This document provides the help messages for the search form on the Bike Lister.

1. Preface
2. MinAvail
3. Format
4. Search Term
5. Compare
6. SortOrder
7. MaxCost
8. LowGear
9. RearAxle
10. DriveTrain
11. CustomFieldList

1. Preface
This document provides the help messages for the Bike Model Lister. Each chapter contains the message that will be visible when you hover over the field name. For example, if you want to know how "Search Term" works, you would move the mouse over that parameter.

In any "Lister" program, I call the search fields "Parameters" or "filters" and the data fields "attributes". For example, one of the "attributes" of a bike is the handlebar type. There is a filter on that attribute, such that you can restrict the list to only show drop handlebars.

Back to Bike Models.

1.5. MinAvail
Minimum Availability: There are 3 availability levels:

 0 = I have not had a chance to find one
 1 = No Local Dealers (not found) or special order
 2 = At least one size in stock in past year at local store
 3 = Currently one or more available

2. Format
"Format" allows you to choose different sets of fields to show on your report. It defaults to a set called "Ride" which shows a quick selection of fields related to riding the bike. I gave various sets of fields a name. The default is "Full", which shows all possible columns. Various other reports are below:

1. Ride
 This set of fields shows the things that are primarily a concern when you are riding the bike, as opposed to maintaining it. Thus the fields are the type of brakes, handlebars, and drive train. It would be useful if you wanted to send an email to a bike store saying: this is the type of bike I'm looking at.
  2. Maintain
 What to look at if your concern is maintain and repair. The first thing you are likely to replace are the chain and rear cassette. So if you see a bike with 11 cogs on the rear, you should know you are in for expensive cassettes. In general, 7-8 speed cassettes are the least expensive, and have the cheapest chains. Next you'd want to make sure you have standard 10x135 axles, because those wheels are less expensive.

3. Geometry
 Frame Geometry. To compare the geometry of various frames.

4. R E P L A C E
 This is just a heading. The formats that follow this heading select fields related to replacing a given item. Eg: the format "RearWheel" shows you the fields important to replacing a rear wheel.

5. CUSTOM. If you set the report format to "CUSTOM", then the fields you see are governed by the "CustomFieldList" section of the report.

3. Search Term
Search Term. This field allows you to filter based on keywords or strings that appear in other fields. For example, you could search for a specific bike. Or you could search for all "Surly" bikes. Or all "3x" drive trains.

4. Compare
Use this field to compare two or more bikes. It is like a search function, except it takes multiple search terms. Eg: "Salsa, Surly Rim"

Each search term must match a string in the title of the bike. Each search term can also match more than one bike. Eg; "Surly,Kona" will match multiple Surly bikes.

You can have any number of search terms. Eg: "Cote,Diverge,Sutra" A single search term just does one match.

Which columns appear on your comparison report is controlled by the "Format" field.

5. SortOrder
This field controls the sort order. The default sort order is alphabetically on the title. Other useful sort orders include Cost, LowGear, etc.

1. Cost
    Sorts by cost, with the least expensive bikes first.

2. LowGear
    Sorts the bikes starting with the ones that have the lowest gear. (The lowest cog ratio).

3. RearCogs
    This sorts by the smallest cog on the cassette. It is useful for grouping together all the bikes that have a given cassette, such as 11-36. That tells you that the 11-36 is a standard cassette.

4. BrakeType
    Useful to see how many of the bikes have a given type of brake. Eg: As of today, most are CableDisk.

6. MaxCost
This filter allows you to set an upper limit on how much you would pay. For example, if your budget is $1500 or less, choose 1500.

7. LowGear
Lowest Cog Ratio. Use this filter to eliminate bikes from your report that do not have a low enough gear. The way the low gear is calculated is just a simple ratio between the smallest ring on the chainring and the largest cog on the wheel. For example, the Surly Long Haul Trucker comes with a 50/39/30 on the front and an 11-36 on the back. So the lowest gear is 30 divided by 36, which is 0.83.

In general, for Vancouver my rule of thumb is you want a lowest gear less than 1 to 1.

8. RearAxle
Specify the type of RearAxle this frame has. See field definition.

9. DriveTrain
The "drive train" filter allows you to filter the bikes according to how many cogs are on the front chainring. "3x" means triple chain ring, "2x" means double and so on.

10. CustomFieldList
Rather than using one of the named field sets like "Ride", you can use the checkboxes to custom select whatever combination of fields you would like to see on a report.