Happy Birthday..

Today the loudbike blog is one year old.  So, I took some time (more time than I thought it would take) to surf the blog in its entirety for the first time in maybe 6 or 7 months.  The idea was to get a feel for how the blog had evolved over the year and to try and get a bit of perspective on the damn thing. 

There’s more stuff in here than I though there was…. 

Here’s a bit of history:  In the fall of last year, I finally hit my limit and bailed out of a 25-year career in the software business.  A quarter century of vapor-ware, questionable ethics and insane stress levels was completely at odds with my recovery program and I had become less than happy with who and what I had become in the last 11 years of sobriety.  While in the throes of serious introspection, I also questioned my relationship with my bikes, racing and track time – wondering if the passion had become obsession.  Did the bike thing and my career completely define me?  If you took VP Business Development and Ducatiout of Steve Munro, what was left? 

While I pondered this BIG QUESTION, I spend an evening pouring through five years of digital pictures in my “bikes” file and got hung up on the amazing images of the Original Loud Bike self-destructing as it cartwheeled off the edge of Mosport’s Turn 2.  And then I realized that I needed to mourn the loss of the bike.  The OLB was important ‘cause the bike and my experiences with it charted my progress from late-stage, chronic alcoholism to sobriety.  The process of building the bike began in my first year of recovery and pushed me to face enormous challenges as I moved out into the real world with a new set of rules and a damaged brain.  The bike and I evolved together and my approach to building and racing the bike began to dictate my approach to relationships and business.  Selling it to Gareth was a necessary part of turning a page, but I underestimated my attachment to the bike as an icon.  I realized that I needed to write about the bike, and figured a public memorial was just the ticket.  And I had recently discovered blogging. 

So what started out as some sort of primal therapy to deal with the loss of the Original Loud Bike, became an introspective journey through my relationship with my bikes and my friends.

What I consider to be some of the best stuff in the blog is in the Photo Albums; most of which were created as photo essays before I actually published.  I realized as I was putting them together that I was in fact, very much defined by the bikes and that the people who I had become closest to were not necessarily as focussed on the experience as I was, but they had equal passion.  I realized as I poured through hundreds of digital images, that the track gave me clarity of thought and challenged me as a developing person more than anything else in my life.  And that the process of building the bikes gave me peace and a great sense of creative satisfaction.  Both areas helped me grow immensely.

Those first two months of writing helped me realize that the bikes were not limiting me to a single dimension, but rather pushing me to expand myself.  I also began to understand that I knew an awful lot of stuff.  And so the blog became a mirror - one that gave me the confidence to try my hand at earning a living with my passion.

In the beginning I wondered who – if anyone - read the stuff I published, but by the end of November I was getting mail from F1 owners all over the world.  Until then, I had been writing solely for my own benefit, but from that point forward I felt an obligation to THE AUDIENCE.  As of today, the numbers aren’t staggering, but I’ve had 24,760 visits to the blog and as I’ve learned through studying my stats more carefully, a large percentage of my daily readership hits me though bookmarks or favorites.  I have met so many like-minded enthusiasts this year, that it simply boggles my mind.   

Surprisingly, there are only a few blogs out there in our space and less new entries than I thought I would see in a year’s time.  Rebelpacket and Twisting Asphalt have been around for a while and approach the Ducati topic from different angles.  Both are excellent reads.  Chris Kelly’s just published one that chronicles the day to day activity in his shop. 

By necessity, the blog has become my commercial face as well and there are times that I wish that it wasn’t – ‘cause frankly, it censors my work.  Although it serves as a commercial portal for the business, I’ve tried to keep it as non-commercial as it can be – resisting the temptation to drive revenue through paid advertising on the blog (although I’m still not sure why).  Hopefully, you won’t mind it I throw the odd commercial your way (the Stadium thing was hard to do) as long as I keep it relevant and entertaining. 

Back in November of last year, I defined Loud Bikes, and that definition in turn, defines you and me.  I assume you’re here ‘cause you share my passion and that the stuff I write entertains you at least half as much as it entertains me.  Maybe you learn something new.  I’m still wrestling with how far I should go with this thing…  Right now, I’m chronicling the adventures of a small group of enthusiasts up here in the Great White North and those who send me stuff from places beyond my range of activity.  Should I be sharing the highs and lows of starting and running a small business?  Tempting… But the jury’s still out on that one. 

I’ll keep writing ‘cause it’s fun and it connects me not only with myself – but with new friends all over the planet.  It gives me perspective and keeps me aware of all the amazing things that happen in that part of my world that is my bikes.

Thanks for reading.

Comments

[Alex]

Hey Steve,

Thank YOU for putting up Loudbike. Its been quite a pleasure reading your trials and tribulations over the past year. If its any notion of how much of this blog rubs off on impressionable youngsters like myself, the other day while working in the garage, a friend came over and pointed at my MBP 966 pistons and said
"Whats that business all about?"

I replied "Chicks dig that shit".

:) Here's to another year!

[Dylan]

Hey ya Steve - Congrats on the blog & the biz. Continued luck with both...

All the best,

[David Perry]

Passion. It's contagious. Your's is selfevident. 666 Forever.
- David Perry

PS Happy reBirthday