Long story short, we're giving the following away:

1 x CycleOps Hammer Direct Drive Trainer
1 x Powertap P1 Power Pedals
1 x Saris SuperClamp EX2-Bike
1 x Xterra Stand Up Paddleboard
5 x Xterra Lava Shorts
8 x Xterra Waterproof Backpack

So, 17 chances to win. How do you win? You look at the sidebar on the right. (Or, if you're on a handheld, at the bottom.) You'll see, in red letters somewhere in there, "Slowtwitch Circ Drive." Put your email in. You'll be entered in the raffle for the prizes above, and you'll be on my mailing list for super cheap discounts that Slowtwitch digs up.

(Thousands of folks have recently - last week, this week, and over the last couple of months - responded to really steep discounts on discrete mailers from us, because they responded to a Circ Drive. Were you among them? Another such discrete email goes out next week.)

This is the first of 3 editions of our annual Slowtwitch Circ Drive. Here's why this Circ Drive exists, and the terms of it.

If I'm to tell you the unvarnished truth, this Circ Drive exists because Facebook lured businesses in with the promise of an unobtrusive way to send alerts customers, only to pull the rug out from under those businesses. These companies are therefore abandoning reliance on the Facebook pathway and want to talk to you directly. Consequently, you and I can’t go to a website without being asked to join a mailing list, usually with a big pop up I have to click to get rid of.

This got me thinking. Since you're going to get hit up with mailing list prompts anyway, could we make that process a little more attractive for you the user?

I asked myself, who treats my email address with care? Who doesn't spam the living Jeebus out of me? Who makes products I want? I went to these companies and asked, what's it worth to you? Will you give us products to give away in a raffle? Or, give our readers a one-time discount in exchange for their email?

And so began the annual Slowtwitch Circ Drives. We'll have 3 of these over the next few weeks, and depending on the company you'll either get yourself entered in a raffle, or you'll be eligible for a discount, or something else. In all cases, any brand that's a part of our circ drives is giving something back in exchange for getting your email address.

What happens if you enter this Circ Drive?

1. You'll be on our own email list, which means getting our Slowtwitch Weekly Newsletter (which you probably already get).

2. You'll be on a special subset of our mailing list that gets emails from us when we come across a big discount that either we, or a manufacturer, or a retailer, wants to keep on the down-low.

3. You'll be part of (in this case) the Xterra Wetsuits and Saris (Powertap, CycleOps, Saris) communities. In each case, with all of us, you can unsubscribe at any time.