Quality
So, a couple things happened in the blogosphere while I’ve been struggling to make this place work again (I can now install and upgrade a WordPress blog in my sleep).
- ESPN interviewed Jon Byers from Easter
- Darcy from MacNeil posted a blog where he basically said Spanish BBs are better because they’re lighter and look better to his eye
As one would expect, comments came fast and furious from around everywhere. Some were the typical “you suck!” without any explaination of why and some were pointing out pretty obvious things (like, well, the Spanish BB is lighter, but it’s also weaker, than the mid BB). Which is all well and good, but it got my mind a thinking. Which, as you know, is never a good thing.
At some point BMX bike tests died and they died a slow, horrible death. Not that BMXbike tests were ever bastions of virtue and depth, starting as basically a multi-page ad for whatever company. In the end, every bike test in Ride was basically a Mad Lib whereby which the tester would fill in adjectives for the frame length (too long, too short, just right) the bar height (too tall, too narrow, too short, “too wide, but if I owned it I would cut them down) head tube angle (“more mellow than I’m used to,” “steeper than I’m used to”) and chainstay length (but, at the very end everyone stopped making anything but a 13.75″ rear end so this became moot).
You might wonder how the two things are connected. Well, honestly, it’s quality. Back when bike tests were in vogue there was the appearance of a place you could go and find out which products were good and which were crap. That’s not as much around anymore, and as I stated above, it wasn’t so good when it was. So now, people can make all sorts of claims about all sorts of things and there’s no real way for the average kid to figure out what’s real and what’s just hate.
Now, let’s be honest, what I’m about to say below isn’t apples to apples. We’re dealing with an industy where the vast majority of products are made in less than a handful of factories with very little design variation. Still…
JD Power and Associates have several surveys that occur during the live of products (and I’m specifically thinking cars) that deal with initial (90 day) and Vehical Dependability (three year) surveys. Basically a semi-random selection of owners are surveyed about their experience with a particular vehicle, you throw out the extremes and what you’re left with should be a fairly good representation of the typical owner experience. Even better if you can get an honest accounting of warrantty claims from the manufacturer.
I’d like this. At the very least it would get people to aggregate the shit talking kids in the Vital Product guide (“GT SUCKS, BUY FIT!!!!” “My friend’s cousin’s uncle’s stepson owned a Subrosa and I heard that he cracked the top tube jumping off a curb!!!!”). Fact is, I can find out which car is a death trap, but I can’t even find out which bike company is the biggest pain in the ass to get a warrantty repair through.
For an industry that has so little separation from its customers, BMX has a long way to go to become truly consumer friendly.
