Welcome!

While out riding in the Americas, I kept a blog. Ten years on, I’m still out riding.

My plan? This decidedly ‘old fashioned’ blog will act as a scrapbook journal of sorts. A change in pace from my previous residence, While Out Riding, it will offer a home (a tiny house?) for random, bike-related content, like travel reports and gear musings. Some of this material will likely grow into more rounded, fleshed out thoughts for Bikepacking.com.

Born from Covid 19-induced creative angst – holed up as I was in Oaxaca, Mexico – I hope it will provide an outlet for sharing daytime rides and the thoughts that bubble up during them. I admit that I also miss the more wholesome, halcyon days of long-form blog keeping, now that our collective attention spans have been usurped by the scroll-and-like immediacy of Instagram.

I’m still figuring out layouts here, so bear with me…

Ultimately though, this blog will be kept simple and largely bells and whistles-free. It will be somewhere to jot down thoughts and post pictures in a format that offers more depth than the scroll-and-you-miss-it platform of Instagram.

It’s easy to create these quotes… I just need to write something quote-worthy!

And it seems that lists are very straightforward to make too. I do like lists… like the food I ate on my ride today:

  • A 125g bag of peanuts from the market
  • A goblet of carrot, ginger, and orange juice
  • A fat, mole-flavoured tamale wrapped in a plantain leaf
  • Local ice cream, pecan nut flavoured
  • Hibiscus water – a great antioxidant!
  • Morning bowl of porridge with peanut butter, raspberries, and raw honey.

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But why blog?

I’ve always loved web-logging format as a form of journaling and information sharing, and been blown away by the amount of thought and care that people put into their blogs. In a way, I see them as an online version of printed zines; a chance for self expression that can take any form that you see fit, be it photography, art, poetry, or simply nuts and bolts advice. Blogs are their own little worlds, tucked away in forgotten corners of the online universe, and there’s a real joy to stumbling across one that interests you, or helps you in some way. It’s like finding unexpected treasure troves, invariably driven a very real passion around a topic. 

When it comes to the world of bike travel, I like the balance that blogging strikes, between the immediacy of first person journaling and the sharing of evolving ideas, and more considered, long-form storytelling. Compared to drier and more authoritative route descriptions, guidebook style, there’s the chance to inject a little extra fun, too!

It takes a lot of work keeping a blog, and whilst I appreciate that certain platforms have eroded our desire to absorb much more than a picture and a short caption at best, I’ll continue to keep this site going while I enjoy it.

If you’d like to support my efforts, you can do so here.

Want to get in touch?

DM me via Instagram, my handle is whileoutriding.

Big thanks to Mike Hayes for hosting this site and helping me get it set up. Mike keeps a fantastic photographer and keeps a blog of his own – Sea Surf Dirt – that is well worth some of your time!