The Bike198 Reboot / The Future

It has been a long time coming…but we are back. Bike198 started in March of 2008 with one goal. We wanted to provide high quality reviews, tutorials and opinion articles for the mountain biking community. Over the course of several years we were able to make that happen for thousands of subscribers worldwide and had the pleasure of working with the best in the biking industry. It was an awesome ride that led to over 100k visitors to the site per month and 35k subscribers from across the globe. In 2011, everything changed.

The Story

While I have had some help from some great friends with Bike198 over this years, the site has ben 95% my writing and reviews. While that did mean that I controlled the vast majority of the content, it also meant that the site was going to live or die based on my ability to publish content and ride.

In 2011 I was riding with some friends in Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina on one of my favorite trails to this day. When we got to the top of the summit on Pilot Rock I knew something was really wrong with my back. I coasted down as best I could to the bottom and went to the doctor shortly after my son was born that next week. The x-rays confirmed it (and later by MRI). I had degenerative disc disease in my lower three vertebrae in my back and that had caused what was left of my discs to become herniated. I had also, somehow, chipped one of them as well.

Bike198 Went Dormant

For awhile we tried to keep the site alive with new content. I had friends reviewing parts and I would publish videos and news as much as I could. Without the steady flow of information the site eventually just went dormant through 2013 to this year. Everything was kept in place and even today we are seeing over 30k visitors per month through search engine visits. I have been making a conscious effort to try to revive my back to the point I could think about riding again. Finally, I feel like that time has come.

The Future of Bike198

There have been very few times in my life were riding has not been a big part of it. This has been the longest stretch since I was 12 that I have not been seriously riding. I still have great memories of RockShox Quadra 21r’s and the first time I ever installed my first set of Shimano XT v-brakes (for those that weren’t around at that time…it was like finding the holy grail of braking!). Even my wife will tell you, not riding has left a hole in our lives even though we have found other hobbies to try to fill the void. What I didn’t realize so much at the time is that riding was not only just something fun I did with my friends. Riding was my way of staying in shape, my stress release and my way of staying in touch with some of my closest friends.

So where are we today?

Now that I feel like I can get back on the bike again…I also want to get the site back up and running at full tilt. I really enjoyed the process of building the site and connecting with riders all over the world. Bike198 ended up expanding into all avenues of cycling but that will change on this reboot. We are getting back to the core of what made Bike198 successful to begin with…mountain biking. Road biking did play a large part in my cycling over the years but thanks to my back issues and distracted drivers I am hanging up the road bike for good. It has simply gotten too dangerous to ride on the road. Mountain biking is what started this site and what made it successful. We are going to stick with that and deliver high quality reviews, tutorials and opinion articles without the need to repost information you can see on dozens of other sites in the form of news and press releases. I personally want to enjoy riding and writing again without feeling like I have to race to release content that you can just find somewhere else. This will be a quality over quantity situation which are the kinds of articles that got the most engagement on this site anyway.

The Bike198 Redesign and Rebranding

When I decided to make the jump back into the site and riding again, I wanted it to have a new look and feel to bring it more up with the times. The logo has a more modern feel with a color scheme that relates to a lot of the design in mountain biking today. The site also has a lot more features that will make the content more interactive and have the ability to expand the site later down the road.

New Review System

Bike198 now has a new review system that not only lets us rate each product but it gives you the ability to leave your rating as well for an average reader rating.

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Trending Articles

The entire site is now being tracked so you can see which articles are getting the most views over the course of a day, week or month. You can access this information through the top nav bar.

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Imagery and Layout

With multiple layout options and a real focus on imagery, Bike198 is going to focus on making every article unique. This will create a more interactive experience and there will be a huge focus on photography to compliment the design and content.

Looking Forward to the Future

First, thank you to all of my friends for the support and keeping in touch during all of the years of not riding. I am really looking forward to getting back on dirt. Technology in the mountain biking industry has change more in the past 4 years than it has in the entire 20+ years I have been riding. We have a lot of catching up to do!

If there are any products / topics / tutorials that you guys want to see on the site, please let me know and I’ll do my best to make that content happen. In the meantime, thank you for the years of support on this site and I am looking forward to what the future brings as we begin the reboot process.

Live the ride,
Robb Sutton

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