What the hell is Cyclewallah?
Cyclewallah is the nexus of the cycling universe. Or at least, it's trying to be.
Hi, my name is Jacob, creator of Cyclewallah. I waste (or, if you prefer, "invest") a lot of my time looking at pictures of bikes. I always have, ever since I stumbled upon my first mountain biking magazine in fifth grade. Since then, I've been obsessed with cycling as a leisure activity, a competitive sport, a hobby and a mode of transportation. In high school I was on a USA Cycling Junior road racing team for two years, and took several mountain biking trips with my dad to places like Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin (yes, WI has some great trails). These days, as a resident of New York City, I commute by bike and spend hours repairing and tinkering with bicycles. I also love going for long rides out of the city on the weekends, and recently participated in (and completed) the Nautica New York City Triathlon.
In India, many people carry the family name Cyclewallah (there are various spellings), which means "bicycle guy." In fact, a cyclewallah is a professional bicycle guy, and can refer to anything from messenger/delivery person to bike mechanic. I find this fact awesome, and the name for the site is a nod to a culture where bicycles play an important role in daily life. (In another nod to Indian culture, I call mutual contacts on the site "yaars" which means "buddies" in Hindi.)
The idea for Cyclewallah has been brewing in my head for well over a year, and it is with great pride and excitement that I am able to say that it is almost a reality. It is a social network that allows users to create personal Profiles, photo/video albums (I call them BikeBooks), Events and fan Pages. It is being built to be as easy to use as possible. You will be able to sign in using your Facebook account, import content from your Flickr Photostream and invite your friends to join using your Gmail, Yahoo or AOL address book.
It's going to be a great place to meet and stay connected to cyclists in your area, and around the globe. It's going to be a tremendous resource for bike shops, organizations, businesses, clubs, blogs and other websites that want to keep in touch with, and find, new members and fans. And most importantly, it's going to be a great place to ogle bicycles and the people who ride them.
Development of the site is still in progress, but soon you will be able to check it out for yourself and join what promises to become a vibrant and diverse global community of cycling enthusiasts.
We have many exciting things planned for the future, as the community grows and develops. Stay tuned!
