Consumer Reports rates some bikes

"Tom Parker" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

The latest issue of Consumer Reports (June) just arrived, and they have a small article rating
bikes, for 3 categories of riders: comfort, fitness, and road. The top-rated bikes were by Giant,
Giant, and Bianchi, respectively. They didn't care much for the two comfort bikes with automatic
shift. FYI.

I was mostly impressed with the quality of the general advice they gave about bike-buying. It isn't
comprehensive or complete, but it's mostly at least not wrong. They make the case that buying at a
local bike shop is the best strategy. And they didn't include any mountain bikes, for once.

But the test reports are ludicrous. For one thing, they make no mention of the basic reality that
what they tested is about 1% of what's actually available. Entire major brands are omitted
entirely. Nothing is said about the brandmates of the bikes they did test. And while the issue of
fit is mentioned in the text, the connection is not made to the "ratings." The uninitiated buyer
who wants the "top rated" bike may have trouble understanding why it's not suitable for their
particular physique.

RichC

I think you are right. The piece was not useless, but damned close. The heart rate monitors thing
was kind of nice, but again quite superficial/limited.

My guess is that a couple of bike guys on their staff were given a very small budget and a few pages
to do their report and this is the best they could do with limited resources. I personally would
have liked to see them add a few a of the often-reviled "department store" models to their
comparison just to see what 1/3 less than the lowest priced models in their ranges would get them.

- GRL

"It's good to want things."

Steve Barr (philosopher, poet, humorist, chemist, Visual Basic programmer)
"Rich Clark" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

"Tom Parker" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The latest issue of Consumer Reports (June) just arrived, and they have a small article rating
bikes, for 3 categories of riders: comfort, fitness, and road. The top-rated bikes were by
Giant, Giant, and Bianchi, respectively. They didn't care much for the two comfort bikes with
automatic shift. FYI.

I was mostly impressed with the quality of the general advice they gave about bike-buying. It
isn't comprehensive or complete, but it's mostly at least not wrong. They make the case that
buying at a local bike shop is

the

Quoted message said:

best strategy. And they didn't include any mountain bikes, for once.

But the test reports are ludicrous. For one thing, they make no mention of the basic reality that
what they tested is about 1% of what's actually available. Entire major brands are omitted
entirely. Nothing is said about the brandmates of the bikes they did test. And while the issue of
fit is mentioned in the text, the connection is not made to the "ratings." The uninitiated buyer
who wants the "top rated" bike may have trouble understanding why it's not suitable for their
particular physique.

RichC