Money to Burn?
March 29th, 2005 by Tim GrahlI hate when mountain bike publications lose sight of the people that really make this such a great sport. Seems like they forget that most people don’t have money falling out of their ears to buy the newest, coolest stuff. The newest review from DirtWorld.com, the “mountain bike guide”, is on four different sets of earphones for riding. The price range… $180 to $550. Five hundred and fifty freakin dollars for headphones. If you have that much money to spare for earphones, you are reading the wrong site. I have been riding a kickin’ singlespeed that only costs $400!
Man stuff like this pisses me off. I realize that they are just having good times and reviewing products, but in my all-important opinion they are alienating the riders that make this sport great. If they really want to review headphones, why don’t they run down to Radio Shack and pick up a few pair for $20 and review them? I gaurantee you that I will be a heck of a lot more interested in the review of those then the review of a bunch of crap there is no way me or any of my riding buddies could afford or even want. Ok I’m done.
What is RSS?
Get our articles in your inbox:
Because all cycling publications never met a product that they didn’t like. They are always scrambling like mad for advertisers, and won’t risk a review that is brutaly honest. When Bicycling reviews a road bike, this is as harsh as they get: “We’d expect a nicer stem on a $4,200 bike.” So this carries over to their equipment reviews, too. According to the latest Bicycling magazine, even a beginner can’t go 24 hr MTB racing without a $500 light. It just boggles the mind.
It’s really frustrating because that same mentality infects the whole industry. I’ve gone into large bike shops that have “Super” “Performance”(wink wink) looking for shoes around a $50 price range and the sales person just looked at me and cocked his head back and said…”$50? Oh you’re going to have to spend at least $80 for some shoes…”
If your riding a SS that cost $400 then your way ahead of me. I end up building bikes because I can never afford the entire thing at once I have to save for every single part.
Well, I’m surprised no one has hit this yet, but…here goes! IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!!! Those mags won’t ever get down to the “blue collar” level ’cause there is “no money” in it. If they only knew how wrong they were! You know, out here in Iowa, we all know that plants grow from the roots up, not from that nice, beautiful flower. Same thing goes for this sport, ya got ta grow it from the “grass roots”! But they just keep alienating us. At least Dirt Rag has a section called “Dirtbag” where they give you some cool tips on the way to get by on the cheap. Hey, there is nothing wrong with “nice stuff”, but we all can’t afford it.