‘Explore your Boundaries‘ was inspired by encouraging people to see familiar and local areas in unfamiliar ways, showing how great adventures can happen from your own front door. Filmed on a newly created gravel bike route, which follows the local authority boundary of the City of Edinburgh, and additional locations close to the Scottish Capital during January and February 2021, the short documentary from Markus Stitz and Mark Beaumont highlights the beauty and challenges of exploring places on two wheels in snow and ice.
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Radar
Gaëlle on Tour: Whiteout
Bombtrack’s rider Gaëlle takes on touring in the winter for the latest video in their series:
“In February 2020, I spent a month cycling accross frozen lake Baikal. The cold, the ice and the snow drew me there. I can’t explain precisely why I enjoy being in these landscapes so much but I feel comfortable in these wintery places – despite the cold, the harshness and the solitude. I love the silence, the muffled sounds, the light, the seeming steadiness that I find very soothing.”
Radar
The Nomad
Our friends at Blackburn pulled together an excellent video with Erick Cedeño, aka Bicycle Nomad, along with Brian Vernor.
“I’m not from here. I’m not from there. I’m from everywhere. And I belong there.” – Erick Cedeño
Blackburn ambassador Bicycle Nomad, aka Erick Cedeño, is a nomad in the truest sense of the word. Long a traveler, Erick chose the bicycle to satiate his curiosity about the world around him. The bicycle continues to be his medium to inspire others to push themselves and make their world a little smaller.
What a great video of a great human.
Reportage
Castin’ Lines: Mountain Bikefishing in Victoria, Australia
‘Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride’ is one of those famous quotes by John F. Kennedy, famous perhaps for the wisdom that it carries, more than for the person who said it.
All those who have recreationally ridden a bicycle should know that Kennedy was right. However, the ex-president didn’t realize (and possibly neither many of us) that something that may be compared to and even surpasses that addictive pleasure is to combine pleasures.
A bicycle is a freedom machine that allows us to carry out different activities while simultaneously enjoying the bike itself. It is up to each one of us to choose those activities that generate the greatest pleasure. For example, in my case, a good bike packing trip combined with a fly fishing session does it for me. What in this world could compare to this pleasure overdose? A new adventure was being cooked.
Radar
Shift: A Bike to Board Journey
This film dives into Stratton Matteson‘s personal journey of shifting away from fossil fuel-powered transportation and opting for a pedal-powered pursuit of his passion for split-boarding. It’s a story of adventure and a call to action: How can we shift our lives *now* to preserve a livable planet for ourselves and future generations? Through biking to board he finds a way to continue doing what he loves while feeling integral in his actions.
Radar
Tailfin Announces Aluminum Arch Updates, Universal Thru-Axles, and More
Tailfin‘s unique rear rack setup looks more like a Tubus Tara system for your rear triangle than a traditional touring rack. Their carbon option has been quite popular and they just announced some crucial updates to their aluminum arch design, as well as a universal thru-axle, and much more. Read their full press-release below on this entire product drop.
Radar
The RSF Archive Vol. 2: Further Adventures in Rough Stuff is on Kickstarter
Aren’t familiar with the Rough Stuff Fellowship? Well, here’s a good introduction. After a successful Vol. 1 book, featuring impressive feats of bicycle touring photos and stories, the RSF has launched a Vol. 2 on Kickstarter…
Reportage
Rambler Bags, Kuba, and the Troubadour: a Bag for Banjo-Packin’
My name’s Kuba, I make the bags at the Rambler Bags’ bag factory, and I made this weird bag called the Troubadour for banjo-packin. The Troubadour is a roll-top bag for carrying full-size instruments on a bike tour with a padded modular external harness that uses secondary load-lifter straps to raise the weight to the external dowel. The original Troubadour prototype was designed for a 4-month bike tour that included dirt and gravel from southern Pennsylvania to Chicago, riding the New Mexico Off-Road Runner from Santa Fe to Las Cruces, mountain climbs, wild descents, clay-like mud, hail, and a final jaunt from Tuscon to New Orleans.
Reportage
Bikepacking TZ: A Collection of Scenes and Short Stories
The pandemic has us in the throes of deep wanderlust. While travel has been momentarily halted, stories such as this get our minds whirling into a spiral of possibilities. Paulo LaBerge and Heather Plewes toured throughout Tanzania and Eastern Africa, penning a journal of sorts for Esker Cycles, filled with short stories. Today, we’re sharing those tales…
Radar
the Further Away, the Better
Rapha presents an Icelandic excursion:
“I’ve ridden many thousands of miles on my bike all these years and I can’t say I regret anything… There were rough times but also good times. You just know it’s a challenge that you’ve got to overcome.”
We all have roads that lodge in our mind, routes we want to take. One such route is across the Sprengisandur, an uninhabited highland plateau crowned by an 826-metre pass in the central ranges of Iceland.
Plenty have tried to cross, and plenty have failed. In 2015, Rapha sent filmmaker George Marshall and framebuilder Tom Donhou to attempt the crossing. But after days of high winds, the pair were forced to stop. Four years later, George returned to lead another group across the 170 miles between the end of the tarmac near Reykjavik and the northern stronghold town of Akureyri. But they were far from being the first to make the crossing.
Over 60 years before, Ron Bartle joined Dick Phillips, Bernard Heath and their guide Raymond Bottomley for the first-ever unsupported ride across the Sprengisandur. They spent ten days in the wilderness, crossing rivers in inflatable dinghies and pushing their bikes for miles over boulder fields until they finally reached the first farmstead in the north.
Now in his mid-eighties and still an avid cyclist, Ron has recounted the story of his unexpected Icelandic adventure. And at a time when many of us cannot ride the roads lodged in our minds, he reminds us that they’ll still be there this year and the next.
Radar
Ride Slow. Take Photos. Video
We embedded this feature in today’s Reportage but are posting it in our Radar as well…
Cyclist Erik Mathy rides from San Francisco to Tucson along the historic Butterfield Overland Trail. Lugging his large-format camera, handmade ‘dollar bill’ lenses, and shooting on X-Ray film, Erik documents his interactions with a variety of people — from artists and activists to the border patrol — as he explores the subject of migration against the landscape of a politically divided American southwest.
Reportage
Being Seen. Being Heard: Ride Slow, Take Photos – 1200 Miles Of Conversations Along the Butterfield Overland Mail Route
On November 1st, 2018 I rolled out to cover 1200 miles of the old Butterfield Overland Mail Route from San Francisco to Tucson, AZ. For almost a year prior the headlines had been dominated by news of things happening along America’s southern border. Child Separations. Immigration Caravans. National Guard deployments. On social media channels the rhetoric from all sides, which had already been getting increasingly strident, ramped up to a fever pitch. Normal conversations spiraled completely out of control. I found myself caught up in it all, furious at family members, friends, and strangers alike.
Reportage
High Plains Byway Extended Edition: A Sandhills Odyssey
This Reportage took place a year prior to the pandemic… please be considerate and avoid traveling to small towns during the pandemic.
Some trips stay with you more than others, and this trip is one of those. Nebraska isn’t often touted (read: never) as a cycling destination, but the truly unique and varied geography we encountered offered some of the most quality riding I’ve had the opportunity to experience. The state’s remoteness—a combination of the incredibly low population density and vast, often exposed, landscapes—was initially a concern but in actuality lent a heightened sense of adventure to our days. This is also still the longest tour I’ve taken and being able to fully settle into the rhythm of passing the days—sun up to sun down—on the bike for a week straight was a pretty intoxicating experience.
Radar
Socially-Distanced: Odyssey of VOG Grand Depart is Coming This May
Banking on the idea that the pandemic numbers will continue to drop, organizers have announced a 50-person capped Grand Depart for this self-supported ~350 mile Odyssey of the VOG bikepacking event in the Oregon Coast mountain range. All the details can be found here:
-Event Website: https://odysseyvog.
-Instagram: @odysseyvog
-Facebook: https://www.
Head on over to odysseyvog.com and register for the first annual Odyssey of the VOG on May 29th, 2021. While you’re there, consider purchasing an apparel item at registration – all proceeds from apparel purchases benefit the Oregon Timber Trail Alliance.
Radar
Somewhere in Slovenia
This video showcases the joy brought to a group of friends while touring through nature.
Reportage
A Story of Water: Riding Into the Sierra Guarijía in Sonora
Reasons to go on a bike trip have different origins; this one, in particular, originated when I saw a photo of several rock pillars lined together and I wanted to see them in person. Located in the heart of the Guarijío/Makurawe Native’s land in the southeast of my home state Sonora, “Los Pilares de San Bernardo” have witnessed the centuries that the Guarijío have made of this place their home, and in the last decade, the construction of a controversial megaproject by the federal government. Promoted with the idea of building a dam to prevent floodings further down the Mayo Valley and provide the local communities with water all year long, this project was given a fast forward before being fully evaluated and is also splattered with shady agreements between the government, big agricultural and mining companies and “local authorities” that some of the Guarijío don’t recognize as such.
Reportage
Embracing Moments of Opportunity: S24O in the Caja del Rio
January is the hardest month of the year. The annual hangover from the holidays is in full swing, most New Year’s resolutions already have been broken, and winter has yet to abate. It is because of this that it’s important to embrace moments of opportunity and spontaneity and burn off some pent up energy. So when your riding buddy drops you a text asking if you want to do an overnighter, despite an impending winter storm, you obviously say ‘Yes’.
Radar
Generational Tales: A Daughter’s Father
Bombtrack’s latest video showcases a father’s relationship with his daughter via bicycle touring.