FAQ

What’s the point of this blog?
To make cycling and cycling coverage more awesome. I try to write posts that challenge prevailing wisdom in the cycling world, and peel back layers of analysis beyond what you generally get from the mainstream news sites. I also like to create unique content you just won’t get anywhere else.

When did you get started?
In 2005, I got sick of flooding the comment boxes at VeloNews and OLN. There wasn’t a whole lot of opinion on cycling outside Usenet, and I wanted to fill that void. Now, there are tons of good cycling blogs, and it’s the mainstream that’s stagnating.

If you want to make cycling more awesome, why do you attack the businesses that broadcast and cover it?
Because I think—with some exceptions—that they don’t do a very good job. I understand the logic behind their approaches, but I disagree with it, and I try to prove by example that there are more engaging ways to cover and broadcast the sport.

Do you accept submissions?
No. It’s nothing against you or your work, it’s just that I can barely exercise editorial discretion over myself, let alone anyone else. I’d recommend starting your own blog, finding another that accepts submissions, or posting at a community site like Podium Cafe (more people will probably read it there, anyway).

Do you accept advertisements?
No. I think the conflict of interest between what advertisers and readers expect from a product review is one of the biggest problems with cycling publications as they currently exist.

So how do you make money off this?
For the most part, I don’t. I cover hosting fees by selling shirts, posters, mugs, and other knickknacks.

Where do you find images for this blog?
With very, very few exceptions, all the images are Creative Commons-licensed works from Flickr or Wikimedia Commons. If you click the images, they’ll link back to pages with more information on the work and the photographer.

I disagree with an opinion and/or attitude expressed in one of your rants.
By all means, leave a thoughtful, intelligent rebuttal as a comment. Or write a response on your own blog, and fire off up a pingback. While I stand behind pretty much everything I write here, the objective is as much to provoke discussion as anything else.

I found some grammatical errors, typos and misspellings.
It’s 2012. Text online is cheap, and tight editing doesn’t do much to increase its value. I try fairly hard to keep everything up to spec around here. But occasionally something does slip by me. Just send me an email (address below) and I’ll get on fixing it ASAP.

On a related note, why can’t you make up your mind on quotation marks and closing punctuation?
Because when I leave punctuation (.,?!; etc.) marks inside quotations, it implies that they are part of what the original speaker said, when in fact they’re just a result of my usage of that quotation. But since I was born, raised, and continue to be an American, I have hard time letting go of sentences nicely bookended by quotation marks; thus, punctuation marks in quotations less than a full sentence in length tend to find themselves outside the quotes, while on longer, complete-statement quotations, they remain within.

What happened to your blog in 2008?
I decided I wanted to make money instead. It wasn’t worth it.

How can I contact you?
Send an email to the account name cosmo at the domain name cyclocosm.com. Chances are, I’ll write back.