straightchain was a blog just about bikes, which I started after being hit by the fixed-gear craze in 2007. I quickly learned how to built my first fixed-gear conversion thanks to Sheldon Brown. I didn’t know any local like-minded people, so the blog was a way to vent my newly found enthusiasm.
By chance, I spent 5 months in Kyoto, Japan that year and had a lot to write about, because the local biking-scene was absolutely thriving. Back home, my focus shifted back towards re-blogging about bike-parts and bike-fashion. I found it increasingly boring to re-post content instead of creating new content, e.g. in form of articles, tour-photography and product-reviews. In 2009 I graduated from university, was working in two dayjobs (one LBS) and as a freelance illustrator inbetween. I was so busy, that I finally decided to discontinue straightchain indefinitely.

straightchain will continue again as my personal blog, so I am not tempted to clutter my professional website by bragging about some extraordinarily painful hill-climb in northern italy. Yes, I got to admit, I had been very tempted to do just that last summer!
This version of straightchain will be about bikes (of course), travel, Japan (YES, again), as well as other fields of interest, and lastly non work-related sketches and illustrations, which ought to be shared with fellow colleagues, friends, family or maybe even like-minded cyclists! Oh and, I still got the desire to create content, rather than re-post content. Let’s see how this works out! Enjoy the new straightchain!