Site Changes

New year, new look. Yes, I have changed things around. You might have realized that I have been doing this slowly over the past few weeks.

First off, you probably notice that I changed the tag line from "The Traditional Chinese Bicycle Enthusiast Blog" to "The Asian Roadster Enthusiast Blog". Why? Because I have been reporting on a number of bikes which are custom made or oddballs, and therefore not traditional. In the last year, I have also reported on lots of non-Chinese bikes, namely those from India and Japan. So let's just say I am widening the scope some.

Speaking of widening, the blog is also now three columns wide and not two. This is because a lot of the good bits, like the photo albums were falling "below the fold" so to speak, and were not seeing much use. So adding three columns keeps more good stuff up where you can see it.

And I have reorganized the aforementioned photo albums as well. You'll now see there are four:

Bicyclopedia India- Which lists all the bike brands I encountered in India.

Bicyclopedia China- Which is new, and lists all the roadster brands from China...as I find them I will add more.

Bicyclopedia Japan- You guessed it. Japanese roadsters!

Bicyclopedia Rest of World- If it isn't from Asia, but it is still a roadster, it's in here.

Parts and Accessories- Kinda self explanatory really.

Gone are the photo albums: Panjiayuan Bike Meet, Bikes of Guangzhou, Jing Pai Gear Hub, My Bike, and Mystery Gear Hub. The Panjiayuan and Guangzhou bike photos have been distributed to the appropriate Bicyclopedia albums. Jing Pai Gear Hub, My Bike and Mystery Gear Hub  photos have all gone to Parts and Accessories. Let's face it: If it is an accessory, it is probably on my bike, so no need for duplication.

I have also simplified the categories to make for easier searching. If you really want to see My Bike, it is still a category.

Finally, previously I would I would always have the last 10 posts listed on the home page. Furthermore, each post was the entire post. While this was great for a quick read, it was not so great for a quick load time. The blog tends to be picture rich which slowed things down, loading pictures from posts you may already have read.

So from now on, I will list only 5 blog posts on the home page and each will be an exerpt. Of course, all you have to do is click through if you want to read the rest and you are rewarded with super fast loading times in return.

Pretty easy, right? I thought so.

Happy 2010 and Enjoy the blog.

PS: About my gratuitous photo at the top to catch your eye, it is a 165mm crank from a 26" Flying Pigeon (Feige) photographed in my new lightbox.

Comments

[12inchtoys]

great work Jeff...luv to see your blog expanding! Hope 2010 will bring us readers more exciting finds from your extensive travelling. Have you heard of Seagull, Hermes and XianNu brand? They're also made in China.