This is probably the most misunderstood magazine article ever posted on the forum. It's constantly referenced both for what it says and does not say.
Here is the text, OCR and transcribed as needed by myself:
The test bicycles
My critique:
The Magnificent 7 Blind Test fails at providing a clear experimental design and thus fails to provide a compelling result. The bicycles were ridden one after the other, by one rider, one time. Then the experiment was over.
1 Cromor
2 SLX
3 Brain
4 Aelle
5 EL-OS
6 Neuron
7 Thron
The bicycles were also ordered in such a way that the differences, if they did exist, would be extremely difficult to determine over one ride, with perceptions from 1-2-3-4-5 or 6 bikes ridden directly before.
This is obvious by his discussion of the first and second bikes ridden. First:
And the second, which he thought the softest
Which is exactly the expected outcome if he was only going to ride these two back to back. Tubing diameters the same, reduce DT and CS butting profile by 1-step with a minor variation to the top tube. Any bike ridden after the Cromor bike would probably have felt extra compliant, less than the SLX which was most likely correctly identified as the most compliant by the subject.
Every additional bike he rode reduced his ability to parse the differences. The next bikes in order:
However, at the end of the day he did an admirable job of picking the bikes in the expected order.
Softest - SLX
Absorb vibrations the best - Thron
Unable to differentiate - Cromor, Aelle, Brain, EL-OS
Stiffest and "best" - Neuron
The three bikes that he picked out specifically all have remarkable features compared to the rest. SLX ridden directly after the only 1-7-1 DT bike and featuring SD tubing and the thinnest CS/SS. Thron with the heaviest collection of tubes. Neuron with the most complex butting profile and design - I suspect this last is fairly close to "vertically compliant, laterally stiff" as a concept.
Other limitations:
This is exclusively Columbus tubing with their chosen profile and butting. Are the differences more pronounced with a different brand of tubing? Other testing indicates this is a possibility.
There was only one rider, who rode each bicycle once.
The Mondonico bicycles were a very specific design, level top tube. It's possible other designs with compact geometry would behave differently as their stiffness profile would be different.
Other blind testing with larger subject sets does not replicate this test.
The experimenter was the same person as the subject. His perception of randomness is in error, if the experimental design allows for such a judgement it is not robust to produce any result at all.
Essentially, the outcome of "the rider couldn't tell them apart" is not supported by the experiment, however, neither is any other result. This experiment, due to it's design does not produce a result at all. It is a ride report with some color segments and photos, not a blind test of any veracity.
Other notable tests that do not replicate the supposed result are an earlier test between Tange Prestige and Columbus SL, where two riders were unanimous in their determination of the differences between tubing that was opposite of their expectations. The thicker, heavier tubing rode better for them
https://www.bgcycles.com/new-page-1
Rene Herse has also performed a more recent blind test with three different bicycles and reach a different conclusion than either the Magnficent 7 Mondonico test, or the Bruce Gordon Tange v Columbus test. This test actually featured three riders, two of which were able to make a determination of frame characteristics, and one who was not.
https://www.renehersecycles.com/what-is-planing/
It should be obvious now that one test, featuring one rider, who rode each of 7 bicycles one time is not robust enough to make any determination. The test does provide a framework to think about and approach understanding how to determine differences but it is not a concrete result to refute or confirm conventional wisdom, anecdote, or other types of personal data. What was the result of the Magnificent 7 Blind Test? There was no result, it does not meet the criteria for a blind test, nor an experiment.