A walk along Elliot Bay to discuss the short trip to Honolulu and more on the transition to Seattle and all the bikey adventures to come.

Honolulu and Seattle

• A walk along Elliot Bay
• Honolulu thoughts
• More Seattle impressions
• N+1 thoughts on bikes

Big news for the show: The Pedalshift Project is setting up camp in a new city! This episode breaks down what that means for future tours, how this opens up brand-new riding possibilities, and why the destination may be a bit of a surprise and also not a surprise at all.

My new home: Seattle!

Why? This move is all about geography, access, and expanding the Pedalshift touring sandbox. Seattle places world-class touring terrain right outside the door and increases the show's ability to cover more routes, more often.

And yes—this is a return to the broader PNW. Think of it as a new basecamp, and not a commentary on my beloved Portland. It remains the land of sunshine and bunnies, and it's just down I-5.

There's obviously other details to all of this but they are far more weedsy than worth getting into for you all. Let's focus on the parts that impact the pod!

What Seattle Unlocks for Bike Adventures

Puget Sound & the Islands

• Bainbridge, Vashon, Whidbey, and the San Juans
• Ferry-based overnighters and S24Os

Olympic Peninsula

• ACA Pacific Coast connections
• Port Townsend → Sequim → Forks routes
• Big coastal scenery for trip diaries

Cascade Range

• Palouse to Cascades Trail (hello, cross-state gravel epic)
• Snoqualmie Pass corridor
• North Cascades Highway rides when the snow gods allow

British Columbia

• Vancouver + Victoria loops
• Easier cross-border touring content

Western US Access

Simpler jumps to NorCal, SoCal, Alaska, and Rocky Mountain tour starts

How the Show Evolves

More Micro-Tours

Seattle puts quality riding minutes—not hours—away, which means more short trips, more experiments, more rapid-fire episodes.

Some Non-Bicycle Adventures

Exploring by foot - hiking, urban adventures and more. Not a replacement for bikes, but a compliment.

New Possible Arcs

• The Islands Project
• The Puget Sound Loops
• Palouse to Cascades: Piece by Piece
• Return to the Coast (Seattle → Portland → Coast → beyond)

Year-Round Riding

Milder PNW winters = more shoulder-season content and gear discussions. Also proximity to southern CA for winter riding?

What Stays the Same

• The philosophy of intentional, practical, joyful bike travel
• Long-form tours and multi-state adventures
• Portland is the land of sunshine and bunnies, and Seattle will need a tagline

Early Seattle Recon

• Riding West Seattle, Alki, and Elliott Bay
• Ferry recon missions
• Scouting trails, routes, and spots for easy S24Os
• Checking out the local bike shop ecosystem

Production Notes

• Scheduling in winter and spring TBD with some back and forth travel
• Regular episode cadence with best-of's

Listener Input Wanted

• Got Seattle, Puget Sound, or PNW route suggestions? Hidden gems? Ferries worth timing for golden hour? Winter riding hacks?
• Hit me up—I'll feature the best ones in future episodes.

It used to be that a bike adventure meant taking paid time off or quitting your job. Now that remote work is a reality for many of us, there's a new option. But is bike travel while working remotely right for you? Originally podcast July 28, 2022.

A repodcast of our Thanksgiving Eve live show: following up on your comments on the state of bicycle touring, plus a bunch of great questions in an Ask Me Anything segment!

More emails on this than any topic in a while. Some selected thoughts from listeners:

Regarding ACA

• Multiple listeners: Could ACA be losing older members in its attempts to expand into younger audiences, but worse… might not be succeeding on either front? It's hard to do both, and that's the challenge… you need to find what drives your constituencies and sometimes you swing and miss.
• @BounceBackWesterner"I subscribed to the ACA magazine for one year. I was happy with one edition, but then, it seemed like there was a trend to rides that were extremely challenging and demanding whether that be road or offroad. These folks predominantly seemed younger and maybe that's where most of their subscriptions come from. "
• Another point: ACA was built on a need which may not exist anymore. Before they were the best and maybe only resource for routes and maps that had been vetted. Now there are way more resources.
• Listener Harry Hellerman was a great example of someone who's let his ACA membership lapse after 20 years. The reason? Kind of what ACA was saying… he says he's aging out and the roads are now occupied by larger and larger vehicles, so there's a safety concern.

Regarding Touring being down

• Multiple listeners: Travel is down across the board, but travel to the US in particular has taken a huge hit. Lots of factors there, but you can't ignore the current politics as a possible reason here.
• Listener Andrew Piper: "Data point: For a 2-year comparison, the overall demand for search terms around "bike touring" is infact down 25%-35% YoY. However, using the same comparison, the demand for terms around "bikepacking" is up about 40%. Which does lend itself to the change in nomenclature more than an actual decline in interest."
• "I think I am maybe a couple years younger than yourself at best. Of the people I have seen doing this, I always feel I am on the younger side of the sport. Logistically it makes sense. Who has time to do this....older people."
• Bicycling for older generations was a big part of freedom - it might not be that for younger generations?
• Listener Dr. G4 wrote a really thoughtful email from the perspective of a younger rider.
  • Shorter touring is much more of a thing
  • Some of the places where the routes go don't feel welcoming (political, demographics)
  • Real shift to urbanism amongst younger generation
  • Poor infrastructure/safety
  • perception: ACA represents an older version of bicycle travel (longer trips)
  • "I think what the next generation wants is not road maps, but trail maps and advocacy for more trails and trail amenities (and, I might note, probably videos, how-tos, explainers, and meetups, not print versions of easily-googleable information)."
  • "it's clear from the overabundance of urbanist youth getting around by transit, bicycles, or even scooters that travel by bicycle isn't going anywhere anytime soon. But turning them into bicycle tourers involves developing routes and programs that are closer to cities and farther from cars, marketing dedicated bicycle trails as one piece of an integrated solution for transit- and bicycle-accessible nature, specifically focussing on routes with many transit junctions to allow long routes to be chewed in smaller chunks, helping the rapidly-growing contingent of bicycle commuters to learn how to use their bicycles beyond weekdays to short or long weekends (with week-long or more tours being an eventual end goal, not the primary purpose), and politically advocating for car-displacing trains, trails, and cycle tracks that make all this possible."

•Rails to Trails Conservancy may have the better model?

Way back in January - and what feels like ten years ago to me - I set out a bunch of bicycle adventure goals for me in 2025. In a challenging year, I wasn't sure how I'd measure up but as I always like to do, I gave the goals a once over to see how I did. So on this episode we give it a scorecard treatment, but also a sneak preview of the final piece of 2025 adventuring that manages to check one of the boxes!

Celebrating plans already made, and taking care of yourself

Sort of?

A big ebike trip – maybe two. Taking the bike on a ride only the ebike can do… extra distance per day? Twice as fast? Looking at a push west and maybe north too.

Points for trying with the Lake Ontario trip.

Something international – you non-US folks have been very patient with this America-centric pod. We'll see if we can get wheels down someplace I need a passport.

Check! Helllloooo Canada!

I also got to do off-pod adventures in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Belgium… no biking but a lot of walking and exploring.

West coast – what, you thought I wouldn't hit the Pacific coast? Pffft… find another podcast! Probably summer.

Check! Mysterious Oregon trip!

More bike adjacent adventures – exploring someplace where I ride, a bike gets used, but it's not necessarily the full focus.

Europe trip was an adventure but not bike-adjacent. But I have a small one coming up in a few weeks that is absolutely out of left field in terms of location, but wholeheartedly checks the box, so CHECK. Shall we do a preview? (You'll have to listen to get that one!)

A chat with Sylva Florence, an experienced bicycle tourist and author of many things (including her blog The Sylva Lining) on touring as a solo woman, how people who want to be allies to solo women touring can do that without being creepy, and some of her favorite adventures. Originally podcast July 15, 2021.