Bikeradar reviews...true or false?

nfrang

One of the bikes i've been considering recently is the Specialized FSR XC Comp which up and till today got a 4.5 star review here on bike radar. Now they've downgraded it to 4 star??? Not a huge difference but i'm kinda wondering if this happens a lot and who to believe.
I mean what was the previous review based on?
On a similar point...if you search the reviews for mountain bikes between £750-£1500 the Halfords only GT comes in second on the list. Really? Or maybe the ratings are not supposed to be in order...i dunno.
Confused.

rudedog

the 4.5 star review was probably for an older model (2007), they've only just run the test for this years model in this months magazine issue.

ride_whenever

not to mention that bikes are 'improved' year on year (normally)

when review in the meta 5 recently, they said that what was recently the best bike in its class now feels a bit heavy and flexy.

mtbikerboy

nfrang wrote:

On a similar point...if you search the reviews for mountain bikes between £750-£1500 the Halfords only GT comes in second on the list. Really? Or maybe the ratings are not supposed to be in order...i dunno.
Confused.

i dont know if the ratings are in order but what would be wrong with the GT being second? A bike cannot be judged upon the shop from where it came.

Northwind

Yup, the halfords I-drive won the last £1000 group test, against some pretty amazing competition too.

supersonic

The FSR XC was tested last year in one mag, and this year in the other (I think) and the review is the last one. Put simply if the yardstick didn't change, bikes would be scoring more than 10 as years progressed! I would say half a point is reasonable in the light of some of the other full sussers that were tested. FSR XC still remains a solid, good value bike IMHO.

nfrang

I'm sure it's a cracking bike and it looks awesome. That latest review has put me off a bit though and i'm checking out the Boardmans a bit(shame Halfords don't seem to be holding much stock to look at).
No real problem with Halfords although i'd rather spend £1000 at my lbs if anywhere.
Could be a couple more search filters on the review section to drill down different types of mtb etc but ya cant have it all.
Cheers for the replies.

Daz555

I can 100% vouch for the FSRxc Comp being a top top bike. As for reviews - they can vary a little. The same article was used for WMB and MBUK (I think that was the two) and the bike got 8/10 in one and 9/10 in the other.

Either way, there are so many good bikes at this price range you should forget worring about 4.5/5 or 4/5. What matters is how the bike feels, not the score in a magazine.

The decent scores simply give you an idea of which bikes to TRY, not which bike you should buy.