This section of our blog focus's on bike touring from weekend trips to epic round-the-world adventures. Bike touring is a wonderful way to explore the world and it yields such interesting photos and stories. We blog about those adventures as well as the gear that makes it possible offered up at our shops, BikeTrailerShop.com and BikeBagShop.com.
This Epic Tours section thrives on photos submitted from your bike touring adventure. We are big fans of collecting photos of all things bike touring. Please send us anything from that epic shot of you and your bike at the top of the summit to that shot of your perfect rack and bag setup. Submit your bike touring photos here and we'll let you know when we publish them.
Another satisfied customer:
“I received my BOB Yak trailer and immediately hooked it to my Surly LHT and headed into Joshua tree national park for a test ride. I live by the entrance. Love it!”
Surly Long Haul Trucker w/Surly Racks and BOB Yak Trailer
Andrew Rivas sent in these photos of a memorial bike tour. We got to know Andrew when he came by the shop to get outfitted for his first tour last year with a Wandertec BONGO Trailer.
“These are some pictures of the Second Annual Lt. Col. Raymond T. Rivas Memorial ride from Flagstaff to Las Cruces via Gila NF. I do this 500 mile ride each year on Memorial Day to pay tribute to my brother who made the ultimate sacrifice during his second tour in Afghanistan.”
You’ve still got time to gear up for that summer bike tour trip you’ve been doing. Here’s a customer that’s been touring so long that he had to upgrade his panniers when he rolled through town. He was setup with Ortlieb Front and Back Roller Classics mounted to a Tubus Duo Front Rack and Tubus Cargo Rear Rack.
Now is a great time to gear up for a summer bike tour or to get yourself better situated for a bike commute. We’ve got the fullest selection of bike bags and racks by Ortlieb, Tubus and Racktime around. And they are ALL 10% off through July 5th!
Leon Mccarron completed his epic tour on March 5th in Honk Kong having ridden 14,000 miles from New York. Leon is a film maker who decided to set out on this bicycle tour with the goal of plenty of video and film along the way. The tagline of his voyage “1 rule – I can’t turn down an interview”.
Leon’s tour took him across the US, through New Zealand and Australia, then through Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, China and Hong Kong. Leon wrapped up the journey with a final leg from Paris to London. Leon’s rig was laden down with HD video equipment, a tripod, a mic and all of the equipment necessary to store and upload what he captured.
We were excited by the opportunity to help outfit Leon’s tour, providing a Wandertec BONGO bike trailer and a full set of Ortlieb panniers to transport all of this video equipment not to mention all of the essential camping gear, clothing and food and water.
Leon’s photo gallery offers up an amazing collection of images from around the world. Have a look at his YouTube channel with some samples of his video which I’m sure will be growing now that he is home with time to do some video editing. And scroll down on the home page of Leon’s site to see his stories and reports about his epic adventure.
As you may know, BikeShopHub is the publisher of UtilityCycling. In the past, we’ve covered a lot of epic tours over on our sister site, but we are now going to be switching gears (oh puns…) so to speak, and BikeShopHub will now be taking over the reporter position.
Here are a few of the tours we’ve covered over the past few months to give an idea of what we plan for BikeShopHub.
First up is the amazing James Bowthorpe who cycled around the world on a global tour.
James originally volunteered at the clinic to get experience in a medical setting for med school applications, and he was interested in Parkinson’s, as his grandfather had been afflicted by the disease. James quickly realized that the research was very important and extremely underfunded, and thus he began his quest to ride around the world. James’ circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle is being done with a sense of great urgency. Not only is he trying to break the world record for riding around the world, he is also trying to raise 1.8 million pounds for Parkinson’s Disease research, as well as raise awareness of the disease.
To some, folding bikes sometimes look dorky and/or awkward thanks to a much smaller wheel diameter. But in many cases, looking like a dork is the price paid in order to visit many beautiful and interesting places where normal bikes are too bulky to travel.
Of course, there is always an exception to the rule such as in the case of Montague Bikes, who have managed to design full-sized folding bikes that look great.
Photo: Montague Folding Bikes Blog
Recently, Montague rider Hernani Cardoso undertook a journey from Austria to Bulgaria after being inspired by the amazing visuals from The Sound of Music.
The trip was long and somewhat difficult, but in his online interview with Montague Bikes, Cardoso recalls the details of his trip with clarity and enthusiasm.
Photo: Montague Folding Bikes Blog
Riding in and around Salzburg it is a very unique experience. The views are wonderful and you can visit all The Sound Of Music sites on a bike. Salzburg was a surprise to me and I will be glad to go back there.
To make his trip, Cardoso used an Extrawheel Voyager bike trailer with Extrawheel panniers to get his stuff across the border and through the urban and rural European terrain. Bike Shop Hub is the U.S. distributor Extrawheel trailers and accessories. If you are interested, please feel free to contact us for more information.
Most commercial riders tend to remain within a several mile radius of their home. But there are a select few who choose to go much further beyond their neighborhood grocery store.
Sarah Outen, a citizen of London, England plans to ride and paddle her way across Asia, the Pacific ocean, North America, and then back to her hometown across the Atlantic in a two-year tour. Her journey is scheduled for April 1st, 2011, but she’s already begun to prepare with strict training regiments and getting her gear together.
In 2009 I rowed across the Indian Ocean. Alone: just me and my little boat, Dippers, from Australia to Mauritius. On the way I broke 2 oars, ate 500 bars of chocolate and still lost 20kg bodyweight. It took me 124 days and we scooped three Guinness World Records along the way: first woman & youngest person to solo the Indian; youngest woman to solo any ocean. It was raw and elemental–just as adventure should be. … I leave from Tower Bridge, London on a bid to loop the planet entirely under my own power–rowing, cycling and kayaking.
Once in awhile it is good to remember where we came from; to not forget our roots so to speak. Randall was kind enough to give us a little look into the past with some photos of him and his wife on a 1200-mile bike tour in Oregon and Washington in 1981. For me personally, I don’t remember 1981 as I was only a year old at that point, but a great year nonetheless.
On my way home from work, I stopped and chatted with this fellow who was prepping for the next leg of his journey heading out of Flagstaff. I couldn’t help by notice his well traveled Jandd panniers. He mentioned that he’d noticed that CrazyGuyOnTheBike.com is reporting 25,000 cyclists currently out on a bike touring adventure somewhere or other in the world.
Our friend Cass Gilbert sent us this inspiring picture of these well traveled Ortlieb Panniers. I’m not sure what the story is behind them, but they are inspirational. For more bike touring inspiration, check out Cass’s blog, While Out Riding.
