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One of the first things that happened when I got back from my Northern Tier tour in 2019 was when my brother-in-law, Sang, told me he wanted to finish bikepacking the Baldy Bruiser ride that...

The first tour of 2019 happened in April, and I was excited to be leading a group through Big Bend National Park as well as through Big Bend Ranch State Park. The last time I...

Another one of my many jobs is working for SoCal Cross. I’ve helped with timing at their race series for a few years now. On our offseason, which is from January to September, there are...

Do you know how to put on a helmet? How about doing the ABC Quick checks on your bike? If you’re scratching your head, let’s get back to the basics. ...

There are those of us who exclaim, “Cheater!” when you see an ebike pass you up on the road, but then, there are those who say, “One less car.” By way of deduction, you probably figured...

During the summer of 2016, I was working the Trans Am bike tour for Adventure Cycling Association when I found myself in the town of Missoula, Montana with my tour partner. Throughout the tour, my...

Another year, another year in review and boy what a difference a year makes! I think I say that every year, but 2018 ended up to be a challenging one personally. It was challenging because...

Whether you’ve heard it from Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stone or even Depeche Mode, the lyrics to this song has inspired generations to go out and visit to see for themselves all the towns mentioned...

There have been more and more videos popping up on YouTube about bike touring on a daily basis if you haven't already noticed it. I believe this is a good thing. This allows us to...

One of the most overlooked things people don’t really think or talk about as you go on a bike tour is an itinerary. I’m sure there are those who think, “I don’t need an itinerary....

Continuing my theme of living in my car, here is a video documenting the detailed configuration of how I transformed my 2011 Honda Fit to become my sleeping quarters for 3 weeks in 2017....

With all the riding I've been doing the past few years, you would think that I've gone on several road trips in my days. But the truth is that I have not ventured out on...

I’ve recently been introduced to the Greek philosopher, Seneca, who said, “Everywhere means nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.” [Letters from...

It took 72 days to ride 3322 miles from Chino Hills, California to Saint Augustine, Florida. We crossed over 8 states, dipped our rear tire in the Pacific Ocean and then the front tire in...

Another year means another year in review coming up! This time, I am reflecting on 2016, a year that we saw so many of my childhood celebrities pass (yes, I am older than I look)....

In 2014, our MeetUp group started this tradition where we all play Santa Claus for a day. We asked our friends and family to donate toys for the Toys for Tots charity foundation so that...

In this video, I walk you through setting the helmet up with the remote and showing you how the iPhone app works with it. I also show you what it looks like riding at night...

When I was co-leading the Trans Am trip this summer, there was a Swedish couple who was determined to ride the entire length of the Trans American bicycle route. They are what we call EFI-ers...

Here is another unboxing video of the Aftershokz Trekz Titanium wireless headphones. So what's so special about these headphones? Instead of delivering sounds directly in your ear, it sits right outside of your ear allowing...

  About a month ago, I was approached by a young college student who wanted to write about me and my dream for a class assignment. She is the daughter of a close friend to my...

My first unboxing just happened and this is a good one. I am checking out the highly anticipated Lumos Helmet. This helmet features LED turn signals as well as the standard front and rear lights. Rear light even...

This post is long overdue as it should have been published in July or August. Because I haven’t really been too vigilant in tracking my mileage on my 2013 Salsa Vaya 3 this year, the...

So what do you wear on your bike tours? Here is what I wear when I am on and off the bike. Yup, that's it for a 1-week or a 9-month bike tour. We even tickled our...

On April 17, 2014, I announced that I was leaving my full-time career to pursue other bike touring related endeavors. Fast-forward to present day, 2 ½ years later, you’re probably wondering how I make money...

In conjunction with National Public Lands Day, Adventure Cycling made a call-out to all bicycle enthusiasts to go out and explore their parks on September 24, 2016 with their “Bike Your Park” campaign. If you were...

** EDIT 10/18/16: NSR Riding is a Korean company and not a Chinese company as I previously published. It has been 2 years since I’ve been back to an Interbike Show, and all the excitement from...

It was less than a month after the Trans Am Van tour with Adventure Cycling Association before I was solicited again at the end of August for another bike tour. I was barely coming down from...

It’s been quite some time since I have written a blog post here. Quite honestly, I haven’t really been in the writing kind of mood. It’s been a real struggle to put something on the...

When Adventure Cycling Association announced National Bike Travel Weekend in 2015, I immediately jumped on the opportunity to showcase my MeetUp group. I created an event 9 months down the line and started promoting it...

I bet you're curious why I've been so quiet on this blog for the last couple of weeks. Well, if you haven't been following me on my other social media outlet, I have been on...

As soon as I came home from my Europe Trip last summer, I jumped online to look for a lighter and more compact tent. Don’t get me wrong, the tent I brought with me, the REI...

One of my goals for 2016 was to explore the local mountain ranges called the Angeles National Forest located north of the San Gabriel Valley. I’ve avoided this area because, in order to explore these...

I thought I’d change my pace here and write about something that has been on my mind recently. I want to talk about the true spirit of bike touring. Yes, there is a spirit...

For the 3rd straight year, I was asked by Carlos Morales to come to his bicycle shop, Stan's Bicycle Shop in Monrovia, to give a bicycle touring presentation. I had actually agreed to do this...

[caption id="attachment_2994" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Photo Credit: Mike Stromsoe[/caption] It is barely the month of April in 2016 and we have had quite an awesome touring season. I know it is still early to say this, but...

In our second "Everyday Bike Tourist" interview series, I talk to Joseph Philipson who in 2009 had biked over 4000 miles across the US with his riding partner Carlos Urreta. Their mission was to show that...

The amount of buzz and excitement generated from this trip was way beyond anything I had expected or experienced. When it was all said and done, we had 16 RSVPs, 116 comments, 13 riders, 12...

In this day-in-age of Facebook and constant connectivity to the Internet, it is easy for me to overlook things like buying a train ticket on Amtrak, especially since I’ve done it so many times in...

I am kicking off an interview series called, "Everyday Bike Tourists", where I interview everyday people who decided to get out there and bike tour. My first interview is with Portlan Beckman, a special education...

When it comes to camping while on a bike tour, personal safety should not be overlooked so quickly. It is easy to become complacent and think that worst case scenarios may not happen to you,...

Bike touring requires significant time on your bike. That means that at some point in time, you will suffer from saddle sores; that is, pain in your rear end. It’ll be unbearable at first, but...

"You got a Brooks?" "Nope, it’s a Selle Anatomica." "Didn’t they buy Brooks?" "Nope, Selle Italia bought Brooks." "Isn’t that the same company?" "Nope." For a saddle that has a huge underground following, the Selle Anatomica is a very confusing brand...

Bicycle touring is like an intricate domino course where the first brick laid down will trigger a huge chain of positive reactions. Those who have experienced it first hand will know what I am talking...

Growing up, I did not have the opportunity to be part of the Boy Scouts or any organization where they teach you hands-on survival skills in the wilderness. I had to learn most of my...

It is not every day that you get to self interview yourself so I decided to put out this video to do just that. I answer 9 riveting questions (these were the best questions I...

[caption id="attachment_2881" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Original Image By: EQRoy / Shutterstock.com[/caption] When bike tourists think about their next trip, it is most certain that planning would involve having to either take a plane or even a train. My...

We humans like to categorize things. We like naming things or declaring that A is better than B. Black versus white. Hot versus cold. Surly versus Salsa. And now: bike touring versus bikepacking. When I first started to travel on...

For the third year in a row, I am happy to present to you my annual mileage review. 2015 saw me traveling across Europe and down the Pacific Coast from Bellingham, Washington to Eugene, Oregon....

It’s that time of the year when I reflect on my accomplishments in the past 12 months and foresee what I can do to make things even better in the following year. It seems like...

For the second year in a row, I participated in this holiday ride around downtown Los Angeles. Beautiful decorations were admired. Hotdogs wrapped in bacon were indulged. Our festive group roamed the streets of Los Angeles with glee...

I received some emails this week from readers and one of them expressed an interest in finding out more about my cycling experience and how long I’ve been doing this. At first, I thought I...

Like many people, I am an optimist when it comes to planning a bike tour; I don’t believe that anything bad will happen. Because of my naive outlook, my expectations can be unrealistic as I’ve...

Well before REI announced their #OptOutside initiative, I had already planned a 3 day, 2 night bike tour to burn off that Thanksgiving dinner and avoid the Black Friday madness. So the idea to escape...

It is hard to believe that one year ago, I nervously decided to jump into the MeetUp world to start my own bicycle touring MeetUp group. This would be the first MeetUp group I’d start...

What is it? When my friend Rachel bought her Surly Long Haul Trucker a few years back, besides looking like any ordinary standard touring bike you would see rolling down your local street, it had 2...

Have you ever passed by a place and told yourself that you’re going to stop and check it out one of these days? Then you end up passing this same place over and over and...

When I was attending college many moons ago, I met a girl. No, it was nothing of the romantic type, but rather, a beautiful friendship. I admire her sense of adventure and her openness to...

Ever since I found out that you can ride your bicycle in and around Catalina Island, it has become one of my missions to organize an overnight bike trip there. Rather than putting this at...

Hindsight is always 20/20, and this is certainly the case when I look back on my Europe trip and think about the things we could have had that would've improved our trip.  The nagging "coulda-woulda-shoulda"...

As I did after my Pacific Coast tour, here is the European version of the trip by numbers. Lots of interesting facts coming out of this one. The mileage was way lower than I expected....

It is always good to have a goal in whatever you do. When it comes to bike touring, I have several mini goals. And together, you can call it my bike touring bucket list. This...

When I first started bike touring, it was easy to read about someone else’s adventure and become so jealous of their trip. I started to develop this weird sense of envy, but I couldn’t just...

If you’re like me, you've gone through several dozens of bicycle inner tubes. I have them in all shapes and sizes with irreparable defects. Whether they have multiple patches or the failed valve stem, I...

99.9% of the time, I write about how bike touring is so great and so awesome. For the most part, I absolutely feel this way, except for the 0.1% of the time. These are the...

To say that bike touring has changed my life would be the biggest understatement ever. Just getting back on a bicycle had a significant impact. Losing about 30 lbs and dropping about 2-3 pant sizes...

Hydration is one of the most important things on a bicycle tour. When you’re bike touring in remote locations where water facilities are not very common, having a way to carry your water is very...

One of the most rewarding things you can do on a bike tour is to fill up your camera’s memory cards with thousands and thousands of images to look back on when you’re home from...

When I started this site, I wanted to focus on the type of bicycle touring that appealed to me the most. If you haven’t already figure that out, that type of touring is self-contained or...

There’s one thing I’ve been wondering about for a while now in the world of bicycle touring, and that's: Where is the diversity? The majority of folks I’ve been noticing in conferences, forums, blogs, and...

Whenever you are on a long bicycle tour, it's the little things that can make or break your day. Little things like having good tasting water helps sweeten the day. That is why I use...