Blog General News

First of all, I personally want to thank Quicksilver for his insightful commentary on his trip to Germany. Actually, I don't. You see, I had this idea that he could tell us a bit about bike culture in the Fatherland and we ignorant Americans could learn a bit of the Euro outlook from one of our own. Instead we got these snarky mini-blogs. Did I suggest a Twitter blog each day? No, I did not. When I take my trip to Pasco next week, you can be damn sure I won't spend my time trying to enlighten Quicksilver on the nuances of their bike culture either.

On a light note, I wanted to share a bit about our blog. Somewhere I saw that the terms of my "agreement" with Google Analytics, who tracks visitor information, includes a prohibition on sharing some of the information. I didn't see that part, but only because the agreement is 17,000 words long and I was only on that page long enough to find the correct button to click to get off of it. If someone could let me know the salient points, I would appreciate it. Until, I am going with the ignorance is bliss approach.

The idea behind the blog was to talk about cycling generally, our rides and some of our thoughts, as well as tell people a bit about LBS, Two Wheel Transit. To my great delight, this little bloggy blog has now been read nearly 10,000 times in 48 countries or territories across the world. Not bad for a blog that started in late January. For a while we had no readers in Russia, so giant land mass was not colored in on our map, but thankfully we have now had two visitors from the Motherland. I would still like to get Greenland filled in (we've got Iceland, thank you), so if you know someone in Greenland, tell them to fire up the whale-blubber generator and point their favorite browser to us.

The next most interesting thing about the blog are the search words that people put into Google (and others) and then find a link that they use to get to our site. The lead in this category is clearly the Fizik Antares review done by Rider 1. Apparently this is a hot topic, because a lot of people have come by to take a look. The D2 Shoe review is also way up the list. We are also a source, for no good reason, on the Gonzaga Cycling Team. Apparently we should feature some of their riders, because people are coming to the site looking for them.

As we move down the list, Craig Hummer makes a number of appearances, as in "Craig Hummer", "Craig Hummer Twitter", "Craig Hummer Sports Broadcaster" and "Craig Hummer's Blog". Two things, first, I am glad that anyone looking for CH information will stop by here and find out what a knob he is, and second, no one has done a search for "Craig Hummer fur-lined speedo" and stopped by. Maybe someday.

Kirsten Gum has also generated a number of visits, but they are a bit different in nature. Here is the list of terms used in connection with Kirsten Gum: "bust size of", "cover of tri", "blogspot", "drunk driving", "in a bathing suit", "measurements", "what is bust size" and the most disturbing, "panties". It makes me feel sorry for female celebrities. Speaking of female "celebrities", something else that makes me feel bad, someone was actually looking for pictures of Rasika Mathur nude. Why? Seriously, is that a good idea?

Here are few more oddities and I want to emphasize these are actual words used to search for things that resulted in people visiting our site (along with my own comments):

• can't separate felted sock (a logical way to find our blog, right?);
  
• funny team names for four wheeling;
  
• how to ride in the wind go faster;
  
• lance armstrong private jet (TTW, your source for pictures of lance's toys!);
  
• ambassador fishing wheel (a what?);
  
• rider stand up 2 wheel;
  
• shaved cycling (let's not think about this one);
  
• so you think football players are tough chasing a ball around for 90 minutes? well we chase a yellow jersey up and down mountains for 3 weeks (proof that not everyone understands the idea of "googling"; it's different than editorializing);
  
• something that means two completely different things;
  
• urban dictionary nether regions (thank goodness Kirsten Gum had nothing to do with this one);
  
• what those huge motorized wheels are you can ride on the lake are called (yeah, what are those called?);
• wheel of math - and companion - math of cycling;
• 2 pig wheel pulling a wheel;
• 3 wheel stand up bike (the opposite of a recumbent I guess);
• adjusting fork rake (is this a good idea?);
• bike to support overweight rider (hey, thanks!);
• paraphrase of mother, I cannot find my wheel (nor can he find his senses);
• ride and be damned (right there with you brother);
• spray tan münchen (huh?); and,
  
• what are the rides in Italy with the two wheels and you have to stand up (this is why head trauma victims should be kept away from google).
  

I can only guess at what some of those things are, but mostly it worries me. However you got here, though, thanks for stopping in. Particularly if you are from Greenland.