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Bicycle R & D

03.25.2014 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

Every year, bicycle companies bring out new models as the result of extensive research and development. Often, the differences from year to year are minuscule, maybe just cosmetic.

But there’s one bike company that really takes R & D seriously. Fairdale Bikes (No, I’ve never heard of them either) does its research on the road, putting its new models through some grueling tests. I thought you might enjoy taking a peek.

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Categories // Bikes Tags // video

Beater Bikes

03.23.2014 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

Earlier this week, a favorite blog of mine, “Lovely Bicycle,” wrote about beater bikes. Velouria’s angle was to spotlight a new line of inexpensive bikes with the brand name, “Beater,” that are designed to fill the same role as a run-of-the-mill beater bike would fill.

And it got me thinking — I don’t really have a beater bike of my own, do I? If I do need a bike I can hop on for a trip to the store, or to run an errand or two, or to serve as transportation in the rain, I don’t really have anything to fill that role, do I?

And then it occurred to me — I do. I’ve got that mountain bike. The one I never ride. The one I put the rear rack on because I was going to make it an errand bike. The one I put narrower, smoother-treaded tires on, because those big knobbies weren’t a lot of fun to ride on on pavement.

But the mountain bike is, above all, a mountain bike, and today I actually rode it for its intended purpose — I took it out and rode some of the bike trails in South Austin. More about that experience in another post. My point today is, if I’m going to use the mountain bike for trail riding, it’s not really a beater, is it? It’s my mountain bike, and I still have to find something to serve as my go-to for everything else bike.

Well, maybe not. The great thing about the mountain bike is that it’s designed to be bashed around. I sure clunked the pedals and chain stays against enough rocks today. There’s no reason I can’t ride it to the store, or on rainy days if I don’t want to ride my road bike then.

All right, then — I do have a beater bike, even if it’s one in pretty good shape. And frankly, given my past record at using the bike as a utility vehicle, I probably won’t do most of those things.

How about you? Do you have bike that is a jack-of-all-trades, that can fill any role that your “main” bike — be it road or mountain — doesn’t fill? What kind is it? How do you use it? Is it a rolling wreck, or is it still a spiffy ride?

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Categories // Bikes Tags // beater, utility cycling

Comparing Bikes

03.21.2014 by Ray Niekamp // Leave a Comment

A funny thing happened as I was poking around in my blog analytics. I discovered that the readers of this blog really like bikes. Yeah, amazing, isn’t it? Wait a sec — you’ll see just what I’m getting at.

I can take a look at search terms used to find items on this blog, or search terms that will get people to this blog — whether they want to be here or not And over the last year, the item that keeps coming up as the most searched-for term is: bike comparison.

Back in 2011 I did a blog post on a new bike comparison website. There seemed to be enough interest that I put the site’s link on my home page in the “blogroll.” It keeps drawing the traffic.So much so, that when people search for anything remotely resembling “bike comparison,” they get Bike Noob as one of their returns.

Among most popular search terms to get to this blog are: bike comparison, bicycle comparison, compare bikes, compare bicycles, bike comparison site, bike comparison website, compare road bikes, bike comparison tool, mountain bike comparison tool, bike comparisons, bike compare, road bike comparison, bicycle comparison, bicycle comparison site, bike compare site, bicycle comparison sites — well, you get the idea. Over the past year, these terms have been searched from 32 times (bicycle comparison sites) to 667 times (bike comparison). People are interested in bikes.

Screen Shot 2014-03-21 at 9.52.08 PM

Discovering this most searched-for item led me back to the bike comparison tool site, and I’ve been entering various models of bikes, checking out their stats, seeing how they compare to each other. This could be dangerous. I’m pretty happy with the setup I have now, and the last thing I need to be doing is lusting after a new bike. But, like most folks out there, I just can’t resist.

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Categories // Bikes, Blogging Tags // Bikes

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