Matt

Faces Africa, the company behind the world’s second-largest timed cycling event, 947 Ride Joburg, are excited to announce Virgin Active as the race’s new title sponsor. The initial three-year deal sees the flagship event, along with its mountain bike and the children’s ride subsidiaries, become the Virgin Active 947 Ride Joburg. For event entrants, this […] View full article

We’ve made some changes to the search function in the forums which should improve the speed and relevance of results. Note: there is still a bug when searching from the home page as noted above. That should be resolved this coming week. Searching via the search bar shown in the menu (desktop) or Search option in the menu on mobile should be improved, but please let us know is you’re getting odd results or a generally slow response - https://forum.bikehub.co.za/search As @Nick mentioned above, a Google site search might still yield the best results… they are pretty good at search 😉

Bike Hub kit has been available over the years, but admittedly not consistently so or that well promoted when it was. We do need to get our act together to do a fresh kit for those who are keen. Will fire up a separate thread.

I'd encourage you to remove your phone number from the ad description which means a would-be scammer has one extra hurdle to pass in getting in contact with you - account registration. It's by no means a foolproof but has proven to be successful in detecting scammers and alerting potential victims.

Just on the point of fakes, these are illegal and NOT allowed on Bike Hub. If you hadn’t already please report any activity related to fake goods. We generally receive a handful of reports of fakes advertised on a weekly basis and take action swiftly. Away from our rules, there are legal channels you can follow if a someone sells you a fake. And, we offer a safety net in the form of Bike Hub Pay where buyers have significant protection from issues, be it outright fraud, fakes or a seller simply being “generous” in their description of condition. Yes, the forum decline is predominantly attributable to other social media. Removing Chit chat did result in a decline in forum activity and with that a small decline in our page views. This was not a surprise to us nor is it a concern. On the point of the economy, when things get tough typically second hand goods see a surge. Both in people looking to generate some cash and others looking for more affordable options. Conversely, when the economy toughens advertising budgets tend to shrink which means our forums generate less revenue. The forums have an important place in our hearts and in the dynamics of Bike Hub. And while usage patterns will shift we don’t see them disappearing. But from a purely academic or business standpoint, if they were to shut tomorrow Bike Hub would not crumble. And to be clear, we have no intention of shutting them down, but it illustrates the point of what the real engine room of Bike Hub is - Classifieds.

Just to get the facts straight on this point of speculation, the Classifieds have been the biggest driver of “foot traffic” on Bike Hub for the better part of 14 years. The forums undoubtedly brought in the users in the early days, but it was our Buy & sell forum that soon became the breadwinner in terms of generating traffic. The early rise of Buy and sell forum activity is was spurred Bike Hub (then The Hub SA) into becoming a full time job and proper commercial venture. Without that it would very likely not exist today. Forum traffic (I.e. non-classifieds) and activity has steadily declined over the years with the the rise of of social media and other platforms that allow cyclists to connect and share. Classifieds on the other hand has continued to steadily grow.

But, by that argument they're not going to see your thread either?

Danger Dassie hits the nail on the head here. As we've gone to great lengths to explain in a number of posts in the YEARS since comments were removed there were pros and cons to Classifieds comments just as there were pros and cons to the subsequent petition thread. Ultimately the cons outweighed the pros. Comments are not coming back. And the petition thread only reinforced that decision. Was there some merit to that thread? Absolutely. But similar to comments, on balance unfortunately it was a net negative. We provide avenues to report problematic adverts. Please use them. If a newbie has questions about a particular bike they don't have to worry about being friends with Hairy or not. There's a fantastic Buyers guide forum or even a dedicated Newbies > Ask Anything forum. As history has proven, Hubbers are always willing to guide a newbie in the right direction. And if you think the bike they're keen on is worth 10% of the asking price by all means share that opinion with them on the thread.

Here as a repost of the closure note for the benefit of those who missed it.

If you spot something blatantly incorrect or misleading on a classified ad the best route to address it is to hit the report button on the advert itself. If a buyer is keen on something from the classifieds they'd like some input on we'd encourage them to rather start a new thread in this same forum: https://forum.bikehub.co.za/forum/30-buyer’s-advice/ Like the many "Bike A vs. Bike B" type threads we see, this would be a far more organised and helpful approach to tap into the insights of the community rather than a single, wide ranging discussion.

The message you refer to was sent via our support platform, not our internal messaging system. You can access it via the Contact us link in the footer.

That has all the flags for a likely scam: - A "driver" will collect - Using an obscure payment mechanism Avoid!! Was this via Bike Hub?

1. I'm seeing the same when using Safari on IOS, but it doesn't happen when using Chrome on IOS. We'll take a look at what might be causing this. 2. No problems on my end with speed on mobile and nothing else reported from other users, but we'll monitor this. Could be something related to cached files in your browser. Try opening Bike Hub in a private browser tab to see if it improves.

Sorry for leaving this unacknowledged @NickGM It was noted and will be fixed in an update due to go live in the next 1-2 weeks.

Were you the seller in this deal? If so, you'll need to follow these guidelines to post a review for them: https://help.bikehub.co.za/en/articles/5900631-rating-a-buyer We are currently working on an update to allow sellers to rate via the profile page or the method linked above.

On @Nick’s point above, Strava’s revenue has only increased since introducing the paid tier. But the difference is, before the paid membership there was no other meaningful revenue. So, provided the paywall doesn’t collapse their ecosystem the revenue it provides is a net win. They’ve dabbled in advertising and offer some sponsored events etc., even hiring a few Facebook execs, but mostly they have been funded by venture capital to date rather than advertising revenue. So they either needed to blast everyone with ads or put the most valued features behind a paywall… Definitely agree on the point around the cumulative cost of subscriptions. Something’s gotta give there and certainly some consolidation will come, or at least I hope it will when it comes to things like streaming services.

You're not wrong here on declining ad revenue, it's definitely a factor in paywall moves like this one, but not the only factor. And as others have pointed out... in some cases it may be too late to save the "patient". There's a whole lot to this discussion that's difficult to cover in a short post. The reality is that the global advertising duopoly that is Google and Facebook has lead to a dramatic decrease in ad revenue for media outlets. The scale and control these two juggernaughts exert is near impossible to compete with and in many cases independent media and small groups like Future (relative to the tech giants), are now earning cents in the rand for every 1000 subscribers / viewers / eyeballs vs. what they were able to earn 10 or so years ago. As much as it pains me to acknowledge, Google and Facebook both offer easy-to-use ad platforms with rich targeting capabilities, DIY facilities and the ability to spend R100 or R100 million depending on your budget. Publishers have tried to compete with bespoke offerings, content partnerships and other exclusive opportunities with some success. But ultimately more ad spend continues to move to the big platforms. Moves like Apple's anti-tracking and regulation like GDPR has slowed their growth, but they'll find new ways to track and identify users. It's easy to place the blame on the big tech monopolies and call it a day though. But in part, internet media and platforms are their own worst enemies when it comes to creating a culture of free. Only to later alienate users with increasingly invasive advertising and progressively weaker content. In that space it's a race to the bottom in both quality of the content / offering and the ad revenue that can be derived from it. The business model of purely ad-supported content is broken. And personally I don't think it should be or can be fixed. The industry is in the midst of a big, much-needed reset. In think that in time economics will prevail, but that's not going to happen overnight. In an ideal world, if you as a reader / member see sufficient value in a publication or platform you should be willing to pay a reasonable fee for access to it. If you and enough others don't see sufficient value then perhaps it wasn't worth producing in the first place (economically speaking). Those that are low-quality and don't deliver value will falter in time. In the cycling media space there are some stand outs like GCN+ and CyclingTips as some have highlighted here who produce great content and have a subs fee deemed "worth it". But then even a platform as abundantly pervasive as Strava is struggling to convert free users to paid subscribers. There's some work to be done by many. In the case of CyclingNews, I see some chirps about the capitalistic, money-driven owners. While I'm sure shareholders and quarterly performance has driven many decisions, I'd hazard a guess that this is more of a last-ditch (and likely too late based on comments here) effort to stay viable rather than some super-car driving mogul looking to fund their next play toy.

Hi Hubbers, We've seen a recent increase in scammers targetting race entries. They'll either advertise a race entry for sale or approach someone with a wanted ad for a particular race, claiming to have an entry available usually at a "too good to be missed" price. Most recently they've been targeting Joberg2c entries. If you're looking to buy a race entry please do so using Bike Hub Pay. It's the safest way to buy. Buyer pays funds to Bike Hub to hold securely Seller shares required information / initiates substitution process Race office processes substitution Buyer marks transaction as complete on Bike Hub Seller gets paid If you choose not to use Bike Hub Pay or transact via another platform, please contact the relevant race office to verify the entry before you part with your money.

Hi Noah, We no longer have a "For sale / Wanted" selection when creating an advert, but you can still post a wanted ad by simply prefixing the title with "Wanted: ".

Thanks for reporting this. We've blocked the account he's used on Bike Hub to target you and others with wanted ads. It's a common modus operandi we see whereby the scammer approaches people with wanted ads, claiming to have what they are looking for at a very good price.

Thanks, we've updated the listing.

Hi @Razor1972 It sounds like you've attempted to post a rating directly on their profile? We've changed the process a little for sellers wishing to rate a buyer. Please see the guide here: https://help.bikehub.co.za/en/articles/5900631-rating-a-buyer If you still have trouble just hit the Contact us link in the footer and we'll assist. Matt

As we stand currently ad revenue makes up a significant majority of total revenue. So "no ads = no Bike Hub" is not far from the thruth. Medium to long term are are focussed on significantly growing revenue from classifieds and transactions (Bike Hub Pay). It will dramatically reduce our reliance on ad revenue, however even then we see that advertising will continue to play an important role. @Li Mu Bai thanks for the feedback. We've always been conscious of not bombarding Hubbers with too many adverts, invasive pop-ups or autoplay videos. Finding the right balance between the ideal user experience and a sustainable ad-based business model can be tricky. In an ideal world we'd have no ads and only rad ride imagery as you suggest, but somewhere along the line bills need to be paid. If you're looking for an ad-free Bike Hub utopia take a look at Bike Hub Plus. For the cost of coffee per month you can turn off all the ads.

Hi michaelbiker, It was reported when we initially upgraded the forum platform but it landed further down the list of bug fixes at the time. We’ll revisit it to see what can be done. Thanks for raising and the pointer on the hover state.

Sorry to hear you got scammed by them @MariéK, but thank you for reporting it. Out of interest, what payment method did they have you use?