Category: Touring Advice
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Why There’s No Kit List On My Adventure Cycle Touring Blog
One of the features you’ll find on any self-respecting adventure cycle tourist’s blog is a ‘kit list’ page. Usually published in the name of providing useful information, and occasionally as bait for search engines and to earn money through affiliate links, this page is the place where the rider lists bicycle components and the contents of panniers in unfettered detail. (It’s usually to be found alongside a route map and tour budget breakdown.) Despite the amount of riding I’ve done, I’ve avoided published such a list for as long as possible. Here are a few of the many reasons why this is… Continue reading →
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Last Chance To Buy The Most Popular Cycle-Touring Tent On The Planet
A few weeks ago I conducted a survey of the most popular tent for cycle touring. I did this by sending out a ton of emails to people I knew had covered vast distances by bicycle, and seeing what they said. (Real-world experience wins over gear nerds on the internet, right?) The results — a few hundred of them within the space of a few days — were conclusive. Cutting directly to the chase, by far and away the overall most popular tent to take along on a bike trip was this one: Continue reading →
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The Deeply Misunderstood Nature Of On-The-Road Hospitality
During a recent post-film Q&A, someone stood up and said: “You said you received a lot of hospitality wherever you went, and that people were always happy to give you food and shelter, even those with very little to give.” So far so good. “But didn’t you feel like you were just taking advantage of people the whole time?” Oh. A loaded question. Got you. Thank you very much for asking, madam. Continue reading →
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5 Keys To Relationship Preservation As A Couple On A Cycle Tour
Today’s guest post is from Simon Thompson, who I nagged to share his experiences of travelling with a significant other. He’s generously entertained my whim and turned in an extremely useful rundown of survival tips for intrepid couples. Take it away, Simon! Prior to our ‘big trip’, my girlfriend Ruth and I lived in different cities. And, because of my job, when we weren’t living in different cities we lived on different continents. Ours was a weekend relationship punctuated with several three or four month periods of complete separation. By the time we left for our five-month bike trip through South… Continue reading →
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Self-Employment: A Life-Changing Tool for Freedom & Adventure?
I am not a rich man in the traditional sense. (Money…? What’s that?) But self-employment has given me enough of the modern world’s most scarce resource — time — to have spent my twenties on the kind of adventures that most cash-rich, time-poor nine-to-fivers can only dream about. I believe that embracing self-employment (not necessarily poverty, I might add) has the potential to unlock unlimited doors to adventure for a great many people. Continue reading →
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Why Tents Suck, And Some Alternative Ways To Camp On A Cycle Tour
The tent is one of the mainstays of adventure bicycle travel. It was the revolutionary idea of taking my own accommodation with me that largely fuelled my decision to travel under my own steam on two wheels. A good tent will provide shelter in a broad variety of climates and weather conditions for many years. But it wasn’t long after I began my first journey that I realised something: I really disliked actually sleeping in a tent. To all in-tents (sorry) and purposes, sleeping in a tent is the same as sleeping indoors. It is a retreat from the natural world to… Continue reading →
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Biologic ReeCharge: A Dynamo-Powered USB Charger for Smartphones & More
Since the start of this year I’ve been making extensive use of a nifty on-the-road power solution from Taiwanese manufacturer Biologic called the ‘ReeCharge’. It’s billed as an effective — and environmentally respectful — way to put your pedalling efforts to use in keeping your smartphone, GPS or other USB-powered device charged while on the road. I’ve given it a thorough road-test over the last few months (mainly while riding the Tern Link P24h folding tourer), and I’ll be talking in-depth about my experiences with it in this article. I’ll also talk about a couple of unusual alternative solutions I’ve come… Continue reading →
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Microadventure: Touring the Netherlands on a Recumbent Bike (Part 2)
This is Part Two of an account of touring the Netherlands and the UK by recumbent bike. Click here for Part One. I gingerly lowered myself onto Challenge Bikes’ ‘Hurricane’ recumbent touring bike, lay back against the full-size padded seat, and swung the pivoting handlebar assembly towards me from its resting position. For a vehicle that looked like a deck-chair on wheels, it absolutely felt like sitting on a deck-chair on wheels. (I don’t know about you, but I’d choose a deck chair over a bicycle saddle any day. Yep, even over a Brooks.) Continue reading →
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Kona Sutra 2014 Preview
UPDATE: My full review of the 2014 Sutra is now online and supersedes this preview. Check it out here. In 2012 I took a cross-section of the best and most popular mid-range road touring bikes and singled out the Kona Sutra as the one I wanted to take on a long-term test for my ride down the U.S. West Coast. I had a good working relationship with the Kona crew and suggested a few tweaks that would optimize a future incarnation, some of which were suggested by blog readers. Behold the 2013 Sutra, which incorporated all of these changes and made… Continue reading →
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Iranian & Central Asian Visas for Cycle Tourists Riding East
One of the things I get emailed about most frequently is how to get Iranian and Central Asian visas. Bicycle adventurers heading east, no matter how spontaneous, inevitably have to think further ahead once Istanbul looms near. Many touring cyclists have published strings of elaborate blog posts detailing their torment at the hands of these nations’ bureaucrats. But it’s really not such a big deal. Especially if you are one of the elite few on this Earth to hold a Western — British, American, Canadian, Australian, EU, etc — passport. (If that’s you, please sit back for a few seconds, close your eyes, and… Continue reading →