell you what to buy?
I get WhatMTB to shows me the pretty kit, without being drowned in the "bike lifestyle" crap of other magazines..Posted 10 months ago # -
It's not a S*********d is it? Oh, sorry...wrong magazine.
Posted 10 months ago # -
What mtb= Orange fanbois
Posted 10 months ago # -
I remember the so called "Adventure Bike" test a while back, the winner was an Orange Five,
I've nothing against Orange bikes BTW, but I tend to treat bike magazines with disdain these days. Whatever I'm thinking of buying, someone here has ridden it/broken it/dismantled it.
Posted 10 months ago # -
PJM1974 - Member
I remember the so called "Avdenture Bike" test a while back, the winner was an Orange Five,
That was total genius. "As long as your idea of an adventure is riding at trail centres, this is a perfect adventure bike!"
Still not as bad as MBR though. "The brakes don't work. The rear end is flexy. It's too expensive. And the rims are too narrow. 10/10" and "This is a £2000 bike test, so we've taken the £1900 Five and spent £450 on extras to take it over budget, and now we're going to give it a good mark specifically because of those extras".
Posted 10 months ago # -
Id rather read the yellow pages !!
Posted 10 months ago # -
WMB and MBR are proof that the mountain biking community need their own version of Sniffpetrol.com
I've seen some MBR tests that just don't make sense. It's obvious which hitherto niche manufacturers have poured a lot of money into their marketing budgets...
Posted 10 months ago # -
Maybe they should bring in a system of peer review for magazine reviews.
Posted 10 months ago # -
No need. Every month someone at WMB always phones their opposite number at MBR and says "next month we're doing a big feature on cranks/saddles/handlebars/etc. Make sure you don't do exactly the same thing as us, that would be really embarrassing".
Posted 10 months ago # -
What MTB is just a dumping ground for all the tat that gets sent to the future publishing office to get some coverage and keep the advertisers happy.
And your review rating is a direcet correlation on advertising spend - FACT!
so when you read reviews anything that is distributed by the CRC family will get a good review as they pay their wages.
END!
Posted 10 months ago # -
bland - Member
And your review rating is a direcet correlation on advertising spend - FACT!
so when you read reviews anything that is distributed by the CRC family will get a good review as they pay their wages.
Brant got upset when the Nukeproof lights got a slagging, and CRC/Hotlines were the biggest advertisers in that month's mag. Certainly not the only CRC product to have got a poor review.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Tsk, wake up.
Where do you think the revenue comes from to run this forum?
Posted 10 months ago # -
They'll be writing the October issue now, which is an ideal time for a summer tyre grouptest.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Lets each do our own version then.
Each persons bike would of course get 10/10 though, since we spent our hard earned cash on it and dont like to admit we bought a crap bike, or that our riding style is crap
Posted 10 months ago # -
And the winner is the Orange Five!
If your cycle commutes involve a certain amount of trail centre riding then this is the perfect bike for you.
[edit - I've never actually ridden an Orange Five]
Posted 10 months ago # -
And the winner is the Orange Five!
Don't get me started on that old WhatMTB test - "what is the best allround bike?" - must have all braze ons, mudguards, racks, easy to fix in Outer Mongolia, etc. etc. so they had various 26" touring type bikes (Thorns etc.) and a random Orange 5 - funnily enough the Five own because it was most fun on the trails even though it failed almost every measure of what constituted an 'all-round' bike.
This months test IIRC was an On One Whippet, Exotic Carbons frame with some stuff stripped from a Trek, a Cube (all around the grand mark, proper XC hardtails, barends etc. with 100mm travel forks) and a Scott Spark at £2.5k. Think the test was entitled something like "is cheap carbon frame any good". So no, as the expensive carbon bike won...
Posted 10 months ago # -
So it was the Scott that won then?
Posted 10 months ago # -
So it was the Scott that won then?
Yes, the full suss Scott at twice the price was declared better than the cheap XC hardtails. But I'm spoiling it all for you now. Get yourselves into WHSmiths....Posted 10 months ago # -
was there an advert for said brand on the opposit page or anywhere else in the Mag? i'll bet there was!
Posted 10 months ago # -
It's up there with "MBUK in excessive use of the word 'stoked' shocker".
Posted 10 months ago # -
There is a disclaimer that whatever is advertised in their mag as no influence on the result of their test. So are you ready to sue them then?
Posted 10 months ago # -
highclimber - Member
was there an advert for said brand on the opposit page or anywhere else in the Mag? i'll bet there was!To be fair (on STW!) that's pretty standard advertising practice irrespective of review impartiality.
Posted 10 months ago # -
It's a little more subtle than that I think. A certain mass market manufacturer of front wheel drive hatchbacks who habitually wins Eurpoean Car of the Year has a reputation for blacklisting journalists who slag their products off and ensuring that they don't get to test the supercars that are built by an closely related group business.
Posted 10 months ago # -
was there an advert for said brand on the opposit page or anywhere else in the Mag? i'll bet there was!
Funnily enough a couple of pages after there was an exclusive low down two-page spread about the 'new' Scott Spark frame which for all intents and purposes is a double spread advert on how good Scott are....
Posted 10 months ago # -
That test of the "adventure" bikes was the last straw as far as I was concerned - not bought an edition since.
Strangely however they don't seem to have noticed as there's been no grovelling apology or anything. It's almost as if they don't care...
Posted 10 months ago # -
Next week it'll be another manufacturer who all of a sudden pops up with a bike that will turn you into Julien Absalon. I reckon they'll be niche and French. We've done Sunn, Lapierre and Commencal (yes, I know they're Andorran, but the bloke who owns them is French). There's room for another Gallic brand.
They'll also proclaim that £950 Fox forks are a "bargain" and will predict that not only will your wife/dog/employer ditch you but that your friends will no longer acknowledge you in the street unless you're riding with ten speeds and a dropping seat post.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Funnily enough a couple of pages after there was an exclusive low down two-page spread about the 'new' Scott Spark frame which for all intents and purposes is a double spread advert on how good Scott are....
Shock Horror!
There is a disclaimer that whatever is advertised in their mag as no influence on the result of their test. So are you ready to sue them then?
I don't believe a review can be completely unbiased when a big company like Scott pay you for a large advert and you have one of their products on test.
Posted 10 months ago # -
I believe if a brand does not pay for any advertisement in any mag, that brand will die. If you do an ad, the flasher, the better.
Posted 10 months ago # -
edit - I've never actually ridden an Orange Five
Pretty sure that could be said by some of the reviewers in some magazines; not sure it relates to whether you can award it "Bike of the month for riding down your stairs at home".
Posted 10 months ago #
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