Three new Sections - Triathlon, Track and TT

[AUbicycles]

There hasn't been any big shouts recently to create new sections, the last new section was the Halfway Cafe for off topic discussions.

After reading a cycling mag it is pretty obvious that Track cycling is getting better - I am keen to get into this more after being bitten by the fixed wheel bug. This has lead me to consider a few popular and growing areas in cycling and hence the creation of the three new sections:

Serious Cycling:
Track
Triathlon

Road Racing and Touring
Time Trial

There may be some cross-over, no problems, it will work itself out.

While I don't want to encourage hundreds of new topic suggestions, if there is an area which you feel need a new section and would be popular with our members, let me know (Forum and Site Feedback is a good place for feedback). As an example, while BMX is a good topic, it doesn't match the interests of most members.

Cheers
Christopher

[Boognoss]

Hi Christopher,

What about a section for Commuting? Not location-specific necessarily which the state sections cover, but commuting specific talk, tips, tricks, etc.

Cheers

[AUbicycles]

Yes... good idea - anyone second that?

Probably in Serious Cycling.

[Kev365428]

+1

Commuting is probably the single biggest growth area in cycling today. A section that could detail routes, tips, hint, suggections and advice would definitely prove useful in my opinion.

Kev.

[jasimon]

Yes... good idea - anyone second that?

Probably in Serious Cycling.

The most serious cycling there is! Where else do you dice with death daily on city streets.

+1

[tallywhacker]

Commuting is probably the single biggest growth area in cycling today.

no way ! hipster fixed bikes is the biggest growth area

[Tom Marius]

I third the decision for a commuting area

[martinjs]

Me 4.

[Boognoss]

I 5th it.

Oh whoops

[sogood]

Define inverse of "Serious Cycling".

[Kalgrm]

Define inverse of "Serious Cycling".

Mountain biking - it's outrageous fun!

Cheers,
Graeme

[AUbicycles]

Ok, now we have done it - for all of you commuters… hey that includes me.

If the descriptions are bad - suggest a new one.

One thing I was trying to be cautious of is too many topics - however I think this isn't too over the top?

[Kev365428]

So, this thread and this thread got me thinking about the entire layout of the forum.

The Bicycles .net.au section holds the following catagories: -
Info / Announcements
Bicycle FAQ's
Buying a Bike/Parts
General Discussion
The Shed
Market Place
Member Profiles
Stolen Bikes
Halfway Cafe
Forum Site and Feedback

Seems reasonable, but maybe a catagory rename is in order. Maybe General Topics?

The Serious Biking section contains: -
MTB
Retro Biking
Recumbents (just kiding)
Fixed Gear/Single Speed
Track
Triathlon
Dragsters/Lowriders/Cruisers

The Road Racing/Touring section contains: -
Touring Australia
Touring Overseas
The Meeting Point
Training and Racing
Time Trial
International and National Tours and Events

And finally the Australia section holds: -
Press Releases - Cycling Events
W.A.
NSW
ACT
S.A.
Qld
Vic
Tas
N.T.

Starting from the last section (Australia), here are my thoughts.
I thought about suggesting moving the Press Releases topic, but I couldn't think of where it should go. Then after reading the content I decided it's perfectly placed. Perhaps a name change to Australian Cycling Events to keep it in line with the International Events topic. Glad I could help on this one.

Road Racing and Touring - I question whether The Meeting Point belongs in this section. My suggestion is that it be moved to Australia as it really doesn't have anything to do with racing or touring. I guess a case could be made for relevance towards touring, but no more than making a case for wanting to meet up with other MTBer's, Fixie riders, or New South Welshmen. Let's face it, when meeting someone, you probably have a location in mind in the first place.
I also think that the new topics of Track and Triathlon belong here as well. Yes, they are serious topics, but I think they belong with the other competitive topics such as Road Racing and TT's. As a new topic, perhaps MTB Racing could be included. I don't participate myself, but where else could one post a thread on this topic?

Serious Biking - As mentioned above, I think Track and Tri should be moved from here. All other topics seem Ok, but a commuting topic would be great and this would be the perfect spot. As mentioned in the other thread, perhaps a Road Bike topic could be added to cater for discussions solely about your drop bar steed.

Just my thoughts. Maybe it'll become too fragmented if we try to diversify to much, but I think some small changes are Ok in order to produce a better product/service.

Cheers all.

Kev.

[Kev365428]

Awe man.

I spend a heap of time writing a big post, and my some of my suggestions come true while typing.

Cool.

Maybe Chris should disregard my previous post.

Kev.

[AUbicycles]

Kev, thanks for taking the time to review this - would be cool to get other feedback on this - all seems good to me. I will get the other mods to have a look as well.

[Deanj]

How about sticking the training and racing in the serious biking section? Most of us mtb racers would do most of our training on road anyway and mtb training threads I'm sure other riders could find interesting. MTB race reports could also go in here which would save another specific topic for that.

Just a thought

[Aushiker]

Starting from the last section (Australia), here are my thoughts.
I thought about suggesting moving the Press Releases topic, but I couldn't think of where it should go. Then after reading the content I decided it's perfectly placed. Perhaps a name change to Australian Cycling Events to keep it in line with the International Events topic. Glad I could help on this one.

My suggestion would be to remove it along with the The Meeting Point. Both seem to me to be better covered in the relevant state forums. They also get very few postings and often they are of a type turning up in the state forums, resulting in the same type of postings in two different forums.

Andrew

[Mulger bill]

From a longer post lost in 500 land...

The meeting point to be replaced with stickies in each state forum.

A section dedicated to all forms of competitive riding with fora covering each discipline of interest plus a "training tips" page.

Shaun

[AUbicycles]

So lets tackle this section for section - I have taken time to look at everything incl. getting feedback from the mods.

Bicycles .net.au <- (1) rename to General ???
Info / Announcements
Bicycle FAQ's <- (2) Do we need this? a few views, not many contributions
Buying a Bike/Parts
General Discussion
The Shed
Market Place - Member to Member
Member Profiles
Stolen Bikes
Halfway Cafe
Forum Site and Feedback <- (3) Is the name ok?

Pretty explanatory, no major issues. Next section please.


Serious Biking
MTB
MTB Racing <- (4) was suggested, I am not yet convinced.
Retro Biking
Recumbents
Fixed Gear/Single Speed
Track <- (5) move to road ???
Triathlon <- (6) move to road ???
Dragsters/Lowriders/Cruisers
Training and Racing <- (7) Moving here from Road and Touring section

(4) Do we need a split MTB section

(5)(6) There was a comment that suggested they these belong in Road and Touring - Track is not as closely related to road except that some roadies are also trackies. Triathlon is open to argument.

(7) Training and Racing doesn't seem to belong as a 'discipline' - perhaps we need a MTB section in which training and racing can be discussed, as well as training and racing in the road section (also int. & national events for MTB would in this case be relevant) - or alternatively training and racing belongs in the general category and is relevant to all disciplines. Difficult one

Road Racing and Touring (8)
Road Biking <- (9) New
Touring Australia
Touring Overseas
The Meeting Point <- (10) Delete
Time Trial
International and National Tours and Events

(9) And replace Racing and Training, plus is more obviously Road. D

(10) Has been discussed that meetings would be at home inside the states. I don't think a sticky makes sense as it would become a long thread not specific to a single meeting.

Australia
Press Releases - Cycling Events <- (11) To be deleted
W.A.
NSW
ACT
S.A.
Qld
Vic
Tas
N.T.

(11) Events can be posted directly in each state. Idea was to encourage regular events to be posted however it is slow and inside the states it will work as well.

----

Some easy bits and some harder bits - As you can expect, I don't hang out at other Australian cycling forums but hear that there are no Aussie MTB forums which takes the same approach and style as we do here on the BNA forums. On the one side I can't expect all the die hard road bikers to get excited about bigger MTB section - there isn't the interest - however if I ask, do you think it would make sense (even if you may not participate), would it then be a good idea?

What it would mean is we would have Road and MTBing both as two main sections which are then broken into sub topics. What do you think?

Give your feedback - for specific items you can reference the number (x) . I think I will get for a general feeling based on the comments and then make the updates accordingly.


Thank you for all the feedback.

Christopher

[jasimon]

(1) Sure
(2) Delete
(3) Just "Feedback"?
(4) Not convinced
(5) Leave there
(6) Move to road
(7) Agree
(8) There is no rule #8
(9) No opinion
(10) Delete
(11) Delete

[AUbicycles]

Fantastic.

Do I need to add (12) ie. new MTB section?

[Boognoss]

1 - Yep
2 - Maybe delete and have stickies in sections, such as Commuting, to deal with specific FAQs.
3 - Yep
4 - Worth a try
5 - Yep - although it's not technically Road, is probably closer to the mark though
6 - Yep
7 - Makes sense to me
8 - Where's #8
9 - Yep, road is all I do
10 - Agree
11 - Agree

[Deanj]

4). Don't think the mtb would need splitting. There probably isn't enough race posts to fill its own. Most events start off about info regarding the upcoming race, then whoever enters usually just add there race reports into that thread.

[m@]

1 - Sounds good
2 - Into the bin, *whip-crack*
3 - Should be "forum and site feedback"?
4 - Probably don't need two mtb forums... maybe give it a burl and see if it's used?
5 - leave in Serious Biking
6 - leave in Serious Biking
7 - Maybe do without and let training discussion take place in the relevent forum (mtb, road biking etc)?
8 -
9 - Agree
10 - Agree
11 - Agree

Only other suggestion would be that having one forum for all of Tasmania means the discussion is very Hobart-centric; really we need at least three (North-West, North, South), and preferably five (split NW into Smithton, Burnie and Devonport) Taswegians will get the joke... except those from the NW who will be solemnly nodding their heads in agreement

[Tom Marius]

can i make one more insignificant suggestion?

in the stolen bikes section description (when viewed from the forum mainpage) it says "has some scumbag run off with your pride and joy"

I find the missing question mark incredibly irritating.

(just testing to see how much suggestive power the members really have)