This is what bike experts say about the Stern TV test
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Dirk Zedler - bike expert and BIKE writer
"It is confirmed again: fatigue testing of bikes is still in very early stages of development."
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Dirk Zedler: Nothing new on TV
The Stern TV broadcast is nothing out of line. Every year, dubious bike tests are conducted in some broadcasts and shows. So far, however, TV-producers have only zeroed in low-priced bikes, manufacturers of quality-bikes could reassuredly clap themselves on the shoulder.
This time, with Rock Shox, an established manufacturer was hit. The sector’s outcry about the pseudo-test cannot conceal the fact that there is a quality problem. Enterprises missed out on developing generally accepted testing methods.
The standardization work conducted by "interested circles" does not keep pace with bike technology. Overworking a standard can take many years. The current German industrial standard for bikes (DIN) is a minimum demand for bikes fit for road traffic – and therefore no adequate standard for sportily used mountainbikes.
Many institutes have advanced into this vacuum and created their own testing criteria. But apparently none of them could account for the briskly developing bike-technology. Otherwise these findings would have lead to a wider consent. Often, the various institutes’ ratings for one and the same product vary considerably. A real problem – for the consumer just like for the manufacturer. For the sake of consumer safety, the sector has to pull itself together and find some common ground on which to base. BIKE will support the development of comprehensible testing criteria by hook or by crook. In order to do so, manufacturers and testing institutes have to disclose their cards. A positive sign: The German delegation of European standardization has assured BIKE to send us the European standard bill for mountainbikes to get a statement from us. We are curious.
