Many of you will have read the trials and tribulations of Elden Nelson, more commonly known as ‘Fat Cyclist‘, on his fantastic blog. The longstanding blog, cited by many as being the finest collection online, has charted the news, satire and heart-felt peaks and troughs of life for many years now. Fat Cyclist will be joining us at this week’s #bikeschool and there will be a special competition giveaway, but more of that later.

With the launch of his first book, “Comedian Mastermind: The Best of FatCyclist.com, 2005-2007″ Fat Cyclist has completed the first stage of his Big Idea and well on his way to creating a lasting legacy to honour the memory of his late wife, Susan, and to provide help and advice to many people around the world in attempt to improve their quality of life in the face of cancer. His own plans are of course best described by Fatty himself, so please take some time read why he does what he does here.

Comedian Mastermind

Subtitled as ‘The Best of FatCyclist.com, 2005-2007′ the first published work from the Fat Cyclist gleans from six and a half years of writing and around 1500 stories. Take it from someone who writes just one or two articles a week, those numbers are very impressive and are a testament to the subject knowledge, personal dedication and following that the Fat Cyclist has created.

Comedian Mastermind is the best stuff I wrote in the early years of my blog (as well as quite a few of my best stories for Cyclingnews.com and BikeRadar.com)

The book is packed full of full news articles, rides and stories that have been taken from the early years of the blog, however the book is more than the blog bound in paper. There are new additions to each article in the form of footnotes and forwards so for even the most loyal reader who’s been there since the beginning, there should be something new. The book has also been through the same rigorous editing procedures as any other published work which means “for the first time ever — you’ll get to see what my stories are like when they’re not a rushed first draft” (his words not mine!)

Although the pre-ordering of the book ended in November and shipments are on their way for Christmas, there are still copies available, priced at a “I like Fatty” price of $19.95 all the way up to a “I REALLY Love Fatty” price of $39.95 which will net you a signed copy with a personal message from the author himself. If you’ve read about his Big Idea you’ll realise why it is so important for people to buy the book and that an extra $10 to purchase a signed copy will, in the long run, make a MASSIVE difference to thousands of lives when the dream of ‘The Cancer Caretaker’s Companion’ comes to fruition. A truly great goal, powered by the life lessons learned.

The Giveaway

Fat Cyclist will be joining us this Thursday at #bikeschool and will be giving away a copy of his new book, “Comedian Mastermind: The Best of FatCyclist.com, 2005-2007″. His technique for deciding who should be the lucky recipient of the book is a closely guarded secret but be sure to be in class on time to be in with a chance of winning (ask nicely and he might even sign it for you!)

Keep The Rubber Side Down

Stevie

For many months now we have gathered as seething masses in the musty halls of a simple but wonderful night class known only as #bikeschool. Some people pop in to wind down after a day at work, others set their biological clocks to tingle once a week at 9PM EST… and others well, others use it as a vehicle to explain their drinking behaviour! So how has #bikeschool EVOLved since it’s conception 9 months ago and who are the social media rascals behind this dastardly brilliant idea?

In August 2010 @bikerly, @egggman and @lovingthebike (henceforth known as ‘The Rascals’) blogged about the benefits of using the #bikeschool hashtag to bring people together and share lessons learned as part of the first Secret Evol Plan (Evol = Love backwards and even more dastardly than the regular evil) Those early days of the #hashtag sparked some enlightening discussions and in the words of @bikerly:

We’ve heard about kids flying free without training wheels and what this has meant for the parent. There have been stories shared about mountain biking, volunteerism, beer biking, icebiking, biking with a
family, and we’ve even had a couple Yogi Berrisms. It’s been amazing and fun to be part of this.

The idea of an hour slot on Twitter quickly became necessary, at the very least, to harness those fantastic stories, ideas and tips that were being spread across Twitter. So Thursday, October 21st at 9p EST was chosen to be the night The Rascals did the dirty and #bikeschool 1.0 was conceived.

Les Coquins

Darryl (@lovingthebike) is the dude behind this wonderful hub… www.LovingTheBike.com.  He’s a cycling-lifestyle blogger and a bone fide social media warrior who’s proud of the tremblings he’s helped created along the way.  A native of Canada, but not made for their climate….Darryl escaped and spent a few years living in the Caribbean before returning to North America.  He now lives in Austin, Texas with his family who mean the world to him.  His life revolves around his family and cycling.

Darryl is no newcomer to the realm of social media.  His cycling blog,  is quickly becoming a favorite digital media home for bike lovers around the world.  When not hard at work developing valuable strategies to launch his clients into social media stardom, this devoted husband, father of three, and avid cyclist can be found riding the back roads of the Texas Hill Country or conversing with clients and fans on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and so many other funky cool places.

Jim (@bikerly) grew up on a farm in Iowa, just on the outside of town with plenty of quiet streets to bike up and down on the way to the football games, school, the grocery store for baseball cards, Dairy Queen for an ice cream cone etc. He is a regular ‘beer running guy’ (Jim has been voted one of the Top 12 Beer Runners To Watch in 2011!), father of two boys, husband, runner and bike rider and manages to find enough love in his life for all of these things. Never taking things too seriously, you won’t find him on the turbo or doing hill repeats, Jim likes to take his riding slowly and often takes a camera with him, biking for fun and to get out of the house. That does not mean he’s any less of a bad ass though! He’s no stranger to winter riding and last year started ice-biking:

It was an arctic February day (-10 F) when I decided to get off the couch and go for a bike ride. It had been months since my last, but I was determined to kick Old Man Winter where the sun wasn’t shining.

Layers, face mask, goggles and gloves, I pedaled. My wife thought I was crazy. So did the neighbors. I loved it, and spent the rest of the weekend researching winter cycling gear. That weekend marked my addiction to icebiking. I continued biking through the Winter, taking pictures and facebooking the heck out of my adventures.

Jim’s ethos on biking and life is a beautifully simple one and he dishes out regular doses of it on his personal blog, over at Groucho Sports (more on them later!) and also at dailymile.

Mike (@egggman) is a true winter-riding warrior who regularly posts his gnarly rides to work through the snow covered suburbs of his home town on his blog, The Old Singlespeed. If you ride your bike for for no other reason than because you love it his videos will speak to you… they might make you want to head off on an Hawaiian vacation… but they speak volumes about the man himself. No further words are necessary… marvel in his awesomeness!!!!

Rise of the pedaltarian

So a time and date had been set, all that was needed other than the baying masses to fill the halls was someone to control the chaos. The Rascals took it in turns to run #bikeschool as ‘Professors’, asking questions every 15 minutes to give the hour a structure and to try and tempt tweeps to the front of the class rather than lurking, the idea being if you contribute to the session you will  get more from it. As the weeks went on and people came back each time, connections and friendships were beginning to form and the 1 hour slot became a much more fluid affair. Gone was the feeling of waiting for that week’s professor to ask a question so you could answer. It now really felt like a room full of like minded people chatting about 1 subject and the ‘Prof’ questions molded and stimulated these conversations; some class-wide, some more personal (#YouKnowWho).

Possibly the most influential part of the EVOLution so far has been the introduction of guest professors into the proceedings. By doing this The Rascals ensured that sessions remained fresh and current and showed an understanding that their creation was now bigger than the sum of its parts and was an offering to the biking community. Although ‘guesting’ provides it’s own nervousness and trepidation, within the #bikeschool community it is a privileged, sought after position and enables people to inject their personality into the session.

As we turned our backs on the decade that was and pressed on into 2011 the attendance numbers rocketed and #bikeschool quickly became much bigger than it’s conceived 1 hour slot with the hashtag pinging Twitter clients 7 days a week. A class regular and #bikeschool stalwart, Groucho Sports, were quick to help when the masses demanded a #bikeschool jersey. A collaboration between The Rascals, the designer Bob Avery (@BobRidesABike) and Groucho Sports soon followed and the #bikeschool jersey is now available and can be seen around the globe.

The most recent change for #bikeschool has been the move of it’s supporting blog away from the original Tumblr location to nestle very nicely here at LovingTheBike.com. I’ve been involved with The Rascals for a while now and felt truly honored when asked to provide the weekly updates for the blog and be part of the LovingTheBike.com family. With no credible history of writing or blogging to my name it was a risky audible from a well honed play book but it is another example of how The Rascals are trying to move #bikeschool forward and broaden it’s demographic and appeal as well as making time for them to sink their teeth into new and even more EVOL secret plans. I hope this new home for us is going to be a fruitful one and we always welcome your comments, advice, suggestions and requests here or on twitter about what you want to see on the #bikeschool blog which has already seen 2 fantastic interviews courtesy of British Road Race Champion and Team Sky rider, Geraint Thomas and Bike Pure creator Andy Layhe.

Ladies, gentlemen and those in between, please be upstanding for a toast…. To The Rascals! And all that may follow them!

Check out the Facebook page, and the Groucho Sports shop and we’ll see you on Thursday, 9pm EST for #bikeschool

When I was growing up, I wasn’t a huge magazine addict but I do remember a few subscriptions that I had.  My interest started with Mad Magazine, and then moved on to Waterski, MuscleMag, and a couple other sports related type mags.  The last magazine I can remember buying would have been around 8 to 10 years ago, and it was Maxim.

Along the way, I often thought how cool it would be to work for one of these magazines or at least contribute an article here and there.  As I got older, I dreamt about working for a travel magazine….flying around the world checking out new locations and getting paid to write all about it. I still have that as one of my goals, but in today’s world it is so much more of a possibility.

You see, up until the blog explosion….the only way you could voice your opinion or provide writing material for the world to see was through books and magazines.  But in order for your words to become something others would see, you first had to convince the editor or publishing company that you had the goods they were looking for.  The same thing used to apply to photographers and videographers, and those of us who do photo or video blogs.  In the old days, you’d have to find someone willing to buy your footage, hire you on staff, or freelance.  Oh how the world has changed.

All of that has gone out the window.  These days, absolutely anyone can create their own “magazine” and not only contribute articles or photos to it, we get to become the editor, publisher, designer, and everything else.  We ARE the magazine.  Today’s bloggers don’t need to sit in on an interview and hope to win over the publication in order to get hired.  We also don’t have editors telling us what to write about.  Every single one of us get all the creative freedom we desire.

So here we are….smack in the middle of my own cycling magazine called Loving the Bike.  Am I providing the stuff that would make it worthy of a prime location on the magazine shelf?  What was it about Mad, Waterski, MuscleMag, and Maxxim that made me purchase issue after issue?  Mad contained silly humour and great artistry which was what my adolescent mind was after.  Waterski and MuscleMag was full of the latest news and information on the two sports I was so passionate about growing up.  And Maxxim…….ummm, let’s just say that they had really interesting articles.

When I started Loving the Bike, I set out to speak to all types of cyclists by providing posts that were a commonality to all of us.  I was after people who were in this for the love of the bike whether they were roadies, mtb’ers, commuters, adventurers, bmx’ers….whatever.  As far as I was concerned, all cyclists were champions and this blog was a celebration of that fact.  Because of my background, the other angle I wanted it to take was to be a place where cyclists could come to find out some great nutrition and fitness tips that would help make them even better at the sport they love.

Six months later, this “magazine” hasn’t strayed too far from that game plan.  What I have discovered is that when you love cycling, almost every single thing in your life revolves around the bike.  That is the crack that Loving the Bike has sunk itself into.  This “magazine” is about life, and how it so beautifully revolves around two wheels on a frame.  It is where I live, and I’m pretty sure you readers live there as well.

So, yeah, this is a cycling blog.  It’s my magazine, and that which carries my voice to the world. We’re a young new mag and we’re still trying hard to find our place in the cycling universe. Hoping hard that we find that “X” factor which keeps people coming back.  That little something that provides us with a prime spot on the magazine shelf.

If you’re a fellow blogger, congratulations on being the creator of your own magazine.  If you are a subscriber…THANK YOU.  What is it that keeps you coming back?