Bicycle Touring Pro Turns 3!
Oct
Three years ago I got a call from one of my old college roommates saying that after years of seeing me go off on my own bicycle touring adventures, he finally wanted to try going on a bike trip of his own.
We spoke on the phone for hours that night and I passionately filled him in on all the lessons I had learned about bike travel over the years.
When our conversation ended late that evening, I sat down and thought to myself, “If I can help one person plan and prepare for their first bicycle touring adventure by simply speaking to them over the phone, I wonder how many people I could help if I were to write down everything I know about bicycle touring and post it all on the Internet?”
Two days later, BicycleTouringPro.com was born!
On October 27th, 2007 I published a short article about my plans for the future of this site … and that moment marked the beginning of it all. It was the birth of Bicycle Touring Pro.
Three years has since gone by, but it feels like it all happened just yesterday. And even though I’ve put in thousands of hours worth of work into this website, I have had so much fun working on the site that those countless hours slaving in front of my computer feel like mere minutes.
In three year’s time, BicycleTouringPro.com has grown from a tiny self-coded website that only my parents and best friends would occasionally glance at… to a global enterprise with more than 30,000 monthly readers in countries all over the world. Add onto this the growing communities being built around the Bicycle Touring Pro Facebook, Twitter and YouTube sites and the overall readership here at BicycleTouringPro.com has literally grown by leaps and bounds!
For an activity as niche as “bicycle touring”, I sure have had a lot to say about the subject over the past three years.
Since starting this website I’ve written an astounding 461 free articles, created 68 travel related videos, taken thousands of photos and answered countless emails from new and experienced bicycle tourists in locations across the globe. And that’s not all!
I’ve also created three popular ebooks designed to help first-time bicycle traveler’s get their start (The Essential Guide To Touring Bicycles… The Bicycle Traveler’s Blueprint… and The Ultimate Guide To Free Lodging).
And just this past year I launched the Bicycle Travel Network (an organization that gives micro-scholarships to young bike travelers) and created a feature-length instructional video designed to help first-time bicycle tourists get their start.
In between all of this writing, shooting, editing, etc. I’ve traveled to dozens of countries around the world and added thousands of miles to my personal bicycle touring odometer.
When I look back at everything I’ve accomplished in the last three years, I’m pretty amazed at how I’ve been able to keep it all up and still remain so incredible passionate about what it is that I am doing.
“If you want to do something in your life and you’re passionate about doing it… there’s little that can stop you.”
That’s the approach I’ve taken with my work here at Bicycle Touring Pro over the past three years and I think it’s an approach that’s finally paying off. Nearly every day I get an email or two from some person somewhere in the world telling me just how much they’ve learned from Bicycle Touring Pro and how much they love the community that has be created here. It is these messages that make me want to continue my work here and keep on helping others learn about the joys of traveling by bike.
In regards to the future, there’s a lot more in store for Bicycle Touring Pro in the moths ahead.
On a personal front, I plan to leave for Peru in just over one month’s time. My plan once I’m there is to travel about in South America for six full months and all the while share my adventures with you here on the website.
I’m also working on a short book about my bicycle touring experiences in the United States of America and I plan to release that text sometime in the next several weeks. Best of all, I’m going to give the book away for free!
And today I’m launching a new website called Motorcycle Touring Pro. Just like this website which concentrates on bicycle travel, Motorcycle Touring Pro is going to be a website for those wishing to travel long distances on a motorbike.
In addition to all this, I’ve got a number of other projects in the works… but I think I’m going to hold off and tell you about those projects a little bit later.
As you can see, a lot has changed over the past three years. Bicycle Touring Pro is growing, the readership is at an all-time high, and more and more people are experiencing the joys of bicycle travel.
I want to take this moment and thank you for being a part of the Bicycle Touring Pro community. Without you this website would not be what it is… and without your kind messages, I might not have the motivation needed to continue working to make this site better.
Thanks again… and here’s to another great year at Bicycle Touring Pro!
Thumbnail Photo by ilkerender
