Thanks to the state of today’s economy, bicycles have never been a more popular form of transportation.  Just because you might be ditching that passe internal combustion vehicle for something a little leaner and greener doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice style.

Check out these 7 cool rides you would be proud to cruise around on when you are at the beach or just hanging around the neighborhood:

7) Diamondback Della Cruz

Conjuring up memories of soap box races when you were a kid (or maybe when your parents or grandparents were kids), the Diamondback Della Cruz is a sporty yet comfortable addition to the garage.  With fat whitewall tires, flared fenders and extra thick tubing, you’ll be riding in style while saving plenty of green.

What it will set you back: $224.99

6) GT Kustom Kruiser Woodside

Cruising down the beach has never looked so good as it does on the GT Kustom Kruiser Woodside.  This isn’t Clark Griswold’s Family Truckster, rather a well styled ride that won’t cost you a dime of environmental polluting gasoline. Take it easy on this slow ride and let the wood paneling, classic fenders and red walled tires do the talking for you.

What it will set you back: $599.99

5) Electra Rat Fink

A true green machine. The Electra Rat Fink is the limo of choppers and has everything needed to make a statement. This wild ride features a sturdy aluminum frame with an extra-long wheelbase, a double-clamp fork and ape-hanger bars for cruising the boulevards in style.

What it will set you back:  $649.99

4) Electra Hawaii Custom 3

Here’s one for the ladies.  As the name suggests, the Electra Hawaii Custom 3 cruiser bike looks like it’s straight off the streets of Hawaii. The brilliant colors of the frame and rims and floral accents on the seat and grips will make your surroundings bloom and inspiring you to plant a few flowers along the way.

What it will set you back: $399.99

3) Electra Punk

If anarchy is wrong, you won’t want to be right thanks to this bike. The Electra Punk is a rebellious rig featuring a light aluminum tank frame (it only looks like it holds gas, how random is that?) with laid-back geometry, burly wheels, random red spokes and fat whitewall tires. Go ahead, take your own route, just don’t run me over along the way.

What it will set you back: $619.99

2) Electra Ghostrider

Saving the world by bounty hunting on a bicycle never looked so good. The Electra Ghostrider is a sweet ghoulish rig featuring an aluminum frame with a stretched wheelbase, a double-clamp fork and high-rise bars for cruising the boulevards in style.  Can’t you already feel your head on fire?

What it will set you back: $619.99 (plus a soul)

1) Specialized Fat Boy Moto

Tired of churning up all that extra carbon on your Harley, here’s the next best and eco-friendly way to ride. A true moto-inspired, cruiser bike, the Specialized Fat Boy Moto puts emphasis on plush design and quality construction, shucking conservative bike styling for an ultra-relaxed riding position, generous saddle and super wide tires.

What it will set you back: $2,800.00 (but think of the environment)

Today, Mazlow announces the release of brand level pages for bicycle manufacturers.  The brand level pages provide background and contact information on each manufacturer, while providing a quick view of each bicycle model offered.  Interested in knowing how many bicycle models Schwinn has (74 by the way), or how many kids bikes Giant makes (14 of those), then these pages will help you out.

Here are the links to these pages.

Cannondale Bikes
Diamondback Bikes
Electra Bikes
Gary Fisher Bikes
Giant Bikes
GT Bikes
Haro Bikes
Giant Bikes
Mongoose Bikes
Raleigh Bikes
Schwinn Bikes
Specialized Bikes
Trek Bikes

After 5 years of having our website in beta, Mazlow has finally been fully launched, with our site going live November 15th.  If you have visited our site before, you will notice that the logo and page design have been updated, but the main updates to the site have come in the bike finders and the updated bicycle database.

When we originally launched Mazlow, we made the assumption that someone looking to buy a bike would ask the same questions of any type of bike they were looking for, and designed a wizard around the main components of a bicycle.  We quickly realized that if you were looking for a mountain bike, you would be interested in the frame, suspension and brakes, but if you are looking for a road bike, you are really only interested in the type of frame since road bikes don’t have suspension and only use caliper brakes.  And, if you are looking for a kids bike, you really just care about the age of your child and which bikes will fit them.
The bulk of our update started in June of this year and was expected to only take a couple of months, but after several user experience changes and technology updates, here we are 5 months later.  We are excited to have 1,174 bikes currently in our database, however we were bummed to find out that 2009 models came out about a month or so ago while we were finishing up the programming.  Definitely search through the database as most 2008 models are still at your local bike shop, and know that we are hard at work loading the database with 2009 bicycle models. We will provide an update here when the 2009 bike models go live.

I don’t know about you, but we were surprised to find that there were over 1,000 bike models on the market from 70 plus manufacturers, in fact, the number is probably well over 2,000.  For now, we have loaded the database with the most popular bicycle brands on the market which include:

Trek

Schwinn

Specialized

Gary Fisher

Cannondale

Giant

GT

Mongoose

Diamondback

Electra

Haro

You are certain to find a bike shop near you that carries these bike models. We have an additional 70 or so brands to add to the database, luckily for us, most of them have fewer models than the list above.  Just so you know, some of the bike brands we will be adding include:

Magna

Marin

Bianchi

Fuji

Lemond

Next

KHS

Columbia

Huffy

Jamis

Klein

Pacific

K2

Kona

Iron Horse

Univega

Jamis

Thanks for stopping by, and please let us know if you like the website, or if you have thoughts for how to improve the experience.  We do have several new features in the works, but any additional suggestions are definitely appreciated.