I have strong feelings about marketing BS in the MTB industry. I just came across this article and the headline is driving me nuts.
"Downcountry hardtail (doesn't exist), Enduro (Enduro hardtail?) and "bikepacking" all in one frame?? And just for good measure we'll add "wagon wheels" WTF?
The article in question is written by a website I generally like, the brand of the bike (Cotic) I genuinely really like (they make pretty sweet steel bikes) and I'm having a hard time letting this go without saying something.
This is some marketing headline BS. A collection of trendy words and catch phrases to lure more clicks. Not a fan. The bike is freakin sweet, let it speak for it's self!!
I'm quite certain it would be an excellent hardtail trail bike to ride, and fairly versatile, but the MTB media should be held to a higher standard. Some writer wrote it, an editor approved it, and it was published. It's terrible and ridiculous.
Please discuss...
Bikerumor: "2020 SolarisMAX is Cotic's downcountry hardtail for enduro & bikepacking w/wagon wheels"
I'm surprised that the headline turned you off rather than the fact that there appears to be 7(!) water bottle bosses on the down tube and 0(!) on the seat tube. That is the real crime here and shame on Cotic.
I keep getting all those FB adds for Absolute Black oval chainrings and how they'll "improve" your riding, that they are proven by science, and that they are the best thing ever. I ask, how much they will improve riding. I'm told "up to...". Wild claims, like if a TDF rider was 7% faster, that would be record-breaking an monumental. I ask what quantitative methods have been used to determine if those results are significant. Crickets.
It's an article/review, not an advertising piece. I skimmed through the article, and it gets into a lot of technical details and seems competently written. My guess is that the editor chose the title of the article not to match the article, but to match the marketing of the manufacturer, which is probably also an advertiser for the mag. Probably all on a shoestring budget. Journalism is truly challenged these days across the board, it's tough to make a living, much less approach it professionally.
Yes. There are cargo cages that use 3 bosses by themselves. Some bags attach to those bosses in order to avoid straps that scuff the frame. And so on.
I do agree that marketing-speak is ridiculous. Downcountry is BS. The word enduro is sortof descriptive (as a race format) when the marketing people got hold of it, it got to be too much. Worse than those words, though, is when you get strings of meaningless babble used as "descriptive" terms. This article doesn't have much of that, but I would classify the way it uses the manufacturer's "branded" terms for aspects of the frame that way. Pretty much meaningless words, since the author doesn't really describe what most of them actually are or do.
Bikepacking is a useful word that describes something legitimately different. But the activity certainly existed before there was a word for it.
It's just a consequence of manufacturers trying to differentiate their product in a crowded marketplace. Most riders think that 'hardtail' is a category like 'enduro.'
This isn't even that bad. Every brand having their own patented suspension linkage is much much dumber.
If every suspension was precisely the same, how would we know the difference from a SPecialEd, Trek and any other since they are all precisely identical? I hold several patents on bicycle suspension designs and applications, so compelled to ask.
I despise specious technical explanations and descriptions. Tons of it created by marketers, parroted by journos, and perpetuated by the gullible ignorant public.
My wife bought a hair coloring kit online. I read the copy, something like "Nourishes your sense of inner beauty, empowering you to be the woman you truly were meant to be yada yada and more horsesh!t. I read it to her and said "If I got a job writing copy and I wrote something like this, please just kill me".
Face it, advertisers aren't about telling you the truth. Truth doesn't sell. The ad copy I would write would be something like "It does a decent job of coloring your hair and won't make it fall out or blind you if you follow the instruction carefully".
I quit reading mtb articles a couple years ago. Call me a grumpy old butthole, but I can only read words like "gnar" "shred" and "sendy" so much before I want to gouge my eyes out with a butterknife.
Re: the oval “it’s just like biopace” issue. This is a prime example of where overdoing the marketing backfires.
When I was deciding on chainrings I did some research into modern oval vs old biopace and there is a significant difference that is centered around the orientation of the oval that substantially changes how it affects pedal stroke. I find it makes a difference for me mostly on really steep climbs (less quad fatigue) or when trying to maintain traction on a techy climb and I prefer it but it isn’t the OMG GAME CHANGER!!!! That the marketing teams would have you believe.
The problem with the over the top marketing claiming it is some revolutionary game changer is that people get weary of it and start to just discount anything said in the marketing which causes people in this case to think it is identical to biopace and that the only difference is marketing. Simultaneously other people buy the marketing hook line and sinker and think it is some completely new/novel/different technology. These two camps get into heated arguments because, for some reason, what someone else thinks of your choice of components matters? The reality is somewhere in the middle, it is an improvement/evolution of the biopace concept.
Finally, a do-it-all bike! I can get ride of my other four.
What is this 'downcountry' talk?
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