Ello - from Budnitz - the next anti-Facebook?

Social media sites come and go: some soar and some sink, others soar and then sink, others just go away without reaching critical mass. Today, to keep in touch, you need to create a communication strategy that hits all the key social media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, Tumblr, Google+, Renren, Tencent, Uber, Cyworld...
These days, hitting your news streams and social media platforms you will be hearing about, if you have not heard already, about Ello (www.ello.co).

But why am I interested? Well, the founder of Ello is Paul Budnitz (http://paulbudnitz.com/) - inventor, creator, designer - but most of all for me, he's the owner of Budnitz Bicycles - one of which has been on my wish list for a long time (http://budnitzbicycles.com/).

So - let's talk bikes and why I love the look of his bikes so much.

His bikes are beautiful, made with the best equipment, with the cleanest lines - simple, functional and boundlessly elegant.

Classically he makes urban bikes, with swooping elegant lines. Frames are typically titanium. Accessories are kept to a minimum, giving a light speedy ride. Single speed drivetrains are powered by a carbon belt drive - maintenance and oil free. Disc brakes give stopping power, and the saddles are typically from Brooks. And of course, they make a beer opener :) (http://shop.budnitzbicycles.com/products/budnitz-titanium-beer-wrench)

This is a bike I would love to ride, love to own, love to use, and probably most likely, would love own just to look at!

Back to social media. After making these beautiful bikes he has now dived into the world of social media by starting Ello. The brand is designed to be simple, elegant, and ad-free. Commentators are calling it the anti-Facebook. And, frankly it is time. 

I have been riling against Facebook for some time now, really typified by the ice bucket challenge and most annoyingly the stupid seemingly non-sensical removal of the messenger function from Facebook and putting it in a separate app. I can't really understand the driver behind this - is it to gather more data, to find a better way to get their claws into us, or is it just to be annoying? Who knows?! Maybe this time we have reached the zenith, the nadir - maybe we have the critical mass to finally move away from Facebook.

Somewhere we need to strike a balance. Social media drives to bring people together, to connect, to share positive messages, to share real news away from the influence of some of the worst news reporters (Fox, and more recently the BBC seems to have lost it's way), and to allow people who are distant to stay in touch (this is particularly dear to my heart, having lived away from home for 5 years). All social media forums seem to start with a similar proviso - to connect, to be positive, to spread the word, to give a voice to all, and certainly to not be evil ("Don't be evil" - at the very heart of the Google ethics code http://investor.google.com/corporate/code-of-conduct.html). Sidenote: I really hope this is the case! Most business leaders I have known are driven, but with a very strong ethical core

Culture and values run deep through the core of  every business. Some of them live and breathe naturally through the lifeblood of small businesses, and sometimes, it can be seen throughout every employee. I cannot possibly say that it is always like this. So, for now I am going to take the physicians code - Primum non nocere (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primum_non_nocere) - at first do no harm, assume that all players are occupying their space to make the world a better place, and to be a good human being.

I was impressed by the words of Brian Chesky when advising the rapidly expanding AirBnB organisation (https://medium.com/@bchesky/dont-fuck-up-the-culture-597cde9ee9d4) - "Don't Fuck Up The Culture".

However, there comes a time when the pendulum has to swing - bills have to be paid, shareholders have to make money, social media platforms have to pay back millions of dollars to investors and venture capital has to be, well, re-capitalised.

As this happens, expansion continues, bottom lines are balanced more aggressively and the culture has to be re-embedded into new employees, and re-affirmed in existing employees. High level decisions are made to re-enforce the culture. In real terms - how does this happen? Someone at C-level sees a behaviour that is slipping in their organisation, insists that this must be re-enforced. The message filters through management levels and workstreams, possibly via external consultancies, and finally every employee receives another training to complete on top of all the others stored in the training management system. Certification is performed, typically at a workstation, whilst the employee is in another meeting, on a telephone conference, but rarely, oh so rarely, with dedicated engaged brainspace. Is this the way to balance the pendulum? Does adding another training address what the C-level executive was trying to achieve? Does adding another training embed the right culture and values in the organisation? Does it engage the employee or does it put them off kilter from the culture even more? 

Ello are communicating their manifesto and it is a refreshing diversion from where Facebook has arrived at. Facebook is driven by data, by advertising, working with personal data to get click throughs, purchase and selling. Ello are saying they will avoid data usage, advertising revenue, and will aim to eventually drive revenue through in-site, voluntary purchases. The manifesto is here https://ello.co/manifesto

"

We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce and manipulate — but a place to connect, create and celebrate life.

"

I'm looking forward to following the story of Ello. At some point, if Ello is successful they will have to address the culture, be wary of the pendulum, maintain the manifesto and yet continue to keep the shareholders happy.

If Budnitz's beautiful bicycles are anything to go by he can balance the pendulum and maintain the culture. Good luck!

Badger and Frog second training weekend - September 2014

Second training weekend, this time Maine! (and New Hampshire)

For our second training weekend, Lydie again did all the planning. We were planning something simpler, "guaranteed" train space, and less ambitious distances.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olfzUaueKl4

Since our first weekend we had made several changes to bike set up:
1: JJ's saddle at a better angle, lower height, closer to handlebars
2: JJ's handlebars at a higher angle, with clip on triathlon bars
3: Lydie's saddle at a better angle, higher, further away from handlebars
4: Lydie's handlebars higher and further forward.
4: Chamois creme :) http://www.competitivecyclist.com/assos-chamois-cream
This made the handling of the additional weight easier, and whilst we were not without discomfort, we were much happier at the contact points.

We again rode early doors to Boston's North Station. This time we were riding the Commuter Rail to Newburyport, a short one hour skip north. We got on the train with no problems, chatted with the guard, other cyclists and arrived in Newburyport without issue. We took the short bike path towards the port, on advice of a local cyclist and, also on his advice, stopped in the rather excellent Plum Island Coffee shop (http://plumislandcoffee.com/) cafe for a cup of tea (obvious Englishman abroad! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d27gTrPPAyk). Heading onwards we found beautiful roads and wonderful beaches in bright sunshine. Seemingly hundreds of classic cars we saw on all the roads - GTOs, Mustangs, Beetles, Caddilacs, Pontiacs - everyone was out for a cruise that weekend.

We are waterproof
We stopped by the beach and had the remains of our lunch and notice a couple of large clouds heading our way. The rain started and we asked ourselves the question "Ride or Hide?" - we decided to ride as the skies north looked clear. The rain increased and suddenly the storm clouds came - lightning crashed, thunder rolled, and intense rain slammed down on us (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olfzUaueKl4 - see the lightning at 1:25 in the video). I say rain - but I think it was hail, and it certainly stung our faces as we battled along the coast road. The rain coated my sunglasses, and stopped me admiring the beautiful coast road quite as much, but I certainly enjoyed this riding in hung warm rain, and the excitement of being in the storm was fantastic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvvdazaIKLI). The rain became torrential and the storm became ever closer - at one point, I counted one second from the lightning crash to the thunder clap - meaning we were 300 yards from the centre of the storm. We plugged along, stopping would have made us cold, although we did stop to empty Lydie's shoes of water. Our bags are fully waterproof (see our kit selections here http://badgerandfrog.com/kit-for-our-adventure/) Ortlieb panniers - the finest and most trusted in the land so I was interested to carry on to see how waterproof they were, and how the bike would handle in the wet.

The rain started to die away after an hour or so, and we congratulate ourselves for saying strong through it. Rolling through Portsmouth we bumped into another touring tandem. Riding a tandem (The Smile Generator http://badgerandfrog.com/2014/09/15/first-training-weekend/) you are instantly friends of all other tandem riders - only another tandem can understand exactly what it takes to ride on a tandem, the feeling, the joy, the sacrifices and lack of comfort. Reminds me of the quote
"If you want to go fast, go alone
If you want to go far, go together"
Jeff and Louise are riding their red tandem around the world, enjoying their retirement - they are currently en route from Canada to Washington, and they did half a year in Europe last year - wonderful people. Their bike is rather special too - a custom made, one of a kind, SnS coupled tandem, with 20 inch wheels, and of course it's red!
Follow their fascinating blog here http://www.redtandem.blogspot.com
And for my considerations of tandem design and which tandem to go for have a browse of my thoughts here http://badgerandfrog.com/tandem-design/.

We spent about 45 minutes chatting with them and funnily enough they had left that morning, the campsite to which we were heading http://www.riversidecampground-wells.com/. We realised that we were starting to get a little behind time and so we pushed on. We followed the coast road through New Hampshire and into Maine, past cute stores, and increasing numbers of antique stores and lobster shacks. The scenery was wonderful, although it appears that the rich have decided that it is their prerogative to build houses on the coast so it can be hard to view the sea at all! We passed Brits Bits http://www.britbits.com/ selling British cars, stopped at a wine and cheese shop built in the shape of a cheese wheel with a model of a mouse on top to pick up some booze. The classic cars followed us up the road through Ogunquit and to Wells.

The campsite was basic and nice - we arrived after the office had shut, and a message was left for us. Again. We were the only tent, but this time the other sites were occupied seemingly by semi-static homes, probably summer homes for long term stayers. We set up efficiently, and strolled over the road to find some lobster for Lydie and some non-lobster for me. The rain started to come down as we ate and by the time we got back to the tent it was raining hard. In the morning, the tent had survived the rain, and we made a cup of tea on our camp stove (again, the Englishman abroad cliche!). We packed up quickly, and marvelled at how much stuff we were able to cram onto our bikes. We noticed a scarily huge spider web in the tree above, and wondered if this had inspired Tolkein! Thankfully we had not thought about this overnight - else we may not have slept so well.
The tent we have is a 2 man. It is small which means it is easy to transport, but it is quite small. This time we kept the valuables inside the tent, and the non-valuables in the waterproof Ortlieb bags under the awnings. They stayed dry, and despite thinking about going for a three man tent, we still maintain that we have made the right choice.

We had spotted a place for breakfast the day before and hot footed it there - "egg and I" in Ogunquit http://eggandibreakfast.com/. We ate huge special breakfasts with cups of tea and then hit the road again. The trains back were infrequent, once every 3 hours, and I wanted to take an earlier train to brace myself for the work week ahead. So we really booted it - the roads were good, weather was fine - warm, but not too warm - and we made what for us was excellent time on a fully loaded tandem - averaging over 15 mph for 50 miles.

On the way back we stopped for the occasional stretch and a huge ice cream somewhere in New Hampshire - my death by chocolate was the first time I have never been able to finish an ice cream!

The train back was smooth, and the ride back from the train station pleasant.
In summary, we found that we rode well together, the changes we had made to the bike gave us much more comfort, and really enjoyed the beautiful scenery though that area. We are glad it went well as this is the last overnight trip we have planned prior to the big one! Wish us luck!!

Days ridden: 2
Miles covered: 120

Strava links
http://www.strava.com/activities/191423771
http://www.strava.com/activities/191424152

Badger and Frog first training weekend, early September 2014

"A beginning is a very delicate time"

Frank Herbert, Dune (1965)

In preparation for our forthcoming adventure we planned two weekends away cycle camping, trying the tandem with the (almost) full load to see what worked, what didn't, and what the heck we were letting ourselves in for.


First training weekend - NOT Maine as planned...
Our first weekend was planned for the 3 day Labor Day Weekend. The plan was to catch the train to Portland, Maine, spend 3 days exploring the coast, camping along the way, and catch the train back. However, best laid plans...

We arrived early doors at Boston's North Station. Frog had done all the planning - route selected, campsites booked and paid for, train tickets booked with bike allocation. We, like every other Boston resident, grabbed a Dunkin' Donuts breakfast and readied ourselves for the train. Alongside us were a variety of people, weekend workers, excited people ready for the long weekend, other people with bikes - the buzz and hum of a long weekend permeated the station. Of course we stood out - a couple of weirdos with a long bike, covered in brightly coloured bags, dressed in dorky lycra - we were happy with that and very excited for our first real weekend.

As the platform was announced we joined the throngs of people going to the train, us looking for the assigned bike carriage. And then the blow was struck - despite Amtrak advertising this train with a bike carriage, it was broken and the train had arrived without space for bikes, and they would not let us, nor the other people with "normal" bikes. Being belligerent, we bundled on anyway, getting our bike in a corridor. And then the guards arrived. They said we had to get off we refused, they said, we said, and so it went on. I would not say that they were threatening, for want of litigation, but to all intents and purposes they were. We explained our scenario and how we had booked the bike space and one of the guards tried to help us out. He took us to the information desk and tried to find other options for us - we tried to book on the next train, which would be 3 hours later - leaving us with too little time to reach our pre-booked and pre-paid campsites, that day, and the next. The information desk told us that the bike carriage was full, so we could not travel on that train either.
After some drama, and some tears, I discovered that Amtrak had lied to us and that the bike carriages were broken and not available at all that weekend, despite them selling us tickets for that purpose.
After some exploding emotions, we started to replan. With the help of Yelp.com we identified a campsite within a half days ride south, towards Cape Cod - the roads would be ugly, getting south out of Boston is never pretty, and the disappointment of plans ruined and wasted by Amtrak lasted with us a long time.

We got on the road as soon as we could and set about peddling south. The roads are large, but bike lanes are well marked and we passed through South Boston, past a carnival and out onto better roads pretty efficiently. We saw one car crash - I thought that was pretty good considering!
The sun was shining and we started to make good time. Riding a tandem is always a pleasure - riding a "normal" bike is one of the greatest pleasures of my life, but when you ride a tandem it spreads joy wherever you go - people smile and laugh and wave and take videos and photos. People want to talk to you, cars beep at you in a friendly manner (wow!!) and the journey becomes pleasant. I call it "The Smile Generator" :)
The miles started to role under the tires and we were starting to forget the disappointment given to us by Amtrak.

This was the first time we rode the bike fully loaded, and we were finding that this was a different sensation from the simple riding we had done around Boston and on the Boston Bike Party. A tandem is a different beast to a normal bike - it can fish tail at any time, and any excessive movement by ever the captain or the stoker generates some movement. And that movement can be scratching a tender part, watching a bird go by - anything! When you add on the full camping load this them becomes amplified. Tandem design is discussed here (http://badgerandfrog.com/tandem-design/) and our kit selections are discussed here (http://badgerandfrog.com/kit-for-our-adventure/)  but at a very high level we were riding an 18 kg bike with 150 kg of bodies, plus pannier racks pannier bags, and tent, stove, clothes, medical supplies, water, computer, solar charger, cameras, phones, chargers, tent, sleeping bags, food etc coming in somewhere at a grand total of somewhere around 220 kg (circa 480 lb) of moving mass. Holding onto the bike and controlling that mass across the contact points of the feet ,hands and bottoms was proving a new and interesting experience. I had sore hands, numbness in arms and feet, and a sore bum.
On the road we bumped into several other riders, some of them also on touring and camping weekends. In particular we bumped into Bryan and Leslie and had some very interesting chats with them - Bryan builds his own bespoke bikes, check out his work at http://www.royalhcycles.com.

We found the campsite we had selected, on the outskirts of Plymouth - famous for the Plymouth Rock - alleged site of the landing of the first settlers, with a replica of the Mayflower ship that transported them alongside. The town is lovely, and the campsite was incredible http://www.ellishaven.com. I think we were the only tent, otherwise it was all super large campers with big families cooking with a huge amount of organisation and infrastructure - cookers, marquees, chairs, bikes, dogs - and of course plenty of beer. The campsite has lakes and entertainment for kids, and we were lucky enough to have live bands for e two nights we were there - not quite the wild camping experience we were preparing for, but a nice start into our first trial of the adventure.
We cooked on the gas stove we had brought, and made tea in the morning (I am nothing, if not the absolute cliche of an Englishman in America!) once we had purchased a replacement gas canister as the one we had carried did not fit our burner!

We spent the days exploring the area and rode the channel that splits Cape Cod from the mainland - learning how to handle the bike in huge wind, how to be efficient when shopping, and how to lock up your bike at a supermarket without it blowing over in huge wind! One time we were a little lost, and google maps was pushing us down a route past a locked gate - we went on anyway and found ourselves in miles and miles of cranberry fields, beautiful to look at, but in very sandy grounds through which we could not ride, and it seemed that we were trespassing too! A bit nervous, plus also very slow progress!

We shut down camp on the third day, worked out how to get everything back in the bags and bundled back to Boston as fast as we could.

In summary, we found that nothing really worked out, we got wet, we got lost, Amtrak let us down, but we were able to pull together, and find solutions together. This is a huge positive and has made us very content as we start to stare down the big adventure which starts very shortly indeed.

Days ridden: 3
Miles covered: 173

Strava links
http://www.strava.com/activities/188555822
http://www.strava.com/activities/188557089
http://www.strava.com/activities/188557553

Who was the Tour de France Legend? and the Queen does what??!

Below is my favourite video from The Tour de France 2014.

Breakfast moonshine selfie

The Tour de France was in some way a difficult year, maybe a transitional year. It started in the UK, and received huge huge crowds, helped by some excellent weather. In fact, the crowds were in some ways too large - speedy pelotons and small roads packed with fans, coupled with fans who may have been somewhat new to the sport - plus an unfortunate coinciding with "The Selfie" phenomenon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfie) - meant we had several incidents with cyclists colliding with too-eager fans. Thankfully, there was little harm, but it could've been much worse.



A rare spark of daylight in this maelstrom was the video above - one eager fan, with a camera mounted to a helmet, held it too close to the fire and it was knocked off. Kevin Reza from Team Europcar swept up the helmet (at an incredible speed and no small amount of bike handling skill), and took it on a ride through the peloton and finally to the Team Europcar team car. In a happy ending, the camera and helmet made their way back to the owner via the wonders of twitter (@KevReza).



Queen in selfie photobomb shocker!

Queen selfie photobomb!

Meanwhile, in other selfie news, our Queen, Gawd bless her, photobombed a selfie of some australian hockey players during last month's Commonwealth Games - that has to be The Greatest Photobomb Ever (close meme).



Chris Hoy in identity question

Finally, also at the Commonwealth Games, Sir Chris Hoy was almost turned away from entry to the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome, after being asked for ID by one of the doormen. Absolute classic :)