Pedaling to New Horizons

You can now support Cycotherapy's effort to remind the masses to have fun on bikes.

Greetings cycopaths. First of all, a sincere thanks. I first launched Cycotherapy on August 14, 2022. Since then, there are hundreds of you who receive this newsletter, and thousands more have actually clicked on links. (Who knows how many of you have actually read this blethering email … but thank you, sincerely, anyway. Knowing that, at least, some of you read it does wonders to my ever-suffering ego.)  

Anyway.

Cycotherapy started with a simple mantra: to conquer the fear du jour through bikes and whimsy. 

I still like that phrase. It’s catchy. But I’d like to make an addendum.

Cycotherapy: conquering the fear du jour through bikes and whimsy by reminding you that riding your bike is fun.

Let’s break that down a bit. “Conquering the fear du jour through bikes and whimsy…” What’s that mean? 

Glad you asked. Our lives these days seem to be inundated with fear inducing tidbits of news. Gun violence; riots in cities; war in Ukraine; racism; climate change; disease; news deserts; food deserts; democracy’s precarious status; the ill effects of social media; the prevalence of drugs in our streets; the increase of illiteracy rates... It goes on and on. I’m not here to encourage you to ignore it all, because it’s all important and it all has serious implications for our futures and our loved ones’ futures. Being informed is part of being a decent human.

The second part: “… by reminding you that riding your bike is fun.” What’s that mean?

Cyclists can take themselves a bit too seriously sometimes. The outrageously priced bikes. The gear. The calories counted by wearable technology. The watts. The Strava segments. The miles. All these things are good, I think. But sometimes it all gets in the way of the simple fact that riding a bike is fun. 

It’s fun. That’s it. I mean, why did we get on a bike in the first place? To save money on gas? Nah.

Cycotherapy exists as a tool. A sort of noise canceling headphone that also plays your favorite song. I want stories on Cycotherapy to facilitate the tuning out of noise in your life and simultaneously remind you of the fun you’re supposed to be having on the bike.

A lot of the content here is entertaining. (Or at least tries to be entertaining.) 

But the undercurrent of Cycotherapy content is stirring. I don’t want to just inspire you. I want the content to stir some part of you to, ultimately, get outside and ride your bike or to see another part of cycling differently. 

I’ve heard from some Cycotherapy readers, however, who don’t regularly ride bikes —the sort of crowd who wouldn’t call themselves “cyclists.”

“But when I read your stuff, I want to ride my bike.” 

I love hearing this. I hope Cycotherapy can be a safe space for you to get back in the saddle and give it a whirl. Or … perhaps the content here stirs you to action elsewhere in your life. Maybe there’s a 5K in your neighborhood you’ve wanted to start training for. Or maybe there’s a certification to earn that will get you that promotion. Or maybe you have a book idea that has sat dormant for too long. 

Let Cycotherapy be a place where you’re reminded of the fun and fulfillment that taking action in your life produces. If that action happens to be on a bike, awesome. 

I say all of this to make an announcement: Cycotherapy will now offer a paid subscription model. This newsletter is growing by the day, and it is taking up a lot of my time — and time is money, baby.

So I’d like to see if I can get a little compensation, or at least enough money to buy a coffee every once in a while to keep me fueled for long nights at the computer. Or, more realistically, patronize the local LBS when my components break.

I put this option up for a vote a little while back. And though many of you (38%) indicated you’d like to keep this thing free by giving me a metaphorical pat on the back (thanks for your brutal honesty), the majority (63%) chose an option that included money.

And so the “free” version will still exist. Under the free plan, you can still read some of the content. But if you want to support the only newsletter on Substack that reminds you to have fun on the bike, sign up. 

You can either pay $5 monthly, or sign up to pay $50 a year — which will give you two months of premium content for free. There will also be something for the overachievers. The “Founding Plan” is a one-year subscription for $100.

The money will help fuel Cycotherapy in a very cool way. Starting soon, I will start accepting submissions. If you are a budding writer who happens to like riding/working on/buying/looking at/thinking about bikes, we want to read your stuff. More details on that front soon.

Your monetary support will also help spread the fun of riding bikes to cycling-related nonprofits. Each year, I’ll take 10% of the year’s subscription revenue and donate it to a nonprofit that promotes cycling. And I’ll be transparent about which organization is receiving the money, and how much.

Lets review:

Paying cycopaths get …

• 10% of yearly subscriber revenue will be donated to a cycling-related nonprofit, so we can spread the fun

• access to premium content from me and occasional guest authors  

• access to the comment section

• more perks to come! (bike shop discounts, perhaps??)

Nonpaying cycopaths get …

• Free content once (maybe twice) a week

• Limited access to the comment section

• Emails reminding you that you can pay for a better version of Cycotherapy :)

---

I know, money makes things weird. But writing can be a lonely and penniless job. We can still have fun together, right?