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Family Cycling

The Importance of Family Cycling

The most striking difference between any U.S. city and those in nations with a thriving bike culture are the number of families on bikes.  Visit Seattle or Salt Lake or St. Louis and you’re likely to see a bike share program, a dude track-standing in the intersection, a rack full of fixies.  What you’re less…

Holiday Reflections of a Bicycle Tourist

As the weather turns cold and winter arrives, many cycling tourists will pack away their panniers and hang up the bike, pining for warmer weather and scheming up their next big bicycle getaway. The snow has come early this year for a large swath of the US, including a rare storm that brought a bit…

The BEST Bike for Commuting

Whenever you start to talk about the “best bike” for anything, you’re venturing into monumentally subjective territory. For commuting in Phoenix, Arizona, the best bike for me is my long wheelbase recumbent. The combination of the flat terrain, warm weather throughout most of the year, and the laidback, comfortable riding position in the chaise lounge…

Gratitude for the Bicycle

This Thanksgiving, I gave thanks for the bicycle. And this gratitude was all the more prominent in my mind since I don’t own a car anymore. It’s not an easy path to pedal. I sold my car before relocating to the other coast for a seasonal job as a bicycle tour guide. Sure, it was…

Biking the National Mall

Exploring Washington DC by Bike with Kids

We moved quickly, a light mist falling then settling on the surface of the reflective pool.  The October morning was quiet, the silence punctuated only by the incessant questions from my 5-year-old, pedaling on the trailer-cycle behind me.  Who is Martin Luther King?  Was he really a king?  When are we going to eat lunch?  …

Nice gas tank bag! What’s inside? – Video

A video this month, sharing what I chuck in my gas tank bag before a big ride. Call for comment Did I miss anything out? What do you put in your gas tank bag? Matt Maynard is a British cyclist, writer, photographer and environmentalist. He is based in Santiago, Chile. Find more of his adventures on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and at…

The Company We Keep

In my last few posts I have written much about the challenges that bicycle touring presents and the ability to overcome those challenges as a defining element of the sport. For me this is central to why I choose to endure the mountains, the wind, the rain, and the flats (so many flats). These challenges…

The Adventure Begins … Again

“Where have you been, man?” I’ve been asked that question a lot in the last few months. Some of my friends actually thought I’d died, but I’ve been able to contact them and tell them “No such luck!” The fact is I’ve been sick. More accurately, I’ve been injured. Last May, I was at work…

Whimsical Pedicabs and Oppressed Delivery Guys – Oct.2017 Utility Cycling Roundup

A dazzling display of pedicabs, bedazzled the Philadelphia streets in an amazing display by Cai Guo_Qianq.  Deriq Carr tells the story of how he launched Los Angelos Pedicab Company.  Austin pedicab riders make their big paydays when the big events come to town.  And an entrepreneurial teen is discovering opportunity in pedaling people at the…

Tour du Mont Blanc – mini podcast

Time for something a little different this month. Here comes an interview with Owen Williams, about his bikepacking trip around the mega classic Tour de Mont Blanc. It’s the first time trying something like this – so please forgive any of the rough edges! Check out the pics, and dip in to our mini podcasts…

Give Me a Mountain

Give me a mountain. Give me 30 miles of steady grade. Give me 80 pounds of bicycle and gear moved pedal stroke by pedal stroke up thousands of feet of elevation. Give me the Cascades, the Rockies, the Ozarks, the Appalachians. The steep ascents and the switchbacks. Life on a bicycle is not without climbing,…

Beers and Rafts, Sept.2017 Bikepacking Roundup

Its always a good time to go Bikepacking somewhere…  Here are are some very recent epic trips to inspire you. Croatia and the Adriatic Crest Route by Nicholas Carman on September 16, 2017 The Breaking Trail by Logan Watts on September 26, 2017 THE BIG GUIDE TO BIKEPACKING & TOURING IN EAST AFRICA by Logan Watts on August…

Confessions of a Downhill Junkie

That’s me in the Lycra, That’s me on the descent, Losing my abandon. Trying to break my Strava record. And I don’t know if I can do it. Oh no, I’ve said too much. I haven’t said enough. I’ve been chasing descents since I was a kid in the Green Mountains of Vermont. By the…

This Land Is Your Land: bikepacking or bust

[You might enjoy listening to this Woody Guthrie track whilst reading this blog] This week I have been in the forests of Sweden. I’ve been listening for wolves, and following the tracks of moose. I canoed down the Black River valley at sunrise looking for beaver, and saw long-horned roe deer prancing at dusk. This was…

C&O Canal Bike Touring

Finding Balance Through Bicycle Touring

I have a confession: I could probably count the number of days in the past year I’ve ridden a bike–I mean really clicked off some miles–on one hand. Life, as it so often does, has provided its fair share of roadblocks. I bought a fixer-upper first home, started a new job, got engaged. There is…