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Bikely has new owners!

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      CommentAuthorJules
    • CommentTimeMar 23rd 2007
     
    It's been an eventful year since I first began work on Bikely, and I'm pleased to announce that it has just been acquired by some new, and rather better-resourced, owners: Future Publishing Ltd.

    Future is a UK-based publisher of magazines and websites, with a stable of well known cycling titles in the UK and elsewhere. That includes Cycling Plus, Mountain Biking UK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling magazines, and their associated websites.

    I've been in discussions with their team for a little while now, and my decision to hand the site to them is largely a result of my being convinced that they can take the site a great deal further than I would be capable of doing on my own.

    In fact they have a whole room full of developers who seem to "get" the social aspect of the website, and the technology that underpins it. This was a critical factor for me, and I'm confident that they can keep Bikely on the right path - with the resources and exposure benefits that come with being a major publisher.

    Bikely will be joining a larger project of theirs, bikeradar.com which aims to provide news, reviews, results and routes for all sorts of cyclists. Keep your eye out for that launch in the next couple of months.

    I will be working with their team over the next few months to ensure that the transition is smooth, and that Bikely continues to be become a better place to find and share bike routes.

    Thanks for all your support and help in creating this great resource!
  2.  
    This is good news, I hope. In any event, it provides a possible solution to what did seem to be the most obvious problem: lack of development and marketing resources. (I hope they don't ruin the nice light design feel here -- their Cyclingplus web site looks pretty trashy.)

    Best of luck to you and the Future!
    • CommentAuthordmacmurc
    • CommentTimeMar 23rd 2007
     
    Yes, I'm nervous about this -- it rarely happens that something good is taken over by something big and the result is both, but maybe this will be the occasion ... let's hope so.

    Is this what I get for hoping somebody would buy you those beers? I can't complain ... you still deserve them.
    • CommentAuthorScot_Gore
    • CommentTimeMar 23rd 2007
     
    I'll echo others feelings, hopefully it's for the best, but I'm not hopeful. I hope they will keep the site up. I've not noticed a lack of development and don't miss marketing resources who think pop ups, scrollers, and spam are good things a web site provides.

    On a positive, I occasionally but Cycling Plus and enjoy their mag.

    I'll miss you, Jules. It's been fun to sit on the sidelines and watch you grow this site. They bought the eyeballs YOU attracted to this site, I hope they can continue to do that without your energy and insight for what we all came to find here. They may be easily distracted with what they can pop up in front of all those eyeballs.

    Thanks for everything.
    Scot
  5.  
    Hi folks

    John Stevenson here; I'm the guy at Future who's largely responsible for convincing the management that Bikely was a great piece of work that we should add to our portfolio.

    I first worked at Future in the early 90s on Mountain Biking UK magazine, and I'm back after a stint at - among other things - cyclingnews.com. As a road cyclist and mountain biker, as well as a journalist in those areas, I'm back because I can see that Future genuinely wants to do some great things on the Web.

    Bikely will be an important part of that, and I am confident that we're capable of bringing it on board without destroying the things people like about it. The site's ease-of-use and features are the reason we bought it.

    We certainly won't be adding pop-up ads and other such horrors. I've been around the internet long enough to know how much people hate overly-intrusive ads. But if you really don't like what we do there, there's always Firefox and Adblock (that should get me a complaining email from the ads team).

    There will be a redesign down the track, but we'll aim to maintain and improve usability, and we'll be listening to what the Bikely community has to say.

    Feel free to pitch in with comments, questions and suggestions.
    • CommentAuthorsasquatch2
    • CommentTimeMar 24th 2007
     
    I find it's a fun and usefull analytical tool for my road rides. I don't have GPS so this is a great way to see distance and elevation info on current and prospective routes, and if I ever get GPS it will be cool for off road too! The social aspect is a bit clunky now, I would like to see links to discussions on the routes in the map window. that way others can see what comments were posted on a cool route. and yes, my wife thinks I'm a dork for using this website!

    Good luck and congrats!

    -Sasquatch2
  7.  
    > I would like to see links to discussions on the routes in the map window

    Isn't that feature already there. I see "This route has 2 comments", for example (or something similar).

    Your wife will better appreciate it once she's spent 20% of the time on a ride stopping to look at a map, or asking directions, or backtracking from a dead end, or having to ride 5 km over cobblestones or gravel, or ...
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      CommentAuthorJules
    • CommentTimeMar 24th 2007
     
    As far as ads go, I would expect that Future can deliver some more engaging advertisers / ad creatives than the same-old ones Google serves up throughout the site. I want to see lots of carbon fibre, not little blue text links!

    But certainly Future are aware that the Bikely audience isn't likely to tolerate intrusive methods - To risk alientating key contributors like you guys would obviously be counter-productive.

    Personally, I'm really looking forward to getting a GPS & road bike and actually riding & submitting more routes on here! I feel like I've missed out a bit so far ;-)

    And I'm looking forward to finding some hills with John when I visit their development team in Bath, UK to assist in the handover. Although I'm concerned that he's gonna kick my arse....
  9.  
    There's certainly no shortage of hills around Bath, as you can see by looking at any of the routes round here. When my colleague Jeff and I started playing with GPS and Bikely last year we were surprised at how little riding you had to do to clock up 500m of climbing. This is a regular pre-work ride, for example:

    http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Bath-Pensford-Timsbury-Bath

    Anyway, we digress. Jules is right; we don't want to make anyone unhappy as a result of this acquisition.

    We're in a similar position with the other cycling sites we publish, in that they have very lively forums that we want to roll into a big forum structure on the new site, and we're discussing with the users of those forums just how they want us to structure the new environment.
    • CommentAuthorScot_Gore
    • CommentTimeMar 26th 2007
     
    John,

    I look forward to what you can bring to the site.

    Bear in mind that this site is not about this forum, It's all about the routes. Compared to route posting this forum is practically silent. I'd recommend you keep investing in Jules list of outstanding development items. Nearby, User Coded Route Lines, Fix Distance Measures on the Cue Sheets, User Home Page, Summary Description for Routes, Reliable elevation feeds, etc.

    This forum you could roll into one of your others and almost nobody would notice and whatever software you are using is likely tons better. It's the map features that people are interested in, keep those coming and you'll keep this audience and attract others.

    My thoughts
    Scot
    • CommentAuthorparawolf
    • CommentTimeMar 27th 2007
     
    All I hope is that with the redesign that the interaction stays as simple as it currently is.

    I love being able to log in, click create route, find my starting point, and then start drawing. Takes only a few minutes to create actual usable content and share it out to the world. Thats what all this new community stuff is all about. It is about creating reusable, shareable and relevant content rapidly. Currently bikely.com does it wonderfully.

    I just hope that portion does not change too much. As long as I can log in, create my route and share it just as easy, or easier than now, it's all good!!
    • CommentAuthordmacmurc
    • CommentTimeMar 27th 2007
     
    Definitely second that - Future would do well to tread very lightly when they get to redesign. Kevin noted earlier that he was unimpressed with the CyclingPlus site, and I'm inclined to agree.

    This isn't quite a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" because there is no shortage of suggestions for improvement in that thread and elsewhere, but I don't think I've seen any that cry out for revised design. If Future puts its resources into improved functionality, I think they'll find a welcome as new landlords, but otherwise not so much.
  13.  
    Scot - Yep, we understand that. My comment about forums was an analogy not a direct comparison. Just as we have to move our existing forums across in ways that maintain functionality and community, so we have to keep Bikely's ease of use. The sheer lack of jumping through hoops necessary to share a route on Bikely is what attracted me to the site as a user, and is why I pushed for Future to bring it on board.

    We have lots of ideas for additional functionality, but we certainly won't be messing with the core way that Bikely works.
    • CommentAuthorez1bent
    • CommentTimeMar 28th 2007
     
    I have to add that I hope that Future is as great as Jules has been to keep in touch and be personal with the forums. I can't beleive that Jules had a life outside of Bikely. (LOL) Thanks for all your work on bikely Jules

    Tim

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