Bicycle Touring and why I find disfavor with that term.

According to Wikipedia, bicycle touring means self-contained cycling trips for pleasure, adventure and autonomy rather than sport, commuting or exercise. Touring can range from single to multi-day trips, even years. Tours may be planned by the participant or organized by a holiday business, a club, or a charity as a fund-raising venture.

There are various types and forms of bicycle touring. It comes in all shapes and sizes. There are countless ways to conduct a bicycle tour...and countless places to explore. But this post is not about bicycle touring. I don't want to talk about it. Instead, I want to explain why I dislike the term "bicycle touring." Before I begin, I want to make it clear that I will use and often do use that term. That is because it is the official term for what I do and everyone is familiar with it. Even Darren Alf, the guy from bicycletouringpro.com uses it quite often, almost too often, to the point of annoyance. I am a member of numerous bicycle touring groups on Facebook that don't think twice about using the term. It is known universally and therefore, I will use it to describe my ventures, but that doesn't mean I approve of it or take a liking to it.

So, why exactly is it that I dislike the term "bicycle touring?" It isn't the bicycling part of it. Of course I adore bicycling to its very core. It's not that. It's the "touring" part. Why must a bicycle traveler be known as a tourist? A tourist to me is an outsider exploring new lands. You might think, well that seems about right. Okay, but on a bicycle, you try to avoid those tourist traps and touristy things. Most tourists arrive in a car, bus, plane, train, bus, or some other mode of transportation that is not by foot or bicycle. Backpacking is not refereed to as "backpack touring." But if we are going to be technical, that is kind of what it is. Yes, backpackers travel via more wilderness an bicyclists travel through more towns generally speaking, but aren't we all just explorers at heart? I don't want to be known as a tourist, someone who enjoys holidays and vacations. It may be a vacation, but it's a different kind of vacation, it's my kind of vacation...the kind of exploration and new experiences and new places.

In today's day and age, most people will call their vacations and holidays "adventures." That is an overused term and I hope to write more of this later in a different post. But a bicycle traveler who experiences all the terrain and features and weather of a land, truly experiences adventure because there is more risk, danger and unknown faculties involved.

Take the following terms to describe what I do, to describe the act of traveling by bicycle in new lands:

journey
adventure
trek
jaunt
voyage
odyssey
trip
venture
exploration
quest
discovery

I implore you to think of these terms rather than "touring." I don't describe myself as a "cyclist." I am a person on a bike...an ordinary person who yearns for adventure around the next bend.

Bicycling is rounding out perfect circles...one pedal stroke after another. It is in the journey where we find adventure. The destination is an added benefit. If all we cared about was the destination, we would fly, drive or use another faster mode of transport. We live in an age of rush, rush, rush...and age of fast cars and hurry. We want to get to places as quickly as possible. Not so with bicycle travelers. We take our time. We enjoy our time.

A tourist to me is someone who stops and smells the roses before their tour bus beckons. They always seem to be on a timeline, governed by the clock. Bicycle travelers go with the flow. We are masters of adventure and masters of easy-flow experiences.

As I set about exploring this vast country, I often think about Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery. They weren't tourists; they were adventurers and explorers. A tour usually happens in places where many have tread before. Many a bicycle traveler venture into unknown territory, at least unknown to them. They encounter rough terrain, remote deserts and mountains, vast plains, loneliness, deep valleys, national parks and magnificent views, dangerous traffic and unknown corners...and through it all, we love it. This is why we do it. This is why we explore. Upon return, we tell stories, write blogs and books, share pictures and dream and plan for the next bicycle odyssey. This is why we explore, why we go on quests, why we venture out our front door, why we voyage across continents, why we trek across deserts and mountains, why we journey through deep ravines, why we take small jaunts and meet new people and visit new destinations, and this is why we take on our adventures with gusto. Bring it on. There was a reason Home wrote The Odyssey rather than The Tour.