Video: Packing Bromptons for Extended Tours

As we get ready to take off on the next leg of our adventure, we thought we’d make some videos showing how we pack and what we carry when we tour on the Bromptons. This is all the stuff we’ll need for months of touring in mild weather. Since we share resources and our tools of the trade are a little differnt, our packing methods aren’t exactly the same. So here they are back to back, how Laura packs and how I pack our Bromptons for extended touring.

Laura’s Packing Method


Russ’ Packing Method

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying our ebook Panniers and Peanut Butter, or our new 2012 calendar or some of the fun zombie apocalypse shirts we’re designing.)

A Portland Fall

Today we’re leaving Portland and won’t return until some indefinite time next year. Portland has a strange gravity for us. Anyone that has read our site long enough or follows us on Facebook knows that we always seem to be drawn back here. There are so many things about it that we love, like bikes, beer, food and especially our group of bikey friends.

Fall is here and winter is not too far behind. There’s talk of snow this weekend. The last few days I’ve been testing out some lenses and getting a feel for them. I’ve been enjoying the Fall in Portland and have been taking some photos to remember it.

In a few days, we’ll be to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving. And not too long after we’re going to be heading off on the next leg of our travels. Details aren’t solid yet, but once they’re set we’ll let you all know. For now, we’re enjoying the crispness in the air and that electric feeling of something great to come.

I’ve had some requests to make images available as prints, you can purchase some copies here.

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying our ebook Panniers and Peanut Butter, or our new 2012 calendar or some of the fun zombie apocalypse shirts we’re designing.)

Video Review: Mic Check (SEMA-1, Audio Technica Lavalier, Senn MKE 400)

I’ve been fine tuning our photography and video gear for our next leg of adventure. During the last few weeks, I’ve made a switch to the Olympus PEN system of cameras for stills and video (my D700 is still safely tucked away though). The PEN system, while not the best camera for every application, is excellent for travel. I’m planning to write up a longer review later after a few weeks of road testing the cameras. So far I’m pretty pleased. Just like how we’ve pushed the Brompton perhaps a little beyond its intended use, we are doing the same with the PENs. While they shoot video, they aren’t quite optimized for video. However, with a little creativity and understanding the limits of the system they seem to work pretty well. Of course, an important component of video is sound. In this video review, I try out the three mics I’ll be taking with us.

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Car-ody Shirts: Threads for Bike People

Our Zombie Apocalypse shirts have proven to be wildly popular! Thanks to everyone that ordered one. We never imagined that the shirts would do so well and it’s all helping us inch our way a little closer to New Zealand. I’m branching out to different shirts that will have a pro-bike message. Since we have a large contingency of readers who are bike advocates, I’ll be working on shirts that are a little transportation wonky (talk about a niche market!). So if you’re looking for some fun pro-bike shirts for yourself or for friends for the holidays, visit our Carody shirt section and the links below. The shirt sales keep us on the road and keep the site running!

After reading about Senator Boxer’s cuts to funding in a Federal highway bill and the inclusion of a clause that would create a mandatory sidepath law along Federal roads, I came up with this VOTE BIKES design. We’re at a time where we need to remind our elected officials that we bike AND we VOTE.

As we have been touring we have been taking a closer look at how bicycling can help local economies. With the limited range of bikes (not always a bad thing), people are more likely to support local businesses. With this idea in mind, I came up with the Bike Local. Buy Local design.

We love trains -Amtrak, light rail, HSR, etc., Perhaps not surprisingly, there aren’t a lot of shirts for transit aficionados. So I decided to reappropriate the popular X is for lovers slogan for rail with Trains are for Lovers.

And of course a few designs that poke fun at Zipcar and Smart cars : ) Visit our Carody shirt store!

Hope you enjoy the shirts and thanks again for supporting our travels. If you want a color combination that isn’t offered or have an idea for a shirt design, feel free to email us.

The Zombies are Here!

Ok, maybe not zombies, but our Zombie Apocalypse shirts have started shipping. We got ours the other day and have been really pleased with the print quality! The designs came out sharp and crisp.

If you haven’t been on the site lately, you maybe wondering what all this zombie business is about. My friends and some readers know that I’m a big fan of zombies (even before The Walking Dead series, I might add). After a rather annoying ZipCar ad that poked fun at cycling, I poked back making a graphic with the copy that read “The Zombie Apocalypse Will Not Be Motorized”. It was such a popular post on our Facebook page, that with the suggestions from some readers we designed the shirt. I loved the idea of playing with street sign iconography so have been modifying bike and pedestrian symbols to give it that understated transit nerd nod.

It has been a big hit and the sales help us ever forward with our goal of getting to New Zealand this winter. So thank you everyone that has been buying the shirts and spreading the word! If you’ve received your shirt, send us a photo of you wearing it and you’ll be entered to receive some other PathLessPedaled goodies we’re creating.

By popular demand, we’ve been making different cargo bike versions since we all know cargo bikes will rock the zombie apocalypse.

Check out the XtraZombie shirt.

There’s also a bakfeits version.

Of course, we had to do a special Brompton edition shirt with this logo on the back.

We’ve also started expanding the shirts beyond just zombies to fun shirts about bicycling, bicycle culture and of course, bike touring. So check out our shirt storefront and pick up some new threads. Funds from the sales help us keep going!

Enjoy the Ride

I HEART Bike Touring

Explore By Bike

Bike Local. Buy Local.

I Heart Camping

Thanks again for your support. We’re not independently wealthy and the nature of our lives and the path we’ve decided to take calls for some creative improvisation at times. We’re not following a set road map and are still feeling things out as we go along. We never thought we’d do shirts, but they have been such a big hit and so much fun to make and design!

Video Review: The Buff

It’s simple in design and it doesn’t look like much, but the Buff is one our essential bits of touring gear. The Buff, if you’re not familiar with it, is a seamless tube of cloth. However, you can wear it to cover your neck, your ears, your face, or use it as a sweat band or bandana, etc., In a pinch, you could use it to filter sediment out of water as a pre-filter, or as a towel or maybe fashion it into a sling or tourniquet (hope it never comes to that!). In this video, I review the wool Buff and their new headband Buff and show you OUR most common uses for them.

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Video Review: Vanguard Nivelo 204BK Tripod, Perfect Touring Tripod?

I have a love/hate relationship with tripods. I love the versatility of shooting options they create (low light, self portraits, or even raised above the head for an elevated view), but I really really dislike how bulky they are and how slow they are to setup and tear down. For video, having a tripod becomes more of a necessity. I recently picked up a new tripod that is shockingly small and lightweight for what it does. The Vanguard Nivelo 204BK is a pretty cool little ‘pod. While it is definitely not for everyone, I think it will work for the gear I’m carrying and the shooting I plan to do with it.

Folded up, it is pretty small at a length of only 11 3/4 inches and weighs only a little more than a pound. At full height it unfolds to 39 inches, so a little more than waist height for me. This will no doubt not work for everyone, but for my intended use, primarily shooting sit down interviews and getting B-roll of us riding together, it should work just fine. My favorite part about the tripod is it is really fast to deploy. It uses a system that I haven’t seen before to extend the legs. You merely twist the bottom foot and expand the leg and tighten it to lock the length. This is so much faster than undoing individual segments on a tripod. One big caveat is that it works best with small cameras (point and shoot or micro 4/3s). A DSLR with big glass is not recommended.

I’m pretty excited about it. We’ll see how it holds up for the long haul!If you plan on getting one, consider buying one through our Amazon affiliate store!

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying our ebook Panniers and Peanut Butter, or our new 2012 calendar or some of the fun zombie apocalypse shirts we’re designing.)

UPDATED:Video Review: Olympus EP3 vs. EPM1

Yep, that image was shot with a camera a little bigger than your average point and shoot.

If you were to weigh all the stuff I carry while touring, you’d be surprised to note that my actual camping/clothing gear only weighs about 35 lbs. The rest of the 50lbs I carry is electronics. I’ve been slowly chipping away at the weight of the electronic gear by swapping out a lighter laptop, cutting down the number of cameras, etc., A big part of the weight has always been my DSLR. I’ve been experimenting the last few weeks with the Olympus EP3 and EPM1 and have been pleasantly surprised. They are small rangefinder sized cameras that use the micro 4/3rds system. While not having the same image quality as say a full frame DSLR, depending on your use and application, it may be all the camera you need.

In the video, I compare the EP3 and EPM1, two cameras on the opposite ends of the Olympus m43 systems. Interestingly, they use the same sensor so should produce the same image quality. The difference is in the body and handling. Watch the video and you might be surprised at the results. For full disclosure, I purchased the EP3 but was sent the EPM1 by Olympus as part of their PEN Ready project.

If you liked the video and want to get your own, consider buying from our Amazon affiliate store and we’ll get some coffee money. I’ve created a curated list of what I think would make the ideal travel camera kit.

Get the EP3 if:
-you want direct actress to features through buttons and dials
-plan to use manual focus lenses through adaptors (ie Leica, OM, Nikon, Canon FD, etc.,)
-the bigger and nicer LED screen is important to you

Get the EPM1 if:
-you’re on a budget
-if you can live with having to access the menu to change settings
-if you value weight over external controls

EDIT: A reader pointed out to me that you CAN access the focus magnification on the EPM1 by assigning it to the REC button. This didn’t dawn on me to do, because you lose the ability to shoot video with the button. That said, if you were doing JUST stills at the moment with a manual lens, then the REC button as a manual focus assist will work!

For more sample pictures of the EP3 and EPM1, check out this Flickr set where I shoot a cyclocross race with both cameras.

UPDATE: Just added a short video I shot from the same cross race in the Flickr group. Not too bad for the little PEN cameras.

UPDATE: Another video test. This time making coffee with the Hario Slim Mill : ).

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying our ebook Panniers and Peanut Butter, or our new 2012 calendar or some of the fun zombie apocalypse shirts we’re designing.)

Fall in Oregon

One of the things I never really experienced growing up in Southern California was Fall. For a kid in Los Angeles, I pretty much only remember two seasons: hot summer and warm summer. Concepts like Fall and Spring completely eluded me, except for the fact that, around October, there would be an explosion of orange and yellow in the supermarket or mall. That’s what counts for seasons sometimes. It has been a nice treat to have a real fall in one place and witness the leaves change and the air get crisper every morning.

I dusted off my trusty Surly, the bike that took me through our first 15 months of touring. It needed some air and some minor adjustments but otherwise it was in perfect working condition. Hopping on the Surly after months of riding the Brompton was strange. The bike, at first, felt slow to steer and a little sluggish out of the gate, but after a few miles I remembered why we picked the LHTs in the first place. They are great bikes. Workhorses. The sort of bike I would recommend without reservation. Sure, there are fancier bikes out there with custom doodads, but for a solid and reliable touring bike that won’t break the bank, the LHT is tough to beat.

I’ve been riding up a hill that leads to some radio towers close to Laura’s mom’s house to get my climbing legs back. It’s a decent climb, not too steep, not too long, but enough to get the blood pumping. The roads here are great for cycling. They are small country roads with little traffic and beautiful scenery. The climb up to the radio tower has some twists and turns as it undulates to the top. The trees leaning over the road are changing color and provide pleasant distraction from the climb.

When you reach the crest of the hill there is a small parking lot and dirt roads going in either direction. These are completely closed to traffic and, when you ride, all you hear is the crackle of gravel beneath your tires and your own breathing. In a couple of minutes, you’re completely enveloped by trees and all those worrying voices in your head die down. This is beautiful. As long as there are places like this and as long as you can get to them, you will be alright.

When I feel like I’ve been refreshed, I turn and ride down the hill, letting the brakes go as long as I dare. The Surly is solid beneath me and my eyes start to tear up from the air rushing by. It is still mostly country out here, but the vestiges of human activity and busyness appear.

Before too long, I too am in the thick of it again, sitting behind a computer doing the things we do to keep our trip going. As the colors change from green to orange, we know that a wet grey winter will follow and our hopes are to be in New Zealand soon.

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying our ebook Panniers and Peanut Butter, or our new 2012 calendar or some of the fun zombie apocalypse shirts we’re designing.)

2012 PathLessPedaled Calendar

We just finished laying out our new calendar with our favorite images from our Big Adventure Small Wheels trip! It’s crazy to think that this is our third calendar! Every year we have the tall order of searching through literally thousands of images to find twelve that will make our calendar. It’s a mix of color and B&W images that we hope capture the nature of our trip. It makes a unique gift (don’t think there is another calendar out there that shows people touring on Bromptons!) for your bike touring buddies and readers of the site. As always, calendar sales help us continue our journey. We’re running an early-bird special for the month of October and are offering them at a 10% discount.

Order yours today and help us get to New Zealand!