Today we have three big announcements to make: a totally redesigned website, a new version of Bike Touring Basics and a new touring bike!
New Website
The new website is thanks in no small part to fellow bike tourist Tom Allen and his wife Tenny Adamian. They designed it and did much of the work to shift from the old to the new design.
For us, it marks a new phase where we’ll increasingly (but not exclusively) focus on family adventures. With one kid already and another due any day now, we want to encourage and help other families to bike, camp and generally explore the outdoor world.
New Book
Download the latest, and totally free, version of Bike Touring Basics.
Today we also launch the latest version of our free Bike Touring Basics book.
Like the website, the book is also thanks to a collaboration within the bike touring community. Our friends at Bicycle Traveler magazine helped hugely with the updating process and the result is a fully updated book, with new information and photos.
This version of the book is also totally open. You no longer have to sign up to our mailing list to receive it. Just download it and share it with others.
Post it on your website. Send it to a friend. Print it out and give it away.
We only have two requests: keep the information free (don’t sell it in any way) and if you quote an excerpt in another publication, please link back to TravellingTwo.
New Bike
Our second child is due any day now and we’ve spent much of the past few months trying to figure out which bike would best allow us to do everything from daily trips around town to touring as a family of four.
We’ll write a longer post about our thought process and how we reached our decision later, but for now we’re happy to say that we’ve purchased a Circe Morpheus touring bike as one part of the solution. It’s a highly flexible bike and, when we have two kids to carry, we hope to set it up something like the photo below.
One of the many possible configurations of the Circe Morpheus tandem bike.
We’ve only had the bike for a couple of weeks but we’re having a blast. That goes double for Luke, who loves sitting in the front seat and pedalling on a ‘big boy’ bike for the first time. In fact, our only ‘problem’ with the bike so far is likely to be getting him out of the front seat when we need to make room for the baby in a few months!
The first test ride on our new Circe Cycles Morpheus bike. It’s fantastic to have a bike that can be enjoyed by the whole family, from a 3-year-old to a 9-months pregnant woman to Daddy!
If all that wasn’t enough, we’ve also updated some key pages on the website, such as the bikes and trailers we currently own and a list of recommended tires for touring. More updates will follow, assuming life as a family of four doesn’t throw us for too much of a loop!