Client site · WordPress · Claude Code · 2026
See it live: bikeintelligencer.com (opens in new tab)
The problem
I last redesigned Bike Intelligencer in 2019, and it showed. It was good for its time, but plugins were no longer supported and lots of updates were required. Under the hood it was running a premium plugin whose license expired in 2021, 23 active plugins, a main menu printed three times in every page, and buttons at 1.4:1 contrast (the minimum is 4.5:1). There was no budget for premium plugins or templates.
The approach
I asked for four design directions, built as real HTML pages from Paul's own posts and photos, so I could click through them instead of squinting at pictures. I picked one for the homepage and another for the articles, and kept the mountain-and-rider logo. It only existed as a 70-pixel-tall PNG, so Claude traced it into a clean vector. Then I set up a staging site, logged in, and let Claude work in the admin. It listed every step first and recorded every original setting, so anything could be undone. Real WordPress exposed what the mockups couldn't (Paul's six sticky posts made the homepage hero 6,572 pixels tall!), and the theme went through 18 versions that afternoon, each one checked in the browser at desktop and phone width. It's a child theme on free GeneratePress, with no premium plugins at all. I also built it for Paul's return: the homepage hero is always the newest post, there's a quick-post pattern for a short ride report, and every article has a "next story shows up here" slot.
The result
The new design went live the evening of the same day, and the cleanup kept going after launch. Active plugins went from 23 to 12, and the expired premium plugin is gone. A long article like "The Truth About Oakridge" went from 58 to a typical 87–95 on PageSpeed mobile, with its main image showing up in about three seconds instead of ten and a half. In PageSpeed Insights, the homepage's accessibility, best practices and SEO scores all reached 100. On a phone, the homepage is 42% less scrolling. Old video embeds that had quietly stopped working, Flash ones included, now play in a modern player (112 checked on the live site). A short-link plugin that had been showing an error page since PHP 8 was replaced by a few lines in the theme, and 953 posts and pages got search descriptions, up from 2. Spending on premium plugins and templates: $0.
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Active plugins | 23 | 12 |
| Premium plugins | 1, license expired 2021 | none |
| PageSpeed mobile, "The Truth About Oakridge" | 58 | 87–95 |
| Main image on screen, same article | 10.5 s | about 3 s |
| Homepage length on a phone | 100% | 58% |
| Old video embeds, Flash included | stopped working | play (112 checked) |
| Short-link plugin | error page since PHP 8 | a few lines in the theme |
| Posts and pages with search descriptions | 2 | 953 |
Aside Without AI this would have taken me at least a week.