EcoVelo: The Best Bike Porn on the Internet

Alan and Michael run EcoVelo, one of my favorite bike blogs. Alan shoots some of the best bike porn on the Internet.

I’ve been a photographer for most of my life, but on any given day EcoVelo runs a picture that causes me to wish my name was under it. He has made me looking at cycling in a different way.

EcoVelo promotes commuter cycling

From the About section:

This site is the public expression of our personal commitment to reduce our impact on the environment by employing bicycles as our primary mode of transport. By sharing what we learn from this endeavor, while also providing an aesthetically pleasing experience that celebrates the beauty of the bicycle and the joys of everyday bike riding, we hope to inspire others to make a similar commitment.

Positive reviews about bike accessories

The site is anything but boring.

There are great product reviews. Alan and I differ in our philosophies about negative reviews. He would rather think of his reviews as “recommendations” and will refrain from writing anything negative about a product. I argue that you have a responsibility to your readers to point out both the good and bad things. He’s been doing this longer and more successfully than I have and he had a lot of readers who defended is point of view, so there’s a good chance he’s right. I may have become too jaded from too many years of raking muck.

The copy is well-written, graphically interesting and generates lots of comments, which indicates that others follow the site as closely as I do.

He’s got some of the best links in the business for just about any bike or accessory you want to know about. After you’ve finished reading all EcoVelo’s content, work your way through his list of blog links. One of these days I hope we earn a spot on his list because it’s a collection of some of the best I’ve run into.

What about that photo contest?

Here’s the official annoucement from February 12:

In these winter doldrums I thought it would be fun to run a photo contest to brighten our moods a little. The rules are as follows:

• All are welcome — amateurs and pros alike.
• No more than four entries per person.
• The work must be your own.
• The photos must have some bike content.
• Your entries don’t have to be current photos; pick your favorites from your collection.
• If you can, please size your images to no more than 1200 pixels on the long side. If you can’t, send your full-size entries anyway.
• Send your entries as e-mail attachments to alan@barnardesign.com and please include your name (first name only is fine if you prefer to remain anonymous).
• All entries will be posted on EcoVelo!

The call for entries starts today and we’ll close it off on March 15. I’ll publish the photos on the blog as they come in, just like I’ve done for the EcoVelo Bike Gallery. Once the entry period is closed, we’ll pick a winner by jury and announce the winners here. I’m still working on the prizes, but there will be a few and they will be pretty cool but not extravagant — this is for fun!!

Competition is going to be tough

This is not going to be an easy contest to win. The early entries are impressive.