Mirror Images

There is something about those roadside mirrors ... it's hard not to stop and take your photo. You know the ones I mean. The big circular mirrors placed on the road so that motorists can get a view of traffic before they pull out or go around a blind corner? They are not that common in the U.S., but I've run into them (though not literally) around the world.

Why can't I pass one without stopping and snapping a few shots? Maybe it's the realization that after all the dreaming and scheming and planning, we are finally there. In some magical foreign place, filled with new sights and sounds and smells.

I always feel a bit silly trying to focus my camera on the mirror and getting it just right to include the background, our bikes, and us in the photo. But I always laugh and smile as I realize that I'm fortunate enough to have the time and health and good fortune to be able to travel this way.

So I'll continue to snap these silly little portraits for as long as I am able.

Photo: Portugal -- 2010 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/2011/08/mirror-images.html

schwinn indoor cycling

Cycle parking solutions

Note: This is a sponsored post With a growth in popularity of cycle schemes to and from work places, what is needed when cyclists reach their destination is safe bicycle parking. Allpark Ltd work with businesses to provide cycle parking solutions that make the best use of the space available. This post will be useful [...]

Source: http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk/features/cycle-parking-solutions/

irish cycling

Tour Leader Showdown: Steve Parsons Vs. Joe Loviska


We've got a lot of fantastic tour leaders here at Adventure Cycling, as well as our fantastic tours themselves! Often a tour leader can take a tour experience from alright to amazing, as I'm sure you know. So how are you supposed to choose? Well, we've selected two of our best for you this week, both leading fall tours along the Pacific Coast, and pitted them against each other to help you decide which leader style is right for you!

First up, and leading our self-contained Pacific Coast trip, we have Joe Loviska (pictured above in the blue t-shirt).

Age: 27 Height: 6? 4.5?
Weight: 160lbs
Bike frame Size: 61cm
Highlights of upcoming tour: Puget Sound, the Oregon sand dunes, and Big Sur
Bike you will tour on: Surly Long Haul Trucker?26? wheels, lots of room!
B.O.B. or Panniers: Panyays all the way!
Favorite personal tour: Eastern B.C.?Penticton to Missoula, MT. Lakes, mountains, peaches, and ferries. Oh yeah!
Tours led/staffed for Adventure Cycling: Cycle MT, Cycle WA, Coast & Covered Bridges, Cycle the Gorge, TX Hill Country, S. Arizona Road Adventures, Black Hills Loop, Idaho Relaxed, Idaho Family Fun, Farm Fresh, 2010 Northern Tier and 2011 Pacific Coast self-contained
Favorite ice cream: Black Licorice or Peanut butter-pretzel-cookie dough
Tent stuffer/tent roller: Got to fold, then roll. Although I may be a little OCD.
Pets: Future cat. For now? A fluffy alien turtle thing.
Favorite Recovery Drink/Beer: Espresso, water, lemonade. Beer? Kettlehouse Amber or Manny?s Pale Ale.
Most unusual object carried on a tour: My juice harp, or my ultra-loud refillable compressed air horn. Beep!
Favorite rest day activity while on tour: Hike to find a swimming hole, then troll town for fudge, ice cream, and espresso. Or just lay in the grass, read a book and nap!

And in this corner, wearing orange, and leading our Wild Coast tour this fall, is Steve Parsons!

Age:22 Height: 6? 3?
Weight: 170lbs
Bike frame size: 61cm
Highlights of upcoming tour: Meeting other cyclists with as much enthusiasm for touring as I have. Also, riding through the Redwoods.
Bike you will tour on: Trek 520, with bright yellow fenders.
B.O.B. or Panniers: There is only one logical choice?panniers!
Favorite personal tour: Southern France/French Alps. Climbing for hours on end followed by breathtaking views and descents.
Tours led/staffed for Adventure Cycling: 2010 TransAm Van, 2011 TransAm Van (through Missouri and Kansas), 2011 Wild Coast
Favorite ice cream: Penn State Creamery, or Ben and Jerry?s Chubby Hubby
Tent stuffer/tent roller: Come on, don?t be lazy? give it a roll!
Pets: Future Border Collie, and a current rescued cross-eyed kitty
Favorite recovery drink/beer: Chocolate milk/Ithaca Pale Ale
Most unusual object carried on a tour: Ultra-light hammock, great for pre-dinner naps, or my fishing pole.
Favorite rest day activity while on tour: I like to be active on rest days, including things like hiking, mountain biking, canoeing or kayaking

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ON THE ROAD is written by the tours team -- Mo, Paul, Madeline, and Steve -- tours specialists and intrepid bicyclists, covering all things related to Adventure Cycling's Tours Department. Check out our 2011 guided tours today.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2011/08/tour-leader-showdown-steve-parsons-vs.html

winter cycling jackets

The Hungry Cyclist Podcast May 2011 - Tamada Georgian Restaurant, London

This month The Hungry Cyclist Podcast takes us to Tamada, a Georgian restaurant in North London. Plug in your headphones, get comfortable and enjoy the sounds of Georgian cuisine. Find out more about Eating London's World of Food: A to...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/thehungrycyclist/~3/Ym9MYjstwx4/the-hungry-cyclist-podcast-may-2011-tamada-georgian-restaurant-london.html

cycling gear uk

Amgen Tour, Levi Just Misses TT, Horner Keeps Lead

The winner of the last 3 Tours of California, Team RadioShack?s Levi Leipheimer, who is also the winner of its last 3 time trials in the city of Solvang, just missed his fourth victory in this year?s TT to Garmin-Cervélo?s David Zabriskie by 13 seconds. Levi looked very strong on the first parts of [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/amgen-tour-levi-just-misses-tt-horner-keeps-lead/

cycling routes

My Next Cycling Destination: LaConner, Washington

For many years, my wife's parents ? who lived in suburban Seattle ? had a place just outside LaConner, Washington, on the Swinomish Indian Reservation's Fidalgo Island, up a skinny lane called Pull and Be Damned Road. Nancy's father was a world-class do-it-yourselfer, and he hand built the sprawling, multi-winged family "beach place" out of pieces and parts that he procured throughout the Pacific Northwest, through a combination of buying, borrowing, and bartering. (I should say Walter hand built the place with assistance from a never-ending parade of friends and relatives, as he had an aversion to things like tall ladders and sloping roofs. Walt was a charmer who could've persuaded Tom Sawyer to pay him a quarter for the privilege of pounding nails.)

I recall the drive getting to the beach place, once we left Interstate 5, as a rural feast for the senses. Over the Skagit Flats we would go, past truck farms and ? depending on the season ? fields filled with yellow daffodils, white snow geese, and a rainbow of tulips; produce stands overflowing with crops like corn and cauliflower; or bright-orange pumpkins dotting the otherwise drab, you-pick-'em flats, just waiting to go home with someone to be transformed into Halloween jack-o'-lanterns.

Which is a long-winded way of telling you why it was a pleasurable, nostalgia-filled experience yesterday when I opened an email from Tom Beckwith, who has a consulting firm in LaConner. Attached to Tom's email was a file holding a new 20-page booklet (pdf) from the LaConner Chamber of Commerce highlighting the many outstanding road and mountain bicycling opportunities the area has to offer. Photographs of subjects like the arching Rainbow Bridge and LaConner's quaint downtown took me back to the beach place. I could almost hear the gulls calling and inhale the pungency of tide's-out mud flats.

All in all, it makes me want to go back, with bicycles in tow. Tap into the map booklet and I predict that you, too, will soon be plotting a plan to visit lively LaConner and its lovely surroundings.

Photo by Michael McCoy

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BIKING WITHOUT BORDERS is posted every Monday by Michael McCoy, Adventure Cycling?s field editor, and highlights a little bit of this or a little bit of that ? just about anything, as long as it?s related to traveling by bicycle. Mac also compiles the organization's twice-monthly e-newsletter Bike Bits, which goes free-of-charge to more than 41,000 readers worldwide.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2011/08/my-next-cycling-destination-laconner.html

cycling equipment

Andreas Klöden Finishes 2nd at Paris-Nice 2011

Team RadioShack’s Andreas Klöden added to his long and impressive list of palmaires today, finishing in 2nd place in the overall general classification of the 8 days of the storied Paris-Nice race. On a cold and rainy day, on some very slick roads in the south of France, the experienced 35-year old finished the [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/andreas-kloden-finishes-2nd-at-paris-nice-2011/

cycling games

Giro d?Italia Recap Stages 13-18

This great monument of Europe?s three Grand Tours continues to produce exciting racing, a little drama, and a real display of dominance by its current leader as we now complete 6/7ths of the race today (knew those math classes would come in handy some day!). This 94th edition of the Giro, which will ultimately [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/giro-d%e2%80%99italia-recap-stages-13-18/

dhb cycling