Saturday, November 26, 2005

Best bike blogs of 2005

Update: Nominations are closed. I'll have the voting online Real Soon Now.

Bloggers have been blogging for a few years, but 2005 is the Year of the Blog. Mainstream media are participating, the portals and search engines have jumped into blogging in a big way, corporate America is spending money in the blogosphere, useful tools proliferated in 2005, and everybody and their bikes began blogging this year.

You, faithful readers, will be the ones to pick the Best Bike Blogs of 2005. Leave a comment below for nominations of your favorite bike blogs. After the list of nominees is created, you will have the opportunity in December to vote for your favorite blogs next month.

I'll select a few that I think are worthy of mention, but beyond that it will be a pure popularity contest. Remember to vote early and vote often when the time comes.

If you know of some easy-to-use voting/survey software then please let me know about it. MySQL and PHP are available on my server.

The blogs don't have to be purely about bicycling, but they should have a strong bike flavor. The type of biking isn't important: lifestyle, roadie, MTB, OCP, bent, race news, utility, advocacy, VC, facilities, CM or whatever -- it's all open for nomination.

The blogs that are in my blogroll are automatically nominated, but please feel free to mention them anyway in your comments. Please nominate your own blogs. Please help spread the word!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Should be a fun contest! Two survey/polling solutions you might want to check out are Perseus SurveySolutions Express http://express.perseus.com/perseus/asp/login.aspx and PollMonkey. FreeBlogPoll.com also looks promising. J-Vicious (a contributor on my blog) used SurveySolutions Express for the booth babe contest he put up the other day http://express.perseus.com/perseus/surveys/1734848031/64bff3be.htm

It gives an unprecedented level of control for a free tool. There are no ads and unlimited questions and choices. Highly recommended, but more difficult to use then something like freeblogpoll.

The Donut Guy said...

How tacky is it to nominate your own blog?

http://bike-riding-donut-guy.blogspot.com/

I'm one tacky bastard.

James T said...

Good idea. Can I nominate Cyclelicious (or is that just blatent sucking up)?

In addition to the ones in your blogroll, I will nominate

http://masiguy.blogspot.com/

and

http://www.bikeportland.org/

Yokota Fritz said...

I guess I should mention that Cyclelicious isn't eligible :-)

Graham also posted some of his nominations over at GC. Thanks, BTW, for the survey software suggestions.

George: I guess you have to be tacky if you're making donuts. All that sticky glaze stuff and all. Feel free to nominate yourself, however.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for including my site in this list! Stay tuned for some solid new stuff in the next month or so.

As for my vote, even though this thing will go down as an out-and-out popularity contest, I'm placing my hand in the air for Bike Portland.

The site itself is a great exercise in community building and is a really good example of using the Internet to raise awareness about advocacy issues in a particular area / region. Sure, Bike Portland doesn't have the latest images of gear or reviews of the 'good stuff', but it does have info on how to make Portland a better place to be -- something that's way more important than how someone else thinks the new El Caminos work on the trail.

http://www.bikeportland.org

... said...

bloggage
since nov ought four

www.rockwool.blogspot.com

the most factory blog

Kellogg said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Kellogg said...

You might try: Survey Monkey

gwadzilla said...

amy has a good idea
there may be a short term free test of the survey monkey

if you do go ahead with this BEST BIKE BLOGS thing

I think that the word of mouth needs to spread

perhaps there should be a logo
and a flyer
then
each blog who has been nominated
should put the flyer and the link to the survey on their blog

wish my links were more extensive and up to date

I nominate myself
I nominate martino's bike diary
I nominate velorution
I nominate bicycles and icicles
then of course there is Fatmarc
and many spin offs in my region
DT used to have a great blog
but it lost priority
he debated going big
but I think he need to shift his concentration
who else
who else
I bet there are three bicycle blogs that I regularlyu go back to but have not mentioned


-jg
http://gwadzilla.blogspot.com/

Jill Homer said...

I'd like to nominate Oil is for sissies. blog.lib.umn.edu/thil0020/carfreelife/
Wordy, but satisfying.

Mansard said...

I nominate ThirtySixLame:

http://www.thirtysixlame.com/journal/

This blogger has a really unique style.

Tim said...

Choosing one is impossible. There are too many approaches and creative categories.

I nominate Gwadzilla for best documentary photo project. (gwadzilla.blogspot.com)

I nominate The Old Bag for most creative writing. (oldbag.blogspot.com)

I nominate Up In Alaska for most inspired writing, and best new blog. (arcticglass.blogspot.com)

I wish I could nominate several others for a group award for keeping me informed and entertained each day. Or maybe they should be punished for taking up so much of my time ...

Anonymous said...

Great idea!
I'll nominate BikePortland.org.
In addition to being well-written, topical and visually appealing, the blog covers the Portland bike scene like a blanket. Jonathan's blog is a must-read for any cyclist Portland. He's committing a friggin' public service!

scotty said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
scotty said...

here we are: velovelo.blogspot.com...

Anonymous said...

Since I'm not the first one to nominate my own blog I don't feel so "tacky"! Here's my travelogue (blog) about amateur racing and recreational cycling:
steephill.tv bike travelogue

Two cents: it would be nice to have something better than a "vote early and vote often" system. In any case, it would be great to see a bike blogs beauty contest.

Dave Shields said...

As long as we're being tacky and nominating our own:

http://daveshields.blogspot.com/

Yokota Fritz said...

With all of the nominees I'll probably split things up into categories. I'll keep "beauty contest" suggestion in mind.

James T said...

I have just a few more that I'd like to add to the prestigious list of nominees.

http://www.bikingbis.com/blog

http://www.cicle.org/cicle_content/index.php

http://bicyclemarketingwatch.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Unlike some others The Cycling Dude ( http://www.cyclingdude.com ) will not be nominatin' himself. ;-D

I will let my Blog, and its content, speak for itself, and let readers of both of our Blogs make that judgement for themselves.

As for who I'd nominate, aside from some of those listed, who I link to, let me suggest a BikeBlog of a different sort than how most of us do ours:

1. Voyage, Voyage = http://www.voyagevoyage.com/en/

How many of you even know this site exists?

Into touring?

Into good story telling?

Into Photography? ( A couple hundred, or so, Photos! )

This place is a MUST.

And means an investment of time on your part to enjoy, and appreciate.

Nina shares the Journal of her Father, Rob, who took a Bike Tour thru Europe in 1953.

In 2003 she retraced his route then posted her own journal of her adventure.

THIS is BikeBlogging at its purest, and best, and all of us who write about our own escapades can learn from both examples.


As for someone to watch for 2006:

I'd like to suggest Larry La Grande, of New Orleans...

Great Bicycle Trails, and City Rides Worldwide = http://world-class-bike-trails.blogspot.com/

The reason is obvious for anyone who has read my archive of coverage of the aftermath of Katrina.

Larry's Blog started out with one mission in mind... but not too long after that came Katrina, and the posts on his Blog now is starting to cover more than the original intent had in mind.

Let me say Gwadzilla has a good idea about the Logo/flyer/survey thing.

Thanks for your time, and Happy Cycling!