Vital's Product Section Gets Bigger and Better Than Ever

We're constantly trying to improve things here at Vital - some things you see, others you don't - and one of our most recent projects was revamping the MTB Product Section of our site. We're all bike nerds to some degree (come on now, admit it!), and one of our goals is to provide you guys with a place to hash out what's what in the mountain bike product world. There are over 6,000 products in this section and it's constantly growing.

What's New?

In a nutshell, we wanted to put all Vital product features in one location, give you more freedom with your reviews, provide some recognition for those taking the time to write them, and make it easy to quickly find products through dealers.

Latest Reviews

Curious what your online buddies are using on a daily basis? Check out the Latest Reviews page. It's chock-full of all the most recent reviews from Vital members and the Vital staff, and is accessible through the main navigation bar at the top of the page under Product.

Top Reviewers

We know how much effort it takes to write a good review, which is why we want to recognize you guys for writing good reviews. The new Top Reviewers page is essentially a leader-board - it shows who has the best reviewer ranking for both all-time and the last 30 days. Rankings are a combination of how many reviews you write, how they are received by other members, and how many of them get featured.

You may notice that some users have "Featured Reviews." These reviews are hand picked by Vital MTB editors. We award this distinction to reviews that we feel are both honest and thorough enough to accurately describe an item and how it performs on the dirt. If you're looking to climb the leader-board, this is what to shoot for. Note that if a product has a Featured Review, it will appear at the top of the review listings and often times on the homepage.

There's a good chance that we'll have some contests and prizes lined up for the site's best reviewers soon, so considering getting a head-start on the competition (hint hint).

Product Detail Pages

First up, we improved product detail pages by making it so you can add photos and videos when writing a review. Sure, you can tell us about how ridiculously bent your rear wheel got when you sent it over that massive jump, but a photo or video helps convey the quality of the product much more clearly. You can also rate products in 1/2 star increments now.

Here's what the new interface looks like:

Previously you could write a review and that was that. It wasn't possible to ask someone specific questions about their experience. Now you can comment on reviews and get a conversation going. Having an issue that someone else already had? This is also a great place to leave follow-up impressions after using the item for a longer period of time.

It's feedback time. Like a review? Give it a thumbs up. Don't agree? Feel free to give it a thumbs down. Your feedback lets other interested people know how legit a review is, and we really appreciate your participation. Go get thumbs crazy.

Also relatively new is the price comparison/where to buy section. We're working with select retailers to give you a quick and easy way to find good prices.

As always, it's possible to compare two products side-by-side. Just look for the product comparison drop-down. It's right above the review and spec tabs.

Product Main

Rather than having Vital staff reviews in one section of the site and member reviews in another, you'll now find them all in the same place. Curious what we've reviewed and how we've ranked them? Simply select the 'Sort by Vital Rating' at the top of the main product page and look for items with a blue-colored star rating. Our review content will be ramping up greatly in the near future, and we also plan to migrate several of our old reviews to this section as well.

Cheers, guys and gals! We hope you enjoy the new site features. If you have any feedback, please feel free to leave it in the comments below.