Hmmm. Interesting. I find those buyers guides only somewhat useful. They are advertiser driven so they are limited to just reprinting the basic sales pitch. It isn't like they can say "We tested this and it had a lot of problems..." You'll never read that in a magazine that sells advertising.

I do disagree somewhat with prices being higher. They may be a little higher but you can still get a Felt or Cervelo at incredible prices for what you are getting. A Cervelo Daul is only $1699 and you could win Ironman on that bike. You can't buy a car to win the Daytona 500 at your local Ford dealer for $55,000. There does seem to be a few more high priced "exotics" but there are still some very good values out there.

Good luck helping your friend out. Based on your posts you strike me as knowing your stuff.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

It's not a buyers guide, it's a laundry list.

Totally worthless. I "read it" in just one sitting on the toilet.

Two things stood out for me in Triathlete (I dont get Inside Tri). One being the laundry list nature of the buyers guide as Herschel pointed out. Nice for a price list, but other than that not too useful. THe other was the blatant infomercial for the BioBuilde supplement... jeez.

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The thing that got me was the guy on cover looks pissed off.

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Once, I was fast. But I got over it.

{THe other was the blatant infomercial for the BioBuilde supplement... jeez} reply

Oh yeah, I forgot about that BioBuilde. There was a whole article on protein and the author just raves about biobuilde and then on the next page, gasp, there's an ad for BioBuilde. Very impartial journalism.

Re: BioBuilde. I hadn't heard of it before that pathetic effort at journalism, but it did have it's intended effect: I checked out their website. Have you seen how expensive it is? $55 for 100 tablets. Recommended tablets per workout: 20. So by my math, it costs $11 per workout. Now unless the exercise itself and a nice massage are packed into the tablets, that's the single biggest ripoff I've yet seen in the sport of tri. Seriously, who other than a sponsored athlete finds this to be a good use of money?

Apparently it's been reported on the Trinewbies forum that the author of the "article" is the CEO of the company that makes BioBuilde....

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Was the article marked as an 'advertorial' I haven't seen the magazine yet, stuff takes a while to get to my neck of the woods.

I don't remember for sure, but I dont think so.

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The article was under the FITNESS heading and the author is David I. Minkoff, MD.

If you look at the half page add that is practically a continuation of the article you see a testimonial by David I. Minkoff, MD, Triathlete.

Go to the bodyhealth.com website as directed by the article and ad, hit the about us tab and guess what. You see a picture of the founder of the company, David I. Minkoff, MD. You can also see the same graph used it the "article". The only change is the larger font BioBuilde under the first column of the chart.

I was also wondering who the editor is leaving the company to become a personal trainer for. "He has had a tremendously successful career in business and industry; indeed, his accomplishments have shaped entire segments of our national economy". My first thought was Mr. Dell who got all the great publicity for his wife at Kona. Could be wrong, but if I am I bet it is another major advertiser. Triathlete is fun to look at but I wouldn't trust a thing they say.

Dave

I checked into it once I read the article and was very dissappointed it didnt say "advertisement" over the article. But come on, its not THAT expensive since it is based on weight of the athlete it will ONLY cost me about $9 per workout. Of course that doesnt take into consideration the off days when they recommend servings! The only thing I got out of that article and the "buyers guide" was being upset that I just renewed a couple months ago for 2 years to the magazine - they really should be ashamed.

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Banger

I agree. Extremely disappointing. The magazine is generally a good read that stays on topic. But they crossed way over the line on this one. I'm OK with Terry Laughlin writing articles while semi pitching his TI swim stuff, mainly because he's doing Q&A and his answers are often useful. But a blatant but unstated product plug, posing as an article, by the owner of the product company is ridiculous. They'll lose readers quickly for this kind of transparently deceptive behavior.

I am glad I got it. I ran out of TP this morning and it came in handy!

The minute I read this I thought, what a joke. I have lost ALL trust in Triathlete magazine. First the Dell thing and now this. The magazine is clearly a profit driven piece of shit.