It includes some funny cycling lists, great articles and unusual bike pictures.

1. Jonny Waldman has written a great post comparing cycling experiences in Portland and San Francisco. Please take note all town planners.
2. 21 bikes has some really cool cycling pictures of riders and their bikes from around the world and you can easily submit your own crazy cycling images for voting.
3. Good News have a great interview with Japanese round the world cyclist Daisuke Nakanishi who has been on the road for 11 years and visited 121 countries.
4. Open travel have a list of world’s most friendly bike cities. Who do you think was #1?
5. Are you planning to cycle through Africa? Great interview of Amaya Williams who spent 2 years cycling through the continent
6. Are you a cyclist who loves to complain? This funny list of 10 complaints by a Toronto cyclist may be just up your street.
7. Are you thinking of cycling around the world? This list of 10 inspirational cycling quotations may get you on your bike and training hard.
8. Are you looking for some current cycling books to read? This list has some good choices that cover a spectrum from road to endurance and around the world cycling.
9. James Bowthorpe set a world record for cycling around the world this great article on The Adventure Life gives a summary of the trip and his experiences.
10. Lonely Planet names the World’s Top 10 Cycling Routes

If you write a cycling blog and have written a interesting or unusual post that you would like featured in this daily roundup of cycling news then please Contact Luke

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From road to environmental, and urban to Parisian glamour they all share a deep passion and love for bikes and all things cycling.

This list of great cycling blogs has been fun to put together and I hope that you find something new amongst it to enjoy. It is numbered for ease of use but it is in no way a ranking.

I have left number 20 blank in the hope that you will share with me an unusual or thought provoking site about cycling as your recommendation.

1. Bike in the City Fabulous french cartoons of a women’s cycling life in Paris
2. Cycling Art is the passionate work of an ex road racer riding through life as a middle age cyclist, artist and blogger. Great historical cycling images.
3. Path Less Pedaled uses stunning photography and beautiful words to describe a bike tour throughout the US and beyond by Laura and Russ.
4. Daves Bike Blog Dave Moulton is an ex-bicycle frame builder. These are his personal thoughts on bike history, tech, bicycle culture, and often just life in general.
5. bakfiets en Meer light hearted look at the weird and wonderful world of cycling “Dutch Style”
6. Cyclofiend Amazing pictures from around the world that glorify those hard-working bicycles designed for toting, towing, delivering or selling stuff.
7. Fat Cyclist takes a light hearted ride around our obsession with weight and calorie intake
8. Bike Snob NYC is critical, opinionated and dangerous to be on the wrong side of. Maybe I should have put them at #1
9. Competitive Cycling is an honest, frank and informative look at road racing from a woman’s perspective.
10. Cozy Beehive is the technical, informed sometimes funny writing of a mechanical engineer with a passion for cycling.
11. Riding Pretty girls looking good on bikes. Enough said !
12. Velorunner is the words and video’s of a London cyclist with a great sense of humour.
13. On The Banking has strong opinions and fighting talk on all things cycling.
14. Down the Road is the story of Tim and Cindie Travis and their 7 year (and still ongoing) cycle around the world
15. Real Cycling is London by bike for commuting, shopping, sightseeing, socialising, partying, and generally just getting from A to B.
16. Hembrow urban cycling thoughts and opinions from the Netherlands.
17. Cyclo Culture Intelligent interviews with cycling people with something useful to share.
18. Copenhagen Cycle Chic beautiful photos and social documentary from the World’s Cycling Capital.
19. Drunk and in Charge brings you political rants, photos and cycle culture from Brooklyn.

What is your recommendation for #20?
Which is your favourite from the list?

CrazyJourney Community Recommendations

An amazing list of touring and ultra distance sites from Bernd Fischel via CrazyJourneys Facebook Page www.bike-europe-ultralite.com

A tour through India from Earth Warrior via Twitter cyclingnegotiator.blogspot.com

A journal tracing the creation of a bike trailer for everyday transportation suggested by Kari Taylor Atkins and Mark Reber via Twitter bambootrailer.wordpress.com

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5. A magical intercontinental cycling tour through Europe and Asia

Cycle Touring

On a bicycle you are forced into intimate contact with your surroundings, the grass on the side of the road, the vehicles that drive past, the farmer in the field, that damn hill under your wells, the rain on your face, the smell of the wild flowers (or the broken sewerage pipe for that matter).

This interaction gives a real sense of the place, the traffic tells you what kind of things are going on in the area, tourism, logging, farming, industry etc. The constant exposure to the weather gives an astute awareness of the day to day changes, or in the case of a strong head wind, any natural feature which will give some shelter .

Hungry, thirsty and tired, a warm smile and a few words (or more often hand signals) is all it takes to find a place to pitch the tent for the night, on real ground with a newly gained sense of the place after a long day in the saddle.

Every since picking up my first National Geographic when I was maybe 3 years old, I have had a deep fascination with people and places. This has led me to far off places in search of what makes a person who they are and what connects them to that place where they call home.

Since starting cycling I have travelled extensively, always in search of real human interaction, at a level that is not based on money or business, but a more real interaction where I can attempt to gain an understanding of a person through there environment and willingness to interact with me as a westerner who is there without a car.

Certainly living somewhere is probably the best way to really gain this understanding, however takes a long time and thus in a lifetime there are only so many places we can spend an extended period of time. From my experience, cycling is as close as it is possible to come to this in a relatively short time.

To read Ben’s fantastic blog about his cycling tour through Bulgaria, China, Cambodia, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Vietnam and Laos please visit www.bikeben.com

Credits for the images in this article about an intercontinental cycling tour belong to Ben.

Please support CrazyJourneys.com by taking a moment to comment on this inspirational bike tour and also tweet or share it. Help Luke to spread the word. The buttons are below:

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In 2007 I rode the entire route 1 day ahead of the professionals and thought I would put together an overview of my trip and provide some pointers for others tempted to tackle a stage or the whole route. This is part 1 of a series of articles documenting my story.

An epic personal Tour de France

In March 2007 the company I had founded and run for 10 years went bust. I had been working 18 hour days for years, smoking 60 cigarettes per day and hadn’t done any exercise in years. I decided that getting fit would take my mind off things and help rebuild my confidence.

I joined a gym and started using their indoor exercise bike. I found I enjoyed it and ended up buying a bike, my first in 23 years ! I started riding daily, using it for transport around London and on the odd longer ride but nothing beyond about 30 miles. Still training daily in the gym for an hour or so I gradually got fitter. But nothing spectacular.

At the beginning of June 2007 the London media was full of stories about the coming TdF which was due to start in London that year. This sparked my imagination and brought back memories of 2 great books I had read about amateurs riding the whole TdF route (French Revolutions and Riding High) and on a whim I decided to tackle the event myself.

I rang my 68 year old mother who lives in France and is just about as impulsive and crazy as I am and asked if she fancied coming with me and driving a van in support. She immediately said yes and asked what she needed to do. I was completely stumped having no idea and only 3 WEEKS to go before the start. I asked her to bring the family transit van, sort the route planning and buy some food supplies. And that was it she hung up and I was left thinking Oh my God, what have I got myself into.

The story might possibly have ended there as another of my flights of fancy except that I really did want to do it. But what now? What about training, equipment, clothing, nutrition etc. i just didn’t have a clue. I had never done any endurance riding before. the longest ride I had completed was 35 miles, I had never ridden up a big hill let alone 6 mountain stages in the high alps and Pyrenees.

Like a true bloke, the first thing I tackled was the equipment. If I was going to ride the TdF route I believed I needed the best equipment so took my bike along to Condor in London and following their advice had it “pimped”.

This ended up costing about £3000 and included a compact chain set and a rear cassette with a very low gearing to help me in the mountains. A new set of wheels, peddles, ultra light shoes and I also bought my first pair of cycling shorts in white (more on this later !!) and a bright pink Rapha cycling top which I loved, again believing I needed to at least look the part even if I couldn’t ride it!

Lessons Learnt with the benefit of hindsight….!

1. Knowing nothing about an event is not necessarily a huge disadvantage. Provided that you are prepared to ask lots of questions and act upon the answers.
   
   
2. Enlisting the help and support of someone you trust and can rely on will help share the bourdon and will be there to push you on when motivation is flagging
   
   
3. Reading books about other peoples experiences in your chosen event is VERY VALUABLE. It gives you a clear insight into what is likely to happen. What the problems and difficulties are and allows you to arrange solutions in advance
   
   
4. Equipment Lessons 1 – To do endurance style cycling events you DO NOT NEED AN EXPENSIVE ultra light bike. Yes it is nice and will make a small difference but it just isn’t that significant and if you are tight on money don’t bother. I ended up with a £5,000 bike which 6 months after the TdF was stolen and with no money to replace it I bought a £200 second hand bike and in all honesty it just doesn’t make that much difference for medium paced endurance riding.
   
   
5. Equipment Lesson 2 – gearing is very, very important. I was incredibly well advised by Condor, though not being technically minded I cannot remember what they gave me but suffice to say it was a compact chain set and the largest 10 speed rear cassette that was compatible. And I needed every one of them. There were times in the Pyrenees particularly which are steeper than the Alps that I would have begged for an even lower gear! I didn’t ride a triple more out of vanity however I would strongly recommend that you do.
   
   
6. Clothing Lesson 1 – Buy and take more than 1 set ! I had no money left after spending it all on the bike so could only afford one pair of shorts and one top. This quite obviously wasn’t enough. And left my mother with the nightmare task of daily trying to wash my stinking shorts and top in a bowl in the back of the van.
   
   
7. Clothing Lesson 2 – If you are only going to buy one set don’t buy white shorts and a light pink top and expect them to remain anything like clean after 21 days in the saddle!

This story continues tomorrow as I begin my 3 weeks of training for the 3500km ride. As you can imagine it doesn’t go that smoothly! Read Part 2

To watch the Sky News interview with Luke in Paris Sky News

Please support CrazyJourneys.com by taking a moment to comment on this adventure story about riding the route of the TdF one day ahead and also tweet or share it. Help Luke to spread the word. The buttons are below:

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5. Oli Broom’s Unusual Cycling Adventure Tour from London to Australia by Bike to Watch the Cricket

Chris Hoy is a giant in the cycling world, a man with enormous power, technique and above all character. Always prepared to give his all in persuit of victory, nobody trains or works harder. Is it enough?

Watch the following video for a fantastic insight into the record attemp and the mind of a true champion:

This video was made on a really easy to use website. It is free to use for short video’s of less than 30 seconds. Find out more click Make your own video like this

You can read more about this oustanding cyclist by visiting his website. Before you do please support CrazyJourneys.com by taking a moment to tweet or share this post. The buttons are below: www.ChrisHoy.com

Also a special thanks to Richard Moore who’s book and words inspired me into making this film.www.guardian.co.uk/profile/richard-moore

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