Why I built BikeQuiver

I maintain a fleet of 8 to 10 bikes for me and my family. Everyone rides, which makes me the family mechanic — and I can't keep it all straight. Our bikes range from the early 2000s to brand new, and every one speaks a slightly different language.

Just today I spent an hour figuring out what cassette fits a 2019 Ibis. I had to pull the cassette off the wheel and look at the splines to confirm it was a Shimano HG freehub running a SRAM NX Eagle 12-speed. Here's the trap: a SRAM X01 or XX1 Eagle cassette uses an XD driver and will NOT fit that same wheel. I've been burnt by that before.

I've also got a drawer full of bottom brackets I've ordered over the years that fit none of my bikes — or maybe one of them, but I honestly don't know which. Brake pads are the same story: one SRAM pad fits one caliper but not the next one over. Handlebars now come in two clamp standards, 31.8mm and 35mm. Rear axles? Boost, Super Boost, and the old standard. Do you know the difference off the top of your head? Neither do most people — and getting it wrong costs you.

I know bikes. I've built plenty from the frame up going back to the 1990s. And to be clear, none of this is a complaint — bikes today are incredible, far better than what we rode in the past. But "better" also means new specs and new standards, and compatibility gets harder to reason about every year. It hits the rider in the garage, the shop stocking parts, and the online retailer trying to get you the right part. Order the wrong one — or the right one in the wrong size — and it costs somebody, every time.

Honestly, I don't have it fully figured out yet. But I know where it starts: with getting your bike specs in one place. The more you tell BikeQuiver about a bike — the make, the model, and the handful of specs that actually determine fit — the better it can point you to parts that will work on it. Every bike that gets entered fills in another piece of the puzzle, so the answer gets clearer for you and for the next rider asking the same question.

The goal is a compatibility engine: tell it your exact bike, and it tells you what fits — the right pads, cassette, bottom bracket, bar. Not a guess, not a forum thread from 2016. A real answer, for riders, shops, and retailers alike. Less time researching, fewer wrong parts sent back, more time riding.