(e.g. "carbon is vertically stiff yet horizontally compliant", proprietary components, 16-spoke wheels) is discouraging.
this might be what you're referencing but BikeSnob NYC had a spoof on this phrase yesterday...
http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2007...-shootout.html
"Now, granted, I didn’t ride the Tarmac SL2, but I was able to tell just by looking at the pictures that the carbon fiber construction and layup yielded a frame that was laterally stiff yet vertically compliant."
....
Now, I didn’t ride the Colnago Extreme Power, but I looked at the Colnago website, which was full of poorly-translated English and a lot of Flash animation. I also rode lots of crappy bikes that were not the Colnago Extreme Power and possessed none of the attributes of the Colnago. Even the name of the bicycle itself told me most of what I needed to know, which is that if you either have or want to produce Extreme Power then this is the bike to ride. So I can say with complete assurance that the carbon fiber construction and layup yielded a frame that was laterally stiff yet vertically compliant....
"Thanks to the wealth of diagrams and photographs that have accompanied the introduction of the new Madone, it was completely unnecessary for me to ride it, because it’s abundantly clear the carbon fiber construction and layup yielded a frame that was laterally stiff yet vertically compliant."