David Bryne - the Bicycle Diaries, Cycle touring as a narrative and a way to understand the 'real world'

I recently read some of David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries; his observations by bicycle as his primary mode of city transport during his career as a musician and artist.

[caption id="attachment_1001" align="alignnone" width="255" caption="David Bryne with one of his bike racks in NYC"][/caption]

In a conversational style, Byrne talks about the thoughts inspired by what he sees whilst riding his bike. I recently listened to a podcast of 'the Bike Show' on Resonance FM. There was a feature about how when you cycle, your brain is in an alpha-wave state, your conscious and unconscious minds are slightly better linked and thoughts are more easily able to bubble over from one into the other. This is interesting because I feel that when I am cycling I can think more clearly and I often have a lot of ideas when cycling.

The Collective - Roam - Six million ways to live, choose one.

This is a fantastic mountain bike video with a great soundtrack. I particularly love the shot at 2.18.



enjoy.

21 Observations about Mongolia - tips for the Mongolia traveller

I've been back in England for 1.5 months now. What is sticking in my mind about Mongolia? 21 quick fire thoughts for the prospective Mongolia traveller.

1. There aren't many people in the rural areas but you're never far from a settlement of some kind.


2. Steppe is beautiful but it soon gets tedious to look at.

Seth Godin on the Tribes we lead

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

Expedition Web design - Ben Saunders' Website, Dieter Rams, and Lewis Pugh

I am inspired by the design of Dieter Rams, famous for his design commandments, two of which are: 'design is thorough down to the last detail' and 'design is as little design as possible'. Which incidently are ingredients for successful expeditions. The second one certainly applies to bicycle expeditions, in terms of minimising weight.

Ben Saunders is a polar explorer who I have been following since I met him very briefly at Explore 2006, the Royal Geographical Society's expedition planning seminar. He was giving a talk about using technology on Expeditions and in particular blogging. In 2006 I don't think anyone had heard of Twitter (for the record).

Britain in Tandem - the height, width and length of Britain in 15 days

My cousin, James Peach, is partaking in an admirable challenge to cover the the height, width and length of Britain in 15 days.

Xmind - Mind Mapping Software for Planning Expeditions

I recently used a program called Xmind for planning the Mongolia expedition. I have always been interested in mind-mapping. It is like brainstorming but somewhat more focused on the 'associative' way that the brain structures information.

'Pedal' Documentary about bicycle couriers and bicycle courier racing in New York City

I first came across the bicycle courier scene in New York in a documentary called Pedal .  The documentary investigated the lifestyles of the couriers and the sorts of characters who end up in that line of work. I was impressed with the way that the majority of it was filmed by a guy following the couriers on a skateboard with a camera fitted with a wide-angle 'fish eye' lens .

I was reminded about the documentary when I came across this video of a seemingly suicidal cycle courier race through NYC.

The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us