Bike Life

Our guests on this episode of the Bike Life podcast are Tristan Bogaard and Belen Castello, authors of the new book entitled “Bike Life.” Tristan and Belen met about 5 years ago in the Netherlands, maintained their relationship while Belen lived in London, and then about 3 years ago jumped into a touring lifestyle together, Belen having no significant biking experience to speak of. Over the past 3 years, they have been able to make a living while cycling across Europe and Asia and they have compiled their photos and stories along the way into their newly released book (link below).

Tristan and Belen’s ultimate goal is to encourage more people to integrate bikes into their everyday lives, from their daily commutes and running errands to choosing to take bike tours rather than traditional holidays. Their experiences cycling across diverse cultures and landscapes have taught them about the fragility of life but also the immense beauty that comes in the most unexpected places, which many people these days do not ever slow down enough to take in. The trip that stands out to both of them as phenomenal was their tour of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan which lasted about 2 months and during which time they were overwhelmed by the hospitality and kindness of everyone they met, from other cyclists to the locals. Be sure to follow them to see where they go next and purchase a copy of their book for some incredible photographs and for inspiration.

Connect with Tristan and Belen:

https://www.amazon.com/Bike-Life-Different-Tristan-Bogaard/dp/2390251153/ 

https://tristanbogaard.com/

http://instagram.com/tristanbogaard

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbmaYiRNS0n1k5gt1b91NYw

https://www.instagram.com/belletoscan/

Warmshowers.org Foundation www.warmshowers.org

To reach Tahverlee, [email protected]

On this episode of the Bike Life podcast, Tahverlee talks with Mark, a native Hollander who has spent the past several years on the road full time. Mark has spent the last 4 and a half years cycling all over the world, calling the Netherlands home but often not knowing where he going to sleep every night until sunset. Currently, he is “stuck” in Chile where he has been since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was the conclusion of a cycling ride he was doing to raise money for a soccer program in Rio de Janeiro.

Mark has been posting on his website for years about the people that he has met in his travels and the stories that they have to tell, and in the spring of 2020 he published a book as a collection of these stories and as a way to fund his travels around the world. One of the biggest things that Mark has learned during cycling is to be adaptable to any situation. Additionally, he has found himself growing immensely as a person while riding both through the challenges he has faced while on the road and through meditation. In fact, he has recently started teaching a 3-month program on meditation by movement and making healthy lifestyle changes and he hopes to be able to impact many people with this important practice.

Connect with us:

https://www.cyclingforstars.com/

https://www.cyclingforstars.com/mybooks/

Warmshowers.org Foundation www.warmshowers.org

To reach Tahverlee, [email protected]

Our guest on this episode of the Bike Life podcast is Bill Alcorn, founder of Bike Flights. In 2008, Bill and a few of his cycling friends realized that there was a gap in the market and a potential opportunity for a company providing specialized transportation services for bikes and bike parts. The next year, Bill decided to pursue the idea by working with vendors and carriers to concept the logistics. He knew that the biking community would expect high quality shipments and customer service, so Bike Flights had to meet those high expectations. They now ship to over 60 countries year-round because they have found that people like to tour all over the world regardless of the season.

During this quarantine time, Bike Flights’ business has become more heavily e-commerce for bike parts in addition to the usual shipment of bikes and parts between family and friends and those folks who are still doing tours in the winter months. Even now, people are finding ways to do bike tours in the U.S. safely, perhaps driving somewhere farther from home and having their bikes shipped or just exploring the area where they live. Bill’s favorite tours involve the mountains, water, and good food, the best of which he has found in France and Switzerland, but international trips will have to wait for now.

Connect with us:

Bike Flights: https://www.bikeflights.com/warmshowers

Warmshowers.org Foundation: https://www.warmshowers.org/

Tahverlee can be reached at [email protected]

During this episode of the Bike Life Podcast, Tahverlee talks with Ken Francis, a Warmshowers user, host, volunteer, and former Board member. Ken began hosting cyclists through Warmshowers in 2013 and he has welcomed more than 250 cyclists over the years. Around that same time, he began volunteering with the foundation by reviewing new memberships for spam. He found this process very enlightening and it was a great help to the organization. Before Warmshowers came along, Ken had already completed 3 cross-country tours of the U.S. – in 1985, 1986, and 1994 – during which he relied on the hospitality of strangers when necessary, so he was very glad when Warmshowers came along.

Ken’s advice to hosts is to clearly communicate with the cyclists before and during their stay with you regarding expectations and house rules. He also recommends that you try to be unique, either giving your guests a small but memorable token, taking them to a local activity or restaurant, or by offering something else that will make their experience memorable. During this time of COVID-19 quarantine when people are not touring as much, Ken recommends looking for more local routes or alternative trips to the ones you had planned and to look back at photos or reach out to connections from previous trips to keep those memories alive until you can travel again.

Connect with us:

Bike Flights: https://www.bikeflights.com/warmshowers

Warmshowers Foundation: https://www.warmshowers.org/

Tahverlee can be reached at [email protected]

On this episode of the Bike Life podcast, we are joined by Ann, a frequent Warmshowers host located on the western coast of Sweden. Ann is an American who met her boyfriend in Spain and then ended up moving back with him to Sweden a few years ago. She became aware of the Warmshowers Foundation around that time and she and her boyfriend signed up to be hosts as soon as they heard about the mission of the organization. Ann isn’t a cyclist herself, but she really enjoys hosting guests from all over Europe and the Americas and hearing all of their touring stories. She likes the fact that she doesn’t have to be 100% “on” when she is hosting because the cycling community is very laid-back and simple, really only requesting a shower and a place to sleep.

Ann says that 1-2 weeks advance notice is ideal, but she has had folks schedule months out or the night before. When she is deciding whether to accept an inquiry, she reads the person’s bio to see if they seem like a good fit, and then they communicate a few times before their arrival. As expected, she has not had any guests over the past few months, but she is hoping that cyclists will start touring again as soon as it is safe to do so because she loves being a part of the community. Some of Ann’s favorite guests have been families because she sees the benefit of traveling the world with your kids and she hopes to be able to do the same someday.

Connect with us:

Bike Flights: https://www.bikeflights.com/warmshowers

Warmshowers Foundation: https://www.warmshowers.org/

Our guest on this episode of the Bike Life podcast is Caroline Burrows, a cycling enthusiast in Lancaster, UK. Caroline’s grandfather was really into cycling while she was growing up and she was always encouraged to ride her bike as a child and adolescent. When she was in her early 30’s, she decided to take her first ever solo tour, which she called the Tour de Family. You could say that she “caught the bug” to do more tours throughout Europe and as far away as Cuba, Argentina, and Mexico.

Caroline describes her relationship with her bike as the “most reliable and longest” in her life, so she decided to make a point of investing in that relationship and pursuing what she loved. One of Caroline’s other loves is literature and poetry, leading her to go on a “Jane Eyre to Dracula” tour in France and England to get to see the landscape surrounding her favorite literary figures. Her most significant tour to date is the tour she created for herself of Wilfred Owen’s school, museum, birthplace, and the house where his parents lived. Caroline appreciated his poetry prior to taking this tour, but her understanding of his life deepened after the trip to the point where she began doing presentations upon her return. Overall, Caroline has only experienced friendly people along her rides and she greatly appreciates her membership in the tight-knit worldwide biking community.

Connect with Caroline:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNfagvsYi3w_p-Un63KgS_A

Connect with us:

Bike Flights: https://www.bikeflights.com/warmshowers

Warmshowers Foundation: https://www.warmshowers.org/

On this episode of the Bike Life podcast, Tahverlee interviews Allison and Justin, founders of the Clonakilty Bike Festival in southern Ireland. Allison and Justin’s passion for biking was invigorated when they were in their late 20’s and several of their friends shared with them their love for biking and about a bike festival they had been hosting in their own town. Immediately, Justin and Allison were drawn into the cycling community and they set up a festival in their hometown of Clonakilty which is celebrating its 9th festival this year. The festival is a very grassroots endeavor with very little formal marketing and overhead, but the comradery and support they receive every year confirms that they are doing it the right way. Allison and Justin have also set up a community bike workshop which is open year-round and they are constantly petitioning with their local governing bodies to make their town a bike town with the infrastructure needed to make the roads safe for everyone.

Allison and Jason also shared several heart-warming stories about their experiences with the Warm Showers Foundation. With over 100,000 users on the site, many of which reside in Europe, this is a great resource for long-distance bikers to find a welcoming place to stay along their route and get to meet some great people along the way. This is a tight-knit community of people who love biking and want to practice reciprocal hospitality, of which Allison and Justin are an active part.

Connect with the Clonakilty Bike Festival:

http://clonakiltybicyclefestival.org/

https://www.facebook.com/clonbikefest/

Connect with us:

Bike Flights: https://www.bikeflights.com/

Warm Showers Foundation: https://www.warmshowers.org/

Meet Jessica Levine.

Jessica and her friend Irena left home just outside of Seattle and embarked on a 3-month journey across Canada, culminating with a celebratory dip in the Atlantic ocean in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Throughout her nearly 5,000 mile journey, she learned that an open door is really just an open heart because letting people in your home is an act of courage and vulnerability.  But her most valuable tool on the trip?  A little black dress.

You can read more about Jessica’s trip here:

www.spokeandstories.com and Instagram: @olivemybike

To join our community, visit www.warmshowers.org or on Instagram at warmshowers_org

After the death of his father, Alex de Chantal took 6 months off work to fulfill his father’s last wish:  to have his ashes spread in his 6 favorite locations around the world – Quebec and British Columbia, Canada; Mexico; Mauritius; Thailand; British.   Alex decided to do it all by bike.  Things didn’t always go as planned, but he forged a lifetime of new memories and connections along the way. 

You can read more about Alex’s trip here:

https://wanderingwwoofer.blogspot.com/

To learn more about our community, visit www.warmshowers.org.

Tim Mooney, an experienced bike packer from the DC area, lives by the motto “Let’s shrink the world by bike.”  On this episode of Bike Life, Tim talks about how he was initially reluctant to try Warmshowers but he says that once he did, on a tour from DC to Cincinnati in 2019, he realized that the best part about bicycle touring has very little to do with the bicycling or the touring - it's the people you meet.  

You can find Tim at:

https://pedalshift.net/ or @pedalshift on all the social media sites

To join our community, please visit us at 

https://www.warmshowers.org/ 

or on Instagram at warmshowers_org