The Trek Belleville: This Is Not A Review

I work at a great little bike shop here in Issaquah called the Bicycle Center. Bicycle Center is a Trek bicycle dealer, so I get to build up, test ride, and work on a whole lot of Trek bikes. We also work on other bikes and over the years I've worked in a range of shops where I've worked on and sold a wide variety of bikes. But I'm certainly not an unbiased reviewer and this is not an unbiased review. Got it? Good!

The Trek Belleville is not a bike for racing around, it's a bike for getting around. The Belleville is a product of Trek's Eco Design effort and I've seen enough behind-the-scenes stuff to know that this isn't just some token corporate green-washing PR thing. For example, when the Bellevilles or any of the other Eco series bikes come into the shop, they are packed not with the industry-standard foam & zip-ties but with string and reusable bags to protect the parts and lots of recycled cardboard. And that's the stuff the customer pretty much never sees. Which, I guess, is why I'm telling you this now. It's a cool facet of these bikes.

By the way, if you need a box to ship a bike somewhere, check your local bike shop. Any shop that deals in new bikes will probably have boxes and packing material they'll be happy to give away. And if your local shop is a Trek dealer, try to get an Eco series box & packing stuff. It's really nice.

The Belleville comes with fenders, racks, chain guard, a kickstand and generator lights. This is not the norm for bikes in the US market, where light weight tends to be a major selling point, shops make money selling accessories and a lot of customers enjoy making choices of what accessories they get. The Belleville is what it is. And what it is, with all that stuff on it and a steel frame, is heavy. Not insanely heavy, but it's sure no Madone!

While the go fast crowd won't have any interest in the Belleville, I also know that the retro & utility bike purists will find nits to pick about this bike. Some will bemoan the lack of a lugged frame, some will wish for a different rake on the front fork, some will complain that the 3-speed hub has too few gears. My main complaints with the bike involve the lack of adjust-ability in the handlebars, the kind-of-weird-looking recycling-friendly seat and the unusual curve of the top-tube on the men's model. But no one bike is perfect for everyone and I think it's wonderful that Trek makes a bike like the Belleville.

With an MSRP of $659.99, I think the Belleville is a very good value for somebody looking for a complete city bike. Here are links to a couple of real reviews of the bike:

Car Free Philly: Original Review & Update

Lovely Bicycle

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson

Issaquah WA USA

Helios 100 Bicycle Race

bike racing can add health and fitness

antique bicycle

This bike consists dari3roda. comes from Jamaica

Looking For Collectibles That Sell

There are many people who would like to break into the eBay selling arena, but who have no idea where to start. The act of signing up is the easy part. What really gets people stuck is the question of what to sell to other people online.

The truth is, there is an amazingly vast range of items that people consider collectible. People develop connections to a variety of items and they are often willing to pay premium prices for things that you might never think of as collector's items. As you go about your next Spring cleaning, you might find that you own one or two of these sought after treasures.

One great example of this type of merchandise is Harley Davidson gear. Hardcore bikers as well as more casual bike enthusiasts often pay top dollar for memorabilia related to this historic brand name. Harley shirts with the names of bike shops in various cities often sell quite well. Clothing related to biker events like the Bike Week rallies that take place in Sturgis or Daytona also do quite well. Older, dated items can bring surprisingly high bids. Vintage biker jackets almost always sell very well when put up for auction if they are in good shape. This brand is so popular and has such a rich history, that almost any Harley item you might be interested in selling has a good chance of drawing multiple bids.

Another collectible that sells well right now is Michael Jackson memorabilia. Since his passing, fans have begun to clamor for everything from original vinyl albums to the dolls that were originally sold during the 1980s. This is a great example of a collectible that many people probably have stashed away, possibly forgotten, in attics and storage boxes. Digging these old items out could be very profitable for a new eBay seller. Even old posters and magazines sell very well, so it is worth the time to make that trip to the attic if you were a fan during the 80s and then drifted away over the years.

Finally, you might want to take a look around your property for old bottles. This is a market filled with serious collectors. Anyone living on a farm or in a rural area should keep their eyes open for these very popular collectibles. Although not every bottle will be a winner, there are many bottles that sell on eBay for hundreds of dollars.

A few minutes spent browsing the collectibles category can be time very well spent. An amazing amount of valuable items get sold to eBay re-sellers every weekend for very low prices simply because the original owners underestimated their market value. Do a small bit of research and you might be surprised at how much valuable merchandise you already own.

spin bicycle

FERRARI - FERRARI cx 60 (ORIGINAL) FERRARI

 FERRARI - FERRARI cx 60 (ORIGINAL)

FERRARI
Kategori Sepeda MTB
Tipe MOUNTAIN BIKE
Tersedia warna merah ferrari
Rp 30,708,000
Rp 18,150,000

Better to Light a Single Candle

The old proverb advises that it is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness. That's the spirit behind programs like Get Lit and while I've been involved in various organized versions of Get Lit, I also like doing my bit as an individual, one on one. I'm a sucker for a deal on a batch of lights cheap enough that even a poor bike mechanic can afford to give away. Forty lights shipped to my house for about what I'd pay for a single light is a good deal in my book. Yeah, they're cheap and one of them was DOA and I'm not quite sure what I'll do with the blue and green ones (turn signals on my fingers maybe?) but they are light and I'll pack some in my bags to give away to unlit riders and walkers.







Keep 'em rolling,

Kent Peterson
Issaquah WA USA