Motorcycle Companies Buy Positive Reviews (and it sucks)

[Music] well beautiful British Columbia we're suiting up for a discussion on motorcycle journalism see I'm back in my hometown on the exact bike I got my license on seems like a good time to reflect on what motorcycling has become [ __ ] it's become total [ __ ] whoa now of course the riding is as good as ever I mean man I love it out here but I'd be lying if I said the motorcycle industry hasn't got me a little bit down and that's because journalists will start here with a legitimate question is the drz 400 a good bike should you buy one our dual sports better than ATVs and some sexy premise like that this might quickest pass out of the frame but they'll end here with a pretty view and crappy music to distract from the fact that they're not actually telling you anything when it comes to which is better we'd have to say that both motorcycles are well-built and exceptionally fun somewhere in the middle of these reviews they're gonna use the motorcycle in an entirely conventional way and tell you that they're putting it through its paces or pushing it to the limit yeah gross hey journalists caught using either of those two phrases should be shocked of course it's okay that we do not ride like Rossi because press launches involve a surprising amount of time not riding motorcycles what really happens is we get flown to exotic locations put up in fine hotels fed water and socialized and handed a press kit thank you then we go for a ride on the bandwagon all aboard stick to the route follow the leader make sure to notice all the fine points that we have crammed into your head over the last 24 hours because when you are jet-lagged and hungover and forced to sit through a three-hour pre ride presentation this is all you're gonna see you'll notice what you're supposed to indoctrination goes down really easy between mouthfuls of free food and washes of craft beer and then before you know it you look up and you're railroaded and you're stuck thinking precisely along the lines that Honda wants you to think or how Suzuki or BMW or triumph or Yamaha or cows he wants you to think I mean that's why I chose to do this video on my dad's old bike I did not want anybody thinking that these thoughts were brought on by a particular manufacturer because they all do the very schmooze II press launches and why not I mean if I could by the favor of an entire industry on air miles I'd do it too now that's just good business the results is 20-something articles that all say the same thing are there shot in the same locations on the same roads oftentimes they use the same footage and phrases alright that was a little bit cold and I have thrown a good amount of shade in this video so I suppose I'd better be responsible and note some exceptions well I'll Ament the lazy folks who abandon their journalistic ethics and fidelity to their own readers by whoring out their good opinions to any manufacturer clever enough to offer them a free vacation there's another path that path is also fairly well traveled I know a lot of moto journalists people who are better riders and better writers and better truth Sayers than we are and these guys I mean they are doing really honest and awesome things within this broken system that I've been describing I mean these are people who and they can take a free meal and still be kind honest about the company that paid for it and that's really cool 49 is not the beacon of truth out here now there have been braver folks than us casting light on this stuff for years now we're just trying to ride in it or just trying to ride in that light so in the spirit of draining the swamp let me come clean on my own methods fort 9 is in off the beaten path kind of channel I mean we've heard what lots of stories of mow journalists getting flown to South Africa or launches where everyone's gets a free haircut and $300 to gambling the casino because somehow that helps convey the identity and culture of the motorcycle in question but we've never actually been invited to a press launch not even once I'd love to think that we fly under the radar because we're too opinionated or too harsh or too prone to damaging motorcycles [ __ ] but the truth is that we're just too small I mean 49 is an obscure little channel that gets buried under snow for six months every year it makes total sense that the manufacturers want to choose to invite those with the larger influence than ours that makes sense so we get to take the backdoor into the glorious inner temple of motorcycle journalism usually that means we simply buy the stuff that we want to review it is very expensive but at least we get to use the gear however we want now when we can't afford to buy something that we want to review ie motorcycles now then we have to borrow it from the little domestic press fleet now as far as I know it is possible she's got Kawasaki Honda Suzuki Yamaha KTM BMW Triumph can-am and harley-davidson press vehicles here in Canada and they come without all that buttering up [ __ ] that you get at the main launch event you can also take them ridiculous places that end in barbed-wire fences now my contacts contact information isn't really mine to give away but if you're half decent its docking people on the Internet they should be able to make the same friends and that's just a question of giving a mildly relevant reason for needing a press bike and choosing a week when myself or the other two Canadian moto journalists aren't using the same machine it's that easy to get a press bike in Canada of course you may have to ride to Toronto to pick it up and as a Montreal er I'm obliged to say that almost makes the whole career not worth it just kidding lucky Toronto avi Drake anyway you guys really should get into reviewing motorcycles if you want people because honest average Joe reviewers are a bit of an endangered species in my opinion we need more of them you see every time that I dislike a motorcycle and I end up giving it a negative review what happens is I risk burning a bridge hey it's a burnt out bridge almost like I planned it that way so one day if I make enough of those I'm not gonna have a saddle to sit in anymore I mean already some manufacturers are getting reluctant to lend Fort 9 any more bikes know it and that we've actually had someone slam the door on us yet and in fact some of the PR teams in Canada are super chill to deal with at risk of sounding like a suck-up had actually if you want to say that Kawasaki KTM and BMW are amazing to deal with they want you to use and abuse their bikes take them to dangerous places they want to hear your positive and negative feedback and at the end of it all they're not gonna try to pressure persuade you into being kind in your final review it's really awesome of course the downside to working with the little domestic fleets is access Canada only gets press bikes months after the International schmooze-fest is over that's why some 49 reviews are comically late to the game and certain Italian brands are simply not gonna give you a piece of the pop I don't want to name any names here but if you do try to last see one of the Italian stallions and Canada well I don't think it's gonna happen so that's it motorcycle journalism kind of sucks because the manufacturers get to choose when and how we interact with their machines at least when they're new right before a motorcycle is released it might only be accessible to a small group of invitees and even then only through a barrage of free barbeque beer plane tickets and passport stamps I mean it's impossible not to feel indebted to a company after you consume all that right if I spent that much time with salesmen I'd become a bit of a Salesman myself too so when Fort 9 gets its first invite to a press launch I might actually say no whoo I can hear the defense's coming down already but Ryan it's 2017 motorcycle reviews are all positive because modern motorcycles are all pretty good [ __ ] I mean just because bikes are universally better now than they were 20 years ago that doesn't mean some of them are better than others I mean there are plenty of reasons why a perfectly competent motorcycle might be crap compared to the competition and we need the brains and the balls to be able to tell the difference otherwise you can't I gotta ask yourself what the hell am i doing out here [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: FortNine

Views: 615,615

Rating: 4.9737935 out of 5

Keywords: motorcycle, review, journalism, bribery, conspiracy, ethics, Canada, drz400, Kelowna, motocross, trail riding, enduro, vlog, motovlog, motorcycle pov, Okanagan, british Columbia, Suzuki, dirt bike, fortnine, ryanf9

Id: sgGU3GYx9Qg

Length: 11min 29sec (689 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 09 2017