Events

Meet the new Bike Hub

· By Bike Hub Features · 65 comments

Unlike the bike industry with its annual colour-way refreshes, new model cycles and the next new “standard”, Bike Hub has retained a largely unchanged look and feature set for a number of years now, incremental improvements aside.

And while we’re not the type to propose fixing something that isn’t broken, as the digital world advances and consumer expectations rise, we’ve grown more acutely aware of the shortcomings of our current platform. We know from user feedback that there are many gripes and bugbears that Hubbers have patiently learnt to live with while we’ve endlessly promised “future platform upgrades”. Not to mention the countless opportunities to deliver greater value to our users with new features and services.

It’s time for us to up our digital game and deliver a better user experience on Bike Hub. With that in mind, our small team expanded significantly in early 2019, including the addition of two full-time developers which enables us to drive product improvement. The team has quietly been at work building out the new Bike Hub and laying the foundation from which we will more rapidly improve and expand the offering moving into 2020.

So what is changing?

Not everything thing will be updated, at least not initially. The first phase will see a complete overhaul of Classifieds, a new Home page and an updated look which we’ll carry across the other sections of the site. The core features and look ‘n feel of Forums, Events, News & Articles, and Stolen Bikes will remain the same initially.

Feature Highlights

Fully responsive design
Everything you can do on a desktop can be done on a smartphone.

Favourites
Need to save an advert to revisit later? Add it to your favourites to bookmark it. We’ll also notify you if the price or status changes.

Saved Alerts
Looking for something specific? Save your search to receive alert notifications when matching ads are posted.

Improved Rating System
We’ve moved to a simple star rating system and built-in prompts to kick off the feedback process between seller and buyer.

Chat
Easily communicate with buyers and sellers on any device.

Improved category structure
We’ve grouped bikes and components more sensibly while allowing more filtering.

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How will it affect my adverts?

In short, it wont! All your advert data (current and past) will be migrated to the new system and you’ll be able to login with your usual Bike Hub account details. Your trader ratings will also be migrated to the star rating system (Negative rating = 1 star, Neutral rating = 3 stars, Positive rating = 5 stars).
All forum data, private messages, events, etc. will remain on the current platform, but you’ll be able to login seamlessly with the same account.

While we’re furiously working through testing the new system, as with any new web products and the multitude of browsing devices, there’s a chance some things might not work as expected. We’ll have support channels on hand to assist and our development team will jump into action to address any issues which may arise.

What next?

We’re in the final phase of development and testing. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be conducting private beta testing with a limited pool of users with the goal to launch the new site within the next month.

Beta tester sign up: If you’d like to apply as a beta tester please sign up here.

Questions?

We’re here to answer any questions you may have.

Tags:

Comments

throttles

Oct 15, 2019, 10:02 AM

Nice!

Hairy

Oct 15, 2019, 10:05 AM

lekker

Shebeen

Oct 15, 2019, 10:06 AM

I'll let Juju take the lead on this one

 

Gr3mlin131

Oct 15, 2019, 10:06 AM

 

Saved Alerts

Looking for something specific? Save your search to receive alert notifications when matching ads are posted.

 

 

 

This part specifically would help a ton. I do not want alerts for all the MTB adds, but a certain size and price range etc. Perfect.

Darryllk

Oct 15, 2019, 10:07 AM

Saweet...look forward to new transition!

Farrnus

Oct 15, 2019, 10:16 AM

brilliant news - looking fwd to V3.0

mecheng89

Oct 15, 2019, 10:28 AM

Nice. Can't wait! 

Barry

Oct 15, 2019, 11:02 AM

Cool ????????

Bos

Oct 15, 2019, 11:12 AM

Whats my password again...? :whistling:

Nick

Oct 15, 2019, 11:22 AM

Whats my password again...? :whistling:

 

I fear that this question will keep us busy for a good few days after launch.

Cookie88

Oct 15, 2019, 11:31 AM

Exciting Times!

porqui

Oct 15, 2019, 11:35 AM

When you make some changes in the other section could we PLEASE have a "DISLIKE" button please !!!!!

 

Pretty please - I have seen it work well in some other forums.

Hairy

Oct 15, 2019, 11:43 AM

When you make some changes in the other section could we PLEASE have a "DISLIKE" button please !!!!!

 

Pretty please - I have seen it work well in some other forums.

if memory serves .. way back when ... we used to have this function.

shaper

Oct 15, 2019, 11:45 AM

if memory serves .. way back when ... we used to have this function.

Was discussed/debated before and was taken away as forums threads became too many Friday threads....

MarcHD

Oct 15, 2019, 12:25 PM

Great work guys! Long may it continue

Pure Savage

Oct 15, 2019, 12:41 PM

Looks good.

Eddy Gordo

Oct 15, 2019, 1:38 PM

Awesome stuff. Is the classsified gonnna be only tile layout now or will there be a choice of tiles and list?

Nick

Oct 15, 2019, 1:40 PM

Awesome stuff. Is the classsified gonnna be only tile layout now or will there be a choice of tiles and list?

 

There will be a choice between tile or list when browsing categories and viewing search results.

robbybzgo

Oct 15, 2019, 1:44 PM

Sounds great, just wish there was a way of Sellers having to put in Frame Size (and other certain pertinent info) into the Main title...Coz so many adverts are opened up and high excitement levels achieved only to find that its an Extra Large frame or a 9 speed drivetrain...so much time lost!

Karman de Lange

Oct 15, 2019, 2:10 PM

Was discussed/debated before and was taken away as forums threads became too many Friday threads....

 

its now just every day threads .. noone can be bothered to keep to topic .. but that just my personal gripe

 

o wait, its not friday yet

jimmycool

Oct 15, 2019, 2:37 PM

It will be great to have full functionality on mobile devices.

Nick

Oct 15, 2019, 3:18 PM

Sounds great, just wish there was a way of Sellers having to put in Frame Size (and other certain pertinent info) into the Main title...Coz so many adverts are opened up and high excitement levels achieved only to find that its an Extra Large frame or a 9 speed drivetrain...so much time lost!

 

Thanks. Size might be worth considering but more detail like drivetrain speeds etc will likely make the title or listing a bit bloated for us to display efficiently.

 

We've drastically improved the filters. And with Saved Alerts you will can get updates for the filtered searches you've created, including size, price, location, some spec, etc.

MORNE

Oct 15, 2019, 5:30 PM

When you make some changes in the other section could we PLEASE have a "DISLIKE" button please !!!!!

 

Pretty please - I have seen it work well in some other forums.

yea..... no. if one doesn't like a topic or comment, don't read it. Too much SJW bull already today in forums. No need for apologetic forum functions to appease snowflakes too. Did this comment tickle the dislike-fancy in you hehe?

If so - youmust consider that you are part of the problem you specify.

Vetseun

Oct 15, 2019, 5:37 PM

I hate change.

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