50 States - 100 Bike Blogs

I like to check the Snack from time to time to see who is reading it by checking some of the back links from Feedjit and last night I found a link to a blog, 100 KM, that I have never seen before. It's pretty cool to find other bloggers who find your blog interesting and end up linking to you without your knowledge.

In a way, it's satisfying to know that someone is actually reading your blog. Without being smug, I know that I have a few readers, but it seems to be a blogging achievement to find some sort of sublime popularity that you never thought existed. Of course there are the political, news, gossip, and entertainment bloggers that have turned their blogs into full time jobs and while that may seem fun at first I imagine that it could also get old, right quick.

I think the fun of blogging is that you get to share your thoughts and experiences with others, wear your heart on your sleeve, regardless of whether anybody is reading what you are producing. In this new age of Informational Instant Gratification, a blog can be seen as an extension of getting upon the soap box at Hyde Park in London and making your thoughts or feeling known about a particular topic.

Thus, I was surprised to learn that the Snack was selected by another blogger as a blog to represent CT in the blogger's post of 50 States - 100 Bike Blogs. That's a cool honor. Apparently the selection criteria was as follows:

I did favor those that update regularly when I could. I tried to mix in some famous (dare I say canonical) bike blogs that I read regularly, with a bunch of others that I hadn't come across before. I also wanted to get a good mix of mountain bikers, bike commuters, hipsters, advocates, roadies and randos- and I think I did fairly well in that regard.

Well, the Snack definitely has good portion of the criteria covered, I am always looking for new things to write about when it comes to biking and it is of interest to me, especially in the world of Mountain Biking, Fixed Gear, and Commuting. I am honored and I thank you.

Here are some of the blogs that I recognize and I will be reading each and everyone of these to see if any of them are worth following - chances are they might be all worth following.

I like the Beat Bike Blog after a quick perusal this is definitely a blog I will start following and add to the Feed Tube! The blogger appears mainly to be a fixie hipster but also rides mountain which get's an A+ in my book. In fact, anyone that is willing to actively participate in more than one discipline shows an openness and willingness to learn and try new things. From those kinds of people you learn much more than those that tend to be myopic in their specific pursuits.

Guitar Ted Productions is very familiar to me because the other site that he manages is Twenty Nine Inches, a very popular 29er news site. With everything going on with the latter site when does he have time for the first blog? Still Twenty Nine Inches is staple for me on 29er product reviews and the latest dirt on the 29er world.


If you live in the tri-state area (NY, NJ, and CT) and you ride fixed gear then you must read the BSNYC. Even before I started riding fixie I found his blog to be thoroughly amusing and quintessential of the attitudes typical of growing up in this area. Snobby's wit and cynicism livens up the day even on topics that I have little or no interest in.

Regular readers also treat each of his posts as a race to see who can post the first comment, or get on the podium as one of the first three commentators, and the top ten commentators. I have podiumed I think three or four times, and twice in one week. The nice thing is, his posts usually pop out around lunch when I am eating mine. Of course after you haveactually read the post, the next task is to post a comment on the particular topic with the same wit. Of course, another game in itself is to unveil this person's identity, which is a closely guarded secret.

In my explorations within the blogsphere and reading cycling themed blogs nothing makes me sadder than to read about the ailments of different bloggers suffering from one type of disease or another and how their sickness is interfering with their ability to ride. Fat Cyclist, although not afflicted by any malaise himself, his spouse has breast cancer and living with a loved one with this disease can be so agonizing and yet he still finds the will to ride as much as possible is a tribute to the sport.

Cancer is affecting my family directing because my wife's father is dying from it. It's extremely hard living with this knowledge and having small children who dearly love their Pop Pop and to know that sometime in the near future you are going to have to explain to some very little and very upset that their grandfather has passed away. I deeply feel for each and everyone who are affected in some way by these diseases and that their will to keep going, especially with knowledge that their time may be limited, is truly inspiring.

If you ride a 29er and invariably need a 29er specific part or advice the first place I think of is Bike 29. To read about mountain biking, especially riding 29ers, in a state that I love visiting all season makes me long for the day that I will be living up north full time (in retirement, most likely) and riding everyday. It seems very few shops do this, blog about their products, but in a way I think it's an outstanding selling technique. I read the Bike29 Blog for their candid assessments of the products they sell, which is helpful when trying to assess whether to buy something sight unseen over the internet.

50 States - 100 Bike Blogs will certainly prove worthwhile reading for weeks to come and I am glad someone has done this.