Winter Is Coming

Well, the Dave On Dahon statistics page (not publicly viewable) is showing that winter is on its way and that the nights are drawing in.

My posts on the Cateye HL-EL450 and the NiteRider MiNewt Mini USB are climbing the popularity rank.  The Dahon D7HG review and that of the Trek 4300 are always in the top three popular posts but now I’m seeing lighting-related posts becoming more popular.

Shorter days and longer nights appear to be sending the cycling community out to investigate new lighting solutions to help keep them pedalling for longer in these ever shortening days.

Stop And Say Hello

Hello there!

Thanks for stopping by!

Why not stop a little longer and leave me a comment below.  Let me know who you are and where you’re from.  What led you here to my blog?  What do you think of the place?…

Many of you come and look around, read my posts, look at my photos and click the links – why not say hello?! 

It would be good to hear from you.

David

Dave On Dahon – One Year On

Wow.  Today’s the day!  Dave On Dahon is one!

It was one year ago today that I started this blog.  Where has that year gone?!

Since I started this blog a lot has happened, both in my life and here on the blog.  It’s been a good year and there’s been some good cycling.  As I get more and more into cycling, I’m having more and more fun.  Although I’m spending money on the hobby, it’s saving me money and keeping me fit too.

Here’s to another year!  Another year of cycling fun.  Yay!

Thanks to everyone who reads my posts!

DoD Visitor Maps

The Dave On Dahon Who’s Among Us maps are pretty populated at the moment with a good range of countries covered.  I like this mapping tool as it gives me a view of where my visitors come from.

I thought I’d capture the maps as they stand today as occasionally they do get reset.  The two below show where the visitors come from.  The second map is the ‘heat map’ which indicates the concentration of visitors.

The third capture below is from the Flag Counter.  This shows visitor count in a different format.  This counter hasn’t been running as long as the Who’s Among Us counter but it’s another interesting way to view the DoD visitor stats.

If The Blog Helped…

This is my 100th post here in the Dave On Dahon blog!

I hope that my posts have helped sway you to the Dahon side of life or cycling in general.  Maybe the posts have helped with purchases or the photos have been of interest.

I’ll keep posting and letting you know what’s going on with my cycling life and hope to hear more from you.

If you’ve found my posts interesting or they have helped and you’re feeling generous, please consider donating to my cycling funds!  ChipIn collates any donations and the transactions are handled securely via PayPal (you don’t need a PayPal account to donate).

WordPress.com prevents me posting the ChipIn boxes in the blog so nip over to my website to chip in and see how the funds are going.

If you don’t want to donate, please feel free to comment on the posts or email me to let me know of your cycling experiences and views.

Thanks in advance.  Keep reading!

DoD Visitors

I use Who’s Among Us here on the blog to see who’s online reading at any particular time.  All it does is plot visitors on the map.  I can’t see any more detail than the image below shows but it is interesting to see where readers come from.

The map pins are occassionaly reset/cleared, which is frustrating, but it’s still an interesting thing to watch.

The image below was captured at 2040GMT on 15th March ‘09.  Most readers are coming from Europe and the east of the States.

Take a look at the live stats yourself.

Updated Header Image

As I’m now a two-bike man, I’ve updated the DoD logo to include a reference to my new Trek 4300 which will take up residence here as soon as I get it from the shop – which should be next week if things go to plan.

I’m quite excited about it.

I’m making time to cycle more and my Dahon has been out quite a few times this month already.

(Edit: 14th February @ 1947 – corrected the third word.  Was ‘not’, should have been ‘now’!)

Hello To Funafuti

A big warm hello to my visitor(s) from the island of Funafuti!!!  I’d never heard of your island before today – another day of the Internet and another day of learning for me.

My visitor ‘mapper’ highlighted a visit at some point in time (but I don’t know when).

For others out there who know nothing of Funafuti, take a look at Wikipedia’s entry on Tuvalu, formerly know as the Ellice Islands.

What a great place to live!

Link: Tuvalu Islands

Link: BBC Country Profile – Tuvalu Islands

DoD Top 5 Posts 2008

So, that’s 2008 finished and the end of the first year of Dave On Dahon.  The visitor count has been pretty good since the start, for such a small blog – we’re not talking ‘in the top 10% of the Internet”, nowhere near! – but it’s nice to see that people are reading the posts I write.

So, for 2008, the top 5 posts on this blog were:

#1 – Dahon Vitesse D7HG – Review

#2 – The Purchase – Dahon D7HG

#3 – Cateye HL-EL450

#4 – The Olympic Google-Bike

#5 – Cycling and the UK Law

Thanks to all those who visited!

Dave on Dahon Stats

Since I’ve been running this blog I’ve had access to some detail statistics relating to who visits which post and when.  But these stats are private and only accessible to me in my WordPress account.

On Thursday, I implemented whos.amung.us tracking which enables me (and you!) to see where the readers of my blog come from.  It will also tell you if you’re reading the blog alone or if there are other people on at the same time.  In the sidebar of the blog, at the bottom, you’ll find a small counter which shows how many people are on the blog at that specific time.  Click the counter and you’ll see more stats and even a map of who has been.  If a map maker is flashing, then there’s a person from that location online and reading my blog!

The blog doesn’t get a massive number of visitors but it’s nice to see who comes and reads my posts.  It’s even better now that I can get an idea of where my readership comes from.  But it’s even better when you email me or post comments!  (hint)

The whos.amung.us stats for this blog start from Thursday 16th of October 2008.

The service is free and easy to use.  Set up one on your blog or website today!