sixthreezero Around the Block Casual vs Around the Block Dedicated | Bike Model Comparison

Hey guys, Dustin here, CEO of sixthreezero. Today I'm joined with Peter, our head of customer service and quality control, and today we are going to talk to you about... We're going to compare the Around The Block Casual to the Around The Block Standard and talk about the differences, the similarities, and everything about these two bikes.

All right, everyone. So today, as I said, I'm joined with Peter, our head of quality control and customer service, and in front of me right now, we've got the Around The Block Casual, one of our newest additions to the sixthreezero lineup. Just came out within the last two months, and I've got the around The Block as it is on the website now, it's just The Around The Block. However, we are moving to a three-tiered sort of spec-level naming system. So for the sake of this video, we can reference this one as the dedicated version, but not to be confused with on the website right now. Just sort of The Around the Block Standard, this is The Around The Block Casual.

So we want to get into helping you guys understand what's the difference between these two bikes. There's a price difference between the two of them. The Around The Block Dedicated AKA standard current version is a little bit more expensive than the casual version. And I think at first glance, somebody might look at it and say, "Well, that doesn't make any sense why." That's why we brought Peter with us here today. Peter's been in the bike industry for 20 plus years, all the way from a mechanic in a store to a manager of a store, from a sales rep to here with us now. So he knows the ins and outs, the specs, the components, the quality, everything he can do better than me. So Pete, why don't you take it away and explain to everybody what we got going on between these two bikes?

Hey guys, thanks for joining. Yeah, so we have the two bikes here and they do look identical at first glance and they do have the same frame, the same steel frame, the same geometry. Both these bikes have the classic cruiser style that is recognizable and has been around for maybe 80 years or more. So this is the classic bike to take with you to the beach. There are some key differences between the two, as Dusty mentioned, this one costs less and this one is a little bit more. Let me point out some, a couple of basic differences and then I'll show you kind of the why the price differences occur. The casual does come with fenders and the regular or dedicated does not.

Fenders can be added now actually, I think they're just not available for the color-matched ones.

Right, okay.

Yeah. So if you wanted to put fenders on here, color match fenders will be coming probably in the next six to eight months. But you could also throw another fender on this bike. So it's already equipped to accept fenders.

Right, exactly.

Sorry Pete, take it away.

No, thank you. Thanks. And the dedicator regular comes with a rear rack, which is really convenient for going to the beach or also a lot of people use this for college or other uses maybe even commuting. So you can carry some items here on the rear rack. This one could accept the rear rack as well, no problem, or a child seat. If you want to put a child seat on the back of either of these bikes. Now, for the price difference, there is a little bit of a price difference between the two. And that represents the dedicated here has some upgrades and they are not really visible to the untrained eye, but down here, the derailleur which shifts the gears is an upgrade on this bike compared to this bike. And then we also have an upgrade on the brakes.

And what we're talking about there is differences in functionality, durability, and performance. The seats are going to be kind of a user's preference. This is maybe considered a bit of an upgrade on this seat, but that's going to come down to personal preference. The cranks, also a little bit of an upgrade here on the dedicated bike, and then you can also see a difference in the grips here. This may also come down to personal preference depending on what you like. But right here on the casual edition, we have some rubber grips whereas, on the dedicated here, we have the leather grip, which is a nice look and is a kind of a classic look for the beach cruiser.

Yeah. I mean, when you talk about, I think what's difficult for people to understand in many consumer product segments is if something looks the same or in this case, I think visually you would look at The Around The Block Dedicated and you may think, "Oh, well, there's sort of less things on this bike." There are no fenders, there is a rack, but you're missing the fenders. We have the brown seat on this version, might feel like an upgrade. The performance element is sort of the element that I think is difficult to understand in lots of different products, because you may not aesthetically see the difference with your own eyes, or you may not aesthetically understand the difference by just looking at it.

So in particular, for these two bikes, the difference in the price really comes, as Peter said in the derailleur and the brakes and the upgrade. And when we say upgrade, Shimano is the largest bike component manufacturer, and this derailleur on this bike is a level higher than this bike as it comes from the Shimano factory as deemed by them. And basically what that means is performance is going to be better and durability will be better. Now, the question is, is that performance important to you? We can't necessarily answer that for you. However, you can take our Body Fit Quiz on our website and we can analyze your lifestyle, your riding habits, and make... and our proprietary algorithm can choose a bike that is best to fit you. Should you not opt or should you opt not to take that, my thought is then you need to assess how much riding are you going to do. What kind of hills are you going to be riding? Are you going to be going downhill at very fast speeds? Is a better break, more important to you.

So that's the challenging thing about understanding, not only the differences between these two bikes, but all spec levels are it comes down to what type of riding you're going to be doing and how to fit those specs to your lifestyle and your riding habits. But with that said, it doesn't necessarily mean the breaks will work good on this bike, they'll work good on this bike. This will perform better in certain circumstances than this one will. And I think the same is true for the derailleur. Both will work, however, would I take this bike and race a triathlon on it? Absolutely not. Would I take this bike and ride it 30 miles a day, seven days a week? I probably wouldn't.

If that was the kind of riding I'd be doing, but you still want this style, I would definitely opt for the upgraded version. So if you're going to log a lot of miles and distance is important to you and you like this style, opt for the dedicated or standard version. If you're a casual rider, like we've called this bike a once a week, once a month, just a family kind of ride, the casual is probably suited perfectly for your needs and your riding habits. Anything else you want to add Pete, before we...

I really couldn't add anything. I just would reiterate exactly what you just said. It's it comes down to how much riding you're going to be doing, frequency, and also distance. So how often do you think you'll be writing and then how far do you think you'll be going.

Yeah, and I think the other thing that plays into these sort of upgraded components is the maintenance. When you buy a higher quality component. Let's say for instance, that you can't see it in the performance, maybe for someone that's not riding for performance, it may be harder to see the difference in the performance of these two things. But one other element is the required maintenance. On a higher quality derailleur, it's not going to require tuning as frequently. The greasing probably about the same between them, but I think it won't lose its tune as quickly, it's going to stay dialed in. This one, although it's not going to break, you may more frequently have to tune it. I think the same is true for the brakes. So again, comes down to what's best for you and your riding habits. Anything else?

I think we've covered it there.

Cool. All right. Well, if you have any other questions, please comment below. We're happy to answer them or you can call us 310-982-2877. You can also email us THETEAM@SIXTHREEZERO.COM. And I mentioned it before, I'll mention it again. We have a proprietary system on our website, the Body Fit Quiz. Enter your riding habits and your body dimensions and it will choose a bike that is right for you, and in addition to that, we have a 365-day return policy. So at any point, within 365 days, if you don't love your bike, you can send it back. No questions asked, no money out of your pocket. So don't forget, it's your journey, your experience, enjoy the ride.