From Our Marketing Department

I want to pause for a moment of (surprising) frankness and non-snarkitude from yours truly, Jason, everything-in-chief here at The Cycle.

I'm changing the ads on this blog, removing the Google-inserted spam that used to live over there to the right and replacing it with ads from the Amazon Associates program. In a nutshell, if I'm babbling about a bike product here that happens to be available from Amazon, the program lets me make a link to the Amazon listing for that product. If you follow my link and end up buying the product, I get a little kickback in Amazon bucks. Same goes with that little Amazon box over there -- if you see something neat in there and buy it via the link on this site, Amazon scratches my back a little.

A couple things that will NOT happen as a result of this change: One, I will NOT start blowing smoke and giving glowing reviews of products sold by Amazon in a misguided attempt to wet my beak. If I like it, you'll know it. If I don't like it, you'll know that too. Simple as that, and in the words of famous cyclist David Byrne, "same as it ever was." Two, I will NOT limit my reviews to stuff that's available from Amazon. It's a big cycling world out there, and I'm interested in a huge cross-section of it, from the established big boys and girls to the inspired garage tinkerers. If you ever think I'm breaking these rules, please call me on it. I spent years as a paid shill, so I have enough bad karma in that regard already.

As always, thanks for reading, thanks for commenting, and if you happen to click through a link, make a purchase, and send a couple bucks my way, thanks for that support too.