pavement_nyc

I'm starting a website, cyclistings.com, that will be a marketplace for used bikes. It will basically be like craigslist, but only for bikes, and with much more specific search criteria. The site will hopefully be up by Sep 1. I'd love to hear any questions or comments. Keep in mind that I want the site to be easy enough to use for beginners who know nothing about bikes. One thing I am struggling with is matching the buyer input of height/inseam and preferred seat heat to the seller input of frame size.

Here are the fields when posting a listing:

*required

*Price:

*Location:

*Frame Size (cm): OR Acceptable Height Range:

*Handlebar Type: (with illustration that change as option is selected)
⁃ Cruiser: very upright, laid back
⁃ Somewhat upright
⁃ Straight bar / hybrid
⁃ Bullhorn / low
⁃ Drop / road / pursuit

*Frame:
✓ Men's
✓ Women's (step through)

Color:

Brand:

Model:

Year:

*Mechanical Condition:
⁃ Flawless
⁃ Very Good
⁃ Decent
⁃ Needs Work, approx. $__________

*Cosmetic Condition:
⁃ Like New
⁃ Very Good
⁃ Decent
⁃ Poor

*Speeds:
⁃ Single Speed
⁃ Fixie / Track
⁃ 3-Speed
⁃ 5+ Speeds

Additional features:

✓ Basket / storage
✓ Bell / horn
✓ Fenders
✓ Chain guard
✓ Lightweight
✓ Dual brake (suicide) levers
✓ New Tires
✓ Foot Brake
✓ Integrated shifters (brifters)
✓ Front suspension
✓ Full suspension
✓ Off road tires

Additional Information:
[large text box]

IthaDan 

Cool idea!

Couple random thoughts, in no particular order:

I think a lot of this could be avoided if you had a good template of angles from which a user should take pictures. I doubt anyone really know how to estimate the cost for work a bike needs. I'm not even sure shops know, I think they just wing it- if it'll be a pain in the butt, they shoot the moon hoping either the cost turns the owner away, or they make enough money to justify the hassle.

I think of you hade something like "frame size" with that text as a clickable link to a wiki type entry about where to look of how to measure, you'd be in pretty go shape. Also, if you had a field for "rider's height", most users could infer from the pictures if the bike would fit them. E.g. If a 6footer is riding a 52, there will be a mile of seatpost showing.

I think the value to be added here is in an educational, wiki assisted interface to demistify some of the bike jargon.

Will you charge for ads or use the traffic to sell ad space to google or something along those lines?

Machka 

Just keep in mind that top tube length is more important when it comes to the fit of a bicycle than the "height" of a bicycle.

And seat height shouldn't be a factor at all unless, perhaps for some reason, the seller has cut the seat tube so short the seat height can't be adjusted.



In looking through your list ...

Handlebars - somewhat upright? (what does that mean?)

Frame - mens? womens? (do they still use those terms?)

Speeds - do you know what you're talking about there? 3 speed usually means 3 choices of gears all up. 3 gears on the cassette, 1 chainring. 5 speed means that the cassette has 5 gears but the chain ring could have 1, 2, or 3. Very few bicycles these days have 5 speed cassettes. Modern bicycles have 10-speed cassettes combined with 1, 2, or 3 chainrings. And there's everything in between, and then some. If a bicycle was listed as 5+ speed, I'd really wonder what on earth that meant.

Additional Features - Lightweight???? What does that mean? Your site should list a frame weight and the weight of the bicycle with all the component being sold with the bicycle. Lightweight means nothing.


When was the last time you rode a bicycle? It sounds like the last time you saw one was back in about 1980. Granted, your site is for used bicycles, but are you thinking of a site for vintage bicycles? Or by "used" do you also want to include modern bicycles?

If you want to include modern bicycles, I strongly suggest you look over the descriptions of bicycles on some bicycle sites like ... Thorn, Trek, Rivendell, Giant, Seven, and others. Become familiar with modern bicycles.

I could hardly use your site if I wanted to sell my 10-year old 2002 Giant because the descriptions are too old-school to fit a bicycle 10 years old, and with those descriptions, the site would be useless if I were looking for a bicycle, say, 5 years old.

Machka 

Park Tools has something along those lines.

Machka 

You might consider having a good look at this website, which is along the lines of what you have in mind ...

https://www.bikeexchange.com.au/

pavement_nyc

Machka, I sell bicycles here in NYC and the criteria is based on what customers ask me for. I understand that 5+ speeds is completely unhelpful for an serious cyclist but for someone getting into biking it is generally enough. Most of the bikes in this category will be 10 and 12 speeds. I'm assuming that 80%+ of the bikes posted will be from the 70's and 80's. The vintage bike market is huge in NYC. Bike Exchange is the exact opposite of what I'm trying to do, aimed towards experienced cyclists.

I am hoping to make use of a wiki or some type of user generated content

Savagewolf

Personally, I love this idea. I had no trouble understanding the search criteria. My only complaint is that its going to be tough to get all the traffic I'd love to see there. Imagine the usefulness of this site if every bike in garage sales, penny/newspapers, Ebay, Craigslist and elsewhere were listed on a site like this.

no1mad 

You have the frame size field set as "cm or appropriate height range"... you should include "in" as well. Mtbs are marketed in "in" format after all.

Machka 

If you're thinking that this will cater to vintage bicycles, then make that clear. And you might ask to have this moved to the Vintage forum here ... you might get more opinions from the perspective you're thinking of.

Also, are you just thinking this will be a site for NYC?


Unfortunately, I think you're doing a disservice to people just getting into cycling by listing the "speeds" you've got there. People getting into cycling might not be looking for a brand new bicycle, but they may be thinking in terms of something 5 or 10 years old. My 10-year old Giant is an 8 speed. In other words, it has 8 rings on the cassette. But it has a triple, so all up you could probably call it a 24 speed. If I were just getting into cycling, that's the sort of thing I might be looking for ... something with relatively modern gearing and something with a triple ... and selecting 5+ speeds wouldn't limit my search adequately.

You also don't have anything on there about components. My Giant has Sora components ... that would be something someone buying a bicycle might like to know. In fact, you could got into a lot more detail about the components. Brand names of the handlebars, details about the wheels, crankarm length ... so much more.


(Not that I'm looking to sell my Giant, just using it as an example)


If you want to create something with lots of criteria, have a look at the Park Tool measurement tools (in particular their page with a diagram of a bicycle and all the common measurements) and include those measurements. One of the more frustrating things when looking for a bicycle off ebay or wherever is trying to figure out the measurements of the bicycle. Many people just list height, if that. Not even adequate. We want to know the whole story.