What seems like a couple hundred hours of work to get it to this state I’m finally at a point where I can put it out into the wild and even see if it gets any usage – Let me introduce you to my new project that I’ve been thinking about for the past year and a half – Bicycle Touring Hub – It’s hoped this can be a central resource for new and seasoned bicycle tourists alike.
Bicycle Touring Books – When I first started coming up with the idea of traveling for long periods of time I wanted to find out as much possible information in the quickest amount of time. I headed down to the library to find any books related to bicycle repair, maintenance and spent considerable time reviewing maps to see what other people had done in the past. I started looking on the internet for other published books, magazines and information that was available. There’s a wealth of information out there but not all books are titled “Bicycle Touring”, “Adventure Cycling”, in fact some of the travelogues don’t even mention that it involves a bicycle whatsoever in the title or description! I set out to collect a database of published books on bicycle touring so that other interested people could leave reviews on each individual book based on its content, readability and availability to assist others. So far there are over 350 books listed in the database and growing weekly. You can add your own books to the database as well.
Bicycle Touring Gear – When I was ready to make a purchase for the bicycle, and its accompanying parts – I obsessed over individual gear listings from other bicycle tourists worldwide putting it all into an excel spreadsheet on how often it was used, the price, how much usage they expected to get out of the product, and importantly if I could find it in my local area of Canada. Each tourist has their own way of doing things when touring but surprisingly use similar gear based on their trip duration. I figured this would be a good opportunity to give bicycle tourists their own nook on the internet to review gear that’s actually been used for bicycle touring as opposed to camping, or backpacking. As with the books, one can review the product individually, assign a 5 star rating system, and add their own gear to the list along with their own photos. I also built some logic to find the cheapest price available on the internet so that if one wanted to purchase their own they could get it for a great deal. It also searches EBay for any active auctions as well! There are other things to come down the road with this area of the website that will tie into the next section.
Free Websites for Bicycle Tourists – There are a few websites available out there to allow adventure cyclists the capability to post their trip journals and musings on the road. I have an awful lot of space and bandwidth available not being used and figured that a good way to burn through it all was to give free websites for people who were interested in putting their journals online, but didn’t have the technical know how, or were frustrated with difficult to use back end tasks. I put together a system that allows users who are registered on the site to create their own blog, picking from a handful of pre-made templates. After a few brief questions the website is ready to go, awaiting the first post. Features such as integration with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, and Google Analytics along with a no fuss user interface sets this apart from other on-web offerings allowing the tourist to add a bit of personalization to their site. There is an area that ties in with the Gear listing automatically filling in their equipment list for the world to see and work from.
Free Campsites – It’s an awful lot of money to camp when bicycle touring when the only amenities is water, an outhouse, and maybe a garbage can. I set out to find areas to camp for free in on a daily basis. While these spots are not ideal for most people, I designed this section to allow other bicycle tourists to add / view campsites offered without any cost to them specifically offering services such as AC power, Clean Water, Wireless Internet access, Shelter, Showers and groceries near by. There are many sites worldwide and I see becoming a huge resource for travelers. It ties in with Google Maps, and down the road it will be released as an App for the IPhone, and other mobile devices. Users can add their own sites, leave reviews, and recommend to others.
Classified Ads – Paired with the gear database, this is a great area for bicycle tourists to buy and sell gear – I found in my own searches using systems like Craigslist, the Buy and Sell and EBay that I was up against huge competition from other buyers, and often missed the chance to get the gear I wanted. If we keep this local to simply bicycle tourists it makes the playing field a bit more manageable for all of us! With this I decided to implement free classified ads. Forums – There are a couple other websites that certainly serve the purpose which are very well established, but I wanted to put this feature in place primarily for discussion in between members and to use it as a help area for the other features of the site. If it grows into something bigger, so be it, so it is minimal at best at present.
I have a lengthy list of other features that I’m waiting to implement as soon as time allows (I’m now back to full time riding with minimal internet access, so updates will come in waves) but hope that this can flower into a great resource for many years to come helping people world wide. Check it out, it’s free, and almost everything can be accessed without signing up, unless you want to participate. The address is at http://www.bicycletouringhub.com
