Category Archives: Tat

I’ve launched a new site! – Mountain Biking Resources .com

Mountain Biking Resources .com

A couple of weeks ago, I launched a new website which isn’t quite so personal.  It’s aimed at giving Mountain Bike riders what they want, when & where they want it.

The site will be filled with things like:

  • MTB Gear Reviews
  • Rides
  • Mountain Biking News
  • MTB Products
  • MTB Articles

… whereas this site will always be my personal indulgence, with a wider remit to waffle on about more random stuff.

Which is where this post comes in.

You See…

I wrote a post on MountainBikingResources.com which was about a ride we went on yesterday, the Rivington Ramble.  But, thanks to the riders all being people I know from the internets, perhaps it should have been shared on here.

So… Go and read it on the other site.  If you get a subscription popup, you can fill it in or you can just hit “refresh” (best option on phones cos of the popup size) or close it and it’ll go away and not come back for at least a few days.  If you do fill it, you’ll receive carefully written updates from me, right into your inbox.  I promise they won’t be crap, and I also promise that if you want to stop getting them, there’ll be a wee “unsubscribe” option on every one. I’m nice like that.

Mountain Biking Resouces .com

Mountain Biking Resources.com

So Now What Happens To This Blog?

If you were wondering what’d happen to Phill’s Irregular Cycles, then the answer is… Nothing.

This blog will still be here and I’ll still be waffling on about stuff, as I do.  You’ll be treated to my usual brand of self-indulgent writing and I’ll be treated, in turn, to your comments and confusion.

I just thought I should keep you up to date 🙂

Talk soon, then…!

What Works? A Blogger’s Navel-Gazing Conclusion

Blog Review 2011

As the year draws to a close, I thought I’d have a look at my analytics over the last 12 months to work out what people liked to read in 2011.  It’s easily possible to spend too long thinking about stuff like this but a broad-brush gander at analytics stats can’t do any harm, can it?

What Did I Find?

Well, I’ve read a few blogs about blogging, especially when I was new to this lark and I had a few haughty-taughty ideas about actually treating the whole experience seriously. That was before I adopted my current policy, which I’ll tell you about in a minute.

Anyway, the blogs about blogging taught me that reviews are popular on blogs. This is because people decide that they might want to buy something, then they look over their shoulder at work to establish that the boss isn’t looking, then they fire up google and type “(Thing They Want To Buy) Reviews“, or “Thing They Want To Buy” on its own. Then they scour the search results for:
(a) the costs of the Thing They Want To Buy and
(b) reviews of the Thing They Want To Buy.

I do it myself, to reassure myself that the Thing I want To Buy isn’t actually an overpriced piece of useless tat. Although I do it in my lunch break or at home, of course 😉

My own findings back this up.  The little pie chart below sums up what people have been looking at over the last 12 months.  In fact, two particular reviews of bike gear scored about half of all the review hits, to be honest.

Phill's Irregular Cycles Readership Breakdown

Analytics Findings 2011

So, if you’re thinking of taking blogging seriously, think about building a review site. But, bear in mind that lots of people have gone before you, and might be putting a lot more time in than you can.  But it’s a good way to gain new visitors: then all you have to do is give them reasons to come back, and possibly milk the affiliate & ad networks for all the income you can!

What’s My Blog Writing Policy?

I said I’d tell you about this, didn’t I?  To quote Mr. Krabbs (ask your kids), I like money.  But, to stop quoting Mr. Krabbs, I don’t like money so much that I’ll put it above engaging and having fun.  What I love most about blogging is the act of writing, the photography that I enjoy before the writing ideas come to me, the riding of bikes which inspires most of my ramblings (and reviews) and I love the engagement of the circle of friends that blogging, social media and cycling has brought me.

When I’m ready to stop having fun, I’ll go to work.  The value of blogging, to me, isn’t the income, and that’s a bloody good job.  Income-earning blogs are springing up all over the place, and most of them show a marked reduction in the quality of writing, in favour of remarketing other people’s ideas.  If I ever write a book (and I wish I would, one day) then I’m going to be quite uncomfortable about hawking around the internets, I think.

So balls to your analytics. It’s interesting and it helps get new visitors, but you’ll come back to my blog again if you find the writing or the pictures interesting.  If you don’t, you won’t come back.  Simple.

Finally For 2011

Enjoy your Christmas break (or your chosen seasonal feast linked to your chosen deity, pagan festival or coincidental time of winter happiness), enjoy riding your bike if you’ve got one, and enjoy this wonderfully engaging world that the internets have brought into our lives.

See you in 2012 🙂

Couriers – Who’d Have ‘Em?

Grrrrrr!

I ordered a new bike.  It was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday.  On Tuesday night, a mechanic was booked to come to our house to make sure everything was where it should be, and to set the bike up so that it would extract the maximum output from my minimum talents.

I was excited about this.

At Tuesday lunchtime, I contacted the guy who’s sold me the bike.  He chased up the delivery.  He was told that it wasn’t on the courier’s van.  There was a docket in the courier’s office clearly indicating a Tuesday delivery, but it wasn’t in the van.

I waited until the end of the day at work, just in case there had been a mistake.  There hadn’t: it definitely wasn’t in the van.  We cancelled the mechanic.

Now it’s Wednesday lunchtime and I have heard nothing.  Neither has the guy who sold me the bike.

Why?

Why is it that the final link in the supply chain, the vital link which actually delivers everybody else’s promises and dreams, is so unaccountable?

The guy who’s spoken to me over the last few weeks and helped me to choose a bike which should be perfect for my needs; the distributor who so carefully ordered, prepared, boxed and handed the bike to the courier; the various organisations involved in carrying messages and money over the wires and airwaves to facilitate the choosing and buying interaction…. all of these worked beautifully.

Then the couriers, who are paid regardless of their ineptitude and indifference, let everyone down.  They don’t call us to tell us when it will be delivered. We have to call them, and so far can’t get a concrete indication of where the bike is, let alone when it might be delivered.

I’m still waiting.  🙁

If you’d like a guess at what time the bike will turn up, you can enter a prize sweepstake on my Google+ pages.  There is an actual prize and I’ll mail it anywhere in the world if you’re right.

Truly Wonderful Skills by Danny McAskill, Daniel Dhers and Martin Sodastream

I don’t usually repost videos, as others have worked so hard to promote them and deserve all the credit they get.

But this. Is. Brilliant.  In particular, stick with it until the last two minutes where the detailed slow motion shots show just how intricate some of these guys’ moves are. Fantastic stuff.

 

 

POC Bike Excursion from ANTIMEDIA on Vimeo.

Enjoy! 🙂

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