ello and welcome to Cyclegrades!
I’m David the creator of this site and a cycling enthusiast probably much like yourself. I built this site with some help from a few others with the goal of helping other fellow cyclists better navigate bike upgrades.
Why, because we all want to go a little faster whether that's to beat a Strava PR, perform a bit better in group rides, or simply to make those hills a little less challenging. Well that’s half the story at least, I also built this site to find a way I could contribute to the cycling community out here in LA which I found to be unexpectedly welcoming after moving out here.
LA Cycling
I moved to LA during the pandemic and I had no idea what types of cycling groups existed across this large city known for cars and long commute times. But I soon found out as things started opening up that no matter what side of the city you are on there is an amazing cycling community nearby.
For example if you’re on the east side of the city you’ll find group rides such as the 6:30 am Wednesday morning Rapha Pony Ride, aka Pandas Ponies in Griffith Park. On any given week you may find up to 80 people ready to sprint up the park hills as if you’re doing some kind of Red Bull hill climb, but don’t worry if you can’t keep up as they’ll all wait at the top to then coast down together.
If you’re on the west side on a Thursday evening, you’ll find in a Venice CVS parking lot some of the fastest women I’ve ever ridden with via The Mixed Race. They will lead you through all different parts of LA at night, so come prepared with lights and to go fast. Or out of Santa Monica and Brentwood you’ll find La Grange rides going through some of the west sides best routes almost every day of the week. If you have the legs try the Thursday Amalfi Loops or want something chill, join in on the Friday social rides and grab coffee with them all after.
In addition to all these great group rides there are also many special bike shops that host rides and events in LA like Luft in Venice. Experiencing all the community here was such a nice surprise after moving to LA, especially during the pandemic, that I was inspired to find a way to contribute to the community as well.
Forming Cyclegrades
I realized maybe due to the pandemic or just for fun I was consuming a lot of cycling content ranging from how to do basic bike maintenance at home to watching dream bike builds. It got so bad that even when my girlfriend was browsing online she would just see bike ad after bike ad.
My eyes for bike parts were always bigger than my wallet so I started to dive into ways I could upgrade my bike and get the best bang for my buck. After consuming even more articles and videos I started to learn which parts were worth upgrading first and even upgrades I never thought about. For example, that you could save more weight for a lot less money moving from standard butyl tubes to latex tubes than upgrading steel pedals to titanium ones.
As I shopped online for cycling components I started to pay attention to the weight differences between parts but also found just doing this was a challenge as most sites don’t allow you to cross compare products from different categories. Even locating a parts weight was difficult as this information was often placed far down into the details of the product's tech specs somewhere. So I started creating spreadsheets with this data so I could try to answer questions like would it be better to upgrade to a lighter cassette or my tubes, what weight differences existed between carbon wheelsets at the same depth but from different companies, etc.?
So I decided to build Cyclegrades to help answer these types of questions and to provide a good starting point for cyclists looking to upgrade their bikes.
A Work in Progress
As of this writing this site is very much a work in progress to get a working version out there. A lot of time and effort was put in to pull together the current catalog of products, build out the site, and the product comparison tool.
As right now the site is best when viewed on a desktop or laptop size screen as it has not been optimized for mobile yet.
Next Steps
I have lots of idea where I would like to take this site next, such as increasing the catalog, optimizing the experience and comparison tool, and adding more content through the blog. As this is all a self funded project I do have plans to eventually add in affiliate links to help support the site so I can fund further improvements.
So this is Cyclegrades and I appreciate you for taking the time to read about the site. If you use the tool and want to share some feedback please feel free to reach out here. I know the user experience is very important so the more feedback I get will allow me to figure out what changes to make that would make the biggest difference for visitors like yourself.
Thank you again for checking the site out and I hope one day I’ll see you out there on the bike.
