Saturday Stories: Two Bicycle Tours, Two Missions

Two Bicycle Touring Stories, Two Missions

Saturday Stories: Two Bicycle Tours, Two Missions

Two Bicycle Touring Stories, Two Missions

 

I am trying something new this week – Story Saturdays. I am going to highlight bike travel stories that I get from the Internet. To kick off the first week, I have 2 journeys to tell you about.

 

A Man, His Son, & a Chair

Barc's Chair

 

When I turn 40 in a few years, I plan to ride across the country along the Southern Tier route. That has been a goal of mine since 2013. I bring up this trip of the future, as I just caught glimpse of a story that was in my news feed of a Canadian man, Barclay Dowd, and his son, Sebastian, doing this same ride which started on February 4, 2015. What makes this ride a bit interesting is that they are also hauling with them a multi-color chair, which weighs about 75 lbs, from San Diego, California to St. Augustine, Florida.

 

The idea is to capture people’s stories and jokes as they traverse the country with their GoPro camera on their 3 month adventure with the chair. The goal is to get to Florida by April 25th. This includes a 20-day padding in case they need it. They are hoping to average about 50 miles per day.

 

You can follow their story at Barc’s Chair.

 

I started reading their blog on Wednesday night when they had just arrived to San Diego after a 4 hour delay in Chicago. Barclay’s writing is funny as you start reading about his preparation and stories earlier on.

 

It sounds like Sebastian (the son) has limited experience with cycling, especially cycling clipped in. I suppose now is the time to learn! They’ve already broken their rule of not cycling after sunset when they took to the streets from San Diego airport to Point Loma hostel.

 

Good luck to them on their journey and I look forward to reading and watching more about their adventures.

 

Original story was published here (Intelligencer.ca).

 

A Record-Breaking Mission

Gurjeet Singh

 

On the other side of the world, Gurjeet Singh is attempting to ride to all Indian states and their respective capitals. In addition to attempting to set a record in doing this, he is doing this for “Save and Educate Girl Child”. The other purpose is to promote cycling as a lifestyle choice.

 

Whatever he’s doing, it’s going to be a noble effort as India is a big country with 29 states. Maybe not as big as the US but still pretty big. He’s going to be doing this with a support vehicle driven by his cousin, little brother, and a friend at different legs of his journey.

 

Gurjeet rides about 200 km per day and is required to track his journey with a GPS device and log book for the Guinness Book of World Records.

 

Original story was published here (The Hindu).

 

Bike touring means different things to different people. Some people do it on their own hauling a chair, while others are exploring their homeland in an attempt to break or set a world record. Whatever your motivation, use that to fuel your desire to go out there and explore the world on a bicycle. It is the most rewarding thing you can do.

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