Off the peg... let's conclusively answer the question "Which one?"

Good idea.
Who are going to be the testers? Do we recommend them, or do you VB choose them? I know I won't be one, as the manufacturers wouldn't want anyone really heavy on their bikes. Also sometimes they may give a 52cm, or a 56cm? I've noticed even the cycling mags often get sizes they didn't really want, then have to find staffers short enough, or tall enough for the test.

Finally, what if we here have some recent examples of the bikes now on the market? Can we test those if the retailers/manufacturers don't cough up?

I guess we'll see what kind of sizes we get. I'd rather most bikes are tested by the same group of people so that way a fair comparison can be made across them. When we know what we get offered I'll for people who want to take part and help out. I wouldn't mind one of the tests being to get the Fixed Gear London guys involved and have all the bikes go through a round of tricks ;)

As for testing bikes that aren't submitted... sure. But only if we have examples of them in their non-customised off-the-peg state. And, I'd want to mark out which companies weren't really helping out... I'd instantly give any bike we had to source and we didn't get help from the distributor/company a negative score... it would have to do better than average to be good. Why? Because this is going to help sell bikes and get more people on bikes... if they cycle companies don't recognise and support that I'm going to be a bit miffed with their attitude from the outset.