Recent content by ali

We've talked about a bunch of this stuff before. From my perspective StP isn't really a collective-owned forum, so at the end of the day i'll defer to whatever our benevolent dictator and responsible maintainers think is best. Everyone is different, so what works for some people won't work for...

I get all my knowledge from the tag oracle. Today i learned that "view" is a notable word processor produced by Acornsoft in the 1980s and "chill" is a programming language used in telecommunications switches. Also a squat is a strength exercise.

So this weekend i was camping in the mountains in the kind of place where you're inside a cloud and it half-rains constantly. I was woken up a few times by unpleasant drips and i thought maybe i hadn't pegged my fly good enough but when i was breaking up to leave i noticed that the waterproofing...

Quick update on this. I've now had the bike for about 6 months, although all of that time i have been housed up and not traveling full-time. However, each weekend i put 50-100km on the bike doing various round trips near home, and i have taken it out on a few longer excursions. The first thing...

Today i went on a 100km circle tour to continue putting the bike through its paces. Still no real mountains, but a couple hundred meters steepish climb and a bit of rugged industrial zone, gravel and sand. I think the bike held up okay, although there is some of clicking or knocking sound i need...

Alright, it's done, i bought a goddamn foldie. There's millions of them here in Asia, although almost all of them are the bi-fold type that are still pretty large. Bi-folds (Tern, Dahon etc) are definitely small enough to casually chuck into a car boot or in the luggage compartment of a...

I'm not sure which section to put this in, but i ran across a useful resource the other day on a blog called Forgotten Railways, Roads & Places. The blog is kinda urbex-y and kinda history-y and worth a read in its own right, but the really useful page for travelers is the abandoned railroad...

A lot of people know that Taiwan is a popular country for bike touring, and most people who live here are familiar with the YouBike public bicycle system. About a month ago i decided i wanted to try to put both of these things together and see how much traveling i could do using just the YouBike...

This is a post about flip-flops. Throughout the years i have lived in places where these things were called jandals, thongs, chanclas, sandals and slippers, but something about calling them flip-flops is endearing. There was a period when i was traveling light when i didn't bring flip-flops...

The Guardian ran a good story today about women who have used Crewbay and similar sites to find an opportunity to sail around the world. It very much lines up with the sort of skeezy vibes i got from the vast majority of captains on there when i was hoping to do the same. Well worth a read for...

This is a tiny little diagram that saved my ass when i had it downloaded to my phone and my bike chain started to act wonky and fall off the end of cassette while i was switching into the top or bottom gear. There are many websites that tell you how to tune your rear derailleur, but in my...

Hey all, you might remember me from my first bike tour in Canada or the US leg... After cycling south-east across Turtle Island, i bought a cheap plane ticket on a whim and flew from Miami to Panama City. I didn't really have much plans other than to learn Spanish and perhaps join a crew on a...

Even though theoretically i am still on my first bike tour, the fact i had about 5 days break and flew across the border makes this feel like a new chapter. In my previous thread (First tour, heading out of Kamloops) you will find my story of starting out with this form of travel and cycling...

So, been camping out for a bit over a week now, and not once have i found a site where i could get more than one or two pegs in halfway. The other night it was raining and i pinned my fly out with straps and some large rocks i found by the lake. Today there were no rocks around so i have one...

After spending a year in Kamloops weathering the second and third COVID waves, i got my vaccinations and resolved to get back on the road again. I was really inspired by the posts of @BikePunky and @superphoenix getting started without much gear to give bike touring a shot. When i first got...