Companies have to lie. Consumers expect us to say certain things and if we don't say them, then they will not buy our products.
The above is a very close paraphrase from a marketing executive working for one of the world's largest bicycle manufacturers (I cannot make it a quote, since there is a word or two that I am not 100% sure about, but the above is very close to the actual quote).
One must parse the words of advertisements very carefully because ads are often crafted to give a particular impression, while saying something completely different.
Perhaps the king of all slippery marketing phrases is the drug company mainstay, “Nothing has been proven to last longer – be stronger – perform better...” If you ask most people what this means, they will say that the referred-to product is proven to last longer etc. then everything else. The phrase actually means nothing of the sort. It says simply that no one has demonstrated the product to be worse then anything else – quite a different assertion. The product could in fact be the worst thing on the market; the phrase just states that no one has proven this.
We earlier looked at Ellsworth's marketing phrase, “Up to 100% pedal efficiency (in every gear, and throughout the entire suspension travel range)”. I discussed this phrase with a professor of mechanical engineering at our local university. We agreed that the “Up to” at the beginning of the sentence makes the sentence so vague that it could mean almost anything.
However, unlike the drug company phrase, which is definitely crafted to deceive, we believe that the “Up to” phrase may just be the result of clumsy wording. Ironically, this is in part indicated because Ellsworth has gone much further in their advertisements, claiming “100% pedal energy-efficiency” without any qualifications [see page 22, Mountain Bike Action, May 2001]. This last constitutes the most extreme interpretation of the “Up to” phrase, so Ellsworth obviously has no problem in making such an extreme claim directly.
To be fair, we must note that many companies make claims for no suspension bob and 100% efficiency. But without question, the most egregious example of bogus marketing we have ever seen regarding bicycle rear suspensions comes from Kona, in their ads for the King Kikapu and Mokomoko [see page 7, Mountain Bike Action, May 2001].
The ad claims, “SHOCK FUNCTION IS AFFECTED BY WEIGHT, FORCE AND GRAVITY – NOT BY PEDALLING_”. One can tell that this was not written by anyone with any significant technical knowledge. An object's “WEIGHT” is a measure of the attractive “FORCE” between the earth and that object due to “GRAVITY”. Your guess is as good as ours. (The language here is very reminiscent of those VW commercials where they claim that they get “a maxim amount of volume in a minimum amount of space” – !?!?)
Humorous wording aside, the phrase does claim no pedal activation of the shock, so we have a more serious issue to consider. Since the rear pivot is on the seat stay in these designs (more on this later) we know that the designs are essentially mono-pivots under pedaling, with the upper links acting as suspension tuning. We have proven directly that no mono-pivot is completely non-reactive to pedaling, so we know immediately that Kona the claim is certainly not true. For example, there are no qualifications for gearing.
The ad goes on to claim, “SHOCK IS MOUNTED IN LINE WITH SEAT TUBE ALLOWING SMOOTH SHOCK FUNCTION AND SUPERIOR SHOCK RESPONSIVENESS_”. By “IN LINE”, we suppose that they mean parallel to the seat tube. But there are an infinity of other directions that the shock could be mounted that would allow the same “SMOOTH” shock function (witness the Ventana Marble Peaks, and Rocky Mountains), so we ask, “What is the point?” We also ask, “‘SUPERIOR' compared to what?” Not to any of the competing designs we are aware of anyway. Does Kona believe that a shock mounted out of plane to the frame is viable enough to merit a comparison?
Lastly, the ad claims that, “REAR STAY PIVOT MOUNTED ON SEATSTAY INSTEAD OF CHAINSTAY SO ALSO NOT AFFECTED BY PEDALING FORCES_”. Here is the most abject bit of nonsense. What is not “AFFECTED”? Clearly the reader is to believe it is the suspension. Again, the “SEATSTAY” pivot essentially makes these bikes mono-pivots (upper link suspension tuning aside). This fact, in and of itself, is irrelevant to the degree with which the design is “AFFECTED” by pedaling forces.
Is this a deliberate attempt to mislead potential customers or just a case of extreme ignorance? We leave the answer to the readers. We simply conclude that when it comes to suspension ad mumbo-jumbo, Kona is King.
Another little trick we see now and then is the source-less quote. This is exemplified by Iron Horse, the company that brought us the G-spot [see the back inside cover, Mountain Bike Action, May 2001]. All in quotes, we have, “BEST ALL AROUND DESIGN”, “TOP OF ITS CLASS”, and “THIS BIKE IS A MUST HAVE”. None of these have any attribution attached. The quotes make it seem as if there is some independent opinion being expressed, as is the general purpose of quotes in ads. Younger people especially, who are not experienced in looking for these things, are the most likely to be fooled. The company did not even bother to pay for a quote whore, as has become standard practice in the movie industry.
We conclude this section by reiterating our assertions regarding advertising in the “Main Conclusions.”:
Our advice is to ignore all suspension theories and other claims put forth by frame manufacturers and industry magazines, and base your buying decisions exclusively on experimentation. That is, make your decisions by test riding the bikes, even if it is just a parking lot test (you can get a lot from a parking lot test). Ignore all marketing!