Tests (and recommendations) of bicycle parts, esp. mini-pumps, dynamo lighting & leather saddles

Tests the way they should be done: thorough and asking the right questions...

Very extensive:

• Leather saddles Lots of reviews of leather saddles by Brooks, Lepper and Selle Anatomica, a review of various seat covers, saddle maintenance, etc.
  Latest: Tests of the Lepper Voyager lounger, Brooks Colt.
• Hand pumps What pressure can you really get?
  Latest: Test of the Airace Speed F2 standing mini pump.
• (Dynamo) lighting This section is in particular about current hub dynamos and LED lamps, and especially headlamps with cutoff. But this has been expanded with experiments with LEDs (LED light colour, modifying a halogen lamp with a LED, lamps in the mist, etc.), analysis of the German StVZO bicycle lighting requirements, and much more.
  Updated all the time...

The following tests/experiences are not as extensive but definitely interesting:

• Floor pumps
• Leather grips, anatomic and round
• My experience with the original NuVinci N171 hub This is not a test inspired by the disgust about magazine articles, as the ones about dynamo lighting and hand pumps are, but just my experiences with this hub.
  November 2011: My experience with the newer NuVinci N360 hub.
• Bicycle computers
• Tyre levers and repair kits
• Gears, how many do you need and what difference do they make to your speed?
• Torches (flashlights) to fix flats or do repairs on dark roads
• Bicycle mini tools, are they useful? Or is it better to carry separate tools?
• New: Bicycle kickstands
• To come: Experiences with standard panniers for daily use.

Background: Why I started doing these tests

I became annoyed with the poor reviews of equipment in Dutch and German cycling magazines (esp. those about bicycle lighting and mini pumps), and also on the net about various cycling equipment, which was the reason I made the web pages with my tests of hand pumps and of dynamo lighting. These give an example (to e.g. magazine writers) on how matters should be dealt with, in a scientific way as far as possible. That doesn't necessarily require expensive equipment, even with limited resources one can do things a lot better than in magazines. If the people working on magazines want to improve in this situation then for complex subjects such as bicycle lighting they should enlist the help of experts, rather than do a poor review that doesn't give good or even misleading information.

An early version of the page with saddle experiences was on another section of my website long before my pump and lighting tests, which I later expanded to to include almost all leather saddles I could get my hands on as I could hardly find any reviews but especially not comparisons of leather saddles.

My tests are usually much more thorough than most other tests and this is part of the reason that my conclusions can differ from others. Some people think that because my conclusions for some products differ from those of most other reviews that I am biased. That is amusing but wrong, see: Interpretation, objectivity, and comparison with other reviews

Where to buy some of the parts I've tested

I recommed buying from a local dealer that you think is good, but some parts are hard to find, such as the Quicker pro pump, SP dynamo hubs, or even the Sunup rear wheel dynamo. In the same spirit as my test pages, a year later, I started selling the components that I think are good. Leather saddles and dynamo lighting in particular. I give the option of trying them out where appropriate and of comparing them. See here.

Last modified: Sat Jan 21 03:19:58 CET 2012