Demo then review or review then demo?

Hey PB,

Your last pod #5 Can you trust bike reviews, got me thinking....is it better to demo a bike then read a bunch of reviews to see if these reviews match your impression or is it better to do the opposite? I'm based and Brisbane and across Australia in general, demo days are few are far between. Luckily enough we have an amazing bike shop in Brisbane that actually carries a large demo fleet. When the Forbidden Druid came out I was immediately interested in this. Never a 29nr fan before but that thing got me excited and the local bike shop had one for demo. By the time I organised to ride it I had pretty much read every review out there in internet land. I'm not the most technical of riders, very much a set and forget guy. I know basic stuff but never know where to begin when I see a suspension graph for example. The big thing I read about the Druid was obviously the extending wheel base and how composed that made the bike feel in the rough and on impacts. I definitely did feel more composed off drops and was quite amazed by the bikes stability, but was this feeling heightened because I had read about this in numerous reviews? Would I and would others, benefit more if demo'ing a bike at first opportunity, then read all of the detailed reviews afterwards? Would this make me be more impartial? And if anyone was wondering, I take delivery of a new Druid next week, yeeeww!

Cheers

Simo