The Chainlink

Happy first day of Bike Winter, everyone.

I am thrilled (and a little nervous) to announce that last night we "flipped the switch" and moved to a new format for the Bike Winter website which includes Holly's Bicicle Beginner Blog. http://bikewinter.org/blog

I hope you read her first post and comment away. Go, Holly, go--with your bike wintering and your writing.

The website itself (www.bikewinter.org) is a work in progress; not all the content from the original site has
been revised and moved, we will be adding many more pics and graphics, the main page is stilling being worked on in terms of layout, there's all kinds of stuff to keep us busy in the long nights ahead. BUT, all that aside. . . .


We are finally pulling the website into this century. Yee-ha! In the last ten years, so many people have poured creativity, love and time into the website, both the old and new version. I still remember sitting with Jim Redd in his little home
office on Hoyne street, working with Michael and maybe others--it seems so long ago--on the text for the original site.
We had no idea how the project would grow.  I am sure I am missing acknowledgments due to being a little bleary eyed. Please fill in.
  • Todd kept the site going for years, adding content and then nudging me and others to update it. Huzza to the Bike Geeks!
  • Howard took the calendar and event organizing to new levels and cities and has provided encouragement and assistance to keep the web update moving forward.
  • Jessica provided information architecture expertise and many hours of labor during round one of the redo
  • Willow kept the chainlink and BW calendars consistent last year (oh--what a job!)
  • Lisa and Michael have helped with content revision and editing and not divorcing their spouses (Todd and me) while we are stuck in front of our computers.
  • Andrew has been working on graphics and calendar solutions
  • Steven has also been thinking about ways to display information, such as our bike winter stats, in a more graphically interesting way and . . ..
  • most recently Holly came up with the blog idea AND connected us to Annemarie Neff, who in the last few weeks not only created a new mast design, using art from Alex and Garth, but also set up the whole new site with
    the understanding that more work and many changes lie ahead in the next six months. Please join me in profuse thanks to Annemarie who did not blink when she saw how much needed to be done and our ambitious
    deadline.
Thanks also to this year's co-chairs, Julie and Lowell, and everyone else who does such a great job getting the word and stickers out about BW. . .providing even more incentive to update the site.

What's next?
I am creating a discussion group on The Chainlink devoted to web scheming and feedback. That space might be a better forum for detailed back and forth. We will have periodic updates/calls for feedback on this forum too.

The idea is that the first of every month this season, we will officially launch new content and features. However, that does not mean we won't be working on the site before then, especially in November and December. With BW volunteering at the WTTW pledge drive in Dec, I imagine we will get an uptick in traffic.

OK, OK . . . enough of the process stuff. It's time to just hit send. (Did I mention that I was nervous? ;-)

Best,

Gin

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nice work Gin and others.
I got my sticker Friday at CCM and love it.
Dan
The plan for now is to have one main blogger per year to chronicle the journey with some guest posts and also feedback from the community, such as the inspiring and helpful testimony you just added as a comment to her post. Check it out, ya'll.

I think a pamphlet, even just a little how to flyer, could be a great idea. Most of my energy this year is going to be focused on the site though. The sticker is sort of like a pamphlet placeholder in that it directs people to the site where--eventually--all the info you need is stored.
great , nice looking

who do you want us to send technical problems to? (I noticed some errors )
For now, to spare the chairs, use gin_kilgore at yahoo dot com I know we will be catching a lot of stuff. Thanks for the keen eye.



Chris B said:
great , nice looking

who do you want us to send technical problems to? (I noticed some errors )
Hi Cricket--I hope my blog will be fun. I'd like to have a few guest bloggers and if that might be of interest to you, let me know. ("Friend" me here if you want to be in touch or have any thoughts on possible candidates for guest spots.)

Our plan with the blog is to pass the torch (or rather the warm (but not too bulky) ski gloves) to another volunteer beginner biciclist next November.

I'm hoping to have enough time to dedicate to this to produce at least a couple of posts a week, sometimes more. I have a few other ideas that will also encourage group participation. I've yet to discuss them with everyone, but suffice it to say, I'm going to have as much fun with this as I can. And I hope you guys will hold me to that so that I don't bail early in the season!
Holly
Gin! Great job on the new site, rather elegant indeedy!
I got my sticker a while back and will check out this feature but no offense, don't push winter on me until absolutely necessary, like January. ;-)
I started riding in winter because of Bike Winter-- it was social events like one organized by John Greenfield (to a club in Evanston) that got me cold-weather riding.
I took what I learned (80% of which simply being the knowledge that it was easier than I would have thought) and used it later on to start riding to work in the cold.
I don't remember what got me through my first winter cycling, but if I had to guess I'd say it was some combination of living only about a mile from work, and being able to walk or take the bus on really bad days.



Cricket said:
Holly said:
And I hope you guys will hold me to that so that I don't bail early in the season!

When you're doing the dog walking, you could make participating in Two Honk Tuesdays and Waving Wednesdays a goal.

West Town Bikes is a friendly place to learn about your bike and learn about Bike Winter. Tinker Town Tuesday, Women and Trans' Night, Open Shop, and Bike Winter Basics are events you might enjoy. I'll try to update the chainlink calendar sometime today so it'll have all of November's WTB events included.

Rapid Transit also has workshops. Here's a FREE one on Roadside Maintenance. This is a friendly little nudge for the RT folks to add more events to the chainlink calendar :P (Remember to add bikewinter [one word] as a tag.)

Chicago Critical Mass (huge) and/or North Side Critical Mass (smaller but quickly growing) is a great way to meet people. In July 2002 I rode my first CCM ride and made a goal to ride every Mass for a year. That was my way of tricking myself into my first Bike Winter AND IT WORKED!

You can always take your bike on the bus and/or train to make the cycling part of your trips shorter. (You will be standing in the cold waiting for said bus/train which will probably give you incentive to make the whole trip by bike!)

All right, chainlinkers, what got you through your first Bike Winter? Or, what's keeping you from cycling all year round?
Wooo!! Go Gin, it's your birthday. The site looks great!
This is a very nice looking site. Thanks much for all the work that went into it.

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