Ridiculous Bike Magazine Reviews…….

We could play ‘spot the reviewer based on a quote or two’?

“Cut and paste”

“crux move”

Orange one- two(?) issues back- pics in mag on pecket well. To be fair though pecket well probably isn’t the ideal place to run an ardent as a front..

hora – Member

Abit like you’ve been caught sleeping with another woman and you respond ‘look its not exactly an expensive hooker is it’?

I’m not 100% convinced that line would work…..

Wasn’t me hora I’m afraid and you seem to have answered your own question about the tyre 🙂

I’m not 100% convinced that line would work…..

Maybee…… look husband I only slept with one bloke not a threesome so its only half as bad?

Well that was me

Ha! Should’ve known! 😆

Reviews are subjective. This is the case for basically anything.

Unless they say it’s genuinely dangerous or otherwise vastly flawed, I’ll ignore it completely.

Read a few reviews of Rockshox’s new RS1. It’s a good illustration of varied journalistic practice, I think – either it’s hard to reach a consensus or some are bigging up a bit more than they should.

Even if the review process was unbiased, I still find it a bit strange. From what I’ve read, there are relatively few bike designers working for the big bike companies and they are generally very experienced and extremely accomplished at what they do. For sure they have many constraints in what they can actually get to market but I still find it rather odd that someone will hop on a bike and claim they know better.

I just received an email from MBR to follow a link to ‘Hardtail of the Year’.
I haven’t opened it as I assume it will be the Rockhopper Pro that won it again.

hora – Member
….and when I saw all the fancy SC’s I thought…..heres a chance to buy some browny-points back

I tried something like that recently and it backfired, am just gong to keep my gob shut. I never win any arguments that involve financial matters.

Actually correction I never win any arguments,period.

Cycling weekly one did a review of two road bikes. Both had the same finishing kit and105 groups, one was the 105 black finish and the other was the 105 silver finish.
Gues what? They marked one of the ‘components’ columns five stars and the other four stars! That was the final straw, and I havn’t read it since.
And don’t get me started on ‘cockpit’ FFS when did a push bike ever have anything even remotely resembling a cockpit!!! Ridiculous!!

The classic one was a number of years ago when MBR were testing a Trek which snapped and it still got 7/10 or something.

Cycling Plus and reviews are totally laughable. I do get the mag, just for something to do while on my throne. Wouldn’t believe a Kesteven review if it involved pixies and dwarfs….

I still remrmber a noodly/flexy hardtail (that went on to snap in a certain place) getting 10/10. I bought it on the strength of that glowing review/score. You could stand on one pedal and noticeably flex the whole BB area aft.

Jef Wachowchow – Member

I just received an email from MBR to follow a link to ‘Hardtail of the Year’.
I haven’t opened it as I assume it will be the Rockhopper Pro that won it again.

You’re bad at assuming, I should do less of it if I were you 😉 Here’s this year and last year’s results (not in the vid, in the text underneath)

http://www.mbr.co.uk/reviews/hardtail/mbr-hardtail-of-the-year-sneak-preview-video

I think the Bizango won in 2013 as well.

Probably 20 years ago MBUK reviewed a few bikes and took them to the Popeye Village which is in Malta . They spent a few paragraphs explaining how they had to travel from Malta to the neighbouring island of Gozo to The Popeye Village . Whether they were even there seems doubtful given that they didn’t know where it was .

I just found it best to buy a bike that the mags don’t seem to want to go near (Codeine) and laugh to myself at what they are missing out on, always best to just go out and try one for yourself. Same goes for clothing they always rave about endura but in my opinion the waistbands are getting smaller every year 😆

Surely mag reviews are best used in the way you’d use a Tripadvisor review? Only look for negatives that have a real effect, and ignore the ones that score an ice-cream parlour 1 star for not selling bacon sarnies!

OT: Tripadvisor- theres a hideous indie coffeeshop near me. After a bad review suddenly theres a few 5 star reviews from 1 review/new posters.

Slighty off topic, but has anyone noticed the ludicrous pouts and ‘blue steel’ gurns that some of the journos pull in riding shots? There’s one in particular – he must be taking the piss or have a staggering lack of self-awareness.

I still remrmber a noodly/flexy hardtail (that went on to snap in a certain place) getting 10/10. I bought it on the strength of that glowing review/score. You could stand on one pedal and noticeably flex the whole BB area aft.

You can do that to most bikes.

What these mags need is a decent knowledgable engineer that can critically comment on bikes and equipment they are given and provide readers objective information…or is that too sensible? Too many reviews follow what the comments here already say, results are all too often not based on the merits of the bikes

Jambo not like an old steel raleigh bike

This (below), taken from a well know bike website today, is what I dislike about bike reviews. What does it actually mean?

Coffee comparison
Santa Cruz 5010
Face rearranging double espresso from downtown Finale Ligure.
Yeti SB5C
Smooth, hand ground soya latte with artisan barista artwork

It was the late 90s, mbuk were reviewing suspension forks. The pace won out over the marzocchi bomber. Not read it since.

all bike reviews ever:

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.co.uk/2007/08/bsnyc-2008-dream-bike-shootout.html

“Corners like a decagon” is genius.

When I started read this thread I thought when Bike Snob New York’s legendary review pitch would show up.

“Descends like a monkey in crampons dropped from a helicopter”

“Laterally stiff, yet vertically compliant”

Some of the reviews are laughable. Wherever possible, I’ll search online for real world user experiences before I commit to a purchase, I learned the hard way after buying a full suss bike on the strength of a couple of WMB pieces. The bike I bought was too short in the top tube, had a too-long headtube, lofty 2″ rise bars to prevent the shifter pods and brake levers from smacking the frame and required a 36T chainring to cancel out the annoying pedal feedback that you’d get with a 32T ring.

I’d bought a pup.

That sounds like a George Osborne MBR review there.

Credit to MBR though, they did eat their words later and admitted they were talking total bollocks.

Wherever possible, I’ll search online for real world user experiences before I commit to a purchase

The confirmation bias of “real world” user reviews makes them even more unreliable and ridiculous than magazine reviews.

BikeRadar review up – which is better for a given price point (hardtail or full-sus)? Hardtail ‘wins’ 5 to 2, but the full-sus wins overall. Unsurprisingly.

schmiken – Member
BikeRadar review up – which is better for a given price point (hardtail or full-sus)? Hardtail ‘wins’ 5 to 2, but the full-sus wins overall. Unsurprisingly.

Just saw that. The frame one was hilarious: basically the FS frame is heavy, rubbish and ‘old-fashioned’ (straight 1 1/8″ headtube, etc) but it wins because it has so much more ‘technology’. It’s like they saw a recent video on GMBN (which are also rubbish, but sincerely so imo) and thought “****! We need to get on this right away, where’s that 14yr old work experience boy?”