BikesOfIndy

Actually, it launched weeks ago. Regardless, if you are the Indianapolis area, and you enjoy bicycling, you should check out BikesOfIndy.com.

What is it?

BikesOfIndy.com is just a forum, at the moment. It is built on PHPBB3, the open source message board software. The idea is to build a bit of a community of bicyclists in Indy, if for no other reason than the community itself; it’s nice to know people that may want to ride with you.

What is its future?

Hopefully it may evolve into a site that includes news of bicycling events in the area, a place to organize rides, a place to read articles related to bicycling locally, etc. This will involve me putting more time and effort into it, to be honest. So far I have just been really enjoying chatting with local cyclists, and learning from them as well.

From a technical standpoint, I intend to write an index page, in PHP, that pulls articles from the ‘News’ forum to the front page. That is the first step. It shouldn’t be too difficult, I just have to query the PHPBB3 database. I have not yet decided whether I am going to try actually extending PHPBB3, or whether I will instead just roll a quick script to get the job done. Writing some sort of plug-in/add-on to PHPBB3 would probably be useful for other people, and good knowledge to have in the future, but it doesn’t seem like it would be the easy route. We’ll see what level of motivation I have when it comes that time.

Who is welcome?

Everyone is welcome. At the moment, the site seems to be relatively dominated by young fixed-gear enthusiasts, with a few mountain bikers mixed in. However, there are some commuters, some road warriors, and more. It doesn’t matter. I just like to ride bikes, regardless of what ‘type’. If you like to ride some sort of bicycle, I encourage you to give the site a shot.

What was that URL again?

I’m not sure how you missed it, but it’s BikesOfIndy.com.