Editorial policy

The one rule

We do not write anything we cannot show you the basis for. Every other rule here is a consequence of that one.

What we will publish

• Specifications compiled from what the manufacturer or seller actually published, attributed to them.
• Arithmetic, with the inputs, the rates and the dates shown so you can re-run it.
• Third-party test data, cited at source, with any commercial conflict stated at the point of citation.
• Stephen’s genuine experience of riding and wrenching — about him, never about a product we don’t own.
• “We don’t know.” “Not published by the manufacturer.” “We couldn’t verify this.”

What we will never publish

• Any claim that we tested, rode, owned or wore something.We haven’t. Not “in our testing”, not “after 500 miles”, not “our long-term test bike”.
• A credential Stephen doesn’t hold.No certifications, no “expert panel”, no “medically reviewed by”, no invented years of experience, no race results.
• An editorial team that doesn’t exist. One person writes this site and every page says so.
• Invented prices, star ratings, review counts or product claims.Prices come live from the retailer’s API or they don’t appear.
• Testimonials. There are none on this site. We have no customers to ask, and inventing them is the single most damaging thing a publisher can do.
• Review or rating schema. Not even in the markup. Emitting structured data that claims a rating we never produced would be the same lie, told to a machine.
• A number we can’t source.If it isn’t published, we say it isn’t published.

How a pick gets made

We work out what actually decides the purchase — usually a compatibility constraint, a certification, or a cost per unit — and rank on that. Then we say who each product is for, and who it isn’t for.

Every roundup names at least one product to skip.This is deliberate and it’s non-negotiable. A list where everything is excellent is an advertisement, and readers can smell it. The skip is the cheapest possible proof that we’re ranking rather than selling.

There are no scores, for the reason set out in how we research: a score is a measurement and we measure nothing.

How a pick gets unmade

New published data. A sustained price move. A spec change, a new model, or a discontinuation. A safety recall — which overrides everything and gets same-day treatment. Or a reader showing us we were wrong.

Update cadence

• Prices: continuously, from the live data layer. Never typed by hand.
• Roundups: quarterly, or whenever a trigger above fires.
• Cost guides: at least twice a year — electricity rates move, and the rate and its date are re-stated when they do.
• How-to guides: annually, or on a torque/wear spec change.

Every page shows when it was last updated, and that date only moves when something actually changed. Re-dating pages to look fresh is routine in this category. It’s a small lie, repeated, and we don’t do it.

Sources and their conflicts

We cite at source, never second-hand through a competitor’s article. Where a source has a commercial interest in its own findings — most notably Zero Friction Cycling, which sells the chains and lubricants it tests — we say so at the point of citation, every time, and link the raw data so you can weigh it yourself. The rest of the category calls that data “independent”. It isn’t, and we won’t.

Money

Chainring Club is funded entirely by Amazon Associates commission. No sponsored placements, ever. No free products accepted. Commission never affects a pick. Full detail on the affiliate disclosure page.

Corrections

Email info@chainringclub.com. We fix it and log it, dated, on the methodology page. Being visibly correctable is worth more to us than looking infallible.