Page Background:
This site is the marriage between 2 great new innovations... Mountain Biking and the World Wide Web.
I am a Mountain Biker who earned his bike money as a Software Engineer so this page comes naturally. From it's
humble beginnings with 3 sections and clip art, the site has flourished to what it is today.
Like most bikers, I've tried a dizzying array of mountain bike parts. I've made mistakes and come across
some real finds. Unfortunately, most of these parts and bikes are by no means cheap so mistakes can be
unpleasant.
I feel that every rider is a valuable resource, with all the components they've tried and all the conditions
they've ridden in. Thus, I am attempting to provide a forum where we can all share our experiences and
ideas about our sport.
Francis Cebedo (My Home Page)
Founder, MTB Review
March, 1996
Notes:
March 12, 1996 - The MTB Review website is born and starts with only 3 sections with clip-art.
200-300 unique visitors and about 10-15 reviews a day. I'm impressed!
The first month for this page came to a close
on April 12. We got 4200 unique hits according to my counter (the real number is closer to 6000) and we got 190 reviews. I got feedback
from about 30 people with some great suggestions and all 100% positive!
April 22, 1996 - Since MTB Review became a 'Yahoo Cool Site'![[*]](yahoo_shades.gif)
, we've been getting as much as 500
hits during weekdays!!!.
May 6, 1996 - MTB Review reaches 10,000 hits. 382 Reviews and counting...
May 16, 1996 - 30 reviews in one day! Total is 481 reviews plus many many dream bikes.
May 28, 1996 - MTB Review is getting charged an extra $75-$100 by the server (Webcom) because of high
traffic. Note: Do not use Webcom Corp. unless you want to get ripped off.
May 29, 1996 - MTB Review gets it's own domain... www.mtbr.com is moved to a new server provided
by Best Communications.
May 31, 1996 - The first Review Posting Contest is launched!!!
June 3, 1996 - MTBR gets about 800 visitors in one day and about 100 new reviews!
June 7, 1996 - Replaced the stats page with a super cool, automatically generated one by Wusage.
The old, manual stats can be found here.
June 10, 1996 - According to our research, MTBR is now the most visited Mountain Biking
web site in the world. HURRAH!!!
June 14, 1996 - MTBR becomes a "Hot Site Pick" by Bike World.
June 17, 1996 - 1000 reviews. WOW!!!
June 18, 1996 - MTBR is chosen by Cyber Cyclery as the "Cool Site of the Week."
June 28, 1996 - The web site work is taking a toll on my body. My right hand gets Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
June 30, 1996 - The first contest has come to a close. The response has catapulted our page to the
top of it's class. Thank to all!
July 27, 1996 - The first fully automated sections are released: MTB Tech Talk and MTB Passion
Aug 15, 1996 - The site is gets about 1200 weekday visitors and upgrades to 400 megabytes of data transfer per day.
Sept 5, 1996 - The Dream Bike, Product Spotlight, and One-on-One sections become automated.
Sept 9, 1996 - MTBR gets it's 100,000th visitor. WOW!!!
Sept 10, 1996 - The Hall of Fame and Hall of Shame are now computed and generated daily. Special
thanks goes to Tim Lee - Programmer Extraordinare!
Sept 15, 1996 - MTBR's new site design is rolled out with rave reviews!...thanks to Raymond Galang - our graphic designer
Sept 19, 1996 - Bontrager Cycles signs-up as the FIRST advertiser for MTB Review!!!
Sept 20, 1996 - MTBR delivers live Interbike Expo coverage from the Anaheim Convention Center
Oct 1, 1996 - MTBR gets about 1800 visitors and moves about 500 megs of data daily.
Jan. 31, 1997 - MTBR gets it's 300,000th visitor.
Mar 12 - MTBR's One Year Anniversary. 3000 visitors a day and over 30,000 web pages are displayed daily.
April 20 - 500,000 visitors. 10,000 Product Reviews. 1.2 Gigabytes of daily traffic.
May 16 - Chuck Espiritu comes on board as MTBR's marketing and sales guy.
June 1 - MTBR begins appearing in Wired, Mountain Biking, and other popular magazines.
Aug 10 - Automated product review ratings and sorting capability is integrated into the product listings.
Sept 5 - MTBR gets it's 1,000,000th visitor while we're in the Anaheim Convention Center delivering live coverage of the Interbike Expo.
Sept 23 - MTBR's Virtual Trade Show Tour and Interbike coverage captures the attention of thousands of visitors worldwide. MTBR receives praise from Bicycle Retailer and Industry News for
providing outstanding internet coverage of Interbike.
Some Visitor Comments:
"Please keep this up, you have the very best , most informative
and interactive MTB site on the WWW. The information, reviews, and
Tech Talk is much needed so we don't have to rely on the biased press
to tell us what to buy."
--Paul Sibek
I appreciate all your comments. Send to: Francis Cebedo
