#!markdown
Yo Fed,
First, you're way off on AM bike pricing and availability, and without doing
any scouring and using only SC and Norco as examples, I'll illustrate:
1) Here's your $3,400 Bronson: <http://www.santacruzbicycles.com/en/us
/bronson-alloy#builder>. Yes, that's in USD, but it comes in just $100 more
than the lowest-priced Aurum you referenced.
2) Here's a Range Alloy 7.2 for $2,800: <http://www.norco.com/bikes/mountain
/all-mountain-enduro/range-alloy/range-alloy-72/>.
We are starting to chase down review bikes that aren't at the top of the price
heap, but manufacturers often don't make the lower-priced models available for
review, at least immediately upon release. Don't worry, we hear you, and we'll
endeavor to review some sub 4 and 5k bikes in future.
Next, I'm betting you won't read the same comments from all the reviewers
after long-term testing. Why? Because the bikes will be subject to a lot of
different test conditions. However, after a mere two days worth of riding, all
of us in the same place, I agree: many comments and yes, images, are similar.
Stay tuned and I'm sure you'll see a lot of variety in future reviews. But as
for the two-days of preview riding: you're in Chile, riding a $10k bike, brand
new, set up for you. If something had not been right about it, you would have
read it. However, turn it around and think about it this way: would SC or
another company go to that expense and trouble if they weren't confident that
the press they brought in to ride the bike were going to like it? Does that
make it any better or worse that they did so anyway?
Lastly, I'll lay out the format again. This was a preview, similar to what we
at NSMB often refer to as a First Look, when we focus on images and let them
tell the big picture story behind the design and delve into spec (which this
one did not do).
We find a lot of readers are actually lookers these days, so we try to limit
the word count in any given article and make sure there are lots of images
with captions. I'm encouraged you read it, though. In future we will delve
more deeply into the individual characteristics of the bike but for this one,
I felt it was long enough after covering some of the back story behind the
bike's design - the telling of which took us to depths not usually reached in
bike reviews.
April 28, 2014, 11:57 a.m. - Pete Roggeman
#!markdown Yo Fed, First, you're way off on AM bike pricing and availability, and without doing any scouring and using only SC and Norco as examples, I'll illustrate: 1) Here's your $3,400 Bronson: <http://www.santacruzbicycles.com/en/us /bronson-alloy#builder>. Yes, that's in USD, but it comes in just $100 more than the lowest-priced Aurum you referenced. 2) Here's a Range Alloy 7.2 for $2,800: <http://www.norco.com/bikes/mountain /all-mountain-enduro/range-alloy/range-alloy-72/>. We are starting to chase down review bikes that aren't at the top of the price heap, but manufacturers often don't make the lower-priced models available for review, at least immediately upon release. Don't worry, we hear you, and we'll endeavor to review some sub 4 and 5k bikes in future. Next, I'm betting you won't read the same comments from all the reviewers after long-term testing. Why? Because the bikes will be subject to a lot of different test conditions. However, after a mere two days worth of riding, all of us in the same place, I agree: many comments and yes, images, are similar. Stay tuned and I'm sure you'll see a lot of variety in future reviews. But as for the two-days of preview riding: you're in Chile, riding a $10k bike, brand new, set up for you. If something had not been right about it, you would have read it. However, turn it around and think about it this way: would SC or another company go to that expense and trouble if they weren't confident that the press they brought in to ride the bike were going to like it? Does that make it any better or worse that they did so anyway? Lastly, I'll lay out the format again. This was a preview, similar to what we at NSMB often refer to as a First Look, when we focus on images and let them tell the big picture story behind the design and delve into spec (which this one did not do). We find a lot of readers are actually lookers these days, so we try to limit the word count in any given article and make sure there are lots of images with captions. I'm encouraged you read it, though. In future we will delve more deeply into the individual characteristics of the bike but for this one, I felt it was long enough after covering some of the back story behind the bike's design - the telling of which took us to depths not usually reached in bike reviews.