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My Favorite Posts of 2012

12.27.2012 by Ray Niekamp // Leave a Comment

I got a kick out of looking back at 2012 on this blog, and learning what you found to be the most interesting posts of the year. As I’ve noted in the past, sometimes what my readers find to be interesting, and what I find to be interesting are two different things.

So I’m going to build on the last post, by taking a little time to spotlight my favorite posts on Bike Noob in 2012. These aren’t ranked according to page views, as the ones in the last post were — instead, they’re just some writings that I thought characterized the kind of bike rider I am, and what my cycling interests are.

And yes, my account of the Hotter ‘n Hell Hundred was right up there among my favorites — but since it was one of your favorites, too, I won’t go into that again.

But one thing I learned from riding the Hotter ‘n Hell — I’m not one for the long distances. Just a couple days later, I threw cold water on my century accomplishment by writing, I’m Through With Centuries. Apparently, a lot of you share that sentiment.

But a lot of you think the long distances are worth shooting for. In that case, taking a cue from the randonneurs might be something to consider. So You’re Interested in Randonneuring? got a lot of traffic, and even though I’m not planning on riding any brevets, the information available on rando sites is applicable to most any kind of cycling.

Although I’m no randonneur, the occasional longer ride still appeals to me, and I decided to celebrate my birthday by Riding My Age. Being joined in the effort by a Bike Noob reader made the day that much more enjoyable.

The nerve I touched when writing about “Car Back” — noted in the last post — prompted me to follow up by trying to make sense out of that piece of legalese in most transportation codes: Riding as far to the right as “practicable.” As Far Right As Practicable stirred up some discussion about just how far right we should be. Always good to remind ourselves of the rule.

And then there was the inspirational. A team of disabled Spanish cyclists shooting for the Olympics were featured in a documentary called “The Unstoppables.” It’s easy for us to get caught up in building mileage, building speed, riding in bad weather, and all the challenges and difficulties associated with that. I put some clips from the doc in a post, and suggested the Next Time You’re Down About Biking, Watch This. Their efforts to fully fund the documentary continue.

As the year winds down, my biking appears to be doing the same. I thought I’d ride a lot during the Christmas break, but it’s been four days since I last got out. Maybe Friday…but I’m looking at the light drizzle we have now, and I want to make sure it’s all gone in the morning.

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Most Popular Posts of 2012

12.25.2012 by Ray Niekamp // Leave a Comment

Well, we’re approaching the end of 2012, and that leads to a lot of looking back at the big events of the year. For me, it was the birth of my first grandchild. During the four days we spent in Minnesota with him, I didn’t even miss biking.

But in the world of Bike Noob, we can look back, too. I thought it would be fun to check the analytics on the blog and figure out the most popular posts of the past year.

During the four and a half years I’ve been blogging, I’ve noticed that posts that are popular when first put up might fail to attract eyeballs as time goes by. Conversely, other posts might start slow and gradually get more views later on. That certainly seems to be the case here, with some posts whose popularity in the last 12 months has come as a surprise to me.

Here they are — the top 10 blog posts of 2012:

10. What Does “Car Back” Mean to You? Jan. 31. I’m bugged when cyclists don’t get into a single line when traffic is behind them.

9. Have You Ever Fitted Yourself? Feb. 26. Apparently, a lot of you have.

8. Four Years of Noobishness. Feb. 19. Includes links to five of the most popular posts of all time.

7. The Hotter ‘n Hell Hundred. Aug. 26. My cycling highlight of the year.

6. Stravalogisms. Jul. 26. The GPS-based ride mapper has spawned a lot of descriptions — some not so complimentary.

5. Testing Some More “Fitover” Sunglasses. April 12. A lot of you must be in the same boat as I am.

4. Moisture Wicking Base Layers. Jan. 24. Boy, you folks really must sweat a lot!

3. How Long Do Your Tires Last? May 31. I think 3,000 miles is good, but some of you beat that by a long shot.

2. How Much CO2? Feb. 9. 12 gram or 16 gram? And at what cost?

1. Steel vs. Aluminum. April 29. My impressions of 11 days of riding my friend David’s steel road bike.

Thanks, everyone, for making 2012 a great year for Bike Noob. I have more page views than ever before, and it’s gratifying to know that there’s still an audience for stuff I put up. Next, I’ll tell you what some of my favorite posts of the year were.

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Blog Trollers Begone!

11.29.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 1 Comment

This post is somewhat off-topic, in that it’s not about biking, but about blogging. From time to time, I get emails from people who offer to contribute a guest post. Here are my thoughts on the matter.

Over the years Bike Noob has been running, I’ve even accepted some of these offers. Sometimes, the resulting post has been all right. It deals with biking in a manner that I hadn’t yet addressed here, and the link wasn’t obnoxious. A few times, the post has be excellent. Much of the time though, the writer is not a cyclist and contributes something on the level of an eHow post — so simplistic as to be potentially insulting to Bike Noob readers.

I wouldn’t even mention this, except that over the last three days, I’ve gotten three such offers. Here’s the problem: the wording of the offers is so similar, I wonder if they’re coming from the same place, just under different names. The pitch goes something like, “I am looking for blog sites to post guest articles. The article will be 100 percent Copyscape protected (a plagiarism checker), and will run about 500 words. The article will be published only on your site, and informative to your readers.” The pitch also requests a link back to the writer’s own blog, or business, or some gizmo they’re associated with.

If it’s about cycling, I’ll carefully consider the request. I’ll vet the writer, either by visiting his or her blog and evaluating the quality of the writing, or I’ll ask a few questions about their cycling experience. For the overt link hunters, I’ll send a polite “thanks, but no thanks” reply.

I blog because I like to write about my experiences, and I hope that my experiences might ring a bell with my readers. The feedback I get indicates that this is so. I do accept guest posts, and if you’ve read this blog for a bit, you’re already familiar with Don Blount and Jeff Hemmel, two cyclists who have contributed their own guest posts for about three years. But the stuff Don and Jeff write about is in the same vein as I write about, and it’s for the interest and entertainment of our readers — not an attempt to market one’s own (perhaps non-bike related) business.

So guest post trollers, be gone! If guest posts appear here, it will be because they have something to contribute that will interest my readers (I hope). In fact, you’ll be seeing at least one guest post in the next couple of weeks from someone we haven’t heard from before. Stay tuned.

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