As you may know, BikeShopHub is the publisher of UtilityCycling. In the past, we’ve covered a lot of epic tours over on our sister site, but we are now going to be switching gears (oh puns…) so to speak, and BikeShopHub will now be taking over the reporter position.
Here are a few of the tours we’ve covered over the past few months to give an idea of what we plan for BikeShopHub.
First up is the amazing James Bowthorpe who cycled around the world on a global tour.
James originally volunteered at the clinic to get experience in a medical setting for med school applications, and he was interested in Parkinson’s, as his grandfather had been afflicted by the disease. James quickly realized that the research was very important and extremely underfunded, and thus he began his quest to ride around the world. James’ circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle is being done with a sense of great urgency. Not only is he trying to break the world record for riding around the world, he is also trying to raise 1.8 million pounds for Parkinson’s Disease research, as well as raise awareness of the disease.
But what happened once he got back you say? Well we managed to get in contact with James once again for a quick follow-up.
With regard to utility cycling, James certainly exemplifies one of the main categories of utility cycling which we originally defined ‘ community building. James’ journey is not just in support of charity or a record breaking ride, it also has the valuable utility of building community both online and in person. Be it Lance Armstrong ‘ the ultimate fundraising cyclist ‘ or James Bowthorpe, using the bicycle as a tool for social change can have profound effects. This once again drives home the point that the bicycle can be many things at once: it can be a tool (a vacuum cleaner of sorts); it can be a piece of sport equipment; it can be a vehicle for social change or political protest; it can be fun; and it can simply be. What is it to you?
Lastly, we’ve got a less altruistic, but nonetheless impressive feat by all Russ and Laura of Path Less Pedaled who share the limelight of utility cycling with James and many others like Ben Sollee and his band on their Ditch the Van Bike Tour.
Russ and Laura of the Path Less Pedaled sold most of their worldly possessions a little over a year ago, and since that time, they have been living on the road and getting everywhere by bicycle. Not only does living by bicycle fall under the utility cycling conception, the other cool thing about The Path Less Pedaled folks is that they are not interested in any specific number of miles or days on the road. Rather, their goal is to find meaning and joy in the journey itself and connect with people around the country and world that they meet. So not only are they long distance utility cyclists, they are also community builders.
Stay tuned to read more on epic tours with amazing cyclists all across the world!