It's April and we're all itching to get out on tour - on this episode of The Pedalshift Project we talk about a quick overnight tour as fodder for episode 018, brewing the best cup of coffee you can on your next bike tour, to stove or not to stove, and much more.

Hey it's the direct download link for episode 017 (mp3)

Reach out to the show via email, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Don't forget to join the newsletter too.

In two weeks we have a special treat - I’ll be tagging along with Nathan Clevenger on Day 1 of his cross-country tour starting outside of DC. We’ll have some sounds from the first day and an interview with Nathan about Simple Touring.

Making the best coffee on bike tour

The next lock? LITELOK on Kickstarter

Five stars!

Very informative and relaxing - by Jrockfbm - Love listening to this podcast, it's easy to understand and I really like the different portions of the show. 

If you use iTunes and dig the show, ratings like these helps to spread the word... thanks Jrockfbm!

FOTS Ethan Georgi on our bike maintenance topic from episode 016 had a good story about tire blowout

FOTS Johnny K as usual ALL over the comments, but had some smart things to say about coffee on the road and the choices you have to make to bring a stove to make it.

FOTS Scott Morgan once again is the best advocate of the show on Twitter in front of the Bike School crowd. Ditto with Pete from the UK and @CycleTourStore. Thanks again Scott and Pete!

Thanks also to Logan, Boris, Daniel, Meg, Nathan from @simpletouring, and Troy for giving some thumbs ups on Facebook.

And way more on Instagram too… thank you all for your support!

Remember in addition to all of these great ways to connect we can I’d like to start getting more voices on the show now… just call in to Pedalshift’s fancy voicemail at 202-930-1109.

The Pedalshift Project theme is America courtesy of Jason Kent off his self-titled solo album. Check out his band Sunfields' new release, Habitat, wherever cool music resides.

A quick jaunt to Hilton Head, SC... a call for your April overnight stories... trying out some mobile apps for bike touring... and spring bike maintenance recommendations all on this episode of The Pedalshift Project.

Hey it's the direct download link for episode 016 (mp3).

Reach out to the show:

email, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Don't forget to join the newsletter too.

I’m planning my first bike tour for this September. I found TPSP and listened to the entire back log of episodes within a week. It’s both entertaining and informative: exactly what I was looking for. I particularly enjoy episodes that are heavy on touring stories.

Spring overhaul recommendations

The Pedalshift Project theme is America courtesy of Jason Kent off his self-titled solo album. Check out his band Sunfields' new release, Habitat, wherever cool music resides. And hey, new video for Ghost!

Breaking news in the bike touring world... no really, there was breaking news... learning to protect your food from raccoons and other critters, a brief overview on gearing ratios and how to make your bike more (or less) climby, plus catching up on a backlog of connections with listeners like you!

Good news for C+O tours for the near future - the NPS will almost assuredly NOT be charging for camping anytime soon FOTS @simpletouring will be happy to hear that! Read more from WABA.

Maybe good news on roll-aboard service on all Amtrak trains? The Lipinski Amendment passed today in the House and would standardize roll-on service for bicycles on rail. Read more from League of American Bicyclists.

Protecting your food from critters

Hope you got a chance to read part 1,  part 2, and part 3 of my favorite touring bikes series. If not, check 'em out!

Learn more from this very smart math guy:

The United Nations delegation checks in: Hugo is at cyclelover.net.

FOTS Johnny K - all over the 3 part series on touring bikes

New listener Tony from MD: read Jesse’s CGOAB journal and did the TransAm back in ’91… looking to do the C+O with his family

New listener Eric Iverson: Binge-listening to @pedalshift eps 1-007 while on @Amtrak staring at my @BromptonBicycle wondering where to take it next.

FOTS Scott Morgan liked the 90s era Bill O’Reilly DOING IT LIVE!

FOTS Tony (from NY) shared an article When President’s Day was Bicycle Day from The Atlantic about the commercialization of Pres Day in the States and how that meant bikes back in the day rather than autos today.

The Pedalshift Project theme is America courtesy of Jason Kent off his self-titled solo album. Check out his band Sunfields' new release, Habitat, wherever cool music resides. And hey, new video for Ghost!

On this episode we crack open The Journal to travel along with Brock and Adele on their 2012 bike tour from Oregon to Colorado, test out a couple of field microphones for proper bike touring podcast recording in The Lab, and enjoy the newest Pedalshift bike touring story about a muddy slog called It's All Downhill From Here...

 Hey it's the direct download link for episode 014 (mp3)

Reach out to the show via email, Facebook, Twitter or even Instagram. Yeah, I'm calling you out again Instagram. Don't forget to join the newsletter too.

It's a very meta edition of The Lab where we're testing out two microphones. The first is an iPhone boom mic (no longer available... hmmm) and the second is the venerable veteran of Pedalshift field recording, the stock iPhone earbud mic. Which microphone shall reign supreme? Yeah, wasn't even close...

It's All Downhill From Here..

The Pedalshift Project theme is America courtesy of Jason Kent off his self-titled solo album. Check out his band Sunfields' new release, Habitat, wherever cool music resides. 

A baker's dozen in, we feature our first bit of bike touring history. Set your wayback machine over 100 years to the 1890s as we learn about the amazing Annie "Londonderry" Kopchovsky, one of the pioneering women of bike touring. Next time you're struggling in granny gear up a big climb think about what it would feel like on a 42 pound fixie... just one of the challenges Annie faced on her amazing adventures.

Shownotes are at pedalshift.net/013.

Special thanks to our guest, Gillian Klempner Willman the Producer/Director of the amazing documentary The New Woman: Annie 'Londonderry' Kopchovsky.

The New Woman is the directorial debut for Washington, DC filmmaker Gillian K. Willman and has been a seven-year long labor of love. In addition to producing this independent documentary, Gillian is also Producer / Writer at Cortina Productions, a multimedia production company, where she has written, directed, and produced video and interactive content for more than a dozen cultural institutions, including presentations in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, the Virginia Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Tolerance, the Capitol Visitor Center, the Sports Museum of America, and the Lincoln Cottage Visitor Education Center.

Gillian has played a key role in the research and production of several long and short form documentary projects, including Peter Jennings Reporting: Guantanamo, Trade Secrets: A Moyers Report, and Discovery Education’s “The Science of Plants.” She is a graduate of Cornell University and lives in Washington, DC with her husband, Ben, daughter, Leila, and cats, Lucy and Oscar.

Learn more about Gillian at spokeswomanproductions.com.

The Pedalshift Project theme is America courtesy of Jason Kent off his self-titled solo album. Check out his band Sunfields' new release, Habitat, wherever cool music resides. And hey, new video for Ghost!

We complete our first dozen episodes with a featured tour from a past encounter, a story about biking dogs (sort of) and generating power as you roll. 

Reach out to the show via email, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Yes, particularly you of Instagram.

Featured journal - Matt Weiner, surfing the Oregon coast by bike

mattweinersurf.blogspot.com

Big thanks to Matt for getting back in touch... mazel tov on the wedding and hope to see you on the road again sometime!

Special treat for episode 013… featuring the first woman to bike across the US and the first to do an assisted round the world tour. IN 1894. The amazing Annie Londonderry, brought to us with a special interview of Gillian Klempner Willman
Producer, Director of the documentary The New Woman: Annie 'Londonderry' Kopchovsky. Cannot wait to share this with Pedalshifters!

The Pedalshift Project theme is America courtesy of Jason Kent off his self-titled solo album. Check out his band Sunfields' new release, Habitat, wherever cool music resides. And hey, new video for Ghost!

We kick off 2015 with updates on upcoming tours, stories of past tours (complete with yetis from Cape Cod) and experimenting with dehydration... no not the bad kind, the good kind!

The January email newsletter went out - thanks to everyone who’s signed up! Reach out to the show via email, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Yes, even Instagram.

Lake Ontario circumnavigation update

Crazy Guy on a Bike featured journal

Ultralight campers for bike touring? - Pedalshift on Facebook

The Pedalshift Project theme is America courtesy of Jason Kent off his self-titled solo album. Check out his band Sunfields' new release, Habitat, wherever cool music resides.

On this episode we're watching 2014 shrink away in the rearview mirror as we enjoy an hour-long show chronicling the top moments from this year's big tour from Canada to Mexico along the US Pacific coast.

Hey, it’s a new logo for the show! If you ever need someone to use modern flat graphic design principles to create a pannier buckle on a podcast logo, I’m totally your guy. Totally a niche talent.

The first email newsletter went out - thanks to everyone who’s signed up!

Hey, I want to hear from you - like for real. Hit me up at [email protected], comment here on the site, or reach out on Facebook, Twitter, or heck even Instagram. Send me a visual depiction of your thoughts ;)

And if you dig the show, give it a review on iTunes or Overcast... recommend to your friends... it helps the show get out there and helps angels get their wings. Or something.

The Lab and Pedalpreneur will return...
More Bike Touring Stories...
The Pedalshift Project goes bi-weekly… to my UK, Aussie and Kiwi listeners… that’s fortnightly. To my American and Canadian listeners who, like me, need to look up if bi-weekly is twice a week or twice a month,  it’s twice a month. The goal is a minimum of 26 episodes next year!

Friend of the show Johnny K 

New listener Jim Giddens

Brock and Aaron over at The Sprocket Podcast with an update on the Amtrak baggage cars… ( see also, rumor and speculation from my Amtrak update post )

Friend of the show Scott Morgan - just because he’s a retweeting machine. Thanks for listening and supporting Scott!

Border to Border

In the summer of 2014, I took 6 weeks to ride the Pacific coast from Victoria, BC to the US-Mexico border. I recorded a 2-5 minute audio entry every day for the Tour Journals podcast to share the more detailed aspects of the ride, but always intended to edit and condense it into a more manageable length to share here. I recorded almost every entry while rolling, usually in the morning. Listeners of The Pedalshift Project will definitely recognize some of the anecdotes, especially mention of the "United Nations delegation” in central and southern CA.

As I edited the story, I found myself transported back to each spot on the tour. I remember fine grain details of pulloffs, tide levels, and how I felt every time I called back home. The sounds of the waves, the seagulls, the ravens, and the traffic of US 101 and CA 1 help transport you to those spots as a listener. Ever want to bike the Pacific coast in under an hour?

I mention two people I virtually took along with me. They were:

The Pedalshift Project theme is America courtesy of Jason Kent off his self-titled solo album. Check out his band Sunfields' new release, Habitat, wherever cool music resides:

A Thanksgiving weekend edition of the Pedalshift Project on which we cover some of the new additions to the site, an update on the Lake Ontario circumnav tour, connections and much more.

Pedalshift is also now on Instagram (@pedalshift)  - hoping to use it to show off more of the sights on tours past and present. Would love to share your pictures on tour too!

One more thing... I'm starting an email newsletter - about once per month - filled with the same cool content as the podcast and the site. You can sign up for the Pedalshift newsletter here. Best of all... get a free bike touring pack guide and checklist just for signing up.

Hey, I want to hear from you - like for real: [email protected] plus The Facebook, plus The Twitter. Stories, tours, ideas, whatever - as we grow, let’s share it all.

It's bike tour planning season now that the weather is less favorable in the Northeast US. I've been busily researching the circumnavigation of Lake Ontario for a May 2015 tour. Any interest in meetups in Rochester, Buffalo, Toronto, etc.? Shoot me an email!

Hey, this water bottle fils while you ride!

Got a ton of great feedback about The Sweater, so we’ll do more of them. I’ll break those out into a new section of the podcast called Bike Touring Stories. If you have a funny, empowering, emotional or otherwise interesting story to share, I’d love to make that happen… email [email protected]. You tell it, I’ll produce it! Episode 010 will include a new story: Louis Bike Touring Experiment #1 of 1. Look for it in a couple of weeks!

Trying something new: retelling my favorite bike touring story.

This month, The Pedalshift Project is an all-journal version, focusing on my favorite bike touring story... The Sweater. Interested in more of this kind of podcast? Or did you miss The Lab too much this month? Let me know what you think... [email protected].

Oh, and if you want to read the original version of this, it appeared over at my other blog Uncommonly Silly in a post called If You Want to Destroy My Sweater. I know. Weezer. I mention that too.

Hey, The Pedalshift Project is on iTunes (we've even been featured in the Outdoors section already!) but if you like you can use your favorite aggregator (like iCatcher on your iPhone for instance), with old timey RSS. Email me at [email protected] - I'd love to bring more voices to the show!

The Pedalshift Project theme is America courtesy of Jason Kent off his debut album. Check out his band Sunfields' new release, Habitat, including this track, wherever cool music resides.

Music featured in The Sweater by Perception_of_music, used under license.