Dummy Bicycle Reviews

typical hybrid bike

A staffer or two once wrote reviews for the now-defunct review site Epinions.com. The notion behind the site was that people would submit real-world reviews based on their experience. The reality was that there were always a few "reviewers" who had little or no experience with the product they reviewed; especially if the product was expensive, popular, or both. Some of them were so unfamiliar with the product that they couldn't even spell its name; reviewing "Cuisinant" kitchen appliances and "Infinity" cars. Sad to say, it's still happening: check out "Comparison of a Trek 7200 Hybrid Bicycle to a Comparable Schwinn," posted to SportsRec.com by Angela Brady.

Brady cobbled together her comparison in 2011, while the 7200 was still being manufactured, so she didn't have to go to Trek's bike archive. She chose the Sporterra as the "comparable" Schwinn model (we don't know why).
The bulk of Angela's post consists of her attempts to parrot the specifications of the two bicycles; attempts that make it clear that this self-described "authority on sustainable design" knows squat about bicycles. Here's some of the dumbassery that revealed her ignorance:

• "The Trek 7200 is a hybrid bicycle, meaning that is part road bike and part cruiser." – No, it's a cross between a road bike, a touring bike, and a mountain bike. It has nothing to do with cruisers.
• "It’s lightweight enough to offer an exercise advantage, yet easy enough to use for recreational purposes." – No idea what either of those statements means...
• "The most comparable Schwinn hybrid bike is the Sporterra NBX." – No such animal... there was a Sporterra NX8, though.
• "The Schwinn comes only in the XL size, which was not further defined by the manufacturer’s specifications." – No, Angela, the Schwinn came in S, M, L, and XL...
• ",,,the Sporterra offered a RM60 front hub and the Shirrano Nexus 8-speed internal gear in the rear." – "Shirrano"? Is that some sort of knockoff Shimano?
• "The Trek and the Sporterra are both 8-speed bikes..." – No, both have triple chain rings with 8 speeds on the rear. In case you, like Angela, can't do the math, that's 24 speeds...
• "...Trek offers a Shimano M171 48/38/28 crank and a Shimano HG40 11-32 cassette with derailleurs..." – Yeah, Angela, you kinda have to have derailleurs with triple crankset and 8-speed cluster!

• "...the Sporterra comes with a TruVativ IsoFlow 1.0 crank." – Nope: it has the same crankset as the Trek, a Shimano M171, 48/38/28.
• "The Sporterra does not offer derailleurs..." - In point of fact, Angela, the Sportera had to have a front derailleur (a Shiminao Altus, to be precise), and the rear hub is an "internal" derailleur. So Schwinn did "offer" them.

Brady said nothing about the weight of the bikes and precious little about actual comparisons of the two. She just recited a bunch of specifications that, it's pretty obvious, meant little or nothing to her. Classic Dumbass of the Day-quality work, if you ask us.

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