Category: Philosophy Of Travel
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There Is No Better Time To Be Planning Your Next Dream Cycling Adventure
Now is probably not the best time to be setting off on a globetrotting bike trip. But as we’ve all discovered over the last few months, upheavals can create the ideal conditions for change – including changing the way you think. Amid much uncertainty and, yes, real hardship and trauma, this year has brought with it a priceless opportunity to reimagine the paths we’ve been travelling through life, and to redirect those elements of our futures we can control towards newly-reconsidered destinations. That’s why – even if your departure date remains to-be-confirmed, and even if the places you’re thinking of going are… Continue reading →
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About The Time I Upcycled A Vintage Hardtail For Bikepacking & Rode It Across Armenia
In the months leading up to Bikepacking Armenia, I thought long and hard about whether to get myself a shiny new ‘bikepacking rig’ for the trip. Since I was in the UK for a few weeks in May, I took the opportunity to test-ride a Sonder Frontier with Adventure Pedlars in the Peak District. I tried out a Surly Karate Monkey at the Cycle Touring Festival, and I began mentally drafting my friends at Kona an email to see if they had a spare Unit X lying around. These bikes all fitted the current vogue for adventure bikes – all-terrain geometry,… Continue reading →
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The Curious Truth About How Bicycle Touring Extends Your Life
I was over at the Adventure Pedlars bunkhouse the other day, chatting with the owner Pete about all things long-distance cycling, when he told a story that really resonated with me. When he and his wife Alice were nearing the end of their big honeymoon ride from the UK to New Zealand, and were crossing Australia with not an awful lot to do, he said, they’d gone back over the journey that had got them there and found that they could mentally ‘re-run’ the entire trip, remembering each and every day’s events: where they’d cycled, who they’d met, what they’d eaten… Continue reading →
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Как отправиться в кругосветное путешествие на велосипеде: три простых шага
Шаг 1. Раздобудьте велосипед. Какой именно — не имеет значения. Главное, чтобы он был удобным и исправным. В любом случае, без велосипеда вы далеко не уедете. Шаг 2. Увольтесь.* На путешествие потребуется несколько лет, так что напишите своему начальству в заявлении на увольнение о том, что вам, конечно, очень жаль уходить с работы, но у вас есть более важные дела. * если вы студент, пенсионер или безработный, то этот шаг можно смело пропустить. Шаг 3. Отправляйтесь в путь. У вас не получится объехать весь свет, если вы никуда не поедете. Поэтому закрепите на велосипеде палатку и спальный мешок, попросите соседей приглядывать… Continue reading →
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What’s Really The Difference Between Bikepacking & Cycle Touring?
Over the last few years we have seen the rise of a new sub-discipline of bicycle travel. It’s called ‘bikepacking’, and it’s become such a hit that almost every mainstream bike manufacturer now produces at least one ‘adventure bike’ or ‘bikepacking rig’, or includes the word in their marketing spiel for bikes that might fit the bill. Specialised bikepacking luggage, too, has proliferated, from a few cottage industries turning out bespoke, hand-stitched frame bags to pannier giant Ortlieb launching a line. Someone I know who helps run a bikepacking website told me they get over one million hits per month. (For comparison,… Continue reading →
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How Has Cycle Touring Changed In The Last 10 Years?
Picture, if you will, the classic young middle class white male embarking on a heroic journey of self-discovery, straight out of the modern liberal all-about-me mould. Ten years ago, now… wow. Was that really me? Today I’m tweaking the gears before embarking upon the latest chapter of my life as a serial bicycle traveller. And from the comfort of this air-conditioned coffee shop in Hat Yai, Thailand, it hasn’t escaped my attention that the world I’m setting out into is very different to that of a decade ago. Much of the basic stuff of cycle touring is timeless, as even… Continue reading →
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How Does Cycle Touring Actually Work?
This post is part of a series of inspirational short essays exploring the who, what, when, where and how of cycle touring and bikepacking. Like all adventures, bicycle travel’s basic requirement is one of the modern world’s most scarce and valuable resources: time. Create time for a bicycle journey and you have already set the stage for a unique and unforgettable experience. And we all know what must happen for time to be created: It must be reclaimed from other parts of our lives. Work is the biggest time-eater of all, of course. So some of us will use our… Continue reading →
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Where Is It Possible To Travel By Bicycle?
This post is part of a series of inspirational short essays exploring the who, what, when, where and how of cycle touring and bikepacking. One of the most wonderful things about cycle touring and bikepacking is this: You are no longer restricted to anyone else’s idea of a place worth going to. In fact, you have an enviable degree of freedom from the usual structures of tourism. And you get to decide on your own focus for travel, rather than feigning interest in what guidebooks and travel blogs assume everyone must be interested in. Pedalling requires no services or facilities other than… Continue reading →
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When Can You Go Cycle Touring?
This post is part of a series of inspirational short essays exploring the who, what, when, where and how of cycle touring and bikepacking. The ‘when’ of setting off on a bike trip is an easy one: as soon as you would like. That might be next summer, when you’ve got the the equipment sorted, the route planned out, and the weather is optimal. It might be in a couple of years’ time, when you’ve saved a huge chunk of cash, quit your job, sold your house and are ready to begin your brand new life on the road. Or it… Continue reading →
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Who Can Go On A Bicycle Tour? (Hint: Not Only Cyclists)
This post is part of a series of inspirational short essays exploring the who, what, when, where and how of cycle touring and bikepacking. It is sometimes assumed that cycle touring is the exclusive domain of the lean and lycra-clad. Since when did a ‘normal’ person get on a bike and routinely crank out between fifty and a hundred miles a day without breaking a sweat? That requires fitness, and therefore training, and therefore a passion for sport and competition, and determination and pain. Which seemingly only describes a talented and slightly masochistic elite of cyclists. Except those baseline assumptions are false.… Continue reading →