Vision – For Cycling Compendium to be The Definite Reference for Cycling

Purpose – To serve the global cycling ecosystem by being more informed

How – Accessible information and resources

Origins

From Daniel’s upbringing and into his university education was interested in cycling and how things worked. Had the opportunity to help start up a human power club at the university and the development of a land speed racing streamlined recumbent (pretty extreme, riding it too!). These activities lead to the entrepreneurial path related to cycling and transport. As a foundation he carried out extensive personal research into the breadth and depth of cycling which scaled to an extent worth sharing with others (at least 2000 basic entries as of early 2025).

Inspired by Wikipedia, but to be an all encompassing cycling reference work, rather than a encyclopædia. Thus taking the form of creating a core database to deliver different functions.

The vision from then has been to become the definitive reference for cycling. With the purpose to serve the global cycling ecosystem by being more informed

Also with my original intentional research being on recumbents/HPV’s (Human Powered Vehicles), and learning of the communities ageing population and a desire to capture the stories and lessons learned from there lifetimes of work (as I interviewed people local to me). Making it more known to others and to encourage more unity across cycling for better outcomes for all.

Explaining the details

I find pleasure in knowing why things are the way they are. And by sharing them, I hope others can have a fuller understanding of the why and what they are supporting

The name

Starting from the concept of a database and encyclopædia/wiki. Realised the word Compendium was an alliteration with cycling and was not widely used and having an associated credibility.

The choice of “Cycling” due to being inclusive, unlike the common usage of bike which should be exclusive to two-wheeled machine
And “Human Power” not strictly appropriate with the rapid growth of electric assist in recent years.

Being a reference work

At the beginning of this project, I spent a fair amount of time deciding what the project was and how to describe it. From my reading I settled on a reference work as it is simply “a document which one can refer for information”

Choices of wording

Reader – that is what you are, and we hope that this information is serving you well
cycle/cycling – bike/bicycling is typically avoided as it prescribes two wheels

Daniel’s why

Out of care for the others. Time is precious.
Improved information transfer, by having information publicly accessible and structured intuitively for efficient access of relevant.
Honours the efforts of those who have gone before and assist us to “build on top of the shoulders of giants”! Which why not have the opportunity to see what has been done before and then how the innovator can take it the next step.

Technological development can go in circles. One I have noticed is the development of gravel bikes, which for comfort as they attempt more challenging routes and terrain they have started to adopt suspension and are seemingly reinventing the mountain bike. This development is serving a purpose, but another example being oval/elliptical/non-circular chain rings, which come into vogue every 15 or so years, seemingly due to lack of understanding of lessons already learned

For deeper insight, I have a Digital Garden which should be accessible somewhere on the web when I get around to it.

Direction

Initial focus on recumbents and HPV (Human Powered Vehicles), along with general cycling in New Zealand as a proof of concept for people to replicate for their own countries.

Contributors: See the development roadmap for more information