Just reading through some old back issues and noted that the Nov ’11 mag included a first look on the BMC Trailfox TF01 Xo.
Looks nice, and a few choice words as a result of the back to back test with the aluminium version.
“Throwing a leg over the TF01 it didn’t take long for us to feel at home”. “The new carbon trailfox is as fast as it looks”. Conclusion, ” its a hell of a lot more fun [than the alloy version]”

Fast forward to April ’12 and the 150mm trail bike shoot out.

Exactly same trailfox. From the review… “From the very first ride it was obvious something was amiss. On bigger hits and g-outs there was a loud wooden knock coming from the rear of the bike”. “It felt like we were riding a carbon time bomb, as it wasn’t a case of if, but when the back end would explode.”
So it turns out there was a mjor flaw with the bike or linkage which struck the carbon seat tube on full compression.

Now I don’t really take mag reviews as gospel (and I aren’t buying a new bike anytime time soon anyway) but what the heck happened here.
How could this be explained.
Was the first look just a ride around the office to size it? Doesn’t sound so and there are photos of offroad riding published.

I can’t believe that something that is seemingly so obvious was completely and utterly missed the first time round.

there was a follow up the month after with something about different batches of shocks from fox?

so would the “bad review” not revert to the bike that gave the good review?

Should I know what a g-out is, or is that just an MBRism?

rockhopper70 – Member

I can’t believe that something that is seemingly so obvious was completely and utterly missed the first time round.

It’s a glitch with a batch of shocks that shipped without a required internal spacer, IIRC. First bike might not have had that issue.

“g-out”???? That’s why I quoted it!

If you don’t know what a g-out is,you aren’t riding hard enough 😀

scared of bashing the seat post now if I G – out..dude, sick phat rad etc etc

is it the same as a GTF-out ?

or is it that thing that no man has ever found ?

A G-out is a term taken from motor-x, probably used by mountain bike mags because it sounds a bit cool.

It’s usually just used to mean some kind of hole or dip in the trail that causes the suspension to bottom out suddenly and as a result you loose your momentum

g-out is going through a corner or bombhole quick enough that the suspension bottoms out due to the ‘G-force’ (or the centripetal force if you’re a physicist). Or is this a bit like kids at school pretending to be thick in order to appear ‘cool’

the latter.
old moto-x rider here.
but I’m still not cool

I’ve got an accelerometer at work. I keep meaning to go for a ride with it to see how many g’s I’m pulling

so, like a G-narr then ?

I read this review at the time. MBR said the trailfox was in essence the best bike they had ever ridden, but fundamentally flawed because of the frame issue. Consequently I didn’t even look at the trailfox when I was in the market for such a bike – went spesh stumpy evo instead, which is seriously good now it’s dialled – but annoying that I didn’t consider a potentially good scoot based on this review. I also take reviews only as part of the evidence, but the test really said the bike would kill you in a bad way at some point.

bottoming-out should be ‘B-out’ surely?

Or just ’bout’

– “Wassupp”?

– “Just off for a bout”

– “Go for it dude”

Bike magazine in “incompetence” shocker…

I know a bike builder, who shall remain nameless (but builds own bikes and shifts a fair few mail order) who, after a fairly negative review of one of his road bikes, drove all the way down to a south western town and challenged the magazine editor to explain what terms like “lack of vertical compliance” and other such nonsense actually meant when comparing the reviewed bikes side by side. Unable to answer the question, the editor got on the phone to the bike reviewers, who. strangely were also unable to give a proper answer….cue an apology in the next issue and a revised score for the rather lovely carbon road bike….

It’s all bollocks I’m afraid……

In this case, Alan Muldoon and the PM for BMC at Evans spent a lot of time with BMC getting to the bottom of it. I was around the office when they were going to and fro sorting it out. Alan is one of the most experienced and knowledgable journalists in this area – some of them really do know what they’re on about. I don’tthink it’s all boll0cks, but it canbe very inconsistent – after all it’s mainly just personal and subjective opinions. I start paying attention when a bike gets consistent reveiws across mags and testers – or similarly good feedback among riders.

One thing that came up in all that shock length variation chat was how some bikes have had shortened shocks fitted to slacken them off for the testers. Any truth in it, I wouldn’t know.