Bike and Bike Gear Reviews
 

I don't expect that I am alone but I am one of these people that spends a jillion hours online researching something before I buy it. Although places like Mountain Bike review and others are very helpful, what you get there are opinions not facts.

Anyone care to share their experiences with online reviews of bike related products and how they related to your experience after the purchase? Did you get what you thought you were getting?

i think reading the reviews is helpful, just don't believe everything.

someone could be an idiot and write something bad about a good product or vice versa. or someone could be trolling to hurt a competitor, etc...

i most like the posts that also give other background (like on mtbr review how you can also list the bike, favorite trail, etc)

when someone jsut write "it sucks" i ignore it. if someone writes WHY something is good or bad i evaluate if that factor is important to me (e.g. if someone writes that the colors suck then i can decide for myself)

i checked A LOT before buying my FSR 2 years ago and almost all the reviews were good - a lot of people had had problems with their rear shock... and mine did in the first 3 weeks!

They are just another tool to use.

I always laugh when i read back to back posts on a review that contradict each other. Or even better is when they a.) blame the equipment for their own faults and errors or b.) endow the equipment with magical powers.

Review one says, These brakes are so flexy and weak, I can't belive they are still on the market, They will slow you down, but wont stop you.
I will never buy these again.

Review two says, Stiffest, strongest brakes I've ever owned, Perfect for high speed decents or abrupt stops in city traffic. I will never buy anything other than these.


Review three says, These brakes caused me to crash, I was going riding along the painted white line in the rain, around a curve, while going down hill, while taking off my rain jacket, and went to brake and crashed. This is a Horrible Product!!!


Review four says, These brakes are great, They may be the 2nd best the company makes, but now I routinely drop people on the climbs who are riding the top of the line brakes, and my sprinting has improved.


HAHA!!!

Antifriction brakes. They make the wheel spin faster the harder you apply them. Good stuff.

I usually read product reviews to pick up ideas on specs and try to filter out all but just the hard data. For the most part, I gloss over the reviewer's exprience accounts as mine are likely to be different. After reading the review, I'll go decide if I want to go ahead and seek out said product for my own review. I thus treat reviews as sort of a third-party written datasheet. Maybe I'm atypical in this behaviour but then again, when I click on the link for a new product in some website, I always go first for the specs.

Always with a grain of salt

I take individual reviews lightly but at the same time I will look for a pattern based on facts not opinions. For example, if 12 different people suffered tire failure after 800 miles or so, I would skip that particular tire and look for another.

I use reviews as part of the buying process. I think you have to do your homework prior to your purchase.