MBUK Unbiased Testing, Ask Brant Richards?

Spik-Boy

Hey guys,

Check these tweets from Brant Richards (Mr on-one, ragley, planet x, etc)...

http://www.bikemag.com/news/news-of-the ... sahashtag/

True or false, makes you wonder about how a bike gets a poor/good review?

cat_with_no_tail

No it doesn't.

This topic has been done to death over the last few weeks (since the story was posted first time round).

It's not about getting a fair review, it's about getting onto the shortlist to be reviewed in the first place. We've already established that Brant has had LOADS of frames/bikes reviewed by MBUK/WMB in the past and they've all been done fairly (and scored very well).

The issue here is that he thought he had a spot in a test, and it was confirmed at the last minute that he didn't.

We've also established that it's not uncommon for bikes to be cut from tests at the last minute due to constraints on time, column inches etc.

The Rookie

He may have wished the 456Carbon didn't get into it's group test.......
http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/categ ... -12-46042/
You can't have it all ways!

stubs

Or look at it the other way he has had a good run off WMB/MBUK with some rather overgushing reviews. Not knocking Brant Richards I ride one of his bikes and I think it is brilliant but some of the reviews sounded a bit like mates rates reviews.

Anonymous

The Beginner wrote:

He may have wished the 456Carbon didn't get into it's group test.......
http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/categ ... -12-46042/
You can't have it all ways!

Reviews like that just confirm to me that they are one person's (or group/company's) opinion as the weight of opinion from people who actually ride the c456 is overwhelmingly positive and rarely have I seen the criticisms that are stated in this review. And that's not just defending them because I've got one, but I went through the reviews and opinions from riders before deciding to get (or build) one.

But that's nothing bad. Reviews are all like this. Take them with a pinch of salt, match up with alternate reviews from other independent reviewers, and see what real users think and how popular they are as well. If it sells well, it can't be all that bad. Or maybe it's just because it's cheap

compositepro

depends on which "clique" your a member of

YeehaaMcgee

deadkenny wrote:

The Beginner wrote:

He may have wished the 456Carbon didn't get into it's group test.......
http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/categ ... -12-46042/
You can't have it all ways!

Reviews like that just confirm to me that they are one person's (or group/company's) opinion as the weight of opinion from people who actually ride the c456 is overwhelmingly positive and rarely have I seen the criticisms that are stated in this review. And that's not just defending them because I've got one, but I went through the reviews and opinions from riders before deciding to get (or build) one.

The least reliable group of people to ask their opinion of something, is the group of riders that ride them.

The Rookie

In the case of the C456 it was being rated against it's peers (roughly) most people won't have one AND a peer to compare it to perhaps......I dare say coming from a £800 HT is is brilliant!