May 7, 2014, 4:10 p.m. -  Henry Chinaski

#!markdown I more or less believe what you’re saying, Cam. Sleep easy. Your post is a response to what seems like a growing distrust of the bike industry. Two things that come to mind: 1\. A perceived large increase in marketing. 2\. A growing disparity between high end products and what everyone else is riding. I’m not sure if the former is real, but it would be interesting to know how marketing dollars have increased relative to engineering over the years. I’m ok with paying more for my next bike, but I’d like to think bike companies are using my money to hire knobby riding engineers instead of marketing tools. IMO, these product release extravaganzas aren’t helping. Do people really want every mtb media outlet reporting on how good a 10k bike with a 65 deg ha rides down hill in Chile? Or worse, a Moab shakedown of the “new” Guide brakes where everyone is reporting “increased lever feel”? It really starts to feel like "the man" is feeding you a shit sandwich. I’m of the belief that all bike consumers are increasingly getting better products for cheaper prices. That said, top end products seem to be moving further and further away from the median. IMO, this has created some genuine animosity and distrust of the industry. I bought a nicely spece’d Stumpjumper M2 in 2000 that cost me somewhere under 1k. I was in college at the time and I remember thinking; this shit ain’t too far from the top. I can now spend that on a bike for my 5 year old. As long as the mtb media is seemingly propping up these out of reach (for most) products, I think there will be some questioning. As Vik said, that’s probably a healthy thing.