It’s year’s end time, so rather than blather on about resolutions I won’t keep and plans that won’t happen, I thought I would put together a small list of my favorite Soiled Chamois blog posts from the past year. I’m not saying the posts were “technically” good or that they were the most read, they are just some of the ones that I enjoyed writing. I’m also not saying that you should like what I like, be your own person Goddamn it!
BTW, I regretted the title of this post as soon as I typed it, for it shares its name with the song A Few of My Favorite Things, which if it weren’t for the existence of the Paul McCartney & Wings holiday song Wonderful Christmastime it would possibly be my most hated song in the world. OR the song that I will most likely lose my mental shit to one day.
So here we are in no particular order, rhyme, reason or rank…
Enter The Musk Ox. My first foray into owing a fat bike. It really changed my outlook on winter and took me from nearly being a fat bike hater to be a lover.
Bike Mags & Smut. For some reason I thought it would funny and a bit interesting to take a published erotic story I found on the web and turn it from being about sex, to being about bikes. In the end it was probably not all that funny or interesting.
Loyalty & Such. I was really happy with this blog post and even happier when I walked into my bike shop one day and the owner came over to me, shook my hand and said thanks. He didn’t even know I wrote a blog, but was made aware of the post via another customer/friend. He told me it really meant a lot to him and in turn, that meant a lot to me. Made writing this shit seem sort of worthwhile.
My Cycling Metamorphosis. If you need one post to clue you into A. Why I love cycling riding my bike and B. Why I am as fucked up as I am, this is the post.
The xc:cult:ure #Neffness series. It all started out as sort of a joke because I was enthralled with Jolanda Neff, a badass, (too) young, Swiss cross-country racer who was not only winning but doing with style, flair and incredible big blonde hair. It ended up probably bringing more people to the site than ever. It was fun to do and Jolanda was amazing to watch in 2014. I hope that if she saw any of the posts she didn’t think me a creepy, old American dude. All the posts were done with the utmost respect for here as a racer. Sadly #Neffness didn’t really catch on in social media circles… hmmmm, maybe in 2015??
If for some reason you read this blog (I can’t really think of one), I thank you and hope that you continue to do so. I hope you can see through sophomoric humor, self deprecation and crap writing and enjoy it, or at least chuckle once in a while. That’s all I can really hope for, a chuckle. This blog is not meant to educate, inspire or inform (at least not on purpose). It’s just a blog written by a guy that likes to ride his bike, used to race them poorly and likes to talk about it.
Have a great New Year, thank for reading.
Photo by me. Another one of my favorite things; riding my bike on Michiganderburgh dirt roads.