This week’s story is from the book. It’s about a 1998 road race on actual roads. I was racing a 1967 vintage 250cc Ducati. Look for the page titled “YS. The Magic of Muscle Memort (an excerpt).”
This is short notice, but I’ll be joining Jack Lewis and Ed Milich on their book signing event tomorrow night (7:00 pm, 1/27) at MotoCorsa in Portland. I won’t have books to sign but I’ll have something, and I’ll do a reading from the book. Drop by if you’re in the area.
No story this week, I’m pretty busy with editing the layout format of the book. Instead I’ll tell you about the blog. WordPress does a pretty nice job of keeping track of things and making them available to me.
I had hoped to reach 10,000 views by the end of the year but didn’t quite make it — 9,750 was the Dec. 31st total. The best day was Oct. 29 when the blog got 428 views from 84 visitors. It was right after I published the “Top 10 Reasons Racers Crash” story. The total views today are just a handful below 11,000, which means January has over 1,200 so far and it’s only the 18th.
There have been 92 comments from readers, but that number is a bit misleading. When I publish a story I make an announcement on several Facebook groups and a couple of email lists, and many folks make replies ON FACEBOOK, not in the blog itself. I’ve taken a couple of the more interesting comments from the Facebook group page and added them to the blog comment field, but I haven’t been able to keep up with it. There are still a fair number of comments about the stories buried in the Facebook group pages that ought to be in the blog instead. If you read a story and want to comment please use the “Leave a Reply” field at the end of the story.
The blog has been viewed at least once by people from 50 (!) countries. That is the most surprising stat of all to me. The United States is first, of course, followed by several other English-speaking countries: Australia, Canada, and the U.K. in that order. The next 14 countries are European except for New Zealand and Japan in 11th and 12th place, respectively. Geographically the blog has been viewed by folks from North and South America, Europe, Asia, the South Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. There have been some that have surprised me. Viet Nam, Qatar, Reunion, Thailand. Where in the world is Reunion? I had to look that up. It’s a tiny island in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. There’s 3 views from The Isle of Man.
There are 31 followers who get an email each time I make a post, 10 WordPress.com followers and 21 Facebook followers.
I intend to keep the blog going in 2015, publishing something every Monday. Coming up with 52 stories worth publishing is going to be difficult so I may fall short, but I’ll give it a try. I may include some stories about my paralyzing accident and recovery, but the main focus will still be about motorcycle riding and racing.
Wishing you all a happy and productive 2015.
– Paul Ritter
This week’s story is about a street ride I took many years ago. It’s an excerpt from my book. Look for the page titled “YT. One Spectacular Ride.” Speaking of the book, the pre-order page is up. You can see the cover art at https://www.octanepress.com/book/racing-gods.
If you followed road racing anytime between 1978 and 1989, especially the FIM 500cc world championship, you know the name Randy Mamola. Randy was one of the best U.S. racers of that era, along with Kenny Roberts, Eddie Lawson, Freddie Spencer and others. This week’s story is about how young Randy got his start. Look for the page “YU. Young Randy Mamola.”
I hope your 2015 turns out great. Mine will be interesting and busy, I believe.
paulritterblog 