Last week I talked about some big things coming up this year and how much I wanted to talk about them but I couldn’t because it wasn’t quite time. Well, today there is something to announce. I will be a reoccurring guest blogger on the CycleRecycle website. I have written for them before late last year. The website has been revamped with an emphasis on 10 guest bloggers. We will each get our own page on the site as well as promotion on the business’ website, Facebook, and Twitter pages on days that we publish a new article. We set our own schedules so I will need to figure out when I am writing for them.

The CycleRecycle business model is amazing. They are a local bike shop with a great twist. Their goal is to keep bicycles out of landfills. They will sell you a new bike, a used bike, or they will recycle your old bike if you are done using it. Bicycles are very difficult for recycling centers to handle. They have varying grades of metal, rubber, and plastics that need to be removed and disassembled. Most bikes end up in landfills because the recycling centers don’t want to waste the time to properly handle the bike. It would literally cost them money to handle, so they throw them into general waste piles that are sent to the landfill. CycleRecycle will take a donated bike and strip it down, clean it, and sell the usable parts and pieces. This keeps the bike out of the landfill and often on the road. It also means that people that might not normally be able to easily afford a bike have a chance to own one in great working condition. It also helps keep costs down for people looking for hard to find parts and pieces from classic bikes as older ones are more likely to be donated. It’s a great idea all around and I am more than happy to be writing for them.

CycleRecycle are also the first people to publish my work on the web. Before them I was writing for my blog and hoping to be noticed. They took a few commentary pieces that I wrote and put them up on their site. I can still remember going to someone else’s site and seeing my work for the first time. It is a feeling that I will never forget. Now I will have the opportunity to write for them all the time. It is pretty amazing that they are building my own feature page on their site as well. I still need to take a picture and submit a biography blurb. I am hoping that Katie has a picture of me on or near my bike. I really don’t like having a picture taken, let alone having to stage one! It’s a little intimidating for me to be sure.

This will mean some changes for this blog as well. I am going to be funneling most of my cycling writing over to the CycleRecycle site so this site will focus on everything else. I will keep updating weekly with commentary pieces as well as some of the other things that I am working on. I am still working on guest blogging for a couple of other site. I am hoping to write for some different sites to keep working on my writing voice. I don’t want to focus on one type of writing or stay on one topic for too long. It is one thing to write about cycling, it is another thing to only write about cycling! Hopefully next week we can get back to our regularly scheduled updates. Until then, check out CycleRecyles’ website and all of the other guest bloggers on their sites.