Online bag comparison tool

[tylorreimer]

Hey folks, I’ve been working on a website to help fellow cyclists to find bags for their bike and I wanted to share it with you all.

TheCyclelist.co was birthed out of my foray into the world of cycling and my obsessive search for the perfect basket camera bag for my bike.

When I started looking around I noticed there was no one place to see all the available bag options out there and compare prices, features, sizes and so forth. I reached out to WhatBar’s Chip for suggestions and after much back and forth we both asked the question, “Why isn’t there a tool out there that already that lets you do exactly that? It can’t be that hard to build”. With that in mind I set out to build exactly that, a list of bike bags for cyclists.

While the site is still a work in progress, it is far enough along that I’m wanting to share it with other cyclists to help them out in filtering through the 100s of bag options out there to find bags that fit their specific wants and needs and that’s where you folks come in.

I’d love to hear what you like and dislike about TheCyclelist.co. I have quite a few features in the works but want to know what are some features you’d like to see added to the site? More comparison features? Tags for sizes or compatibility with different basket sizes like the Wald 137, 139, etc? Tags for things like waterproof/water-resistence? Show bag makers country? What kind of criteria do you look for when trying to find the perfect bike bag?


Online bag comparison tool

[John Nettles]

Well considering you don't list even the more popular bags like Ortlieb, I would say this post is more about bringing traffic to your website. EDIT:  See clarification on my next post.

That said, the site does show a wide selection of brands for sale.  Of course it is missing a lot of the "direct to consumer" makers and/or major sellers so the website really is not about comparing ALL the bags out there but to make money selling bags, which I am not against. Just a little stretching of the truth in a plea to get people to your website.

An actual website improvement would be a search tool to actually "compare prices, features, sizes and so forth", i.e. I only want to see panniers that hold between X & Y cubic inches, are black, are waterproof, and have outside pockets that is priced less than $200.  Also, a user ranking or review of some sort would be appreciated.

Sorry to be a grinch and I hope the site works out. Tailwinds, John

[tylorreimer]

Hi John, I am just one guy working on entering and adding the hundreds of bags out there so I have certainly not added everything out there. Ortlieb is on my list of bags to add but it's very time consuming so not everything is on there yet. I am open to suggestions for bag brands to add though.

As far as making money off the site, I don't make money off of it and it is free for bag makers to submit bags and free for cyclists to use. The links all go to the bag makers sites if cyclists are interested in buying their bags.

Would I love more traffic to the site? Of course but I also want suggestions from cyclists on what features they want to see! Cheers!

[John Nettles]

Taylor, thank you for responding.

Yes, I now see I am unable to actually purchase bags from your site.  I actually have no problem with you actually making money on it, just that the website's look is very commercial so I assumed it was a for-profit site and that your post was just a better form of spam.  And yes, I can certainly understand how time consuming the website is. 

I apologize for assuming you were just looking for traffic.

That said, my points about a comparison search tool still applies.  I would perhaps state more clearly on the website that your site is research and that you can not buy bags from the site.  Additionally, perhaps have a way for a regular user submit a bag not listed, i.e. complete a form that has all the needed info for you to verify and then post.

Tailwinds, John

[tylorreimer]

I definitely agree, the comparison filtering is high on my list to implement. Trying to balance time between inputting bags and building new features right now. I think adding a simple intro paragraph on the home page may help clarify some confusion for now on what the tool is intended for.

As far as user submitted bags, that is a great idea and I have a Google Form for that already but the risk is always getting information that is not as thorough or accurate so I've shared the link a little more cautiously. I've had a few bag makers submit information for their bags so that helps with the data entry side of things.

[RyeToast]

This is a great start. I hope you can keep it up.
It's always amazing to me the sometimes lack of information on the internet. Thanks for attempting to fill a void.
I appreciate your measurements are consistently in decimals, but maybe the addition of metric weights and dimensions.

[alexstrickland]

Very impressive indeed! Shoot me a note at editor(at)adventurecycling.org and we'll try to get a mention of the resource in an upcoming issue of the magazine!

[David W Pratt]

Very neat.  I could probably spend hours playing with it.
Now, just to be a PITA, can you make it work backwards?  That is, enter properties, and have the list return the closest bags?

[tylorreimer]

Thanks for the feedback folks. David that's more or less what I plan to do moving forward once I've developed a more robust filtering system. The data is all there I just need to build the functionality in. Basically there were be a bunch of dropdowns, and radio buttons where you can dial in your criteria and find the bags that match that! I'm hoping to have that feature done in the next two months or so, so stay tuned.

[froze]

You should add how many liters is the capacity of a bag.

[tylorreimer]

I'm a little slow on the response but froze there is capacity on the site now for bags that I have the information for. Also there is now a Compare tool to allow you to directly compare two bags at a time.

Any other features you all would find useful?

[froze]

I know this is new site so I'm sure more bags are coming, if you can bring in the Axiom bags.  Of course there are a slew of bags out there you haven't gotten to yet, but I think the site would be a very interesting site once you bring in a lot more brands of bags.