Risk ... the aims of mountain biking, the purpose, the vibe ...

[hamster]

@Cloverleaf great post - and a lot of the bike stuff is pushed by the mags / review sites which unsurprisingly need advertising from brands. Reading some of them you'd conclude you need 6" of travel front & rear just for the ride to Tesco Express for a bottle of Monster.

 

[Cloverleaf]

@Cloverleaf great post - and a lot of the bike stuff is pushed by the mags / review sites which unsurprisingly need advertising from brands. Reading some of them you'd conclude you need 6" of travel front & rear just for the ride to Tesco Express for a bottle of Monster.

To be fair, I've seen how some of those guys ride; they need a 6" travel bike to make up for the complete lack of talent It was always funny listening to those ones talk bollocks at press launches/camps etc about how such and such product was really ground breaking and they could feel how good it was etc, all while struggling to make it down the trail we were riding to get access to the proper stuff. In general the British guys were batting a higher average standard than most, but there were still a good number of donkeys even then, some quite well 'respected'. Then again I've also ridden with some exceptionally talented riders/writers over the years and had a lot of fun riding cool trails on some amazing products.

The other thing is that magazines, sites and manufacturers want the high end and trendy stuff to be visible to act as a halo for the brand. This means the lower level stuff, the 'boring' stuff, just doesn't get the air time because it doesn't maximise the free advertising they're getting. Take a car analogy, what will sell a magazine better on the shelves; the 1.0 poverty spec fiesta in bargain white, or the latest brightly coloured supercar? Someone wanting to buy the former will go for the former, but most people buy and read these things for something to do rather than practical purposes and will be drawn in by the magpie effect. I had reviews get 100k page views in the past. Was the product ever going to sell that volume? Just look at the number of views real car channels get on YouTube where you've got some talented mechanics manufacturing parts and building something unique (likely low views), vs some daft blonde bint in hot pants talking seductively about a Bentley (usually a bunch of randy old men going 'ooh, I'd like to swing a leg over that')? 'Sex' sells, whether overt, covert, or just some inanimate object to lust after knowing you won't ever own it. The problem is that this then means people getting into the sport sees all the focus on one thing and thinks it's all there is. But then when has any sport or hobby been sensible? How many years have we had anodised colour matched trinkets that people like to add to their bikes vs spending money on stuff that will actually make it better, like suspension tuning (or even servicing!), or rider coaching?