Jingle Bells (Earworm Alert)

It's the time of year when holiday tunes are playing everywhere. But sometimes when you are traveling far away from home in another culture, hearing a Christmas carol or familiar song can be a wonderful reminder of home ... or not.

We were cycling in Northern Thailand during Christmas. We pedaled into a small town northwest of Chiang Mai. I heard a familiar tune. Jingle Bells. It wasn't Bing Crosby or Nat King Cole singing. It was one of those little Christmas trees with blinking lights and a chip that plays a loop of holiday favorites.

As we got closer, we realized that the storefront window was filled with these things ... all competing with each other.

Before you listen to the clip below, I'm going to give you fair warning that this is an earworm for me. There is something about the obnoxious sound quality and the hideous way that Jingle Bells transitions to Santa Claus is Coming to Town that haunts me to this day. I can't hear Jingle Bells without this version playing in the background of my mind.

If you do listen, you'll hear a couple of motor scooters go by and you'll also hear Silent Night from another cheap plastic tree competing with Jingle Bells.

Jingle Bells

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Not all the sounds of travel are pleasant ones. Unfortunately, this one has stuck with me.

If you have listened to the audio file and want something more pleasing to bring you back into the holiday spirit, you can check out my post from last year. It is a medley of tunes I recorded in Seville, Spain.

Happy Holidays!

Photos: Thailand -- 2005 by Willie Weir

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SIGHTS AND SOUNDS appears on Friday afternoons. Willie Weir is a columnist for Adventure Cyclist magazine. His latest book Travels with Willie: Adventure Cyclist will inspire you to hit the road and just might change the way you approach bicycle travel. He lives in Seattle with his wife Kat. You can read about their local adventures and life without a car at http://YellowTentAdventures.com/.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2011/12/jingle-bells-earworm-alert.html

cycling games

Closing the gaps on Erie Canal will draw bicycle travelers

Just like the movie says, "If you build it, he will come."

In the case of the Erie Canalway Trail in New York state, "he" is 500,000 bicyclists annually.

The Canalway Trails Association of New York says that about 75% of the 365-mile canal towpath between Buffalo to Albany is complete as an off-road bicycle path.

Completing the remaining 75 to 80 miles will cost about $35 million, according to a report issued this month by the association: "Closing the Gaps: A Progress Report on the Erie Canalway Trail".

In addition to creating jobs for hundreds of workers, the completion of an off-road link from ...

Source: http://www.bikingbis.com/blog/_archives/2011/12/27/4967089.html

castelli cycling

2011 Holiday Campaign 6th Edition

Just a few short weeks ago, we launched our 2011 Holiday Campaign with a generous match opportunity from two amazing donors who have challenged our supporters to raise $50,000, which they will match for a total of $100,000. We are very excited to share with you that we have met our initial match amount of $50,000. However, those two initial matching donors inspired a few others to join them in the challenge. These Holiday Trailblazers are offering to continue the match offer up to an additional $18,000. This campaign has gone better than we could have even hoped but we still have a long way to go to secure the future of bicycle travel in America.

As we round the year out, and members and donors share with us how Adventure Cycling has changed their lives, I am reminded of how I found this wonderful organization and how it has changed my life, first as a member, then a donor, then joining the staff.

In 2008, living in Los Angeles, I got tired of pumping money into the endless repairs my car seemed to require. I thought if I drove the car less, it would last longer between repair cycles and, therefore, save me some cash. I borrowed an old mountain bike and began cycling to work 3 to 4 times a week. I lived 5 miles from my workplace, but it was in LA, relatively flat, and, of course, excellent weather pretty much all year round. Little did I know what I was getting into.

On my first ride home from work, I blew a flat tire, and had no way to fix it. I ended up walking home. Walking in LA is a big deal. No one walks (or rides for that matter) in LA. Or so I thought. I considered giving up the whole enterprise, but got a repair kit instead, fixed the tire, and began bike commuting again. Over that first year, I lost 15 pounds, learned to navigate around my mid-Wilshire and Koreatown neighborhood, and even rode from my apartment near downtown LA to my brother's house in El Segundo. It was a 20 mile ride. I rode through wealthy parts of town and not-so-wealthy parts of town. I realized that by car, those neighborhoods looked frightening, but on my bike, I was just another person in the community.

Then fate took hold...

In the summer of 2008, after I'd been bike commuting for over a year, I was running late to work and decided to drive. There was construction on one of the roads and traffic was backed up. As I turned into the parking lot of my office, another driver made an illegal U-turn, and we collided. Fortunately we were both alive with no real injuries. But my car was totaled. I had a decision to make, get another car, or try this thing called car-free. I decided it couldn't hurt to try the car-free thing for awhile.

I won't lie, the first year was awful. None of my friends understood what I was trying to do, I felt all the difficulties people feel when they don't have a car. I didn't really understand how to use my own two feet. And I suppose there was a little bit of feeling the dependence of my car and not knowing how to be independent. It was something I felt in every part of my life. I thought it was all because of the car, but now I see there was much more to it.

A year went by with me trying to navigate LA's public transit (which is excellent), carpooling with co-workers, and riding my bike. On the anniversary of the collision, I decided to make a real effort to show everyone (and myself) that being car-free was not only not that bad, but actually fun, economical, healthy, and did I mention fun? Of course, first I had to prove it to myself. I started a blog about my car-free adventures, and through that endeavor plugged into a community of bicyclists and pedestrians who educated me, helped me learn bicycle safety, eventually helped me build a bike, and inspired me to embrace the lifestyle.

I know, what does this have to do with Adventure Cycling? Well, stick with me, it's one of the most important parts, and I'm getting there. Just a couple of months after I decided to embrace my car-freeness, my Target Huggy mountain bike was stolen. Again, one of those moments of fate. I bought a used Schwinn Le Tour off of Craigslist, and something amazing happened.

You see, I had been feeling trapped and dependent on a car all that time because I felt like cycling was slow and tedious, and, well, hard. When I switched to that Schwinn road bike, all of a sudden I was flying through town without even breaking a sweat. It was amazing! All of a sudden, cycling wasn't so hard, and, yes, I actually enjoyed it! I started joining in on group rides around town, making friends with other cyclists, and then, oh yes, here's the good part, I beat myself to work.

Driving always took 30 minutes, no matter what. That's just LA. On that crummy mountain bike, it took 45 minutes, no matter what. One day, barely breaking a sweat or breathing heavily, I left my house and made it to work in 18 minutes. In Los Angeles traffic! I remember riding past cars backed up in traffic and thinking "Suckers!" Upon arriving at work, I got off my bike, looked at the cyclometer, shook my head, laughed, and said to myself, "Well, there you go, Amanda. Guess you don't need a car after all."

That's when I decided to go one step further and show everyone that not only could you make it in LA without a car, but you could make it to anywhere in the country, actually vacation by bicycle. I set my sights on the Grand Canyon by bike. And, of course, in my naivety, I thought I was one of only a few people who have ever had that idea. Silly me.

I began planning the trip. I came across a lot of opposition. Friends, colleagues, even family thought it was too dangerous, not feasible, something only a crazy person would do. My boss was so worried she started helping me look for resources and sent me a link to Adventure Cycling Association.

I was amazed.

Not only was I not the first person to want to ride cross-country, but here were thousands of people who had done the same and continued to do so. Here was an organization promoting this activity and providing all the resources I would need. Here I could find questions to the millions of questions I had, having never ridden cross-country before.

And, I wasn't crazy. I was amongst a large community of people (and not just people who consider themselves 'cyclists') who saw the value in seeing the world by bicycle. A community that knew what I knew, which was that when you approach the world from a bicycle, under your own power, completely independent, you see so much more of the beauty and appreciate so much more of the wonder of our great country.

I joined immediately. The first copy of Adventure Cyclist that I received in the mail had an image of a cyclist riding a road in South Korea on it. I was astounded and inspired. I thought, if these people can ride across South Korea, surely I can make it to the Grand Canyon! I began training for my cross-country trip, riding centuries and double-centuries, climbing the hills in Malibu, and joining some fast riders in LA. Training for my trip, which with Adventure Cycling's help I knew I could do, changed me as a person. My legs got stronger, but so did my independence and confidence. My self-reliance went off the charts. I could never fix anything on my car, but I know how to repair every aspect of my bike, from the bottom bracket to the headset to rebuilding wheels. It helped strengthen my relationship with my father, as he and I began chatting about bike tools and repairs. This trip changed my life, and I haven't even taken it yet!

In spring 2011, I had the opportunity to embark on another adventure, joining the organization that had already helped change my life as an employee. In the process, I have had to re-route my plans for the Grand Canyon, but it's still in my sights, just a different approach.

I have been on the Adventure Cycling team for 7 months, and every day I am amazed at the stories I hear from people of all ages and all demographics about what Adventure Cycling means to them. To me, Adventure Cycling helped completely change my life in ways I never would have expected but have been the best things to ever happen to me. I know many of you reading can say the same.

I hope you'll consider making a donation today to help this wonderful organization continue to inspire and change lives through the transformative power of bicycling.

There are 5 days left in our 2011 Holiday Campaign, and we still have an $18,000 match to make. You can help us meet the match by making a gift today.

Happy 2012 cycling to all!

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AMANDA LIPSEY is the development director for Adventure Cycling Association.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2011/12/2011-holiday-campaign-6th-edition.html

dhb cycling

Andreas Klöden Wins Stage 3 of Criterium Int?l 2011

Team RadioShack?s Andreas Klöden (GER), continued to show his strong form this spring by winning Sunday?s final 7.8 kilometer individual time trial stage at the Criterium International in France, by 4 seconds over second place finisher Bradley Wiggins (GBR) of Team Sky. Third place went to Jakob Fuglsang (DEN) of Leopard-Trek, 10 seconds [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/andreas-kloden-wins-stage-3-of-criterium-int%e2%80%99l-2011/

cycling shorts

Sebastien Rosseler Wins Overall In De Panne

After riding pretty quietly for the first 3 stages, Team RadioShack?s Sebastien Rosseler (BEL) decided to put the hammer down and ate up the pavement in the afternoon?s individual time trail at the 3 Days of De Panne, beating the field by nearly 14 seconds on the 14.7-kilometer course with a time of 18:31.83. [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/sebastien-rosseler-wins-overall-in-de-panne/

cycling fans

Team RadioShack Line-up in Paris-Roubaix 2011

Paris-Roubaix (France), 10/04/11 This Sunday one of the toughest spring classics, Paris-Roubaix, will see the riders go through 27 cobbled sectors. According to the weather reports, it will be a dry day like last year, which means less danger in the cobbled areas. Team Radioshack Line-up Riders: Fumiyuki Beppu, Ben King, Robbie McEwen, Nélson Oliveira, Gregory Rast, Sébastien [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/team-radioshack-line-up-in-paris-roubaix-2011/

cycling trips

And so this is Christmas.

By the time you’ve reached this elevated age, you don’t get a great many Christmas presents.  And Santa Claus is clearly not satisfied that I’ve been good, for goodness sake, and I didn’t find a Van Nicholas Chinook under the tree.  To be fair, I’d have been beyond gobsmacked if I had!  However I am the [...]

Source: http://www.thecyclingmayor.com/and-so-this-is-christmas

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