Bicyling Magazine Review - This is going too far!
 

Okay, we all know Bicycling sugarcoats all review because they're just chicken. This one just kills me though. In the buyer's guide they review an Independent Fabrications 953. Here is a quote from the review:

So am I to understand a raised paint stripe qualifies as a major jolt? WTF is that?

They were saying that it was engineered to cushion the big bumps, but not
at the price of providing a dead feeling ride.

Wasn't that Parlee cool?

Let's see, the progression is from buzz to felt to minor jolts. I think they are trying to say that the feel of riding over a raised paint stripe was somewhat more than normal road buzz, but less than a minor jolt. But what do I know. I'm not a writer: I just play one on the internet.

t rides smoothly and quietly, soaking up buzz from broken pavement. But it also displays an assured connection: we felt the transition over a raised paint stripe, but minor jolts disappeared.


So you can feel paint stripes, but not broken pavement?

it don't make no sense :)

btw, a teammate of mine just picked up his new parlee...it's a work of art

IF clearly didn't pay them enough for that review.

They aren't that far from where I live. Now all I need to do is win Poweball or rob a bank :eek:

I would say if you're calling it 'Poweball' then yes, it's your last hope.

Wait. Maybe THAT's a Maine accent!

But I KID the Maineiacs.

I read the excerpt as a positive review...

Translation:

Smooths out harshness without eliminating road feel.

"Soaking up buzz" to me would be more logical to mean reducing the buzz, not eliminating it.

I think it was positive as well, you are just nit-picking! :D

it's Bicycling - every bike has a component mix that are a great value, and rides "very stiff yet vertically compliant"

You mean buy enough ad pages?

No. Bicycling's reviews just stink of advertising. Unless 99% of all bikes on the market are the greatest bike ever, in which case they're unbiased and accurate.

I vote for never satisfied/nit-picky.

There is a group of people who don't feel complete until something is not right.

Perhaps the paint stripe was thick?

:D

I read that as I think it was intended. Soaks up road buzz, but you still have a feel for the pavement.

I worked in the magazine industry for a bit on the editorial side. In my experience 90% of the editorial was based on some company's ad buy or their 'relationship' with the magazine.

That's not to say that I don't enjoy Bicycling or any other speciality mag. I just read them for entertainment, not as unvarnished fact.

I agree with Lucky07. I don't put too much faith in what I hear being reported anymore. Did you ever notice the most important "heath issue" that everyone must hear in order to live will be broadcast in the next news hour or in the nightly news. I mean, come on. If it were truly that important, it should be repeatedly broadcast throughout each one.

Anyway, I digress. I had a client who worked for a local TV station that did a report on "who had the best fries". Needless to say, McDonalds was reported to "win" because the station didn't want to loose any advertising dollars from McD's. This is despite Burger King actually having more votes in the competition. Bah! I'm disgusted now.

One way to find out. In this year's product guide they said the reviewers all loved the Addict but thought the CR1 was too stiff/harsh. We should go back and see what they said about the CR1 when it was new.

Agreed but DAMN, I want that Parlee! (as well as the IF bike, the Specialized and that Merckx they had)

Who cares! The reviews give you a base to work with instead of grabbing a ton of literature from the bike companies/stores. The reviews give you an idea of the type of bikes you might like. We all know that if you really want to review a bike you have to ride it yourself, no matter what Bicycling mag or the bike company brochures say.

But these types of reviews are good to narrow down a search and maybe look at bikes you didn't know about or never thought about in the price range you are looking at. It does what they are paid to do.

ya know, they actually do test the bikes they write about.

and I've seen more rediculous things posted right here.

wow
 

I wonder if a rider could actually tell if one frame was stiffer than another. If so, how much? Alot of this has to do with wheels, tire size, road surfaces, wheelbase, frame angles etc. but the differences are fairly slight on compairable bike designs. At the extreme ends of the spectrum, say a criterium bike and a touring bike, there is a noticable difference in ride quality. Its kind of odd how buycycling magazine doesn't even review all the bikes available for sale...just the bigger makers mostly. I find their biased reviews humorous. But hey, they are trying to sell advertising and keep the magazine profitable.

I miss Bicycle Guide

Odd - on my ride today I rode across road paint marking a train crossing. Country Road, asphalt, I was SHOCKED how much I felt the bump of the paint.
I'm riding a '05 Lemond Sarthe, Bontrager racelite wheelset, 700x25 100psi Much harsher than the gravel I encountered, traintracks were a ***** though......

Probably accurate. If IF on the other hand ran regular ads in Bicycling, they'd assign an account manager and ....no more road vibration!

I'd hardly call IF and bigger maker.
Nor have I ever seen an IF ad in bicycling.