Pinkbike Poll: What Do You Want to See More of On Pinkbike?
Unless you've just emerged from a few decades spent in the jungle, I probably don't need to tell you that the internet is a crazy place. In thirty seconds you can learn how to cook up deep-fried spiders, how to give yourself a black eye, or even how to make yourself tipsy by soaking a tampon in booze and then... well, I'll stop there. Pretty much anything can be found online, but the fact that you're reading this probably means that you spend at least some of your time looking at and reading about mountain bikes here on Pinkbike.
![Pinkbike reviews]()
And just in case you're wondering if we're data mining with this poll, we are, and it's for a good cause. We want to feature more content that you want to see, so tell us exactly what that is by clicking all that apply in the poll below.
There won't be any spider-cooking how-tos on Pinkbike, but you will find bike reviews, bike photos, bike stories, stories about bikes, etc... You get the picture. Still, I always find myself wondering what people would like to see more of. With bike reviews happening every Monday, and gear reviews nearly every other day of the week, it'd be easy to assume that's the last thing you might what to see more frequently, but maybe I'm wrong. Shootouts? As much as that word gets under my skin (let's call them comparisons, please), 2016 is going to see a lot more along the same lines as the dropper seat post head-to-head from a few weeks back.
Maybe you'd rather read some opinionated words from one of the Pinkbike's editors (who can forget RC's ''Are You Prepared, or Are You a Parasite?'' poll), or spend your computer time watching videos of other people riding?
Maybe you'd rather read some opinionated words from one of the Pinkbike's editors (who can forget RC's ''Are You Prepared, or Are You a Parasite?'' poll), or spend your computer time watching videos of other people riding?
And just in case you're wondering if we're data mining with this poll, we are, and it's for a good cause. We want to feature more content that you want to see, so tell us exactly what that is by clicking all that apply in the poll below.
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Member since Oct 18, 2005
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You can't have mountain biking without trail building.
Creative homemade freeride trails are the core of all extreme mountain biking.
Only reason I distinguish for homemade is because some popular trails are wicked cool, but many are flat and featureless days. There was a realllllly cool set of articles/videos in the last year with that canadian dude that was building a freeride trail into the winter with the help of a big crew.
I wanna see more!!
Sorry for the lack of names/links.
reviews in isolation have less value; it can be harder to criticize a single product when there is nothing directly to compare it to during the review (often just previous experience / memories).
Also, riders do not shop for new bikes/gear in isolation, you are often weighing up a number of options when you shop
putting products directly up against each other has much more value. many of the print bike magazines did / do this and it was always interesting to have a bunch of riders review say 5 bikes at the same pricepoint and come to a common consensus
MBUK magazine here in the UK actually did this pretty well over the years, they did shootouts on say dirt jump bikes, freeride bikes or dual crown suspension forks at a pricepoint.
rider wants "new full suspension trail bike for $1500.what are the best options?"
But if they edited out all the slow boring bits, they'd have nothing left....
I seem to get yellow notifications on my profile every 4 days that I must renew my current ads otherwise they are not visible.
PS pretty funny that this post has so many likes and is totally unrelated to the question on content.
4 riders, 4 bikes, all swapping about and talking it through, that's how it's done with other sports, motorbikes etc and you get a more in depth article out of it too..
A good rider will be able to deal with the bars not being exactly the right width or the pedals being different etc..
m.pinkbike.com/buysell/1572403
a great way to finish a review on each bike is a column listing "advantages" and "disadvantages"
advantages: great value for money/RCT3 damper in fork/tubeless ready tires/780mm bars
disadvantages: heaviest bike on test/gearing too tall/seatpost too short for taller riders
you get the idea....
www.mcnews.com/mcn
like consumer reports style but just for motorcycle stuff. They listed their test metrics if I recall, for each review. I think it would be awesome to have the test category metrics right out there. I think more scientific based testing metrics would help too. Bike media is traditionally really opposed to this but the consumers want real numbers.
Category suggestions:
Stiffness: I think this is often overlooked. There are a lot of big guys out here, and we want to know if that thing will hold up under 200+ pounds of RAW POWER! And, this is something that can be actually measured in a fixture: Lateral rear dropout deflection = XX mm at XX force. It wouldn't be too much work to make a fixture for testing wheel stiffness as well. Hold the hub fixed in place, and apply a transverse load at the rim and measure the deflection. This will expose all the shitty stock wheels that come on most bikes. Especially the low spoke count wheels from the big S and others.
Climbing: Any bike with big ass tires is going to feel like crap going uphill. How about put some XC tires on and see how it really works uphill?
Descending
# of moving parts in the linkage system. This is a good indicator of future maintenance requirements.
Airtime/Jumps: Pretty much every 29er gets very low marks in this category. This is only fine if you don't ever jump your bike.
Cost
Value
Fun factor
Warrantee: Lifetime gets top score. This is significant if you really ride your bikes, and makes me only consider certain companies.
Check this out:
www.mcnews.com/mcn/articles/2015_01PerfIndex.pdf
I would add that most recent reviews of bikes I have read here are less than helpful. How many times have I read "climbs better than you would expect for a 160mm bike" Seriously? What does that even mean?
I agree. I like seeing the super top end bikes, but honestly id rather read about the bikes that i will actually be choosing from when i buy my next bike. Im a regular dude with a family...zero chance my next bike will be more than 3k. I keep bikes for a really long time, so im much more interested in hearing about how bikes that i will actually be choosing from hold up. Dirtrag does a sub 3k comparison every year, and Id love to get more of that from PB, since they have more space to publish that kind of stuff
I really like the (mainly DH) race perspectives, more female racers would be great, even my partner has read a few of them.
These and other questions come up over and over in forums. Tons of authoritative opinions but all are 100% subjective or speculative. For example RC explained why wide rims *should* be better, but he never tried to test his claim even quasi scientifically. Some of this stuff wouldn't be that hard to test single blind. A couple of identical bikes, change colors and change some components that barely matter to camouflage (cranks, seatpost, stem) what you're really testing (e.g wheels). Then do timed runs or just ask for subjective experiences. The key being that the rider doesn't know what component is being tested. I'd find that kind of article super interesting.
What if you do a direct comparison between the cheapest and most expensive version of the same bike? Giant Trance 4 vs Trance Advanced 0 or something like that. Is a 6-8.000 bike 3 -4 times as good as a 2.000 bike?
Also, most people choose a low end XC hardtail to get into the sport. Pinkbike doesn't cater for them at all.
Have we all forgotten the time when we were getting into the sport? Yes this type of content would be boring for the bro-brah, but if you want to expand your demographic you need to cater for all different kinds of riders.
- behind the scenes (or making of): how some photos & videos were made, with concepts, planning, fails, and so on;
- how to: enhance biking skills, mechanical skills & tips, but also photo / video tips & tricks, etc.;
- more contests: (themed) photo contests, video, (sponsored) frame painting contests, raffles, etc.;
- building, maintenance and rules of the trails;
- a bit more coverage of the other branches of the sport?
www.youtube.com/user/ThePhilkmetz
What about in-depth reviews on "bike parks" or similar places with several tracks. Many of us go on vacations to these locations, and often it can be hard to figure out which place is most suited to your skills and needs.
The most useful entry for me was the service on the Dorado.
More real people less famous
More independent bike /parts producers
Less big corperate BULLSHIT industry standards
More beer
Auto delete for adds over 30 days.
Cheers
Only thing im personally not interested in are race results
I like what you guys have been doing, keep up the great work!!
I want articles that explain the pluses and minuses of equipment so I can make an informed choice. Nothing is perfect so if you understand it you can deal with it. (Dropper post article was the right flavour save it missed minimum insertion levels)
Tyres are so important - Regular Tyre comparisons run on different rim widths....( say 20, 22, 25, 27 and 30)... With a profile on how they work on different surfaces. Once this is up and running it would be an awesome record to check....
I love the trip/tour articles. More of this would be great.....I know it makes me want to chuck my rig in my bus and go!
For example, there are almost a dozen seemingly-competitive trail/AM/enduro forks out there. You could buy a 140mm-160mm 34mm to 36mm 27.5" fork from Fox, Rockshox, Manitou, X-Fusion, Suntour, Magura, BOS, MRP, DVO, Formula, and maybe even throw in Marzocchi, Cannondale, Ohlins/Specialized, and DT Swiss. You'll be lucky to meet someone outside bike journalism who's ridden more than three recent-year fork models and can speak intelligently about them. That's your role - something PB riders can tell me that my riding/drinking buddies can't.
And, roughly 70% of fork reviews say the same vague junk about a given fork being "supple and controlled" or "stiff enough" without drawing a comparison to anything else. So I dig up a review of another fork to compare, only to find that it's "smooth and confidence-inspiring". If I'm going to drop anywhere from $500 to $1500, I want to make sure I get the one that's right for me any my terrain, even if all of them are high quality in general.
I want to hear specific observations, things like:
"Among the five forks, our riders agreed only this one felt noticeably less stiff than the others, and we couldn't feel a difference among all the others."
"These two really impressed us with their small-bump sensitivity, most others were pretty good but nothing exceptional, and this last one was consistently chattery and kind of sucked.."
"This fork's damper struggled more with repeated square hits, compared to forks B, C, D."
Rinse and repeat with all sorts of products. Tires in a variety of conditions, aftermarket shocks on a variety of frames, hubs, pre-made wheelsets, aftermarket chainrings, chain lube, bike racks, knee pads, pedals, hydration packs, shoes, breathable waterproof riding gear, etc.
2. More interviews from the support staff in and around races. How they got there, life history and the like. Might be inspiring for up and comers to figure out where to focus. E.g. that one with the race mechanics.
3. The forum needs a HUGE overhaul with it's search engine. Seriously, I can't find a thing using the search, so I often don't even bother with the pb forum, despite it's huge catalogue of information. It's stuck in the 90's using some AOL search engine or something made by a coop student. In the event that I'm both reading and computer illiterate, a how-to-use-the-archaic-forum VIDEO (what, is pinkbike bandwidth eco-friendly???)
*camouflaged ads
Bike:
- Pedaling efficiency (measured)
- Climbing handling (subjective)
- Climbing traction (subjective)
- Mellow terrain (subjective)
- Descending handling (subjective)
- Braking performance (subjective)
- Small bump compliance (subjective opinion backed up by linkage design science)
- Big hit performance (subjective opinion backed up by linkage design science)
- Mid Stroke Performance (subjective opinion backed up by linkage design science)
- Climbing speed on a set test track (measured)
- Descending speed on a set test track (measured)
- Quality/Reliability
Tires:
- Rolling resistance on hardpack (measured)
- Rolling resistance on soft/ rough (measured)
1 category of each for braking, climbing, cornering traction
- Traction wet roots (subjective)
- Traction dry (subjective)
- Traction loam (subjective)
- Traction hardpack (subjective)
- Predictability (subjective)
- Longevity
The rankings should be the same scale across all bike disciplines. This way I could tell how the AM bike climbs compared to my XC bike, and descends compared to my DH bike. Only the best XC bike should get top marks for climbing, and the best DH bike would get top marks for descending. Those two would also set the bar for bottom marks in the opposite categories.
Perhaps for bikes, it would be useful to break out frames and complete bikes when ranking them.
This style of ranking would allow readers to compare to other products and compare their old bike to the current stuff and see if it's worth upgrading. Or perhaps decide between buying top end used bike or a mid-range new bike for the same price.
Develop a tool to take all that data and allow users to compare products on their own. Or for technical people like myself, just make the raw data available.
I'd also like to see reviews covering multiple price ranges of the same bike. The $12,000 super bike may be awesome, but is the frame completely relying on top end components to make it great? How much will the ride quality suffer if I purchase the SLX/X-Fusion version of the same bike?
Furthermore, perhaps the high end build from manufacturer "A" gets a 9/10 while similar build from manufacturer "B" gets an 8/10. Does this result in the budget build reflecting a 6/10 from "A" and a 5/10 from "B", or does "B" actually perform better than "A" with a budget build.
I'd like to see reviewers comment on the best users for specific product. Perhaps it sucks for a pro racer on smooth terrain, but it's just the ticket for a beginner/intermediate rider looking for some extra confidence on technical terrain (classic 27.5+ example).
Comment on sizing. Don't just insert the usual complaint about the reach being too short. Compare the reach against the top tube length. Comment on what body types might be better suited to a certain design. Two 6' tall people, one with long legs and the other with short legs will likely find different geometries comfortable.
I'd also like to see more info on bike setup (with input from industry professionals) to answer the following questions:
- If raising/lowering my bar height is supposed to affect the weight bias on my front wheel (and thus affecting handling), what exactly should the target weight bias be, and what's the most effective way to measure it?
- How will adding a Fox Evol sleeve vs Vorsprung Corset affect my suspension feel?
- Review a Pushe'd shock/fork vs an Avalanche'd shock/fork. Who's tuning is the best? In what circumstances?
- In individual bike reviews, suggest ways to overcome any shortcomings that would be cheaper than the alternative of buying the more expensive model. (For example Avalanche tuning on a sub par shock for $250 vs $2000 for the higher end bike)
Side by side comparisons as already mentioned.
However, why do I think this will never happen? Cost of filming and editing? Fear of pissing off any sponsored company?
It would be great for us readers though.
Less of the everything new is awesome and everything made last year is now rubbish attitude please.
and quit making out that every new standard was needed to push the sport further.
Praise a good idea not just hype new revenue spinning standards. It was only a couple of years back that i was led to believe that i should be binning my chainguide for narrow wide and now i have read articles stating a small chain device is now a good idea again?
lots of negs i know but i do love the vids and the race info and the helpful forum sections too.
Pinkbike: please revamp how you facilitate user discussion.
There should be boatloads of tire reviews. like WEEKLY.
Just my $.02.
You remember, the titties!
More of this kind of stuff
and old races.
custom builders.
less ( 0 ) specialized and sram.
less googles over 3/4 helmet cheesballs.
less RAMPAGE and other kiddo stuff.
youtu.be/sjIoNK7l2PA
Yeah.