'Pop', there goes my blog cherry.

I should introduce myself, I'm the aformentioned partner in crime, the setter of puzzles, the starter of quests..... The idiot who thought this was a good idea. We are now two and a half months into this venture. My oh my it is not what I thought it was going to be. Call me naive (go on, do it) but for some reason I thought this was going to be, you know, a bit, well.....bish, bash, bosh, and sangrias in the sun. I honestly thought we were going to get some webspace, buy some software, stick a skin on it and make money, not much money cuz that's not what we're about but money nevertheless.

Now I realise that software never does what you want straight out of the box, it has to be modded- some of which is like a bolt on extra, some of which, you can't imagine why it isn't but, has to be written as a custom mod.

Then there's the bank problems... now is not the place for that rant, needless to say I dislike that Amazon are the only people allowed to operate in the way they do. Oh yes, regulations regarding aggregation and card payments state categorically that Amazon style trading cannot exist and that card services are looking for an answer to the "Amazon problem". Really... Amazon is allowed to operate illegally until they find a solution... sounds like protectionism through law and regulation to me....monopolies commision know about this? or care?
Moving on........

We come to the hosting issues. Our hosting provider is a bit like early Italian motorcycle production. It looks good, press release was awesome, it goes great, only it doesn't go quite as well as it looks, certainly the production model isn't the same as the one the journalists rode..... it has an awful habit of not working when it rains and after sales support is iffy at best.

Now, having mentioned in brief all the negative points so far, very, very briefly (the full story would take pages) I feel I must bring some sunshine. I had a dream, I mentioned this dream to a friend, who liked talking about it in the pub,we talked about it so much we spent a fortune on beer until we were drunk enough to be brave enough to do it (or so hungover I couldn't take my boss's crap anymore, I'm not sure which) it became exciting, organic and it began to grow.

It has changed form dramatically since it was first thought. It is now radically different in shape but not in ethos, it is now possible. I am waking up daily with a sick feeling in my stomach, sometimes through fear, sometimes through hangover and sometimes through excitement. I have started down a path that that is costing no small amount of cash, with no guarantee of success, I currently have no income and am living on savings. However, the ultimate goal of this madness is tantalisingly close. We are trying to create a little bit of freedom for ourselves. As someone once said, and I quote: Instead of working for the man, be a man.

We believe in this idea, we believe that other people will join us, see the benefits and either save money or make more money through us. We want people to come to the races and see our scantily clad leaflet giving lovelies, take a photo with them. Have a coke, have a smile. It will all come together....cue the montage and the stirring rock anthem!

(I am kakking myself, is it time for the pub yet? ;)

I'm really just a biker ...

I'm not one of the quick ones, I'm one of the "all year round and ride anywhere except a race track" ones.  I love nothing more than an open road and a vague idea of where I'm going in front of me.  And here I am immersed in Ajax, PHP, Python, Linux, SQL, XML, XHTML, and the wonderful mysteries of Cpanel.

It seems a long way from handing out flyers and t-shirts, having a chat with our customers about bikes and hanging out with a bunch of scantily clad grid girls at bike races, which is kind of what I had in mind when Mike first suggested this venture.

But like any job, it's very enjoyable and immensely satisfying when things actually work.  I'm very glad to be able to report that as we get nearer to launch, there are more of those moments every day, and the number of new frustrations reduces slightly. 

On top of that, we're constantly thinking of new things to add.  New ways for dealers to get closer to their customers and customers to get a better deal, and we are getting as much of that in as we can before we launch.  It's going to be a blinder!

So it's 1:30a.m, the classifieds section are so close to being a finished product I can almost taste it, the rest is coming together slowly but surely; and I'm most definitely looking forward to the first MotoGP race at Silverstone next year!

Hosting issues

Well, we're getting there but it often feels like one step forward and two back.  I know far more about PHP than I ever intended to, and I'm getting to where MySQL is my best friend ... but just when you think you've got your head above water ... then the hosting companies push you flat on your face.

I've learnt two things this week. 

1) Don't use Fasthosts.co.uk for anything.  While they are slick, professional and on the surface good value for money; they are also unreliable, dishonest and useless.  Their 24/7 support claim is absolutely spot on - 24 hours to acknowledge you and 7 days before they start work on telling you why you can't have nice things.
2) We're going to give our users the benefit of our own dedicated servers.

So it's not all bad.

Hello!

Hi, we're in the process of setting up what we think is a very exciting new venture.

We can't give too many details yet, but we're hoping to make as much of a splash in the motorcycle world as Amazon made in the book world and Ebay made in the flea-market/jumble sale arena without deriving our business plan from either.

We are determined to bring customers great choice, great value and peace of mind.  We're also determined to bring dealers together with customers and give them a great opportunity to sell their wares.  Whether you are buying or selling motorcycles, scooters or trikes, or equipment, spares or parts for them - we're going to work hard to be the place people choose to do it.  We're confident because we've got an idea that we think you're going to like.

We're going to be ethical, we're going to be honest, we're going to be original and we're definitely going to remain a small company offering a big service for a low cost, and we are going to be focussed on the one thing we absolutely love - bikes.

More to follow!