I would like to say that one can hardly state with any certainty that one bike is the best ever if one has not even ridden that bike. Or even ridden a bike by that maker. Having said this, I am to be a bit hoisted on my own petard, I fear. I have a wonderful bike that I ride every chance I get, and that I have (probably rashly) proclaimed the best bike ever for years.
The reason I say there may well be a flaw in my assessment is not due to any
lack in the bike ( A Sachs 25th Ann. Replica), but because a doubter will
surely ask me at some point "If you feel you need to have ridden such a bike
to make this statement, don't you feel that you also need to have ridden the
bikes it might have to be compared with to be sure you are correct?"
Ah, there's the rub, alright! While I have ridden a great many of them, my
riding experience is by no means complete. I guess that others will have to
take into account whether a person making such a statement might actually
have any first hand knowledge of that bike, firstly, and secondly, the
state of that person's knowledge of bikes in general to determine the worth
of the statement or whether he or she is just expressing a general
aesthetic approval of the bike in question...and perhaps adding a bit of
hyperbole.
I guess this is the problem with all such extreme judgments, in the end.
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Mi USA