July 2009 – Website Update From Macedonia

Greetings from Strumica, Macedonia! I’m currently circling an area near the border of Macedonia, Bulgaria and Greece… and while it’s blistering hot here, it’s also incredibly beautiful.

I’m killing a few days by exploring this little-traveled area of the Balkans before heading with my bike to Athens, Greece – the final destination for my 2009 European bicycle touring adventure.

The reason for this post, however, is because there’s been a lot going on here at Bicycle Touring Pro over the past couple days. So I thought I’d take a few minutes to write about it, share my plans for the future with you, and invite you to become a featured member of the Bicycle Touring Pro community.

Ready? Here it goes…

Adventure Cycling Giveaway

This past Thursday I gave away 50 free memberships to the Adventure Cycling Association and I had no idea they’d all be snatched up so quickly. All 50 memberships were claimed within minutes of my email going out. If you checked your email even one hour after the giveaway began, it was likely too late.

For those who were able to claim one of the 50 free memberships, congratulations! And for those who weren’t able to get one (either because you were too late or because you live outside of the United States), I’ll try and arrange some other free giveaways like this in the future so you will have another chance of claiming a free prize.

In case you’re interested, here’s what people on Facebook and Twitter had to say about the giveaway:

I also want to take this moment to thank the Adventure Cycling Association for giving me the 50 free memberships to hand out. I’m so glad I was able to introduce some new readers to the organization of which I have been a part for so many years.

Whether you were one of the lucky 50 to grab a free membership or not, you might be interested in watching the following short video. It’s the first of several short online videos the Adventure Cycling Association is putting together in a new series titled, “I Love Bicycle Travel.” Check it out!

Upcoming Articles

Over the past few weeks I’ve released over a dozen new articles, interviews and videos (You can see them all running down the middle column of the homepage at BicycleTouringPro.com). But I’ve got a lot more in store for the weeks ahead. Even though I’m traveling, that doesn’t keep me from producing new content for the site.

Here’s what I have planned for the next couple weeks:

• On Monday I’ll be releasing a video interview with a 23-year-old bicycle traveler from Canada who is spending three months cycling through Europe. I met this young man in Skopje, Macedonia and we spent the day together, explored the city, and spent a lot of time talking about bicycle travel.

• I’ve also produced an article (photos included) about my bicycle touring experiences in Albania – a country that I was told time and time again not to visit. Nearly everyone I met over the past seven months told me that Albania was one of the worst possible places I could go. But I ignored their warnings and went there anyway… and the adventures I had there were unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.

• I’ll also be releasing a long and detailed list of items you might need to bring on your next bicycle tour. This list was created by BicycleTouringPro.com reader, Jim Dirlam, in response to my recent post on the 10 items many bicycle travelers forget to pack. It’s an impressive list of touring equipment, camping gear, technology and more… so be sure not to miss it.

• I’ll also be sharing a story from my travels in Kosovo, a nation many people still associate with the Kosovo War, which took place in the late 1990’s. The country recently declared it’s independence from Serbia, but there’s still a lot of conflict over the matter and the military presence inside this tiny landlocked country was higher than anywhere I’ve ever been in the past.

• Finally, I’ll be sharing a list of the top bicycle touring trailers. These are trailers made for long-distance and short-distance touring. While most riders these days seem to be using panniers to carry their gear, there are still some people who prefer to pull a trailer. If you’re one of those people… or you’re simply interested in seeing all the different types of trailers you can pull behind your bike, this article is for you!

I’ve got a lot more in store after this… so stay tuned, check back often, or subscribe to the RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or become a fan on Facebook so you’re sure not to miss a thing.

Share What You Know And Be Featured On The Site

While I’ve spent the past seven months cycling my way from Switzerland to Greece, there are hundreds of BicycleTouringPro.com readers who have also been traveling by bike this past year.

I’ve received emails from some of these people and the stories they’ve shared with me are really quite incredible.

So, this is what I’d like to do:

If you’ve conducted a bike tour of any length over the past 12 months and you’d like to share what you learned with the community here at BicycleTouringPro.com by contributing a guest article, I’d like to take this moment to encourage you to contact me.

What I’m looking for is guest writers who have been on tour themselves and can either 1) share stories about the locations they visited on their own bicycle touring adventures, 2) write “how to” bike travel articles, or 3) share personal insights and lessons learned from life on the road.

If you think you have a story worth sharing and you’re interested in contributing to the community here at BicycleTouringPro.com, then please send an email to the address below:

In your email, please tell me your name, where you went on your tour, how long you were on the road,  what kind of an article you’d like to contribute… and, in one or two sentences, tell me the #1 thing you learned from your adventure. (Attach a picture or two if possible)

After the emails come in, I’ll select just a few individuals to be featured here on the site. If you are selected, I’ll send you an email with further instructions. But I can only select a few people, so don’t be upset with me if I choose to feature another writer/rider and not you.

If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask.

So that’s it for the July update! Thanks again to the Adventure Cycling Association… and stay tuned for more exciting bicycle touring inspiration in the weeks to come. Ciao!