Cycle fitting on-line

I've just bougth myself a new bike. The company is German and they only sell via the internet (pretty strange considering how backwards the Germans normally are when we're talking about adapting to new techology; there are still gas stations in Northern Germany where you cannot pay using a credit card!!!).

Anyway - this story is about how you can reduce the fairly complex task of buying a bike to a pleasurable experience in front of your computer (we are NOT talking bikes like the ones you get in the local supermarket).

Try out their Perfect Position System and come back here.

Pretty easy wasn't it? The only thing that isn't optimal, is the box with explaining text in the middle which only goes away when you click "Start". This is so easy. And also necessary. I've been checking out bikes for 6 months now - and I was convinced that I needed to do a lot of "trial runs" to determine which bike would be to my liking. Also, because the last time I bought a bike, sloping top tubes weren't all the rage it is today (you used to determine the right size of bike by standing slightly at ease over the bike. There should be a couple of centimeters of air to the top tube from you crotch).

So all my anxiety of finding the right size was taken away by this tool - I felt rather confident that they wouldn't make serious mistakes (if you're a company that only do business online you'd better do the right thing. Everytime). Therefore I was willing to part with a substancial amout of my savings without even trying the bike out. Just because someone created this little tool (and made it simple to use and pretty to look at!). I don't know if I am representing the average user here, but it is an interesting observation.

And OK - it did help a bit that it looked to be the sweetest deal on the planet at his point in time.