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I am once again a happy cyclist

A few months ago, I was hitting a wall with my WordPress site. The process always seemed more complex than it needed to be, the engagement was quiet, and then there was the ever-lurking AI. It felt like it was borrowing my content without rewarding me in any meaningful way. In other words, I was ready to give up and just stick to maintaining my fairly famous Sydney Cycle trails map.

In one last gesture, I asked an AI if I could convert my website to a Substack, as so many of the YouTube channels I follow kept mentioning it. It said yes. I started the conversion, 100 folks subscribed, and then, completely out of the blue, Peter joined as a founding member. I was stunned—I didn’t even know that paid memberships existed.

Cut to the chase: we now have 330 members and 15 paid supporters. I am fired up again—not “just: because of the money, but because cyclists are actually interested in what I’m attempting to do for our Sydney community.

I’m now using some of these funds to highlight cycling-related organisations in Sydney. This time around, I’m donating to RevolveRecycle. They do incredible work recycling old bikes and refurbishing kids’ bikes for families in need. They maintain bicycles as well, this is another way to keep this group going.

RevolveRecycle is always looking for donations, so here is a picture of your scribe handing over “Dennis” to help raise funds for this terrific group. They are based in Alexandria if you are interested in handing over a “used chariot” of your own.

Stop Press:

Earlier I donated to Tanya’s Charity Ride to Melbourne. At the time of writing this article, she had just made it to Talangatta on the Victorian border. Go Tanya

Housekeeping

Given that it is now highly likely that a petrol crises will send many riders to their cobweb covered bicycles in their steel cages under their unit blocks, I will start repurposing old articles like my Beat the Bus series and sending out emails 2 and maybe 3 times a week. When the petrol starts flowing again, I will likely return to an article in an email once a week or so

Garry

Thanks to my paid subscribers for encouraging me with this