Pages

Tuesday, October 30

The end of the WORD as we know it

It's been a long time coming.  The writing has been on the wall, and it can not be ignored.

The cycling blog, as we know it, is dead.

The victim of many different trends and tendencies.  The supersaturation of the blog world, Facebook, Twitter, larger media sites absorbing bloggers for content...

This affects many, but none more than the cast of characters employed here at Bad Idea Racing.


When was the last time we heard from Mike Piazza, coach, general manager, attorney, public relations man, and head IT guy?  What about Admiral Ackbar, Sponsor Liaison and Equipment Acquisitions Director?  What have they been up to?  Things have been a little too quiet around here.  Creative posts have been lacking.  Lots of murmuring going on at the water cooler lately.  
"Are we gonna have a job next year?"

"Will we get COBRA?"


"Should I be sending out résumés?"


Most cycling blogs can be divided into two categories.  Personal weblogs of athletes and those for profit or supporting a cause.  Mine is both but mostly neither.    Most of the athletic ones have gone from daily postings to frequent to occasional to "whenever I feel like it."  Content has suffered greatly.  The ones with more purpose will die without material, constant updates, and a multi-pronged social media campaign .  Without getting too deep into it (boring), let's just say they are "successful," with reason and purpose.  Kudos.

I am without reason and purpose.


So here I sit.  The "season" is over.  I'm making no efforts to secure new sponsors for next year.  There are no custom frame ideas floating in my head.  I've got no plans to make next year happen much differently from the years before.  No training, no Run Club, no short track season, no cyclocross... nothing.

I am happy and content in my world.


I've used and abused all manner of filler material in the past.  "What's in the big blue bins?", tours of my bike room, false interviews with the industry elitist media, product reviews.  All I have left to fall back on is dream sequences.

As Colin Farrell said in the movie Seven Psycopaths, "Dream sequences are for fags."

As Christopher Walken said in the movie Seven Psycopaths, "They don't like to be called fags.  I think they prefer homos."

So....

Without cause or profit to motivate me and stir me from bed every morning before the sun comes up, Bad Idea Racing will be following the "cycling athlete" weblog business model.  Posts will be much more random than ever before, well as random as a guy with some OCD tendencies can get.  Two to three posts a week, with surges of up to but not exceeding four when material is available.  Expect this trend to continue until the 2013 "season" starts back up in late March/early April.

What will be the net result of this action?  Most importantly, I'm going to get some extra sleep.  I could use the spare time to put in some winter miles, hit the gym, run, or do Bikram yoga... but I am not.  Readership will drop slightly.  Fickle fuckers.

There is little I can do to cut back on being stretched thin.  I have not had more than four days in a row off the bike in over 16 years.  Due to my desire to remain employed as a bike messenger, I will not be getting the chance any time soon.  So this is the step I am taking to avoid a permanent burnout and being committed to an asylum.

I still love to ride bikes, and I still love to write stuff and things.  Let's keep it that way.

The blog is dead.

Long live the blog.

26 comments:

Joshua Stamper said...

Personally I have always been amazed at the volume (and Quality) of content you are capable of dredging up.

moe said...

Shit. I'm going to miss my daily laughs... I'm glad you will still be making some posts though. The ride and race reports are always great! Thanks for the morning entertainment for the last few years.

Peter Keiller said...

i fully support this decision...

TheMutt said...

I've thought about doing this for a while now, but I use my blog mostly to remember what I've done.

Are you gonna use all that spare time to promote your underwear modeling career now?

Yuck.

John Parker said...

even if this "ajdustment" ends up being a fade to black....I have enjoyed and will miss your twisted and somewhat whacky but often spot on and instighfull rants on the many things that orbit the world of Mr Dillen.

winning and a good time (aka fun)don't often happen at the same time....might as well then pick fun.

Anonymous said...

A team with this much virility will be okay.

Anonymous said...

I am pretty sure you accidently got a little decaf this morning causing some off season limpness, reload and review.

the original big ring said...

WTF?!?! No hopping penis?

Anonymous said...

It really is amazing how often you post and how it's always been worthwhile content, if at least providing a few laughs. I'll certainly be checking back regularly anyway and hope this new posting schedule will help sustain your blog for years to come. Sometimes less is more. Whatever. Thanks for all the good reads Dicky!
- Christopher

Chip Batson said...

GASP!




GASP?

Anonymous said...

This is great news. You've been pretty boring IRL lately.

Mike said...

I honestly did not know that Ackbar is evidently some kind of crustacean.

Good to know, glad I learned something today.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuXPHl_ahlI

Mert.

Anonymous said...

Well as Sam Rockwell said in Seven Psychopaths, "your dog's got a big gay head" and as Woody Harrelson said in Seven Psychopaths, "my dog doesn't have a big gay head, he has a normal head"....I wish you luck. I hope to not see your great blog absorbed by the moronic postings so prevalent on Facebook and Twitter from "writers" who can't compose a sentence and write everything is in the form of a text message like vowels don't mean anything anymore. Keep on keepin' on Dicky. You are one of my favorite bloggers.

Kark said...

Whats a blog??

Anonymous said...

enjoy the winter job as a fluffer.

Seriously though, we'll miss your banter.

Tom Purvis said...

Gosh Dicky, are you sure you aren't just little blue? End of the season, shorter days, superstorm, and all that jazz?

Are you getting enough fiber?

dangerGator said...

What the hell am I going to read on the bus to work?

paulsonofharris said...

Bike blogs are so OVER!

Anonymous said...

New Dirt Rag editor?

dougyfresh said...

Bad Idea.

I'm the one that goes months without writing anything.

You need to stick to a 4-5day a week habit.

Anonymous said...

Egads! If you don't get your regular morning constitutional in, you'll be more full of shit than evar!

I'll still load up the page daily in hopes for another nugget of wisdom, humor or at least a good 'meh'.

- cartographer

Mike said...

There must be more to it than that. I think you and the Pie really did adopt that Haitian child and that is the reason for the needed sleep.

Mike said...

There must be more to it than that. I think you and the Pie really did adopt that Haitian child and that is the reason for the needed sleep.

joker said...

The queen is dead boys, and its so lonely on a limb.

BUCK said...

quitter