OOps. My home page got toasted. Please be patient until I think of something important to write. In the mean time, check out the new bike parts and bicycle calculator. The bicycle calculator is one of the coolest things I have ever done. Why? You can do lots and lots of neat stuff. It allows you to mix and match different component parts on the bikes showing the revised price and weight. One of the cool features is the weight per gram calculation. Change a component and it will calculate how much money you are paying per gram. Many other bike companies don't even list complete bike weights on their sites (if you don't believe me go and see). I would like to give, what I believe, are a few words of wisdom (maybe I did think of something important after all). I have been doing bicycle product management for many years and to me there are a hand full of key factors in a bike. 1. Performance. 2. Weight. 3. Price. 4. Looks. Note these key nuggets that the bike calculator will tell you. Wheels, are by far, the best bang for the buck for reducing weight at a bargain price. Not only do they reduce weight but they reduce spinning weight - which you have to move every time you bring your bike up to speed. Also note, that many of the key components are very close in weight and by upgrading you are paying a huge premium for very little difference in performance. Not that the higher end parts don't perform better, often they do. But you are really paying a premium for that performance. The purpose of the calculator is to use as a tool to make better buying decisions. Note that it is an Excel spreadsheet that you can download and KEEP FOREVER. You can even overwrite the weights on some of the parts and "build your current bike up" with other components. Note that while I have spent a lot of time on this I am sure there are multiple errors. If you spend two weeks entering data and writing formulas there are going to be mistakes. Please enjoy it as much as I do. Thanks, John Neugent |
