20 Years of Bike Hub

[Dexter-morgan]

MY profile says I am a member for 13 years, it is a nice platform, kind of addicted to popping in the bikehub in the mornings before I get going at work,to see what is for sale and read some of the interesting threads,

Some nice threads like, "I need something you might throw away" where the community help each other, I ended up building a bike for a security guard after his got stolen from donated parts.

[Wannabe]

7 hours ago, Wayne Potgieter said:

Ummmm.....

Do you contest my statement???

[Wayne Potgieter]

3 minutes ago, Wannabe said:

Do you contest my statement???

Lol - Sorry, no. This is a misunderstanding. I was trying to be funny.

When I joined theehub 15 years ago, I chose to use my real name. and I took a lot of jabs for it. All good natured and funny stuff though. I found your statement to be amusing as it reminded me of that time and that's why I made my comment.

Without context though, it was probably a pretty stupid comment. 

[RocknRolla]

Noob here: Joined 2011. Lurked for a while before getting enough guts to register a profile and start posting. One had to have a thick online skin to post and receive responses here.

Learned a lot over the years. listened to a lot of moaning as well.

Not too active other than the occasional speed read of a news article that may pique my interest, or popping into the motorcycling thread.

 

 

[Wannabe]

No stress, I know you well to know it was not a challenge. My reply was in jest.

 

[Eugene]

I was sure I was here from the begining. But according to my profile, it's only been 18 years and I was number 19000 odd. 

Does this mean that there were already 19000 members before me? 

 

[Eugene]

Having been here so long there are a few things I miss. 

One is the membership. There was a time that anyone and everyone in the cycling world was a member. From importers, distributors and manufactures to professional cyclists, mechanics and team owners. 

These people gave us unique perspective and were on hand to settle any arguments. 

 

[Matt]

1 hour ago, Eugene said:

I was sure I was here from the begining. But according to my profile, it's only been 18 years and I was number 19000 odd. 

Does this mean that there were already 19000 members before me? 

 

Your forum profile is the one you need to look at for the true "member number". 

Yours is 862 which sounds more plausible for 2006. 

[Matt]

1 hour ago, Eugene said:

Having been here so long there are a few things I miss. 

One is the membership. There was a time that anyone and everyone in the cycling world was a member. From importers, distributors and manufactures to professional cyclists, mechanics and team owners. 

These people gave us unique perspective and were on hand to settle any arguments. 

 

In the earlier years Bike Hub / The Hub was really the only place to talk local cycling online. Social media as we know it today barely existed. There were many "insiders" sharing and engaging on the platform. 

I think two major factors changed that:
- Social media: Facebook (2006/7), Twitter (2007/8), WhatsApp (2009), Strava (2009), Instagram (2010)... 
- The infamous minutes and competition commission investigation "cooled" a lot of industry engagement & sentiment

If it weren't for that little "Notice board" buy & sell section on the forum I'd wager the forum alone wouldn't have survived the social media onslaught. The classifieds opportunity was the reason I opted out of a promising career to pursue The Hub full time (firmly nudged in that direction by a number of low-ball acquisition approaches based around formalising classifieds). 

[mecheng89]

On 9/20/2024 at 8:06 PM, Gnarly said:

I miss Barry, and The Chicks on Bikes thread. 

+1

[mecheng89]

On 9/20/2024 at 7:46 AM, Wannabe said:

Who else still have their original Hub name?

I've been Wannabe since day one.

Same name since day 1. 

[mecheng89]

On 9/19/2024 at 7:38 PM, Rudi Pollard said:

I miss the CWC auctions. Got some proper bargains back in the day. 

Member number 1461

10 years for me, which pretty much coincides with when I decided to make cycling part my life a bit more seriously. The website has changed somewhat, but also not that much, which makes it comforting. 

I just wish people would start selling their bikes for bargains again...

Edited September 25 by mecheng89
Spelling

[J Wakefield]

I really thought “I told you so” would have made it into TheHub history…

But alas. 

[Shebeen]

10 minutes ago, J Wakefield said:

I really thought “I told you so” would have made it into TheHub history…

But alas. 

Good point, you nailed the colours to the mast. I wonder if there is a Lance/Oprah thread that survived the crash, that would be interesting reading now?!

I will fully admit to drinking the Kool-aid during the peak Lance days, but going through the Tyler Hamilton book (The Secret Race) was the tipping point for me. I'm pretty sure I read a pirated copy, which was a tip from here. The tagline was, "he lied and cheated all this time, so don't feel too bad breaking copyright laws". 

 

 

[SwissVan]

3 hours ago, J Wakefield said:

I really thought “I told you so” would have made it into TheHub history…

But alas. 

Man we sure had some discussions about LA back in the day

I’ve got a few of his books for sale, I would give you a good price

 

Every second counts

Its not about the bike

Comeback 2.0

just kidding, I’m going to hold onto them just for fun reading one day in the old age home

 

Edited September 25 by SwissVan

[Dicky DQ]

Also been hanging around for 18 Years, in the beninging is was a fun place with lots of good scraps, now really just a sales platform with a forum as an aside and plenty of woke moderation for all the pansies. Another sad day was when the comments on the ads were banned. I suppose you need to pander to the masses. Sad but there it is.