The Blog Page

News, commentary and humor about bicycling and other topics of the day

 

Five years of blogging!

It's hard to believe, but Roger Kramer Cycling: The Blog Page is 5 years old today! The rest of the Roger Kramer Cycling site marks its 8th birthday in April, but I think the blog deserves its own celebration because it's the most-read page on this site.

I think the blog has come a long way since its early days. If you look at the posts from February and March of 2004, I often drifted away from cycling. These days, for the most part, the blog is a clearinghouse for cycling items, although I still allow the blog to drift from time to time. For example, the most-commented post I've done remains the tribute I wrote in June 2006 about my late brother, Wes Kramer.

I monitor visits to my site, and I find lots of people still search for the lovely ladies I've written about from time to time, including Jana Ireton, the original Specialized Angel who made her debut during the 2006 Tour of California. I also get a lot of hits for people who are looking for Kristin Armstrong, the former wife of Lance Armstrong, and the Ditty Bops, the eclectic folk group who rode their bikes across America during their 2006 Bicycle Tour.

Not surprisingly, the blog gets heavy traffic the week of the Tour of Missouri, and I'm hoping to improve my coverage of the event this September will more photos and stories from the scene.

Not surprisingly, the cause I'm most proud of having supported on the blog is the effort to raise money for paralyzed Belleville cyclist Gerry Frierdich. I've known Gerry ever since 1991, when I first began working at the Belleville News-Democrat and he was working part time in the pre-press department while trying to establish himself as a professional photographer. Although he would eventually leave the paper, I would come across him regularly during Belleville Area Bicycling and Eating Society Wednesday Evening Rides. Although Gerry has a long way to go, Gerry's drive and determination have allowed him to make major strides. I'm glad to have played a role in getting the word out, and I'm grateful for the support the cycling community has given him since the August 2007 accident.

I'm looking forward to another five years of blogging, and thanks for sharing the road!

Labels: Web site

Roger 0 comments links to this post 10:15 AM

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Notes along the Katy Trail

Here's a collection of items about the Katy Trail you may find of interest:

CARL EDWARDS RIDES THE KATY TRAIL: Before NASCAR driver Carl Edwards won last Saturday's Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 Nationwide Series race at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill., he spent three days riding the Katy Trail from his hometown of Columbia, Mo.

I didn't write about it last week because I thought Dave Luecking of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch did a nice job of covering the ride on the newspaper's 10 Speed and Left Turns blogs. Dave accompanied Carl for 30 miles of his trek. Numerous other NASCAR bloggers have written about the ride.

The Memphis Commerical Appeal also picked up on Carl's Katy Trail adventure in its Friday editions. Despite Carl's fame on the NASCAR circuit, he was able to visit a pool in Washington, Mo., and a Sav-a-Lot store in Hermann in relative obscurity.

"We were a pack of sweaty guys on bicycles, we walk in there, sugar-depleted, buying bananas and Gummi Bears in the checkout line," Carl told the Commercial Appeal. "I saw they were going to have a show car at the store on Sunday. I said, 'Oh, so you are going to have a car here?' They were like, 'Sure,' and we talked about it for a while and no one recognized me. And there were pictures of me everywhere.

"The Save-a-Lot standups are smaller than I am, which throws them off at the store. 'You look like Carl, except you're taller, isn't that funny?'"

BICYCLEWORKS MARATHON ON KATY TRAIL: On Friday morning, volunteers from the St. Louis-based BicycleWORKS began a marathon on the 225-mile Katy Trail. Their goal was to start from St. Charles, Mo., and ride for as long as possible without sleeping 30 or more minutes. BicycleWORKS challenged people to donate 25 cents a mile. Even though the ride already started -- and may have ended -- I'm sure BicycleWORKS would appreciate a donation.

BicycleWORKS was founded in 1988 by a Shaw Neighborhood resident who saw the need to provide area youth with the opportunity to develop a skill and to challenge them to test the limits of their abilities. This vision combined with the universal appeal of the bicycle became the building block of this innovative organization.

BicycleWORKS is the first St. Louis program to use the bicycle as a vehicle to teach youth responsibility and good work habits. Its programs are structured and work-intensive. BicycleWORKS combines vocational training with educational enrichment and challenging physical and mental activity.

FULL ARTICLE ON MY KATY TRAIL RIDE NOW ONLINE: Last month, I rode most of the Katy Trail as part of the Missouri Department of Natural Resource's Katy Trail Ride. I recently posted the full account, complete with photos.

Although I had a few foibles on this ride, I hope I've balanced that out with the photos of interesting sights along the trail as well as positive remarks about the trail and the way DNR ran the ride.

Labels: bicycle rides, Carl Edwards, Katy Trail, Web site

Roger 0 comments links to this post 10:55 AM

Friday, April 25, 2008

Stooging, not blogging

I've been way too busy this week to do a lot of meaningful blogging, so here's a summary of the week so far:

Tour de Stooges: With the event almost a week away, most of my time not spent at the Belleville News-Democrat or in bed has been spent ironing out final details of the Tour de Stooges on Saturday, May 3, in beautiful Highland, Ill. We have well more than 200 pre-registered riders so far, and we expect a big rush before online registration closes at noon Wednesday.

Bicycle World: My old buddy Hal Leventhal at the Belleville, Ill.-based Bicycle World wanted a Web site, and now he has one: bellevillebicycleworld.com. The version I created for him is a rough draft just to get something on the Web. I'll be working on the real version of the site after Tour de Stooges dies down.

Roger's on Twitter: I decided to create a Twitter site. Why, I really don't know what I'll end up doing with that site, but I'll probably use it to promote items on this site plus briefly discuss personal things that don't really fit on this blog. So far, my only two followers are Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. I'm sure they really care what's going on in my life, but I'm following them just for the fun of it. If you have a Twitter site and want to follow me, be my guest!

Belleville News-Democrat: My employer has a knack of throwing special projects my way either in the weeks before Tour de Stooges or when I go on vacation, but both of these projects I'm working on are worth the effort I'm putting into them. I can't publicly discuss them at the moment because I don't want to tip off the competition, but they will be of interest to our readers.

Don't expect to see too much here in the coming week, but I hope you're keeping up with the news about Tour de Georgia on the news feeds in the right-hand column and seeing what other bicycle bloggers have to say.

Labels: Belleville, Tour de Stooges, Web site

Roger 1 comments links to this post 12:35 AM

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Cycling Blog Directory

Imagine my surprise last night while I was going through my e-mail and found out this humble little blog was ranked in the top 10 in the cycling category at Blogged.com!

"Our editors recently reviewed your blog and have given it an 8.6 score out of (10). Your blog is currently in the top ten in the Sports/Cycling category of Blogged.com," stated the note from Amy Liu of Blogged.com's marketing department. "This is quite an achievement!"

Other blogs that scored an 8.6 include Fritz's Cycle-Licious blog, Endless Cycle and AZ Freeride. Fritz's blog always has been one of my favorites, while I need to make myself familiar with the other two blogs.

Amy's note indicated the blogs were judged on frequency of updates, relevance of content, site design and writing style. I guess I must be doing something right!

Labels: blogs, Web site

Roger 2 comments links to this post 3:12 AM

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Sheldon Brown: 1944-2008

One of the pioneers of the Internet cycling community, Sheldon Brown, passed away Sunday night. Fritz of the Cycle-Licious blog reported that he died of a massive heart attack.

Although I never met or communicated with Sheldon, his site was one of the first I visited as I created this Web site back in 2001. Sheldon established the Web site for him and the Harris Cyclery shop in Massachusetts on Dec. 4, 1995.

The site has a bit of a retro look by today's Internet standards, but it has a wealth of information about a wide range of topics from basics for beginners to information about fixed-gear bikes.

It is my hope that someone will keep his site alive as friends of another Internet cycling pioneer, Ken Kifer, did after he was killed by a drunk driver in September 2003.

In the meantime, you can leave a comment at his memorial site.

Labels: cycling, Web site

Roger 0 comments links to this post 1:22 AM

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Where's the news?

UPDATED: Unfortunately, the news and blog feeds that normally appear on the right side of the page hadn't been working properly the last couple of days. Fortunately, the problem is fixed!

The company that hosts my Web site changed its PHP settings, meaning the feeds weren't showing up as they should be. Feed Digest, which generates the codes for the feeds, just happened to have a PHP script that works, so the feeds are working again.

If you have any ideas for feeds you'd like me to add, let me know.

Labels: Web site

Roger 0 comments links to this post 3:05 AM

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Roger Kramer Cycling: Version 3.0

If you're a regular visitor to this blog or the rest of my Web site, you'll notice some drastic changes in the look of the site. I just completed -- other than a little tweaking here and there -- my second redesign of the site since it first went online in April 2001. The site was last redesigned in the summer of 2001.

The most obvious change is the site's name. It's no longer Roger Kramer's Favorite Cycling Tours. Instead, the site's name is simply Roger Kramer Cycling. The bulk of this site still deals with bicycle touring. But over the years, the site -- especially this blog -- has evolved to include items about bicycle advocacy and safety, and it also includes news feeds to bicycle racing articles. That evolution has prompted me to make the name change.

I've also changed the typefaces and the background color to make it easier to read. As I learn more about various Web site tricks, I will make further changes to the font I use for the headlines to make them more distinctive.

The navigation throughout the entire site has changed, and I hope it improves your ability to go through the various pages of the site.

Links for archives to this blog are now in the right column, beneath the links to other blogs. I was forced to make some changes in the archival system because of upgrades Blogger made to its system.

The site is now completely designed with Cascading Style Sheets. What that means is that it should take less time for pages to download, plus it gives me the freedom to easily tweak the look of the site.

I hope you enjoy the new look of Roger Kramer Cycling. The goal of this site is to provide accurate information about the world of cycling in an attractive, readable way, and I hope this redesign achieves that goal.

Labels: redesign, Web site

Roger 6 comments links to this post 10:49 AM