OMG

Oh my goodness...

My blog story continues as follows, when I first started blogging (11 years ago) it took me almost a year to get 500 views a month. If my memory serves me correctly, it took about 3 months to go from 500 to 1000 views a month. Things were getting exciting as more and more views were coming from around the world, and not just friends and family. To put it into perspective, 500-1000 unique views would generate between $3US and $5US dollars a month. This is not the kind of money someone brags about, however it was steady, residual, and covered the operating costs ($10US a year for the domain name). 

By the forth year, I started to see my blog steadily hit $10 a month. Not only was this a great sign for my blog, my writing, and my wallet (I don't actually carry a wallet, it's more a bill fold) but I was satisfied in knowing people might actually enjoy what I have to say. 

2016...

In 2016 the European Union passed the "General Data Protection Regulation" which was a way to control what data is kept when you visit a site. I am all good with this, but it completely changed everything, for the worse. You see, this is the part I don't understand. I wasn't personally collecting users data when they visited my site, that was Google. It was also Google, that was using this info to place advertisement on my site through AdSense. I was merely getting a piece of the commission from ad sales. However, since the GDPR, I was instructed to bring my blog up to code or suffer the wrath of the EU. 

It's 2021 and I still haven't complied with the EU and as of yet the EU has not contacted me, or put out an arrest warrant. However since 2016 my blog has been completely demonetized. I continued to post articles, advertisement continued to be displayed, and I'm sure Google has continued to make money, but I haven't. 

Demoralized by the lack of monetization, in 2018 I attempted to comply with the EU's GDPR, but every attempt I made to bring my blogs code up to compliance, by copying and pasting code into the template, were all unsuccessful. I just don't get it, the code is Googles code, sure I have modified the generic template to resemble something closer to my likings, but it's built off a template provided by Google. The data collection is done by Google, not me, they provide me with all the statistics. The placement of advertisement, also done by Google, I can accept or deny vendors, but that's the extent of my involvement. I have repeatedly attempted to contact Google regarding this, and I get vague, run around responses which eventually end up not working.

To put things in perspective, at least from my point of view, I'm currently getting about 5,000 to 7,000 unique views a month (this is after taking the last 2 years off, previous view numbers were higher). If I was making $3 for 1,000 views, I can only surmise I would make $21 for 7,000 views. Now lets not get things twisted, and lets be honest, after 11 years and only making $21 a month, seriously this really isn't worth the headache. While money isn't what motivates me, knowing that, the harder I try to make this blog successful, the less compensation I get, really sucks. But seeing as Google is still probably making money off my blog, I should get something to at least cover operating costs. 

What I find rather amazing, is that some articles written 8 years ago, are still getting constant views every month. I would like to continue to writing articles like those, but not for Google to make money on, and me make nothing.

So my realization is as follows 

1. Give up the www.mass-imo.com domain, so as to eliminate any costs associated with running this blog, write basic articles
2. Move off Blogger, spend some money, and do things right
3. Give up entirely
4. Start something completely new

I think I know which one I want to do

Anyone have any comments?

Liberty Handlebar Upgrade

This may fly in the face to many who like the chopperesque look of the 2020 Rize Liberty, but for me, I wanted a more motocross inspired look, similar to the 2020 Rize Blade, but with suspension. I also wanted a bar going across the top so as to mount my phone, or camera. In my goal to achieve such a look and feel I opted to change out my Liberty's handlebars for a set of BMX handlebars that I had on hand. I may very well change these out when I find my perfect Liberty bars, but until then I'll test these out.

Here is what I came up with.

* If you are going to attempt upgrading your handlebars, be sure of the following... 

1. Make sure the handlebars you choose are the same diameter of thickness as the stock bars, or you will need to add shims, or replace the headset stem.
2. Make sure the handlebars are wide enough to fit all the controls

**(In all honesty, I found out the hard way about the tips mentioned above, as this is the second set of bars I used, as the first weren't wide enough for all the controls to fit on)

Step 1.

Starting on the throttle side,  I removed the grip, throttle, brake and ebike controller

Step 2.

I proceeded to remove the display screen

Step 3.

I then removed the grip, brake, gear selector and bell off the opposite side.

Step 4.

Remove the handlebars, or remove the stem if your upgrading that as well.

(The 2020 Rize Liberty comes with 25.4mm handlebars and a 25.4mm x 28.6 stem, my BMX handlebars were 22.2mm, so I used shims to make up the difference. Another option would be to get a stem that was 22.2 mm x 28.6mm or you could go larger with MTB stem and handlebars combo which is typically 31.8mm x 28.6mm)

Step 5.

Pick your handlebars!

(Generally you want handlebars that have 7.5" or 190mm of space from the bend to the end of the handlebar. The first pair of handlebars I used were cut down and didn't have enough room for all the controls)

These are the bars I had on hand and went with. They are Haro BMX handlebars

Step 6.

Install you bars!

As my bars were 22.2mm I used shims to get the 25.4mm needed

Step 7.

(Basically go in reverse from step 3 to step 1)

Done.

My Thoughts.

While this is all subjective, I really feel more comfortable using BMX handlebars, as that's what I'm used too. Making sharp turns seems much easier with these handlebars, compared to the standard Liberty bars. In the future I'll change out the stem, and get handlebars that are a bit taller as these are short at 8.5" high. Also need to do some cable management work.

Hopefully this post has been helpful to those looking to change their 2020 Rize Liberty handlebars.