Originally Posted by
DScott
It's an order of magnitude more difficult to find reliable and valid measures of "good coffee". Just like with bikes, give a hundred people the same cup of coffee, and you're going to get a very wide range of responses when you ask them how they like it.
Bike designers and builders are obviously in the ball park with what they make, so they must be on to something with the materials they use and how they use them. I just don't think anyone can build a bike that pleases everyone who rides it. This suggests that, in the end, it's still subjective and impossible to predict with any certainty what will create a "good ride".
/rambling
You do know that there are professional tasters that work for coffee companies, though, right? There opinions dictate what gets produced and how it's produced. Same deal with tea. Lipton, for instance, is very scientific in their approach and their taster's opinion is also backed up by chemical analysis of the final product. It's not unlike what we've proposed here.
While I agree that it would be completely impossible to create a bike that would be all things to all people, I don't think that would ever be the goal. The goal would be to produce the bike that would be most likely to be purchased by the market segment you're going for. Ride characteristics would be one part of appealing to that market segment.
Did you check out the links? It's at least good food for thought. Maybe something to read over a good coffee or tea.