I used to know a guy who was the editor/publisher of a well known snowmobile magazine. Every year each of the four major snowmobile manufacturers would drop off a couple of the new models for him to test as well as any other model he might request. He would ride these all winter until the manufacturers would pick them up again in the spring. Of course he would write articles about how "great" each model was. He confided in me that he thought that some of the models were junk, but couldn't say so in the magazine for fear of losing their advertising dollars.

I'm sure this is quite common place. However, I do like both Tom's and Dan's reviews as they seem not afraid to call a spade a spade.

I believe that Tom is reviewing items based out of his stock (and therefore his own $$$). Did you read the Blade review? Ain't no way Litespeed was helping him out there. This is also why his reviews can be as frank as they are. I can think of no better way to review - certainly beats the "reviews" in the 2 major tri rags...

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"To give less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." - Pre

MattMizenko.com

This is an excellent question. I buy everything that is reviewed on our site with few exceptions. Occasionally we receive items for free for review. They rarely get reviewed becasue they are usually not of much interest to our customers/readers. I'm trying to think of the last thing I got for free and I believe it was a bike computer (that sucked so bad I gave it away) and a backpack style drinking system that I honestly never reviewed but was excellent and I still am using for myself. As far as bikes go, I buy them and set them up for myself then sell them used on e-bay or to customers in the store with full disclosure that it was a used bike. We usually get a substantial "employee discount" for bikes we purchase for our personal use. That makes it affordable. The bikes I love for myself I do keep for an entire season. The others come and go in about 4-6 weeks after I have some real opinion of them. Some bikes I can't review becasue they don't make anything that really fits me. usually I just write an "overview" or simplified review based on our expereince selling and servicing the bikes and feedback from people who did fit the bikes precisely. Whereever possible I disclose that information and hope I am being fair and honest. I've written some scathing reviews, three of which appear on our website now- all three for product that is or has been in our store. Ultimately, if we candy-coat everything our credibilty (what small amount we may have) would be destroyed. Also, it's important to read the disclaimer link that accompanies every review we post on our site.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I actually like Dan's reviews of bikes in one of the magazines (which one I can't remember) typical EMpfield, honest and to the point... seems a little space constrained though

Thank you tom... that was the answer that I was expecting...

How do you then go about choosing the bike you buy for your sotre... surely you can't test eevry bike that you buy... (picturing Tom tooling around on a kids bike with streamers) What is your process for buying things that you can't try out?

On a slightly different note would you consider selling your used wares on the slowtwitch classified section?

The last review from Dan I read was in Triathlete and it was balanced and insightful. I am a bit adverse to writing for the guys that live and die by advertising (any magazine). I've written for Triathalete, Inside Triathlon, Triathlon Today! (which became Inside Triathlon)and Velo-News. I even did an equipment review for Andrew Tilen at Outside Magazine. I have also written for other websites and magazines but haven't done much of it in recent years since no one has the balls to print what I really write. Time is an issue too. Plus it doesn't pay much.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

If you're referring to Dan's recent review of the new Tiphoon, I agree that it was balanced and insightful, and generally worth the paper it was printed on relative to informing the potential buyer about the bike. I have to believe, though, that some softball editor got hold of it and changed a few key phrases. The usual Empfieldian edge was somewhat softened. ;>

I'd be interested to know whether those were exactly the words you submitted, Dan.