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Bike Comparison Tool

06.12.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 10 Comments

If you’re shopping for a new bike, the choices can be overwhelming. Even knowledgeable bikers can get tangled up trying to call up different bike manufacturers’ websites. There always seems to be one nifty model that gets missed — and it might have been just the one you were looking for.

There is a tool that can help. It’s a website called “Find the Best,” which describes itself as “an objective, socially curated comparison engine that allows you to find a topic, compare your options and decide what’s best for you.” It’s not solely limited to bicycle comparisons — you can compare all manner of things, from universities, to laptop computers, to investments. So I was somewhat skeptical when I clicked on the link to their road bike tool.

Just a sample of the comparison page for entry-level bikes.

I was pleasantly surprised. Users can customize their search to match some broad criteria. Under road bikes, you can search for “Racing,” “Sport,” “Entry-level,” “Triathlon/TT,” “Track,” “Fixie/Single Speed,” “Touring/Commuting,” “Women’s,” and “Kids.” Let’s say you want to compare entry-level road bikes. You can specify frame material — carbon, steel, or aluminum. You can limit the price range, the gearing, the manufacturer — and even limit the finds to those top-rated by either Bicycling magazine or Bike Radar, the British biking website.

If we limit the entry-level price to a top of $2,000, the tool still turns up 53 different makes and models. From there, you can select specific models and run a comparison on them — similar to the kind of comparison available on some bike retailers’ websites. The difference is that on those sites, you’re stuck with just the brands the store carries. Here, you’ve got them all.

I’m not in the market for a new bike now, but it’s still a fun way to kill a little time late in the evening. You can find the road bike comparison tool at http://road-bikes.findthebest.com/. Oh, and if you’re interested in mountain bikes, there’s a tool for those, too: http://mountain-bikes.findthebest.com/

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Categories // Bikes, Review Tags // Bikes, Review

These Shoes Cook! Bont ctt-three Review

01.30.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 9 Comments

Guest poster Don Blount’s search for the perfect bike shoe took him to the Antipodes – in a manner of speaking.  He likes what he found.

I had never heard of Bont. Ever.

Now the company is like my new best friend.

I began searching for new cycling shoes for a simple reason – my feet began to hurt after rides. The Cannondale RS3100 cycling shoes I had worn for two years were great for getting me into biking but I was riding harder, longer and farther. The results I was getting were not the same. I figured the shoes, which were actually free with the discount I received from Performance Bike when I bought my bike in 2008, had just run their useful life.

So I began looking for replacement kicks.

From a fit issue I needed a shoe with a wide toe box and a narrower heel. And I wanted something better fitting and stiffer than my outgoing shoes.

I looked off and on for a few months. I was off the road for two months because of injuries from a fall, so I was not in a hurry. I also took time to get over the sticker shock of upgraded shoes.

Then on a late Saturday night someone in my bike club’s e-mail group excitedly mentioned Bont and how the shoe was being made available in the United States. I had never heard of this 36-year-old Australian company that outfits Thor Hushovd and the Cervelo Test Team among others.

The Bont ctt-three

I settled on the ctt-three. The deal with a Bont shoe is that it has a “fully heat moldable carbon monocoque fiberglass chassis.” Seriously, pop these babies in the oven at low temperature for a bit, put them on, stand in them for a few minutes and they will mold to your feet. In other words, it becomes a custom fit shoe. They were perfect for someone with my shoe-fitting issues.

Chef Don.

I have ridden about 950 miles in the Bonts, I think they are great. They are much stiffer than my old shoes, yet lighter at 295 grams. They flex little and transfer power well. And I really like the look too.

The downside? They took some breaking because the entire shoe – sole and upper were much stiffer than my old shoes.

I purchased my pair online in October for $207, a price comparable to other shoes that interested me. Since then I have found them online for as low as $150, including shipping. This is considered the company’s entry-level model. The top of the line shoe in this category, the ctt-one is a fully carbon shoe that costs about twice as much. I did not have to spend nearly that much and am quite pleased with the Bont ctt-three.

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Categories // guest post, Review Tags // Blount, guest post, Review, shoes

Tires Make a Difference: The Vredestein Fortezza SE

01.09.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 12 Comments

After more than a year’s worth of riding on my Continental Gatorskins, I decided to retire them.  One tire had over 3400 miles on it, the other a little under 3,000.  They’ve been pretty good, although they’re not as puncture resistant as I would hope.

So the question was, what to replace them with?  Some years ago, a friend recommended the Vredestein Fortezza SE, a tire sold through Performance Bike.  He said the puncture resistance was good, and if the price was a determining factor, I should give them a try.  Then, my friend Torsten reviewed another Vredestein model, the Fortezza TriComp, and spoke very highly of them.  I figured I’d try the SEs out.

I was pleased to find them in an end-aisle display at the local Performance shop, with a sale price of $29.99.  Performance says the regular price on these is $49.99, but honestly, I’ve never seen them go for anything higher than $30.

The Fortezza SEs differ in two big ways from my old Gatorskins.  They come only in 23 mm width, and I had been running 25s for almost three years.  And, they inflate to a much higher suggested pressure – between 115-160 psi.  I used to inflate the Gatorskins to 100, so I was interested to see what the SEs would feel like.

I’m pretty impressed.  I inflated them to 120 psi, and they’re noticeably harder than the Gators were.  However, after 10 days worth of riding on them, I find it’s not that big a deal, unless you’re on chipseal pavement.  Then the jarring is unpleasant.  The hard ride also has a benefit in less rolling resistance.  These things make you feel like you’re gliding along the roads.  My average speed for my last six rides is a full mph higher than it had been on the Gatorskins, and two of those rides were with my wife, so I wasn’t exactly pushing it.  The grip in tight turns is good, although I have not yet ridden them in wet conditions.

I’ll be experimenting with pressures over the next few weeks, gradually increasing over 120 psi to see what I’m most comfortable with.  Now, I know some folks who know say you should really ride at slightly lower pressures.  Fred Matheny of Road Bike Rider says riding at 90 lbs won’t make you any slower, and will increase the comfort of the ride.  Jan Heine of Bicycle Quarterly is even more adamant about lower tire pressures, and maintains that for optimum performance, tires should “drop” about 15 percent when a rider is on the bike.  That drop requires lower pressures.

But for now, I’m enjoying the perception of low rolling resistance.  I’ve ridden the tires across one of the rattiest routes in the area, and they came away without any problems – not even any cuts.  Maybe that’s just because they’re new.  I’ll post an update on these tires later this year, once they’ve gotten some real miles on them.  In the meantime, I gotta admit that the blue stripe on the Fortezza SEs makes a nice match with my blue and black bike.

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Categories // Review, tires Tags // Review, tires

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