Tag: cycle touring
-
Introducing Yet Another Cycle Touring & Bikepacking YouTube Channel
So I’ve caved in to demand and rebooted my long-abandoned YouTube channel. Check it out here. This is a long-overdue experiment to see if my obsession with exploring the world by bike will translate into the short, informal video format. I have no more intention of becoming rich and famous on YouTube than I did when I created my first free Blogspot account in 2006. My articles seemed to help more people get out riding, so I kept writing them. Likewise, if these videos help more people get out riding, I might keep making them. Continue reading →
-
No Stupid Questions: Where To Buy Cycle Touring Maps Of Europe & Morocco?
A reader writes: Thanks for the questions! This fits into the more general topic of route planning for cycle touring. I don’t get as many questions as you might imagine on this subject, so there’s actually plenty to say here. 1. Where Can I Buy Cycle Touring Maps Of Europe & Morocco? Honestly, it has been quite a long time since I used paper maps for navigation while cycle touring! Even before the rise of the incredibly accurate and detailed digital maps we nowadays take for granted, paper maps at a level of detail needed for turn-by-turn navigating were never big… Continue reading →
-
No Stupid Questions: What’s The Best Route Planning & Campsite Finder App For Cycle Touring In The USA?
A reader writes: Are you familiar with [the Great American Rail Trail] at all? The route is currently about 55% off road and more complete in the east but there is an almost 1,000 [mile] gap through Montana and Wyoming. So my question is what app do you use when riding to find the best on-road [but] safe cycling conditions on the gap sections between trails? And do you have a favorite app to find accommodations: camping (preferred) or hotels on the route every few days? Thanks for the question! Let’s start with what might be called “dynamic” route planning for… Continue reading →
-
Warmshowers Launches New Website For 2024 (Hosts: Update Your Profiles!)
A quick heads-up for anyone who – like me – continues to use the nonprofit hospitality platform Warmshowers to find local hosts when cycle touring and bikepacking, and/or to host fellow riders. As the post title suggests, the all-new Warmshowers website was launched earlier this week, with implications for both tourers and hosts (to use Warmshowers’ own terminology). Continue reading →
-
A Full List Of Heavy Duty Touring Bikes For Round-The-World Rides
Following a ludicrous amount of research (by humans, not robots), I present to you a detailed spreadsheet of ultra-heavy-duty touring bikes being built and sold around the world, featuring bicycles from 44 builders in 9 countries on 3 continents, and links to each bike’s official webpage. The bikes in this list are not designed for short cycling holidays, nor for casual local bike tours (though they’d be fine for these kinds of cycle tour too). No: they’ve been designed specifically for extremely long, fully-loaded, self-sufficient bicycle journeys through remote parts of the world on challenging terrain over periods of time measured in years.… Continue reading →
-
Touring Bike FAQ #6: What’s The Best Way To Avoid Buying The Wrong Bike?
This is #6 in an ever-growing series of answers to frequently-asked questions about touring bikes. If you’re new here, why not start with #1: What Exactly Defines A Touring Bike? When it comes to actually buying the touring bike you’ve spent months researching, it can be tempting to start researching online retailers. After all, that’s how we buy everything else these days. Online-only bike retailers can often undercut high street bike shops by a large amount, for various reasons: Continue reading →
-
How To Travel For Free, Forever
A quick online search will find you endless blog posts entitled “how to travel for free”, “how to travel the world for free”, “how to travel forever”, and similar search-engine-optimised variations. Actually reading these articles, however, usually reveals that they are not really about free travel at all. Instead, they are – almost without exception – about how to earn money on the road, using tactics such as travel hacking, hospitality exchange networks and volunteering opportunities to avoid spending more than necessary. This, to me, is not travelling for free. At least, not in the sense that I wanted to explore when I… Continue reading →