Cycling site aimed at beginner road cyclists.... :D

gtitim

Hi all, just thought I would announce that recently I published a new cycling site targeted at beginner road cyclists, the concept is simple, anyone who is a member can write an article of there own and share any advice that they have with the community. Articles can be rated and commented on. Coming this summer there will be an interactive training diary where you can track your progress and compare it to the community as a whole.

Here's the link www.IronLegs.co.uk

Whilst the articles are aimed at beginners, it would be great to also have some articles from more experienced cyclists so all are welcome.

Shameless pitch over

Would be great to hear any opinions on this site. My apologies to the moderator if this type of post is frowned upon.[/url]

Red Rock

Hi gtitim,

Just had a quick look at your site and the first thing that hit me was just how hard it was to read the white on black text. I'd suggest you try using a sans serif font like verdana which is more suitable for web use.

Hats off to you for putting it all together.

Red Rock.

peanut

blimeyolriley gtitim you need to use the occasional paragraph .
Its hard enough to read the yellow text on black background as it is, even with extra word spacing. Without paragraphs and punctuation the text in the articles just blends into a huge sea of text and the reader is left gasping for breath

Its a nice idea and I wish you well.I have put it in my bookmarks
My tip would be try not to put the content second place to the website design .

Here's my attempt

Hill Climbing
Well we can't all climb like Lance Armstrong, hang on, let me re-phrase that, no-one can climb like Lance Armstrong! but he is a shining example of just how devastating a good climbing ability can be to other cyclists.

Lance always had an eye on his heart rate monitor and so would know exactly how hard he could push himself - how much juice he had left in the tank if you like. To get the most out of that juice, he had to have a highly tuned climbing style. You might think that he was born with this ability but you'd be wrong. Sure he is a natural athlete but when he first got into road racing he was not a particularly strong climber, he would get out of the saddle too much which is a common mistake for a lot of cyclists.

When the hill is short and sharp its good to get out of the saddle to attack the hill but on longer uphill grinds you should try and stay in the saddle as much as possible. This conserves your precious energy and whilst it may feel slower to begin with, as you get further up the hill you will discover that you are able to consistently hold a speed. Those who got out the saddle and made a dash for it are now fatigued and starting to drop back.

Staying in the saddle is not always possible but I guarantee that the more you do it, the stronger your legs will become and the greater your climbing ability will be. Common wisdom is that it's good to get out of the saddle every now and then as it eases the pressure on your bum (and privates) and allows the blood to flow. It also uses different leg muscles and so apparently allows the others to rest, (although in practice I have never really found this to be true). As you come to the crest of the hill, it's good to get out of the saddle to attack the last section.

gtitim

Hey guys thanks for the input, I really appreciate it.

@peanut, I have lots of paragraphs but I agree that a line or two beneath each paragraph would help break it up a bit. I'm sad that you think I have put design before content because the site is centred around the content! I'll make some alterations to try and reflect that a bit more. Cheers guys, your input is highly valued.

peanut

sorry didn't mean to seem critical rather I was hoping my suggestions might be helpful. Thats the problem with a critique they don't always offer the praise we are hoping for.

I thought your perspective and advice on a first TT very good. I'm hoping to do my first this year.

I wish you the best of luck with the site . There are lots of articles on both here and cycling weekly sites for inspiration but your own personal experiences would be far more interesting obviously

dennisn

Good luck. I'll visit from time to time.

Dennis Noward

gtitim

I appreciate the comments, good or bad. The site is intended to be built up by the community (adding articles and stuff) so it's important that the community gives feedback as to what they like.

Thanks again for looking.

gtitim

I have now switched the article font to verdana and added extra line spacing in between the paragraphs. I think it looks better now. Thanks guys.

blackhands

Congratulations on setting up the site. However, you need to think more carefully about your target audience and make sure your facts are correct.

Two examples - you talk about a track pump but do not explain what this is. Also, SPD type pedals are not only made by Shimano (although they may have exclusive rights to call them SPD) - eg Wellgo pedals use SPD cleats.

gtitim

blackhands wrote:

Congratulations on setting up the site. However, you need to think more carefully about your target audience and make sure your facts are correct.

Two examples - you talk about a track pump but do not explain what this is. Also, SPD type pedals are not only made by Shimano (although they may have exclusive rights to call them SPD) - eg Wellgo pedals use SPD cleats.

Hi Blackhands, thankyou for your input. Good point on the SPD cleats, i'll change that. I'll also add a brief description on the track pump. Thanks.

NervexProf

Some helpful and basic advice on website(s) design et al here:


http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 29891.html

gtitim

@NervexProf - is there something in this link that you are trying to point out? I'm not sure why you are posting this link especially as a lot of the advice on that site is not very good? Clearly I already know how to set up a server and site and code properly? Can you explain further?

Headhuunter

Looks like an informative site! Well done. I loved the literary ramblings about the garden shed!

gtitim

Headhuunter wrote:

Looks like an informative site! Well done. I loved the literary ramblings about the garden shed!

Hehe, I shouldn't be so hard on my poor old shed, it's had a hard life! Thanks for your time

peanut

gtitim wrote:

I have now switched the article font to verdana and added extra line spacing in between the paragraphs. I think it looks better now. Thanks guys.

yes thats better but you still need to shorten your sentences .
As a guide to correct length read it out loud to yourself. If you have to break off reading in order to take a couple of breaths in the middle of the sentence then it is too long.
Here is an example in climbing section

When the hill is short and sharp it's good to get out of the saddle to attack the hill, but on longer uphill grinds you should try and stay in the saddle as much as possible, this conserves your precious energy and whilst it may feel slower to begin with - as you get further up the hill you will discover that you are able to consistently hold a speed, whilst those who got out the saddle and made a dash for it are now fatigued and starting to drop back.

iain_j

Hi gtitim

Had a quick look through your site, I like the layout and had a read of a few articles, but I'm struggling too with the white/yellow on black :?

fuelex

Hi gtitim,

New to road cycling myself and found your site interesting.
I have to agree with some of the other comments about colours though, made my eyes go funny and the words flicker.

Will look again soon to see how it grows,

Rik

gtitim

@peanut, yes you are right about the sentence lengths, I'll go over it again. Thanks

@iain and fuelex, thanks very much for looking at the site. I like the white on black and find it readable. However, enough people have said that they don't like it now to make me think differently. I will think about an easier to read colurscheme. Thanks for your comments and time, this feedback is really useful.

heftyrider

Looks good, I will pass onto friends. The training diary sounds great.

I thought the white and yellow looks pretty cool, but after a minute or so became hard to read and started to put me off carrying on.

Anonymous

I like white/any colour text on black, find it just as easy/easier than black on white.

Cant understand how people find it hard to read, maybe medical condition? As it seems super easy for me :?:

gtitim

willhub wrote:

I like white/any colour text on black, find it just as easy/easier than black on white.

Cant understand how people find it hard to read, maybe medical condition? As it seems super easy for me :?:

This is how I feel as well. But if people are struggling then I guess I should change it. We all manage to read the black on white of this forum so I guess that's the safest option.

heftyrider wrote:

Looks good, I will pass onto friends. The training diary sounds great.

Thanks very much

heftyrider wrote:

I thought the white and yellow looks pretty cool, but after a minute or so became hard to read and started to put me off carrying on.

Maybe thats it. It looks cool and readable to me but then i'm so used to reading it that maybe it's just easier for me. I think I will change it when I get the chance.

Thanks for your time and feedback.

giant_man

I am a designer who produces web sites and my advice is really, make it easy for people to read and to understand.

But I do admire you coming on here and requesting criticism. You will learn that way no doubt. Well done to you and hope the site goes well. Once ready for launch dont' forget to register the site with search engines and to monitor the hits you will be getting and of course, maintain the site and change the content regularly to keep it interesting!

gtitim

giant mancp wrote:

I am a designer who produces web sites and my advice is really, make it easy for people to read and to understand.

But I do admire you coming on here and requesting criticism. You will learn that way no doubt. Well done to you and hope the site goes well. Once ready for launch dont' forget to register the site with search engines and to monitor the hits you will be getting and of course, maintain the site and change the content regularly to keep it interesting!

Thanks giant mancp. Yeah, I am currently working on a more readable colour scheme so hopefully that will help. Thanks for looking, I appreciate your help.

gtitim

OK I have now changed the colour scheme and design a little to make it more readable. I'm not completely happy with it (my strengths are in writing code rather than design) but I do think it's more readable now.

Thanks for looking

Anonymous

Imo it looks worse now

gtitim

willhub wrote:

Imo it looks worse now

I have to say I don't like it as much but if it stops people from feeling sick whilst reading it then that has to be a good thing!

barrybaines

Try putting a light shade to it or maybe a ghost (as in shadow) like design in the background

lochindaal

Hi gtitim

The site looks promising. Like you I can do the code, etc for the back end but the web design to make a site look good is the hard part. Most web design companies now have different people that do this; one makes the site work and then somebody else makes it look good.

I found 2 things that helped me though i am still not great at it
1) I went through a Dreamweaver tutorial from Lynda.com. These are video based and you follow the chapters as you go. I did it mainly to learn dreamweaver but as you design the site in the tutorial you got told the best fonts, line spacing, etc to design with.

2) I changed my site to use WordPress. This is free and can normally be set up by your online server host from their host panel. Online you will find loads of free wordpress templates which you just apply to your site. This means somebody more creative does the design work.

I keep looking at the site and all the best with it.

gtitim

Hi lochindaal, thanks for your input. I don't really like using wordpress as i'm a .NET developer, I like to code things from the ground up so I know how to fix anything that goes wrong, it also means I can take the site in any direction I choose. But I can see why people use wordpress so much, it's a great way to get a CMS going if your not used to designing databases etc. The fact that it's free is a massive bonus.

As for Dreamweaver, again it's not really for me, I like to have full control of the CSS and html not to mention the ability to work with ASP.NET controls which are core to my site designs. So I use visual studio.

Thanks for the advice though, I really appreciate it.

I think that ultimately I want the site to be easy to use, interesting and content rich. The way it looks can easily be altered. This will evolve over time hopefully.

gtitim

barrybaines wrote:

Try putting a light shade to it or maybe a ghost (as in shadow) like design in the background

Thanks for the suggestiob barry. I'll have a play with the design some more.

barrybaines

Just a very quick play but grab some photo's and get them a bit grey shade and you have an easy background to break things up a little................