Who runs Bikotic
Bikotic is run by Ben McNeilage, Flat 12 Atlantic Apartments, 72 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 2EE. I'm responsible for the data on this site. Email hello@bikotic.com.
Cookies
This site sets no cookies of its own. It keeps a few settings in your browser, listed below, and asks one question about Awin's cookie. We don't load adverts, and there are no advertising or tracking scripts; our host, Vercel, counts visits as described below. We don't embed YouTube players. Video thumbnails come through our own site, so YouTube only knows you're there if you click through to watch.
The comparison app asks that question once, about affiliate tracking. It's about the cookie Awin may set on its own site when you follow a Buy link, not about this site: see Buy links below.
Counting visits
We use Vercel Web Analytics. Vercel counts visits without cookies. It briefly uses your IP address to make an anonymous code that resets daily. We only see totals. A shop click is counted on our own server as you follow a Buy link: which bike, which shop and which part of the Buy panel, and nothing about you. We do this because we've a legitimate interest in knowing what's useful.
The feedback form
When you send us a message, we store:
- which app it's about and what it's about (the drop-down)
- your message
- your email, only if you give it
- the page you sent it from, and the date and time
We don't store your IP address. We use your message to fix things, and your email only to reply to you. It's kept in our database, which Neon hosts for us. We use your message because we've a legitimate interest in fixing what's wrong, and we keep messages for 12 months, then delete them.
Saved settings in your browser
Some of our apps remember things for you in your browser's own storage (local storage, not cookies). The comparison app keeps:
- your answer about affiliate tracking, and when you gave it. We ask again after six months.
- the bikes you've starred
- your last Browse filters
- any Fit numbers you typed into the 3D view
That stays on your device, except your tracking answer, which travels with each Buy link. Clear your browser's site data and it's gone.
Chainy
- Chainy sets no cookies and loads no third-party scripts. Its fonts, code and data come from bikotic.com.
- It keeps a few settings in the browser's local storage, on your device only: your FTP, chainring and sprocket, gear mode and cadence, the ride's difficulty, speed in mph or km/h, the graphics quality you chose, whether the route preview is open, the frame-rate box, and the seed that picked the seven riders you got last time. Nothing about a ride is stored.
- Chainy sends no ride data anywhere. Power, cadence, heart rate, position and the Strava file are made in the browser. There is no account and no upload.
- The Strava file: at the end of the ride Chainy writes a standard FIT file (the format Garmin, Strava and TrainingPeaks read) with the date and time, the route's GPS points and heights, your power, cadence, heart rate, speed and distance, and a summary that includes your FTP, marked as a Virtual Ride so it stays off real-road segment leaderboards. It's a download; you upload it to Strava yourself.
Buy links
The orange Buy links in the comparison app take you to a shop, most of them through Awin, an affiliate network. If the shop pays us a small commission for a sale, that's how Bikotic keeps going. It never changes your price, and it never changes what we say about a bike.
The first time you open the comparison app, we ask whether to allow affiliate tracking:
- Accept: the link tells Awin you've agreed. Awin may set its own cookies on its own site so the shop knows the sale came from us.
- Reject, or no answer: the link still works and goes to the same page at the same price. We tell Awin you haven't agreed, and we don't expect to be paid. Awin still handles the click under its own privacy policy.
You can switch it either way at any time in the Buy panel: Turn on, or the small Change link. Links marked “Not an affiliate link” go straight to the shop or the maker, with nothing attached.
Shop photos in the Buy panel come through our own site, so the shop doesn't see you looking. Once you follow a link and you're on Awin's site or the shop's, their own privacy and cookie policies apply.
Running the site
The site and its apps are hosted by Vercel, which keeps short-term technical logs to keep it running and safe. The bike data in the comparison app comes from our database at Neon. The short clips of our apps come from our own file store at Cloudflare, which does the same. These companies may handle data outside the UK, under their own safeguards.
Your rights
You can ask us what we hold about you, or ask us to delete a message you've sent. Use the feedback form or email hello@bikotic.com.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, tell us first. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.