I read a lot of peoples opinions about a lot of topics on this website so I would be interested in your views on bike reviews, I think the general consensus is that magazine reviews are pretty poor, so if you could write a review what would you focus on?

would you focus on frame, price ride, impartiality?

And conversely if your reading reviews, opinions on bikes what are the things you look out for?
Where do you first search for information about a product that you are interested in buying?

I am interested in your views so lets here them

How much advertising are you going to pay me to carry in my magazine?

Thanks for the informative answer, I was more interested in what you would write if given the chance to review for example: your bike, as an independent review.

Or the things you find most useful when you read reviews or other peoples opinions

Independent reviews are very, very very hard to find. To get any insight into how a bike rides or performs, you have to ride it for a while. If you’ve bought it you tend not to be honest about it. If you’ve been given it to test, you tend not to be honest about it.

Sorry not to be more helpful, but bike reviews are like wife reviews; people rarely say what they think.

what it feels like to ride across all relevant terrains.
a bit of a technical explanation as to why it feels like it does – this is interesting and also lets you know whether the review knows what he’s talking about.
and this may not be possible, but information on durability of components, what maintenance will be required and when.

Good points bad points, feel, how it could be improved, what suits it what does not suit it etc
Quite like the persona bit of STW reviews

TBH I think STW gives fair reviews within what it can say given the advertising. I dont think they would say something was great just due to advertising and anyone can see when they have given a less than great review.

I know you asked what we look for in a review but the bottom line, for me at least, is I don’t bother with magazine reviews for anything. One of the posts above pretty much sums it up and it’s very hard to know/believe that commercial practices are not influencing anything. We’ve all seen reviews on products that change over time even from the same publications.

I just trawl the forums and pick the wheat from the chaff, it doesn’t take that long to work out whose opinion you can take on board and whose you can ignore….

Magazine reviews are fine and they’re nice if they say what you want to hear but I wouldn’t buy or not buy on the strength of them. That’s the internet for you, times have changed.

I like my tests scientific or at least pseudo scientific:-

The use of a datum or benchmark well know bike in the same “category” from which to compare it to and that the bike has been ridden against for direct comparison.

An assurance that the tests of multiple bikes (or rather frames) have been carried out with most of the variables removed – so all setup up with the same contact points and the same wheels and tyres and then ridden over the same ground in the same conditions.

Magazines setting up default test routes (of varying gnarness) so that they are repeatable over time with different bikes. I get the feeling a lot of bike tests are carried out by being thrown at a random gimp from the editor’s office who rides it where ever they may be at the time – if they are doing a ride report in Dartmoor that’s where it’ll get tested.

I agree with all the points above, one of my personel hates is that few reviews tell you where they reviewed it, as I think that can have a big impact on wheather or not the bike is suited to that area, so therfore makes the review come out worse.

If you had the opportunity to submit a review of your bike to a website would you be impartial or would you lie about it because you would not like to admit you were wrong?
Personally I have made mistakes about kit so would say so in my review so others may not make the same mistakes.

Would a forum based rider reviewed site be interesting, where you got to review your own bike and submit changes to your initial review as time went on?

Best bike review is to ride it yourself.

Personally I have made mistakes about kit so would say so in my review so others may not make the same mistakes.

But, what to you is a mistake for someone else might not be, and in my opinion that is the problem with all reviews.

I don’t want a DH bike, but that is not to say others don’t. How can you know who the tester is, and what they like or don’t like as a person. No review can be solely divorced from the reviewers personal preferences.

I like reviews to be like a demo day: specific terrain and then test bikes over the same conditions to draw conclusions as to which bikes might suit which riders. Plus little tips (eg, ex brand has upped the price this year but dropped the spec – mentioning no names (S?)) for buyers.

But at the end of the day they are/should all be taken with a pinch of salt as anyone who has done a demo day will tell you. Recently did one with Freeborn at Peaslake and it was incredible how different eveyone’s views were on certain bikes – to the extent of being diametrically opposed.

So reviews are/can be interesting but no substitute for the real thing.

Mrmo I agree, mistakes I have made may be correct for somone else,

say if I had reviewed tho and in my initial review had stated where I ride, what type of terrain, what kind of rider I am, prob with a pic of me and my bike, a few vital stats, height, age that kind of thing, allow people to put it into context,
Do you think that would help?

I agree that nothing compares to riding the bike yourself, so maybe a review could include a section at the end where you had someone else, friend any other person ride it, to give an alternative view on the same bike, same area but different mindset tho?

I think reviews tell you nothing without knowing a thing or two about the reviewer. That’s part of the reason (love or hate his writing style) I like reading reviews by Jonesy, I know he’s a seriously good rider, with a DH bias and hence can push a bike to it’s limit.

With other reviewers I sometimes doubt if they are even at my level, and hence not really able to offer any great insight.

“Best bike review is to ride it yourself.”

I definitely think it’s risky not to, but disagree that we make the best reviewers. How many of us have really ridden close to as many bikes as Steve Worland or Jen Hopkins? Or in as many different settings? Few, I reckon.

I suspect only fringe bike makers might unwittingly produce a dog and that mostly bikes are all good these days. Then it’s VFM and how cheaply it can be tailored to your body shape and style.

I think trialling a bike for a few hours tells you how it compares to what you currently ride, and not a lot else. OK that is important, but it’s not the be-all-and-end-all. We sometimes want bikes because they feel really different or for progression from one style to another. And this where the opinion of pro-reviewers becomes useful, IMO.

Whilst I think that riding the bike is the ultimate decider on weather or not it suits you and your terrain you ride regularly, the only way to do that is through demo days not always on youre doorstep, which is a bit of a phaff, especially with high end bikes which local shops may not be a ble to get a demo bike of.
Or by riding friends bikes on your local terrain.

So on a forum style rider based review if you knew the person, there level of riding you would be more interested in/ put faith in what they had to say and use it to maybe mAke a more informed decision.

Or what if the demo could come to you? Would you review a bike that you got toride fora day on your local routes, given a template, that could be posted up on a website/blog for others to read?

the only way to do that is through demo days

Not convinced about demo days – always a good laugh to ride new stuff but IMO the setup (tyre and shock pressues) and contact points (saddle, bar width, grip type) have so much effect on your thoughts in a relatively short time it’s hard to get past that. A bike out on demo for a week can inform though when you have time to take it home and fettle.

Also – just don’t trust owners to not be biased about something they have spent hard earned on and a review written by someone based on a quick ride at a demo day or a mate’s bike is worth very little too.

The best reviews would be where the reviewer actually rides the bike (and not just around the car park).

convert

Not convinced about demo days – always a good laugh to ride new stuff but IMO the setup (tyre and shock pressues) and contact points (saddle, bar width, grip type) have so much effect on your thoughts in a relatively short time it’s hard to get past that.

Very true. Recently demo’d some great bikes, but with some woeful set ups. I know this because I own a near identical bike, just much better with my personal set up.

I’d be interested in a STW forum style bike review site. You’d need to include sections for info about the rider, terrain and trail conditions though.

So in areview information about the rider, set up – reasons for choices in spec beit money, choice, what was available maybe. Trails, area ridden, raced maybe.
Then info about the bike, new, secondhand, why you bought it, other bikes you considered, why you made that choice.
How itrides over your trails, changes to set up you have made through trial and , may be changes you make depending on conditions as well.
Tyre choice 😉 pressures if you wanted to go into serious detail, maybe fork and shock set-ups too? I realise some people are technophobes and some love the tech.
Then how about changes you have made over time, changes from original spec, why you have made those changes.
Have your opinions of the bike changed over time, do you like it more or less than when you got it, made you ride more etc

I think more riderreviews withi some good reasoning behind them and I would be interested in what people have to say.

I likeit on here when people ask kit or bike questions and people give well thought out answers and opinions, I think thats one of thestregths of thisforum and thewealth of expierience. Maybe we should share more?

I strongly agree with Coogan, you can’t beat the feel and movement and the sync you need with a bike. 🙂

Gravy, Coogan, yes completely agree about riding to know if you like it, but how do you know which bikes to go test ride?
Do you just walk into the local shop and demo what they have or do you do a load of internet/magazine research to find out what may suit you or the riding that you do?
If you do the former do you essentially test blind based on what you think you would like or if the latter what are the things that interest you in reviews that you read to make a decision about what you would go and test?