Travelling with a bike

I’m now in my early 60s. I’ve taken a number of week-long and two month-long tours. I guarantee three things: First, you’ll find that bike touring is unlike other forms of travel and that people will respond to you differently. Some jerks will be even greater jerks than usual, but the vast majority who otherwise would have ignored you, will embrace you. Second, there will be days of sheer misery when you will be cursing and asking yourself what on earth you were thinking. Third, it will give you memories and stories to last a lifetime.

in a fire a few years ago, we lost all our bikes, including a tandem. The financial turmoil, meant that I passed up the cross-country trip that my best biking buddy took, but with the insurance settlement, I had Peter White in NH, build me a new one with a Rivendell Atlantis frame. I’m admiring it as writing this, ignoring the snow and rain out my window and imagining being on the road again.

This past weekend, my wife and I conducted a ritual we’ve done every five years or so. We sit down over bagels and write out on napkins, our priority lists of the adventures the next few years. Our lists are now on the fridge and mine includes “on more bike tour,” (as in big).