Retro-grouch or just obsolete

I started writing here in 2005 that will be sixteen years by the end of this year. That is a long time and a lot of material, a lot of subjects covered.

The reason I started writing here was simple, I had gathered a lot of knowledge over the years spent building bicycle frames. I felt I needed to share that knowledge. There must be millions of people like me all over the world, doing something or other, and along the way figured out how to do that something a certain way.

This knowledge is often not written down and when these people are gone, that knowledge will be gone also. I felt this was a damn shame because knowledge passed on from one generation to the next is how humankind got from chasing their food with a stick, to where we are today.

However, the thing I find alarming is that our knowledge today is growing at such a rate, that old information becomes outdated at a faster rate. We are producing products that are almost obsolete by the time they are shipped from the factory to the store.

The other thing concerns me is, does anyone really care about what I or anyone else did forty or fifty years ago, when most people are not interested in what was done last year, or even six months ago? I am talking here from a bicycle industry standpoint.

I know my regular readers will say they are interested, and I believe most genuinely are, otherwise they would not keep on coming back. But is the knowledge gathered here only of value from an entertainment standpoint?

Most of those who visit here and learn something about bicycles are no different from bird watchers, people who grow roses, brew beer, or collect stamps. Part of the enjoyment of engaging in a hobby is becoming an expert in that particular subject.

This blog gets around 1,500 to 2,000 hits a day from all over the world, most of these hits come from search engines. Type in any question about bicycles and chances are I have written about it at some time or other, and that article will pop up in a search.

Many hits come from forums where people are discussing some aspect or other of the bicycle, sooner or later someone will post a link to an article I have written. Then the term “Retro-grouch” will pop up, and I wonder, “Is that how people really see me?”

I left the bike business in 1993 so naturally stuff I write about pre-dates that, but does that make me a retro-grouch? To me a retro-grouch is someone stuck in the past that will not move forward. When I was in the bike business, I always questioned the status quo, and often went against what everyone else was doing.

The robots that drive the search engines will only pick up my blog if I keep writing new stuff. At some point I will become too old, too tired, or simply run out of stuff to write about.

When I stop writing, within a year this blog will disappear from the search engines. Publishing in book form is no better, there are so many books published each year that most only reach a limited audience, and who remembers a book that was published last year?

I think the point I am trying to make is that when I started writing here I did so because I thought what I had to offer had some value. I still believe that is true, it is just my reasons for thinking so has changed.

What do you think? Does the speed of advancement in today’s technological environment make knowledge obsolete at a faster rate?

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15 years of Blogging

On November 12^th, 2005 I posted my first article, and “Dave’s Bike Blog” was born.

I was a young man of 69, and “Blogging” was relatively new, there were only a few million or so blogs world-wide at the time, today there are around 600 million.

Facebook had only been launched a year before, (2004.) and Twitter would follow a year later in 2006.

It was 2002 when Google took over “Blogger” and made it a free platform under the name “Blogspot.”

it was the platform that I used initially. Blog, a word derived from Web-Log, not my favorite word, but it is too late to change it now. In July 2008 I had concerns about censorship, and switched to “Squarespace,” a commercial platform. Squarespace was itself in its infancy then.

One month later in August 2008 I quit writing, probably one of the dumbest decisions I have ever made. I had a pretty big following and decided to quit while I was ahead. At the time I felt I had nothing left to say. I did come back six-months later in February 2009. I did so because a group of bike enthusiasts, got together, and presented me with a “Tribute” bike. One of my own custom bikes that I had built in 1983.

Many of the people who contributed to this bike were strangers to me, I was deeply touched and had to write about it on my blog by way of a thank you, it brought me back, I had lost my big following and had to start all over again, which is why I admit it was not the smartest I ever did.

Here we are all these years later and I still struggle with what to write about each week, although now I have a huge backlog of articles, and often re-publish an old one. It takes me at least 4 to 6 hours to write a new post such as this, after writing, then editing and re-writing, then the time to post it to the blog platform along with any pictures and links to other articles.

I find I have to be careful what I write about. My last post in which I was trying to inject a little sanity into the craziness that was the recent election. At least it brought out some comments, which show people still read this stuff and I am not just talking to myself.

I read a story about a person who was getting abuse on an online forum. He found the abuser lived in the same town, so he suggested they meet, and he could tell him to his face the things he was saying anonymously online. The reply he got was that the other person was only 13 years old and is parents did not allow him to meet people he contacted online.

I have had some really obnoxious comments in the past, for example simply because I spoke out against Critical Mass. I suggested that blocking rush hour traffic once a month was not bike advocacy. I can accept that these comments are probably coming from juveniles, but at my age I can do without that kind of negative thought coming my way. The result is I stay away from the controversial stuff. It is a form of censorship that makes it harder to find subject matter to write about.

In 2016 I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, my symptoms have actually improved, this is due largely to exercise and diet. Writing here is exercise for my brain. Thinking new thoughts, deciding what to say, causes new connections to form between brain cells. This is essential therapy as Parkinson’s is caused by brain cells dying and my body is no longer producing dopamine.

Also, I cannot allow myself to get stressed out or angry, or my tremors in my right arm get worse. Normally, my Parkinson’s does not stop me doing anything I want to do, I can control it. However, if I am to go another 15 years it will put me at ninety-nine years old. So, people, please be nice, and we will see how long we can keep this party going.

Footnote: I would love to hear from long-time-readers. How long, and what are your favorite posts? 

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Twelve years and still going

Twelve years ago on this day November 12th. 2005 the first post appeared here and “Dave’s Bike Blog” was born.

Blogging was still relatively new in 2005, probably a few million of them. Today it is tens if not hundreds of millions.

However, how many blogs that started back in 2005 are still going today? Not many, I would guess. In fact on August 25th. 2008, I quit writing here.

I was writing two, sometime three articles a week, and that is tough to maintain, and I had self-doubts that it was even worthwhile.

I recall, people were so kind. My post, “The Party’s Over,” drew 88 comments. No criticism, just thanks and well wishes. It was people’s kindness that would bring me back six months later in February 2009. A group of people got together and presented me with a “Tribute Bike.” Built with one of my rare custom frames

I was deeply touched, and could not let the occasion pass, without writing a thank you post here, and that was enough to get me restarted. Quitting was a huge mistake, I lost the large readership I had built and had to start over. It left me with a resolve never to quit again.

I will keep going until A.) No one reads it anymore, or B.)  My health does not allow me to continue. Even then, I would hope someone else would take it over and continue.

I am amazed to think that this blog has lasted longer than my California business. I started in San Marcos in 1982, later moved about 60 mile north to Temecula and was forced to quit in 1993. That is only eleven years. Because of the Internet and this blog, more people know of me as a framebuilder now, than when I was actually building bikes.

In August 2010 I opened a Bike Registry. Wow, that’s been seven years already. I have a few bikes short of 500 listed. Not many really when you consider I built 2,400 of the Fuso Brand alone, plus all the others.

There is a Facebook Group for owners of bikes I built. With 910 members there, they are not all ‘Dave Moulton Bike’ owners. but, that is okay, some are future owners.

Over the years I had tried to get a group like this going, there was a short lived Google Group, and a Forum that went the same way. This Facebook Group was started by Texas DM Bike enthusiast Mitch Pullen. Mitch also started an ‘American Built’ group. Please take a moment to check these groups out and possibly join.

I think back 30 or 40 years when I was building some of these frames. I never could have envisioned the Internet. That people would be corresponding with me thirty or more years down the road, sending pictures of these very same bikes I was working on at that very moment, and asking questions.

The same when I started this blog twelve years ago, I was a young man just 69 years old, today I am… Well you can do the math’s. I never thought about where it would lead. It is all part of this strange and mysterious journey that is life, where it takes us, no one knows?

So I wonder as I type these words and post them here, where will they go, how many will they reach, and how long will they last?

I would love to hear your experiences via your comments, were you here in the early days, or have you found the blog recently? What would you like to see from me in the future?

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The Haunted Fish Tank

Scientists tell us a goldfish has a memory that lasts only three seconds; how they figured that one out, I don’t know.

Did they sit and talk to a goldfish, ask it questions, while holding a stopwatch?

I am beginning to wonder if some Internet users have the attention span of a goldfish. 

I have a little thing on this blog called Statcounter. It gives me useful information on people visiting this blog.

Don’t worry, it doesn’t tell me who you are, where you live, or what you had for dinner last night. However, it does tell me how you arrived here, search keywords used and how long you stayed once you got here.

Many people arrive here via a Google search, and what I find strange is when people ask a specific question, arrive on the page that has the exact answer, and stay less than three seconds.

For example, one recent visitor got here by using these keywords “replacing tube lugged bike.” Which led him to this page. There on the screen before his very eyes, step by step instructions on how to replace a tube in a lugged frame. Length of visit: 0 seconds. Anything under three seconds registers as zero.

“What bike frame size for my height?” is a question that gets Googled many times, and will land you on this page. You would think the words “Frame Sizing” in the title would be a clue to a person that maybe they had landed on a page that might have some answers for them. Length of visit: 0 seconds.

I could go on and on, but I’ll just do one more. “Centering side pull brakes” will land you here. Simple instructions, 107 words and 2 photographs. The only way it could be any easier would be if I came round to your house and showed you how to do it. Length of visit: 0 seconds.

In my native England, we sometimes refer to the television as “The haunted fish tank.” I think that name would be more apt for the PC. The only difference is the fish are on the outside, looking in. Maybe some people really do have the attention span of a goldfish, and by the time they click from Google to here, they have forgotten what they were looking for.

The Internet is supposed to make us smarter, sometimes I wonder. The information is there, but until scientists come up with a USB cable that plugs directly into our brain, it requires that we read the information to benefit from it.

In writing this piece, I came to realize this strange aspect of human behavior is really a metaphor for life. The answer to any question, any problem we may have in life is right there within ourselves. Our intelligence, knows the answer, if we just give the grey matter time to work.

We search for answers, but then we try too hard to find the solution. Instead of slowing down and allowing ourselves to see what is often before our very eyes, we click away and continue searching elsewhere.

Footnote: This article was first posted here over 10 years ago. Since that time hundreds more articles have been written with even more answers. Plus there is now a Search tab on the top right column of this page.

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Looking back at 2012

I posted 77 articles on these pages in 2012. That was more than one per week, but less than two. Coincidentally 77 will be my age on my next birthday just six weeks away.

I kicked off the year with a piece called “What is a Cyclist,” in which I explored the makeup of a cyclist. On February 7, I announced that my ex-apprentice Russ Denny was re-introducing the Fuso brand of bicycle frames.

This lead to my attending the North American Hand-built Bicycle Show. (NAHBS) Held in Sacramento, California in early March. Later Russ built me one of the new Fuso frames,  I posted pictures and I wrote about it after I put 150 miles on it.

My new bike (Picture top.) got me serious about riding again and after putting in 150 to 200 miles per week during the early part of the year, I did a solo 100 mile ride in 7 hours in August. The last time I did a Century was back in England in the mid 1970s.

Also in August I wrote about “The other Moulton bicycle.” Alex Moulton that is. His company celebrated 60 years, and for those who didn’t hear, Sir Alex Moulton died earlier this month at age 92.

Also passing away at close to 92 years was Italian cyclist Fiorenzo Magni, (Picture left.)

He was one of the last living links to the other Italian greats Fausto Coppi, and Gino Bartali.

And yet another 92 year old, Tommy Godwin, Olympic track cyclist, and former British Team Manager died in November.

I left the bike business in October 1993, so this coming year will mark twenty years out of the business.

I am amazed and humbled that there are people still riding bikes I built 30 or more years ago.

I want to thank those who stop by here to read my postings and sometimes comment. I will continue to post articles as long as I can find topics to write about, and as long as there are those who want to read them.

I wish you well for 2013, but most of all I wish you Health and Happiness.