bici_mania

After starting work as a bike mechanic in the local shop, I have been set to task watching educational videos created by manufacturers.

In these videos, many statistical numbers are thrown about...

...20% lighter action...
...30% greater stopping power...
...40% more aero...

Then there is the generalize claims; "...this new ground breaking technology..." "...the biggest innovation in ___ since...."

Those are significant claims. But thinking about it, year after year, over the last several decades, cyclists must have been some hulkish, calloused foot, rugged individuals. It must have been some sight to see the strength and stamina it took to stop a bicycle or even to shift gears.

Rather than showing charts and diagrams, they bring on 'typical rider' to tell me how much better, faster, stronger, lighter, more aero, the new stuff is. "Every year it just get's better".

There may be a thread of truth but it seems to me that it is 98.25% more marketing fiction 'as compared to previous years' sniff tests.

Retro Grouch 

"Figures don't lie but liars figure." Mark Twain.

40% of a small number is an insignificant number.

rydabent

Believe advertisements about as much as you believe a politician! That is like what if you are scared half to death twice!

fietsbob

Politicians love quoting Statistics too..

JohnDThompson 

That sounds more like marketing videos than educational videos.

Jed19

That phenomenon is not unique to the cycling industry. Every industry I have ever been in always make blowhard claims in "training and education."

Welcome to the circus

leob1

Ask yourself this; Why do I suddenly need a specific bike to ride on gravel?

berner

Might as well get used to claims from alternate reality as we are soon to be bombarded during election campaigns. Or, turn off the TV and go ride the bike. That's what I'm gonna do. I figure that by the end of elections I'll have awesome legs

dabac

Just because something is true doesn't make it important.

Buying 10 lottery tickets would make it 10 times as likely that I win. That's a HUGE improvement. But I'm not quitting my day job until I see my numbers drawn.

Ronno6

75% of advertizing is 50% hype..........

DrIsotope

Because most road bikes will accommodate a 700x25 tire, and you're probably going to want something wider. Of the half dozen people I ride with, my CX frame is the only one that will fit anything bigger than a 28, and only one of those bikes will even fit a 28. And I don't even ride on gravel. I just didn't want a bike limited to 25s.

Bill Kapaun

Get a hybrid and put skinnier tires on it.

cale

Yesterday, I pulled the 39/52 crankset (105 5500) that was on my son's bike and exchanged it for the 34/50 crankset (Tiagra 4650) that was on my bike. The 105 crankarms have the Hollowtech feature which was pretty fancy "trickle down" stuff 15 years ago. The Tiagra crankarms have the Hollowtech II but don't have Hollowtech. Just to compare, I weighed the parts before installing them on the bike. 105 5500 w/ BB5500 bottom bracket was 1 lb. 15.7 oz. The Tiagra with BB4600 came in at 1 lb. 15.8 oz. Essentially the same weight.


Today's 4650 Tiagra cost about $100. The old 105 probably cost about the same back in 2001. So, it could be suggested that there have been few advances, weight and cost of the two cranksets are the same. But in marketing terms, there has been a 111% increase in gearing (9 spd to 10), the cranks themselves are at least 50% stiffer (they were extremely stiff to begin with but they're stiffer by 50%, a guess based on the larger Hollowtech II axle combined with outboard bearings.) The compact gearing has been "created" since the 105 9-spd cranks were first offered and adds value, offering a lighter option to a triple and "lighter" rings for the double. There is no weight savings, but in marketing speak, there are new and valuable features.

Where is the current 105 (5800) in this comparison? It has moved upstream and now offers features that no serious cyclist would live without. (Haha. The same people that couldn't live without the features that the old 105 brought.) Old 105 can not fairly be compared with new 150 but makes an excellent comparison with modern Tiagra. What serious marketer would let a popular model languish? None at Shimano, as new models (105 5800) resemble old models (Ultegra and DuraAce) and receive trickle down technology from the ever expanding frontier that is bike components. Statistics AHEAD!!!

Fahrenheit531 

The three kinds of lies:
Lies, damnable lies, and statistics.

rmfnla

This is why test rides are so important...

Juha

It's actually very, very difficult to find statistics that would actually lie by themselves. It's the people (mis)presenting, (mis)quoting and (mis)interpreting statistics that cause all the havoc. And sometimes also their audience, by (mis)understanding the presentation.

My line of work has all kinds of statistics floating around, coming from various interested parties. Sometimes people come to me and say they need <fill in an unrealistic statistics demand here>. I tell them it's not possible and explain why. Halfway through the explanation they say, "well, give me something - anything, I don't care". In those occasions I wish I had buckets filled with large, friendly toy numbers that I could pour on the table and say, "How about 7s? Nothing like a nice number 7 to beef up your presentation. We have a bucketful of perfectly good number 7s right here. See, I'll throw in a couple of 3s and 8s to boot. And a table is useless without some zeroes in there, somewhere. But I can only give you a few of those, since we're a bit short on them lately..."

--J

rootboy 

Con

sume

Jeff Wills

85% of all statistics are made up.

Ronno6

Out of a a sampling field of 5000 people polled,
data was compiled from the 1250 people who gave the desired responses in order to
verify the hypotheses...........

Mickey2

Every year new technology is launched, some turn out a success, some doesn't live up to it's expectations. I think these promotions in general are at best half true.

Watch this race between a 1950s racer and a 2009 racer. Time difference when crossing goal line is about 2 minutes, the old bike 18:28 the other 16:25. I'm not sure how acurate this is, it takes a bit of time to get to used to the different pedals, gears, frame, sitting position etc. What a rider is accustomed to matters a lot too, but two minutes is a great deal in a race. It's 60 years between these bikes, I doubt the latest invention matters that much from last years or the year before, but that's how they pay for the development of new technology. For the average bike the advancement in technology seems much less. In a bike museum I once saw a French 1930s ladies bike, lugged aluminum frame, derailleur; another was a light steel framed 3 speed city/touring bike; in many ways quite up to comparison with todays bikes. We have great derailleurs today, and nice 9 speed hubs, but what we consider the average bike today, they pretty much had 80 years ago. It's almost only top of the line racers that impresses up against fine technology of the past.

Matariki

It's all about selling product to make money. I bought into the "you want to go fast, you need (insert amazing new product", but as others have done, I finally figured that working on the engine is what adds speed.

Fahrenheit531 

Yes. That's why lie-by-statistic topped the list. Don't remember who said it though.

asmac

Nine times out of ten...

Kimmo

You 'Muricans might as well ignore all that mainstream media malarkey this time round; while the primaries are up in the air they'll do their best to pretend your saviour doesn't even exist, and then once he's swept aside Clinton they'll vainly stop at nothing to prevent him crushing whatever Republican he's up against into nanoparticles; if you thought the crazy bullsh*t around Obama was ridiculous, wait'll you see what those 'morans' say about an actual socialist.

Retro Grouch 

Another Mark Twain-ism.

Did I mention that he was a Missouri boy?