Dig A Little Deeper

I really don’t like the word blog.

Par­tic­u­larly in social set­tings. I don’t like using it to describe what I do.

Here in Aus­tralia, we use a lot of slang words for describ­ing things. One that we use for the toi­let or going to the toi­let — is the bog.

This can be chal­len­ging. Some­times confusing–especially in a noisy bar or res­taur­ant. I some­times find myself frantic­ally try­ing to cla­rify what I just said when the reac­tion on the recip­i­ents face is one of shock and horror.

“No, I said a BLOG! I write a blog — on the inter­net… oh never mind”

Another chal­lenge of writ­ing a blog online journal as opposed to a web­site is present­ing pre­vi­ously writ­ten con­tent to new readers.

Although I’ve had an awe­some bunch of people read­ing my blog since day one, which has kept me motiv­ated — I’ve seen a sig­ni­fic­ant spike in my traffic over the past few weeks and it’s con­sist­ently grow­ing. This is very hum­bling and mostly thanks to really nice humans like Wade at Cyc­ling Tips and Jes­per from Train­ing For Cyc­lists refer­ring read­ers over to me – among others.

Whilst I’m study­ing hard for my new job, I’ll take this oppor­tun­ity to present seven of my old school favour­ite posts to you new peeps. I hope you enjoy.

• 11 Mis­takes Cyc­lists Should Avoid — Besides cof­fee, one of the simple pleas­ures of rid­ing on Sat­urday morn­ings is observing what some of the new cyc­lists wear out rid­ing. Just last week I passed a guy who’d pulled his bib knicks over his flan­nel t-shirt. His seat was too high, no socks on and was wear­ing sneak­ers. He looked like a Romain wrest­ler in pre-season mode. Please wear socks… please.

• 8 Cyc­ling Tips for New­bies — From this post, if there’s one thing to take away, carry food and spares on every ride (tube and pump). The amount of people I see walk­ing their bikes home with a flat tyre is stag­ger­ing. $50 Taxi rides home aren’t fun either. Just think of all the spare tubes you could buy with that money.

• If I Owned a Bike Shop — The inter­net is here to stay so why fight it. Flow with it. Do what you can and add value to your cus­tom­ers where you can. There’s no point get­ting all bit­ter at people shop­ping online.

• How to Sell Your Bike — With a little ima­gin­a­tion and cre­ativ­ity there’s money to be made selling bikes. The prob­lem with some people is that we take the safe road. We do what every­one else is doing. That’s okay if your goal is to blend in and mediocrity is accept­able to you.

• How to Cook Poached Eggs — Okay this was one of my first posts. I’m so embar­rassed by this post that I have to share it. I’m a glut­ton for pun­ish­ment. Cyc­lists need poached eggs goddamit!!

• Change your Rear Wheel Fast — Whether in a race or on a train­ing ride, get­ting that rear wheel in and out can be frus­trat­ing for the begin­ner. Here’s a tip for doing it like a pro’.

• The Import­ance of Good Lights — It’s rolling into winter here in Aus­tralia which means a lot of early morn­ing night rid­ing. I just spend over $400 on lights for my bike. A lot? Read this post and then make your own mind up.

I hope you enjoy these over the next few days whilst I cram plenty of ana­tomy and sur­gery study into my brain for my new job. I’m also mov­ing house this week so I’ll be back on Fri­day with another update.

Until then, safe riding.

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Photo Credit. Nice guy Jamie from Cycle Sport News.