I've run Discerning Cyclist since 2012, a website dedicated to finding stylish clothes you can cycle in and celebrating getting around by bicycle.
Up until 2023, it was my full-time job and I loved it. 10,000s of people came to the website every day.
But later that year, Google changed the dials on its algorithm and basically killed the site overnight. Something I'd spent years building, essentially gone in an instant.
For the past two years, I stepped back from actively running Discerning Cyclist and reevaluated, well... everything.
With some distance, I can see now that Google didn't kill Discerning Cyclist on its own. I'd made four mistakes that left it exposed. They're shaping everything I'm now building at Velorution, so I want to share them properly.
MISTAKE 1: Ads
Discerning Cyclist was mostly funded by ads. The banners that clutter up websites.
On the one hand, ads are great. They are easy to set up, take no management and provide reliable, predictable income.
But ads are a compromise built on misaligned incentives.
Essentially, the more ads you have, the more you earn. But the more ads you have, the worse the experience gets for readers.
My income and my readers' experience pull in opposite directions.
I don't like that.
Velorution has no programmatic ads. None. The only advertising will be the occasional sponsor, and only brands that genuinely fit, give me more stories to tell and - most importantly - add value to the reader. When that's the deal, everyone wins.
MISTAKE 2: I ignored the story
Discerning Cyclist was useful. But it was a bit transactional. A bit distant. In the end, I mostly wrote guides and reviews, largely because I figured out that's what people were searching for on Google. I stopped writing about the journey, the people, the why.
Stories are the most human thing we have. It's how we connect, learn, feel. They're what we remember.
It's why you're reading this.
Velorution is built on stories first. My journeys and yours.
MISTAKE 3: I relied on something I couldn't control
Over 90% of Discerning Cyclist's traffic came from Google.
It was great: 10,000s of people arriving every day on the site.
But when Google changed its algorithm in 2023, I was in trouble. A decade of work, up in flames.
Not because the site got worse. Because a dial got turned somewhere in California.
Traffic from Google is great. Reach on social is great. But I will never again let my business live or die by one algorithm I have no say in.
I've started by building Velorution on email. A direct line between me and you. But over time, I'll add more ways to connect with people.
MISTAKE 4: No product
This was my biggest failure with Discerning Cyclist.
I never settled on my own product. I nearly opened a retail store. I overthought and overanalysed everything until I built... nothing.
With Velorution, I've stopped overthinking. The Velorution Post is simple, but I'm immensely proud of it.
A hand-packed envelope sent once a month full of urban cycling goodness. A personal letter, an exclusive printed article, collectibles, puzzles and an honest look at the numbers behind the business as I build it.
The learnings
Through all of it, I never lost my belief that the bicycle should be celebrated.
Around the same time Discerning Cyclist was collapsing, a well-known chain of urban cycling stores in London, Velorution, went into administration.
I first came across it not long after starting Discerning Cyclist back in 2012. It was the coolest bike shop I'd ever seen. Cycling made normal. No lycra, no racing, just people getting around on beautiful bikes.
I remember thinking: wow - these people get it.
That, and: damn, Velorution is a much better name than Discerning Cyclist.
13 years later, I finally found a way to nick it. When the shops closed, I tracked down the administrators and bought the digital remnants: the name, the website, the social channels. No real plan. Just a belief that it was too good an idea to let die. (The full story of what happened to Velorution is here.)
And this time, the four mistakes became four rules: own the relationship with readers. Only take money from aligned partners. Stories first. And build real things instead of overthinking them.
Put those four together and they point at one word: community.
Community is the centrepiece
Everything I'm building at Velorution starts there.
It began with one email a week. No algorithm deciding who sees it, no programmatic ads, just me telling the story of trying to bring this brand back and figuring it out as I go.
The response I got... I wasn't ready for. My inbox was flooded with encouragement, offers of help, and people's fond memories of the old stores, the bikes they bought and the people they met. After a couple of tough years, it felt incredible. It gave me hope again. It rebuilt a bit of self-confidence, even.
It also made the direction obvious. People wanted the shops back, and I understand why, but a London shop isn't financially possible right now. What people were really asking for was connection. Something more real than another website.
That's where The Velorution Post came from. The idea struck after I posted some of my 4-year-old daughter's drawings to my mum, who told me she couldn't remember the last time she had got something special in the post. Neither could I. So now, every month, I hand-pack envelopes full of cycling goodness: a personal letter, an exclusive printed article, artwork, puzzles, and an honest look at the numbers behind this business. Something you can hold and feel. Not just another buzz on your phone.
And it's the bridge to what comes next: real-life events, real spaces, meeting other Velorutionaries in person. The newsletter built the community. The Post makes it tangible. The next chapter brings it together in the real world.
I lost one cycling business by building it on someone else's land, funding it with someone else's ads, writing for machines and waiting too long to make something real.
I don't intend to make those mistakes twice.
If you want to follow the journey, you can join the free weekly newsletter here. And if any of this resonates, I'd love to hear from you. Even just to say hello or what you're riding these days. I read every reply.
Happy cycling,
Pete
