Carlton @ Bike Biz writes on the relationship between the bike industry and bloggers. There’s an extensive quote from me that was in response to a question about how the bike industry might treat bloggers differently from more traditional media.

Carlton’s story started as a conversation that Carlton had with a large cycling component vendor who sent some pricey kit to a blogger whom Carlton — who is well connected in cycling media (both traditional and Internet) — had never heard of.

I get notes from PR people all the time asking to review product. I turn most of them down anymore because I frankly don’t have time to assemble a bike, ride it for two weeks, write something about it, disassemble and return it. They all have two wheels. They’re all fun to ride. They’re all vertically compliant and laterally stiff. If I take a bike from you, I probably already like it for some reason.

When I wrote about “influential bike bloggers” with little clue about their web traffic, I had Bike Snob NYC in mind. He and Fat Cyclist enjoy writing and do it well but don’t give a lobster’s flipper about web analytics, showing again that content triumphs over any kind of search engine gaming. It make the ganglia TWITCH to think about it.

With that, I’d like to introduce a new bike blog: Cold Iron by David in the East Bay. He’s a long time bike mechanic and wheel builder. The orange design is a little tough on the eyes, but he’s a solid guy who knows what he’s about.

And don’t forget to read Carlton’s article, which also quotes Byron of Bike Hugger, Chipps @ Singletrackworld, Elden “Fattie” Nelson, Rich Kelly and others.