Leave the Minivan at Home This Summer

I recently got a chance to go on another bike camping trip with CycleWild. This one was billed as a family friendly trip and three families attended. It was great to see such a wide array of bikes from Bromptons to Yubas to bikes hauling trailers – not your typical touring steeds. I took some photos and wrote a post about the trip for BikePortland. I took a look at my footage and there wasn’t enough for a full episode, but I did want to cut a short and sweet vignette to show people what it looks/feels like to do a bike overnight especially with a family. (Vimeo version of the video)

Help Support A US Bicycle Route System!

Things have been a little quiet on the site lately, but that is because we’ve been busy getting settled in Portland. After a month and a half of couch surfing we finally moved into an apartment with a roommate. As we get situated, one of our goals is to advocate for bike travel. One component of that is making sure there are safer intercity roads for cyclists and Adventure Cycling’s US Bicycle Route System is instrumental to that end. They are doing a fundraiser this month and need your support. Since our main asset on the site is storytelling, I decided to create a real short animated video about why we support USBRS.

Organizing a project of this scale is a kin to cat herding on a national level and we’re glad that Ginny Sullivan of Adventure Cycling is taking it on. A US Bicycle Route system doesn’t just benefit bicycle tourists, but local communities as well. We saw this first hand in New Zealand with their cycle trail network. Many routes that were built for tourists were being widely used by local residents. Go to their fundraising page and support them today.

Pedaler’s Fair Round-Up

For the last few years, Seattle cyclists have always looked on with envy at BikeCraft, Portland’s bikey craft show. For the uninitiated, you could buy everything from clothing, rain capes, art prints, bike mustaches to coloring books at BikeCraft. This weekend, a few handmade bike gear makers who were tired of waiting for something to happen organized their own show, Pedaler’s Fair. Put on by Ryan from GoMeansGo and Jason, Martina and Sonia from Swift Industries , Pedaler’s Fair was Seattle’s first independent bike show outside of the very large Seattle Bike Expo. The venue was a working studio space for several makers and lent an industrial feel to the show.

In total, there were 23 very diverse vendors from some frame builders, clothing makers and even a high end furniture maker that included bicycle parts in his design. Some highlights from the show:

Haulin Colin is well known in the Seattle bike scene, particularly for his work with cargo bikes. At the show he debuted a non-destructive cycle truck conversion kit. Think of it as the Xtracycle for front loaders! We have an affinity towards cycle truck and think of them as more of an Everyman’s long-john that can still be transit friendly. This conversion kit will be something to watch in the coming months.

The beautiful and functional furniture of Independent Woodworks caught our eye. Jesse had some amazing wall mounted shelving units that held up bikes to cabinetry that had cogs as handles and crank arms as feet.

Another standout was John from HighAbove who has been working with Cuben Fiber, a sort of super fabric that is stronger and lighter than Cordura. He had on display some wares using Cuben from a “touring wallet” which weighed a scant 7.51 grams. John also had a rucksack and some classy computer cages made with an oil-cloth on the exterior. He hinted at making panniers from Cuben with carbon fiber hardware that would weigh less than an Ortlieb!

Swift Industries had their Bilenky cargo bike out with all their latest wares, including lots of multi-colored rando bags and even a brightly colored Brompton bag! One small item that I was pretty excited about was some pocket kites that Jason’s dad is making. We are big fans of bringing non-bike related items along to introduce some fun while bike touring and these pocket kites are perfect.

Another notable mention was T’s Leatherworkz. Tarik, a full-time chef and bike aficionado is just entering the bike craft industry and is making brightly colored leather fenders with rivets. They look great and last long (with some proper proofhiding) even in Seattle’s wet weather. He has a brand that he heats up on a stove at home to burn in his signature T. At $19 per flap, they are a steal!

We gave a presentation to about 30-40 people about our travels and got to meet some longtime readers. It is always a special treat when we get a chance to talk to someone who has been following for the last three years. During the event, I did some bike portraits for show attendees.

Even though it was only the first year of Pedaler’s Fair, the organizers managed to put together a really great bike event. Perhaps the true measure of its success was the diversity of cyclists that showed up. Seattle has a reputation for a really stratified bike community with very little overlap. However, at Pedaler’s Fair roadies, commuters, family bikers, cargo bikers, bike polo and fixie kids were all in the same room celebrating cycling in all its forms together. Can’t wait for next year.

A Different Kind of Bike Overnight

On Monday, we boarded an Amtrak bus from Portland with our Bromptons – but this time we weren’t going bike camping. In fact, we left our well-worn camping gear at home, in exchange for shirts with collars and buttons and nice shoes. We were embarking on a completely different kind of bike overnight. We were going to Salem, Oregon’s capital, to the Oregon Active Transportation Summit, to give a presentation about our experience with the Otago Central Rail Trail in New Zealand to a roomful of some of the state’s brightest bike and active transportation advocates. Yes, we were a bit nervous.

We’ve been traveling more or less constantly for three years by bicycle. In that time, we have always viewed our trip through an advocacy lens. We love bikes. We love bike travel and we want more people to do it. To this end, we gave presentations across the country about the lessons we learned about bike touring. However, the more we traveled, we saw that the next logical step of the puzzle, after inspiring people to try bike touring, is to inspire businesses and rural communities to embrace bike travelers. So this week, we took our first step in the new role we hope to forge for ourselves. We are changing hats from being active bicycle tourists to advocates for bicycle travel. What this will look like, exactly, we are not quite sure. In many ways we are still winging it like we were while we were traveling. One thing we do know is that the voice of touring cyclists, especially the upcoming younger generation, has to be heard. What are their wants and needs? Is it different from the touring cyclists of 1970s? How can we make the experience better? How can we inspire communities to embrace bicycle touring? What other groups and organizations have to be engaged?

For our first public presentation with our new hats, we were in some pretty esteemed company. We shared a panel with long-time Oregon bike advocate Scott Bricker, Jerry Norquist from Cycle Oregon, and Kristin Dahl from Travel Oregon. We presented our findings from our New Zealand trip to a full room, focusing on what we thought were the successes and important lessons from the Otago Central Rail Trail.

Laura and the audience watch our video on the Otago Central Rail Trail on the big screen.

Our videos were a hit, and I think we gave everyone in the room a new vision of what bicycle travel could look like. It was stressful but it was fun and fulfilling. After the presentation, we got a chance to meet with advocates (a lot of whom were readers as well!) about our future plans. The personal highlight for me, was when I talked about the importance of transit and bicycle travel and questioned why it was so difficult to get from Portland (a super bikey city) to Bend (another bikey city) without driving. There are bus services, but they make it an absolute nightmare to take a bicycle on board. It was obvious by the crowd response that it was something that many people had thought about as well.

We’re updating from our hotel room in Salem, dead tired after two intense days of talking bikes, transit and active transportation. For those who are afraid our bike traveling days are behind us, don’t be. We still fully intend to continue to travel by bike, but now we are hoping to more fully engage the communities we are going to ride through. So stay tuned and we hope you join us on the next phase of our constantly evolving journey.

Bicycle Tourism Interview: Kevin Hague

While in New Zealand we had the pleasure to talk to a few members of parliament. Perhaps one of the most vocal champions of bicycling is Kevin Hague, who also happens to be a keen bicycle tourist himself. We visited Kevin at his home in Greymouth and talked to him about his role and vision of the New Zealand Cycle Trail network. A few things emerge from the interview, the importance of making cycling cross party lines, the importance of cycling to local economies and some unexpected benefits outside of tourism that the new cycle trails are creating.

Gear: Reflecting about Cycling Mirrors

There was recently a flurry about mirrors on our Facebook Page after I posted an Amazon link to the Take-A-Look mirror. Opinions on mirrors are varied. Some swear by them, others think they are the epitome of Fred-om and a fashion abomination. Say what you will, we think they’re infinitely useful and are an underrated safety tool.

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Home At Last

How long will we keep traveling? What does home look like? These are questions that have been weighing heavy on our minds for the last few months. Since 2009, when we first sold everything to hit the road, we’ve been mentally on the move, stopping in cities for periods of time but never feeling settled. We gave up on the traditional concept of home as a collection of rooms to store your stuff. Home, for us, became each other -as long as Laura and I were together we were at home. We were happy with that definition and it kept us going even as we camped between sand dunes, froze our tails off, and rambled around the bottom edge of the world.

Today we got off the bus in Portland, the end of the line after three weeks of visiting family and friends after returning from New Zealand. We spent a few days with my family in Los Angeles, a few days in Palm Springs with Laura’s dad, a few days with friends in Santa Monica, a few days in Corvallis with Laura’s mom, and now… here. Home. Definitions are fluid because we change as people. For us, home is also where your community is. It is friends. And it is something we’ve sorely missed.

We’ve decided to put some roots down in Portland. Of all the cities we’ve visited, Portland draws us back every time. It is an exciting city to be a cyclist and we’ve made many great friends here. It is also a hot bed of cycling innovation and thinking. The dream of constant travel is alluring and we’re so thankful that we got a chance to see what it was like for ourselves. We’ve learned that for us, travel is a different life, not a better life. You experience so much, but it also exacts its cost.

So that begs the question, what now? We’re switching gears from being bicycle travelers to being advocates for bicycle travel. There are so many plans and projects that we dreamed up while on the road that are difficult to grow while constantly moving. We will still go on trips and continue to film, photograph and write about them; the only difference is that, at the end of it all, we’ll have a home base of operations. I’ve always looked at things through an advocacy lens on our travels and it has been fascinating to witness what works and what doesn’t. It’s time to connect the dots. It’s time to bring together the different ideas we’ve seen about promoting cycling, bicycle tourism and travel – and make our contribution.

So stay tuned folks. We many not be actively traveling at the moment, but the wheels are always moving forward.

(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 2012 2012 calendar or some of the fun bike-themed t-shirts we’re designing.)

What is Bicycle Travel?

YouTube version of the video.

Three years ago, almost to the day, we left our then-home of Long Beach, CA, on what would turn out to be a fateful bike trip to Joshua Tree. By the time we had returned home, we knew that we would soon be selling everything we owned and leaving on an incredible adventure. Never would we have dreamt that such a decision would lead us down this amazing path – or that it would open so many opportunities to show the inherent joys of bicycle travel.

A blast from the past. Having a picnic on one of our early tours.

Our time in New Zealand disappeared astoundingly fast, and now we are back in Southern California, figuring out our plans for the rest of this year. While we are still wrapping our heads around everything that happened and all that we learned (particularly in terms of bike economics), we are more convinced than ever of the benefits of bicycle travel.

In another couple weeks, we’ll be heading up to Portland, Oregon, which will be our home base this summer. It may sound counter-intuitive, but we’ve decided to step back from the continuous movement of the past year(s), so that we can promote bicycle travel in new ways and to more people. As we’ve been traveling, we’ve been making hundreds of mental notes about projects we want to work on that would help inspire other people to travel by bike and support bike travel. The time to act on these ideas, we’ve realized, is now.

While we won’t be actively traveling, we’ll still be here on this site, sharing many of the stories that haven’t yet made it online. We’ll also be taking our enthusiasm for bicycle travel off the website and to various events around the US. A lot of the details are still in the works, but you can expect a number of opportunities to meet up and hear us speak.

After 4,000 loaded touring miles on our Bromptons, we also want to share all that we’ve learned about adventure travel on these sturdy little bikes. We’ve been hinting about this book for some time, but we’re committed to finishing it over the next short while. (If there’s something you want to know, email us!)

And don’t forget the videos! The Kiwi Chronicles will certainly not be the last series of short videos we make about bicycle travel. We had an incredible experience filming and creating each of these videos, and we’re looking forward to taking the camera out on a variety of shorter-length trips to show the accessibility of bicycle travel.

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we’ve taken some time to think about why bicycle travel is such an incredible way of exploring a place and why someone should consider it. What is bicycle travel? Watch and see.

(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 2012 2012 calendar or some of the fun bike-themed t-shirts we’re designing.)

Live Webcam Chat about Touring in New Zealand! -This Wednesday 6pm PST

Have questions about our New Zealand trip that we haven’t answered in a video or a post? Now’s your chance to ask them! We’re going to do an hour long live webcast this Wednesday at 6pm PST. We’ll share with you our “Top 5 Favorite Things” about touring in NZ as well as our “Top 5 Not So Favorite Things” things about NZ. Also we’ll give you some tips about touring in NZ. In an attempt to keep it from being just a talking head show, I’ll be experimenting with a little live studio streaming program that lets us transition in photos and movies : )

We’re using USTREAM for the event. We’ve been digging around for a better option but haven’t found one yet. Here are the critical details:

When: Wednesday at 6pm PST
Where: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pathlesspedaled
Ask Us Questions:
You’ve got a couple options to ask us questions. You can either:
-go to our USTREAM channel at the time of the event and log on (you’ll need to sign up really quickly with an email address)
-email us your questions in advance and you can just sit back and relax and watch the show.
-you can send in your question via Twitter using the hashtag #PLPNZ

Some quick notes about USTREAM. First, you will be subjected to 30 seconds of advertisement. For this we are truly sorry. Feel free to make a cup of tea or grab some cookies when the inane car commercial is playing. Secondly, it’s more fun when you join the conversation. We’ve been looking for video/group chat option that doesn’t require some sort of log in with no success. Of what we’ve tried, USTREAM asks the least amount of information so please don’t be too put off and join in! It will be fun.

The Complete Chronicles

When we first set out to do the Kiwi Chronicles it was because I wanted to record our journeys in a different way. We have written and photographed our adventures since 2009 so video seemed like the next logical step. Our years on the road has taught us that good storytelling on the road is harder than it looks. Lots of factors are against you. For starters, you’re riding your bike most of the day and when you pull into camp, firing up the laptop and editing photos, videos and writing copy are usually the last things you want to do. Also, sometimes it can be challenging to find just the right person to tell the right story. Some stories are great but are too large and nuanced for certain media, or they are interesting, but don’t add to the overall narrative arc and you have to cull it, or sometimes the story you thought you wanted to tell changes beneath your feet.

In the end, I’m pretty proud of the video series we put together. It took lots of hard work constantly setting up shots, talking into the camera when you don’t feel like it, searching for people to interview and editing editing editing. Travel videos can easily be too solipsistic and I wanted the video to be more than just about us kvetching about hills and wind and I think we achieved that. It was all on the job training, so to speak. I had literally got a hold of the camera and audio gear about four days before we were to hop the plane. In the middle of the trip I was teaching myself Final Cut Pro (episodes 1 and two were put together in iMovie and the rest in FCPX). I like to think that as the series progresses, the videos get a little bit better each time. There are massive amounts of footage, interviews and vignettes that were cut. I’ll probably put together a few more shorts from it all.

For now, sit back and enjoy the complete Kiwi Chronicles from beginning to end. Special thanks has to be given again to Bicycle Times and Adventure Cycling for partnering on the series.

Kiwi Chronicles: The Prologue

This video lays out the basic purpose of our trip – to learn about the new NZ Cycle Trail program and explore bike culture. YouTube

EP1 – To The Edge of the World

In this video, we box up our Bromptons and head for the airport. It’s a LONG plane trip. We also get use to riding on the left side of the road. YouTube

EP2 – Cycling the Super City

In this episode, we explore Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. It is a far cry from The Shire! For all its car-centricness we do find bike culture, meet the mayor and partake in the historic Harbor Bridge Ride. YouTube

EP3 – On the Road Again

After being on Waiheke island for more than a week, we finally hit the road and do some riding! We take a ferry to the Coromandel and come up against a big gut busting hill! YouTube

EP4 – The Forgotten World Highway

In this episode, we experience our first Kiwi Christmas. We also ride the Forgotten World Highway, one of NZ’s Great Rides. We have a chat with the team behind the new cycle trail network in New Zealand and Jonathan Kennett, a reknowned bicycle advocate in NZ. YouTube

EP5 – Bicycling in Nelson

In this episode, we discover NZ’s most bike friendly town, Nelson! Not only is it great for biking, it also has great beer (reminds you of a few places like that in the states right?). We talk to an artist turned bike tour operator and a local businessman who built a ferry to serve cyclists and pedestrians. YouTube

EP6 – The New Gold Rush

In this episode we learn the story behind the trail that started it all – the Central Otago Rail Trail. Its success in revitalizing a dying region in NZ, was what inspired the cycle the government push for a cycle trail network. YouTube

(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 2012 2012 calendar or some of the fun bike-themed t-shirts we’re designing.)