I don’t mean to make you think I’m moving on, although I enjoy big moves inside and out. The part that’s moving on after 8 years is this blog. In those years, I’ve thoroughly loved sharing thoughts, laughs, and other parts of bike touring. I typed the words into this blog from inside my tent on rainy days, picnic tables on sunny days, and inside a ruined castle on other days.
The words came from the southern most tip of England, the northern most tip of Scotland, parts of Belgium, France, and from 10 states in the US while cycling across it.
I enjoyed tapping away on a keyboard and into this blog about many moments, but as always, the best parts were the people. They were strangers from many countries who kept me safe and made me laugh. And just as good, there were people reading my words and replying here with theirs. Even when I enjoyed being away, I always loved hearing from friends at home, whether that home was London or Holdingford, Minnesota.
The movement I’m talking about now is simple, maybe small, but hopefully more. I’m simply changing the name of this blog, but that’ll also change what it does. For 8 years, the name has been touringonthatbike.com. The new name of this blog is, please imagine a drum roll, cyclewriter.com.
Years ago, I chose touringonthatbike because of a common comment people made about the bike I used to ride most. It was a touring bike that also folded. I lived in London when I bought that bike, and when I started riding it, on weekend bike tours, people from different parts of Britain and Europe made the same comment. They were friendly and interested in how I was camping, traveling, and touring by bike. But then, while examining my tiny, folding, touring bike, they’d ask, “But, you’re touring on that bike?” I always smiled and nodded, just as I am now as I type. I like to think I got the last laugh by calling my cycling blog, touringonthatbike.com.
I love my little touring bike. I love the way it can turn a full second faster than a bike with larger tires, which is especially helpful when cycling in London and other cities. I love how that little bike took me over 1,100 miles on my first long bike tour, across Britain. I love how I could fold it up, put it on a train, get off the train, unfold it, and cycle on.
These days, I cycle on a larger bike, which I also love. That bike is a Surly Long Haul Trucker, which I call Spirit. A larger bike makes the bumps smoother and has fewer problems from the weight of me and my gear. Spirit took me across the US in the summer of 2019. In an upcoming blog post, I’ll explain how she got her name and why I call her ‘her’ and ‘she’. That post and others come from a book I’m writing about cycling across the US. In that book, I’m trying hard to make it read with the speed of cycling down a mountain, but the book will also show the heat and wonder of cycling through a desert.
In other blog posts, I might share some thoughts about friends who also love exploring mountains, deserts, and other parts of this wonderful world under their own power—by bike, foot, kayak, and similar stuff.
In upcoming posts, I may also wander topics greatly and show some writing that has nothing to do with cycling. Some of those are handwritten stories that my Mom shared with me. My love for travel came directly from her, so I’m looking forward to showing what she wrote.
As this long blog post shows, and all the others in this blog, I love writing as much as I love cycling. And that’s why I’m moving on, from touringonthatbike.com to cyclewriter.com. The new name is a bit simpler, and simplifying life has become much more important to me. But most important, the new name lets me wander away from writing that’s focused on bike touring. It’ll still be a big part of this blog, but I want to go further.
I hope you’ll join me by reading a bit and, even better, by writing a bit, with a little or long comment.