Category Archives: Bike Accessories

About-Bicycles Page and Blog Posts on Facebook

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About-Bicycles.com is Goin Social!

Yep, I finally launched the About-Bicycles.com business page on Facebook so for the many of you that have subscribed to this blog you now have another way to get our updates and read these blog posts.

The About-Bicycles Facebook Page.

The About-Bicycles Facebook Page.

Here’s a link to the new About-Bicycles Facebook page. This page is new so we really don’t have much content out there just yet, but there will be soon.

Also, if I did the setup correctly, these blog posts should automatically be posted to the About-Bicycles Facebook page so if you choose to Follow About-Bicycles on Facebook, you can get our blog posts right there in Facebook instead of visiting us here on our website ~ of course, you are always welcome to come out here as often as you like too :-).

I have also setup this blog to be tweeted via our Twitter account About_Bicycles.

So come on out to the  About-Bicycles Facebook page and “Like” us and Follow Us! Let’s get social!

Bike Rider Gift Ideas and Cyclist Gift Shop

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Yep, it is that time of year again and time for our annual Bike Rider Gift Ideas and Cyclist Gift updates.

When you are looking for gifts for bike riders you can simply go to Amazon or any other large internet website and browse their cycling products – or – you can get ideas from those of us who have spent countless hours riding, have ridden thousands of miles and have used and researched numerous cycling products.

Some of the most popular gifts for cyclists are often Bike Electronic items such as Bike Computers (magnet transmitter or GPS based),  Heart Rate monitors, Helmet Cams and Bike Lights.

The big news for 2011 is that GPS Based Bike Computers have come WAY down in price from where they were last year or even at the beginning of the summer. Last year, the high-end Garmin units (like the Edge 705) were selling for $700 to $800. This year you can get these units for $400 to $450 and you can get the more basic units for even less.

I was going to post the other cyclist gift ideas in this blog entry (as I did last year) but since there are so many gift ideas and online resources, I have decided to post a separate web page for Cycling Gifts and Resources this year.

For more excellent gift ideas and resources see our new Bike Rider, Cyclist Gift Ideas page.

Black Friday, Cyber Monday Deals on Exercise Bikes and Bike Accessories

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As you would expect, there are  a ton of Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) Sales going on  right now both online and in the stores.

I’ve found bigger sales on Exercise Bikes and Spin Bikes (Indoor Cycles) than I have on outdoor (adult) bikes although there are some good sales on kid’s bikes and bike products going on now and through Monday too.

For the Fitness Bike sales, I have put together a separate page with pointers to the best online sales that I have found. See Black Friday and Cyber Monday Exercise Bike Specials for more on these deals.

The best sales that I have found on Bikes (limited) and on Bike Products is going on at Performance Bike. They are offering 20% off Everything. At least that is what the large banner on all the Performance Bike pages say. The small print says that there are exclusions.

I looked into the exclusions and what I found is that many (but not all) of their Bikes are excluded from the sale, but almost everything else is really 20% off including Bike Riding Cloths and accessories, Bike Trainers, Bike Electronics (including bike computers and GPS units) and Kids Bikes.

I am having a hard time keeping up on the latest prices with all of these Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals going on but I am updating the pages that I can as quickly as possible. The links above will get you to our Bikes and Bike product pages but you’ll need to click through to Performance Bike (from our pages) for the 20% off deals.

The 20% items at Performance are clearly marked in red when you take the links from our site to the Performance site.

Many of the cycling products at Amazon are also reduced in price but it is hard to find which exact items have been reduced unless you know what the price was before the sales. One of the easiest way to get to all of our recommended online resources for these sales is to go to our Online Bike Stores page.

Note: This is a great deal going on at Performance Bike and their website is running very SLOW due to the volume of visitors and sales so please allow a little extra time for the pages to load. (I guess you have to deal with the larger crowds at the B&M stores and, in some cases, the longer response times online).

Bike Computers/Speedometers and GT Bikes 15% Off through 8/17/2011

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As I was updating all of the Bike Prices on this website for today, I noticed that Performance Bike has a sale going on where they are taking 15% off of all “Outlet” items through Wednesday, 8/17.

This sale is actually for 15% off of the lowest sale price listed and works out pretty well for the items that are on sale at Performance, including bikes.

I found that ALL of the GT bikes (Road, Mountain and Hybrid) on this website quality for the 15% off at Performance. So if you have been looking for a GT Bike, this is a good time to check out what they have on sale at Performace.  See any of the GT Bikes listed here.

There are quite a few other items that qualify for the 15% off sale at Performance including Bike Computers/Speedometers so if you are looking for a new (or first) Bike Computer  (or any other bike accessory) check out the Performance Sale that is going on now through Wednesday.

Best Summer Bike Sale at Performance.

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Sorry I am a little late on this but I just found out about the 15% off sale at Performance Bike and I know from past experience that this is a great sale especially since it includes an additional 15% off of the sale price already listed for bikes.

So if you are looking for the bikes that qualify for this sale at Performance see our Bikes For Sale Online page. If you are looking for accessories that are on sale see our Bike Accessories page.

I have included big red banners for the bikes that qualify for this sale on all of the related Bike Sale and Bike Review pages (this primarily includes GT, Fuji and Schwinn but there are other manufacturers on sale).

I did not include the big red banners for the bike accessories since this applied to any bike accessory that is for sale at Performance once your order is over $75, See our Bike Accessories page for information and easy access to the most popular bike accessories.

Good Bike Accessory Sale at Performance (but not everything)

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I was at our local Performance Bike store yesterday and saw that they were having a sale. When I was working on this site and checking prices online, I also saw that the Performance Bike website has huge banners about the sale that is going on now (thru Sunday 6/26) also.  

I always try to find out when the higher end bikes for sale on this site are on sale at Performance, so I checked the prices some of our bikes and found that they were still the same.

So my point here is that there is a good sale going on at Performance Bike right now, but it is not on everything (as the banner says, since most of the bikes are not on sale). There are quite a few Bike Accessories on sale at Performance right now though.

See the Performance Bike links on our Bike Accessories page for more info and to check out this sale.

Note: The Performance Bike site slows down a little, due to all of the additional website traffic when they have  one of these sales, so be patient…

Best Annual Bike Sale, 15% off Bikes at REI

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It’s that time of year again and REI is having what I believe is one of it’s best sales of the year so I am adding a quick post here to get the word out. 

REI is currently having it’s Anniversary sale and offering 15% off on all full price bikes Through May 30th. REI sells bikes from: Cannondale, Raleigh, Electra, Marin and Novara, Burley, Dahon, Ellsworth, GT, K2, Kona, Scott, and more.

See: Our Online Bikes Stores page for a quick, easy link to Bikes at REI. The columns on each side of this page (and all of our bike review pages) have the bikes (including REI bikes) that we have reviewed on this site.

Wireless Bike Computer (speedometer) Information (and tricks)

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I really like my Vetta wireless bike computer that I have had for 6 years now and over the years I have learned a few things about bike computers and specifically about wireless models that I thought I would take a moment to pass along here. 

Bike Computer

Vetta Wireless Bike Computer

If you’ve visited the  Bike Computers page on this site or some of the other related bike electronics pages (like the Bike GPS page, etc.), then you know that I am really into bike electronics and I think these things are fantastic. I can’t imagine riding without one anymore. Actually when I’ve had problems with my cycle computer, I usually end up postponing my ride until I get it working again.

I had a regular wired Vetta for 15 years (when bike computers (cyclocomputers as they are sometimes called) were first coming out as we know them today). This computer still worked after 15 years but the fork mount was a specific size (not the tie wraps that most use these days) and when I got my new bike it would not fit on the fork so I had to replace it.

So 6 years ago I bought my then new wireless bike computer and it is still working but I have had a couple of problems that I thought that I would mention.

First of all, what I like about the wireless models is the installation is even easier than wired models (which aren’t that hard either), the cleaner look (no dangling wires) and no fragile wires to break (and splice back together (which does seem to happen occasionally no matter how careful you are).

What I don’t like about wireless models are that they do take more batteries and more battery power. In addition to the computer battery itself there is the battery in the transmitter on the fork and, if you get the cadence model (which I did) there is the battery on the transmitter on the crank.  Also, the computer itself (the head unit) may still look like it has power because it has enough power for the display and functions but it may not have enough power to pick up the signal. So I have had to replace the head unit battery even though it still looked like it had power.

I started having a problem with my bike computer about a year ago where it would stop working (not receive a signal)  intermittently even after I replaced all of the batteries. I actually thought it was time for a new one when I discovered a little trick that has been working ever since I had this problem.  

Of course, I would check the alignment of the transmitter on the fork and the magnet on the spokes and make sure that they were perfectly lined up and as close to each other as possible but this did not always get it working again. What I discovered is that if I move the transmitter so that it actually hits the magnet on the wheel (you hear a little click each time the magnet passes the transmitter) it would start working again and then I would just lean over and pull it back just enough so it no longer hit as it went by and bam! it kept working!

It just seems like the transmitter might just need to be tapped a little to wake it up or something. Of course, this may not work in all cases, but this has worked for me for well over a year now and it works every time so if you have a similar problem it may be worth a shot (unless you really just want a new bike computer… or better yet GPS unit).

2010 and 2011 Bikes for up to 70% off 4/12 and 4/13

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I just caught this sale at Performance Bike when I went to the site to do some look-ups and noticed that the site was slower than usual.

This is one of those excellent springtime sales at Performance where they clear out some of their older stock, like 2010 bikes and have some other good bike products on sale too.

If you go to our Online Bike Stores page, there is a quick link to Performance Bike (in addition to some other good other online bike merchants). Just give the Performance Bike site a little extra time right now. You may found out that the wait is well worth it.

This particular sale has up to 70% of on many items, including Bikes! Performance has a great selection of Fuji, Schwinn, Schwinn, Dahon,  K2, Mongoose, GT, Nirve, Diamondback and Performance Brands, Scattante and Dahon.

Normally, I post some banners for these  kinds of sales on my relevant bike review pages but I am late on this one so I’ll just have to settle for this blog post.

If you are looking for a new bike this year, this is really a good time to purchase from Performance online (or even at the store if you have one close to you).

Check out the sale selections with the Performance Bike Link at  Online Bike Stores (before the end of the day tomorrow (Wednesday))!

Best Gifts for Bike Riders (Cyclists)

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OK, since it’s officially the Christmas shopping season now, I just have to write something on gifts for cyclists. If your searching for an excellent gift for someone  that is a fairly serious bike rider (or serious cyclist), here’s a few suggestions.

For a fairly low cost gift, I would consider Bike Electronics like a Bike Computer (i.e. a bike speedometer, odometer (and more!)). Most serious riders already have one of these but some do not. Bike Computers are pretty easy to install and there are huge selections online to choose from.

Although, many cyclists may already have a bike computer, many have not sprung for a Bike GPS Unit! These are going to be more expensive than a cycle computer but they are really the ultimate in bike electronics.

Another great gift that most cyclists use are Bike Bags.  There is also a great selection of bike bags online and just about any style and price range that you are interested in.

For the cyclist that is really into getting a great workout or training I would consider either a Bike Trainer, which is a bike stand that you use for your regular outdoor bike or an Indoor Cycle (exercise bike).

And for something that is just a fun gift for a bike rider, check out the Monkey Bike Light and Down Low Glow bike Lights! These things are a blast and are not the kind of thing that a lot of bikers go out an buy for themselves so it would be a very unique gift. Not only are these lights a lot of fun but they are really a good safety item too.

Well, there you have it. There are really a ton of other gifts for cyclists but I’ve tried to at least get some good ideas out there for gifts in various price ranges. I know I would sure like to have some of the items here (that I don’t already have).