So I’m looking at getting a new bike, and it is hard to find any critical reviews of them. Do they exist? Or is every new bike from a major manufacturer the best ever?
aerogeeks is just as bad. nothing they review is bad. NOTHING. i called them out on instagram and got a bunch of bullcrap saying they only choose to review products they know they can promote to the public. riiiiiiiight.
aerogeeks is just as bad. nothing they review is bad. NOTHING. i called them out on instagram and got a bunch of bullcrap saying they only choose to review products they know they can promote to the public. riiiiiiiight.
I second the hypocrisy of ‘reviews’ from people who are trying to get free gear or make money. Shoe reviewers/influencers are the worst. They’ll give mild comments but hide it behind positives. I can’t even begin to tell you how many shoes I’ve tried and hated… then go back to the review and can’t believe how much they missed or just left out on purpose.
**And on the flip side, open reviews of products online (i.e. on Yelp, Amazon, etc.) can’t be trusted either since its typically the people who have a problem with a product that have enough passion to actually write a review.
So I’m looking at getting a new bike, and it is hard to find any critical reviews of them. Do they exist? Or is every new bike from a major manufacturer the best ever?
In a different industry, in a past hobby life, I wrote for an “online magazine” for this hobby. I received an item for review, and thoroughly tested it. The item SUCKED. I wrote my review, and submitted it to the publisher. Instead of publishing the review right away, the publisher actually scheduled a weekend trip to my home to confirm my review. This guy flew across the country to verify my opinion of this item. He confirmed this particular thing was truly terrible. He edited my review to soften it a bit, but the message was clear: this really wasn’t a good item (it was an attempt to use a particular type of thing in an application that was inappropriate… somewhat akin to trying to shoehorn disc brakes onto a frame not designed for them).
He then published this review, with an editor’s note at the top stating that not only was this my opinion, he confirmed this by taking a weekend flight across the country to confirm what I was writing.
End result?
We got sued by the manufacturer.
After a long fight that almost ended up in court, the publisher quietly pulled the review and made it go away. The suit was a typical rant from an unhinged individual questioning my methods, my credentials, everything. Nothing about the scientific points I presented explaining why this particular device could never work in this application. I ended up getting emails from a number of people that managed to read my review who supported my position (as they tested the item themselves and agreed with me). In any case, my point with this story is that I would consider any “published review” of something like a bike to mean “yea it’s good” and if you DON’T see a professionally published review of something you are considering, to take that to mean it was reviewed, but not favorably, and therefore quietly buried.
Do they exist?
I don’t know about bikes, but pinkbike savaged the Enve M735E wheel. Though to be fair it almost seemed like Enve was trying to literally kill the reviewer. Maybe that’s what it takes. ")
Bike radar occasionally gives out 1- or 2-star (out of 5) ratings. Scores below 3.0 are rare, especially for bikes. But they happen.
Does Kiley count???
Honestly, no…and that kinda sucks, but I think you can probably also read between the lines a bit of things that might be characterized as weaknesses or cons and be able to infer that those aspects are probably far worse than as written.
James Huang, currently of CyclingTips.com, is not known for pulling his punches. (He has the nickname of Angry Asian.) If he rates something as being good I’m prepared to believe him.
Hambini
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James Huang, currently of CyclingTips.com, is not known for pulling his punches. (He has the nickname of Angry Asian.) If he rates something as being good I’m prepared to believe him.
Agreed. He did one of the few reviews of the felt fr1 road bike a few years back. He basically said great bike, poor rear brake. He was quite disappointed by the rear chainstay brake performance, and felt even sent him an ee brake to replace it. He spent a lot of time on the issue. Maybe too much, and i think he really disliked chainstay brakes.
I eventually bought the same bike frame, but with ee brakes (and sram etap)… and it was fantastic. The braking in the rear was great. But i also use jagwire elite sealed cables, and my rims are laterally stiff.
Either way, i kind of take all reviews with a grain of salt. Setup is a big part of any system.
Does it fit?
Will it meet my needs?
Can i afford it?
Is the bike built with quality?
Does is look hot?
Generally the rest sorts itself out. Bikes are not that complex.
The was a bicycle magazine (back when paper existed), Road Bike Review or something like that. Not the current website Road Bike review. They really disliked Kestrel bikes and dumped all over them.
Tom Demerly of Bikesport Michigan had some critical reviews. He slammed the Litespeed Blade.
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Ray (DC Rainmaker) seems pretty straight-up with his reviews. Off the top of my head, his review of the Shimano R9100P power meter was pretty “meh”.
This was a good one of the R-Sys wheels. Again, trying to kill the reviewer makes it hard to find anything good to say.
I did a running shoe review for a magazine once and they edited out everything negative that I said (which on one set of shoes was quite a lot).
Not from a publication. This is why I come to slowtwitch.
So I’m looking at getting a new bike, and it is hard to find any critical reviews of them. Do they exist? Or is every new bike from a major manufacturer the best ever?
what kind of bike would you like to buy? i’m happy (well, not happy, but willing) to tell you what’s wrong with the bikes that you might buy, including the “wrongs” committed by our partners. to their possible chagrin ;-/
they aren’t anything that i haven’t written and won’t write in the reviews themselves. further, if you go over to dcrainmaker you’ll find all kinds of negatives written.
I think part of it comes down to a sliding scale of expectations, mixed with that generally, things aren’t outright crap.
For example, I see this routinely when watching camera lens reviews. People will buy a top end $1800 or $2400 lens, do some simple ‘tests’ like how quickly and accurately it focuses, if it’s sharp, etc. And then surprise, it does well, so they tout it. But of course a $2400 lens should be sharp and focus correctly, this isn’t some amazing success. That’s not exactly impressive.
Back on topic, I see the same thing with cycling gear. People will test some $250 bibs or $3000 groupset and then wax poetic about how good it is, and *of course it is, *it’s the high end of the market. I’d love to see reviewers talk from that perspective: “Yes, it’s very very good overall, but here’s what’s little and annoying us on a day to day basis.”
It’s subtle, but just some thoughts. It’s not hard to buy something that’s ultra upper end and then talk about how good it is.
I have been around bikes for 35 plus years. Truth is, from BMX - Mountain bike- Road bike- Tri bike, I have only had a few bad parts. This was out of probably the 40 bikes I have probably owned over the years. Most of the stuff is good if you know how to ride. Essentially, realize you have knees and elbows and don’t run into shit like a Mac truck.
I have never had entry, entry, low end stuff in fairness. 105 level and up is truthfully good enough for anyone.
Ray (DC Rainmaker) seems pretty straight-up with his reviews. Off the top of my head, his review of the Shimano R9100P power meter was pretty “meh”.
very good point. he and both mr llama seem to be very honest in their reviews.
Does it fit?
Will it meet my needs?
Can i afford it?
Is the bike built with quality?
Does is look hot?
so, like, same as choosing a wife I guess?
Does it fit?
Will it meet my needs?
Can i afford it?
Is the bike built with quality?
Does is look hot?
so, like, same as choosing a wife I guess?
Except you might want to add: “Will I still want to ride it in ten years” to the list.
All kidding aside… I’ll agree with the others above that DCrainmaker is one of the best and most honest reviewers I’ve come across. I have no doubt that Garmin has a love/hate relationship with Ray as he has always been brutally honest (both good and bad) about their products.