01
Minneapolis
Archive
PEDALS & PARADOXES · AN ONGOING JOURNEY
Getting lost
to find myself.
On the road to discovery, whatever that means.
I'm not entirely sure where this is going.
I'm going to find out.
Why
A man desperate to fall back in love with life and discover himself at the same time.
LEAVINGYacht life.
LOOKING FORWhat I'm going to do next.
And who I want to be.
And who I want to be.
Now
WHERE I AM IN THE STORYWorking.
The bike is waiting in California. I'm back in the yacht world for now, doing the practical bit while the next chapter gets lined up.
NEXT
Victorville → California desert → Baja → GDMBR Northbound
THE POINT
Keep moving towards the life I actually want, without pretending I know exactly what it looks like yet.
The route
Where I've been.
Where I'm going.
The line is the journey so far. The pale line is the plan. As the ride happens, the plan gets replaced by the road actually taken.
CLICK A POINT FOR THE CHAPTER. BEEN THERE
THE PLAN
NEXT
TRANSFER
The journal
Thoughts from
the road.
Longer pieces. Good days, bad days, stupid decisions, beautiful places and whatever else seems worth remembering.
What the fuck am I doing here?
Everything is lined up. The bike is waiting in America. The flights are booked. And somehow I'm wondering if I should go at all.
Read the first piece →02 · —
Another story from the road.
Stories will appear here in chronological order as the journey unfolds.
—
The archive
Past rides.
Previous experiments. They got me here.
02
Phoenix
Archive
03
Victorville
Archive
The bike
The machine
that gets me there.
I don't need the lightest bike, the newest bike or the bike everyone on the internet says I should have. I need a bike I trust when the road gets long, the weather turns bad and the next town is a long way away.
Why this one
Built for
being away.
This is the bike I keep coming back to for long trips. A custom titanium setup, built around the idea that the less I have to worry about the machine, the more attention I can give to the place I'm riding through.
It carries everything I need without pretending I don't need anything. Bags, water, tools, food, cameras, a bit of comfort. Enough to live on the road, not enough to turn the road into a mobile garage.
The point isn't the bike.
It's what the bike lets me do.
FRAMEEsker Hayduke LVS — Small
A 29er hardtail built around long days, loaded travel and keeping things simple.
WHEELS29er · SON 28 dynamo
Front wheel with a SON 28 dynamo hub. Rear wheel details to be added.
TYRESMaxxis · 29 × 2.6"
Exact model to be added.
DRIVETRAINSRAM Eagle · 32T / 52T
Low gearing for the bits of road that stop pretending they're roads.
COCKPITPNW
Bars and seatpost from PNW.
SADDLEPro Stealth MTB
Anatomical cut-out. Comfort matters when the day is measured in hours, not kilometres.
BRAKESSRAM D8 · front & rear
Exact model specification to be checked later.
PEDALSShimano XTR
Simple, familiar and built to take the punishment.
LUGGAGEOrtlieb Gravel Front + Rear
Enough carrying capacity without turning the bike into a mobile garage.
The gear
What comes
with me.
I'm interested in gear because good gear disappears. It works, it gets dirty, it gets repaired and you stop thinking about it.
01Sleeping
Nemo Dragonfly 2P, Therm-a-Rest NeoAir, quilt and Sea to Summit pillow.
02Cooking
Trangia 27 UL. Simple cooking, hot food and coffee without much ceremony.
03Navigation
Garmin navigation setup. The exact device and mounting details will be added to the full kit list.
04Communication
Garmin inReach Mini 2 for satellite messaging and tracking beyond phone signal.
05Camera / film
Insta GO 2, Insta360 X5, DJI Neo drone and DJI Osmo Pocket 3.
06Repair kit
The boring stuff that keeps a small mechanical problem from becoming a very large walk. Full list to come.
Live from the road
Where the
fuck am I?
When I’m travelling, the inReach Mini 2 can transmit track points over the satellite network. Garmin MapShare can then make that track available to people following the journey.
THIS WILL GO LIVE WHEN THE JOURNEY STARTS.
LIVE TRACKING
AWAITING MAPSHARE
The live map will appear here when the inReach Mini 2 is connected.
STATUSNOT CONNECTED
LAST UPDATE—
POSITION—
TRACKINREACH MINI 2
Field notes
Things I
saw.
Not highlights. Just evidence that I was there.
THE PLANMOVE
THE REALITYFIGURE IT OUT
THE RULEKEEP GOING
About
I'm Adam.
A long time at sea.
A bicycle. A lot of questions.
I’ve spent most of my adult life working on boats. Yachting has given me a bloody good life in a lot of ways. It’s also taken up an enormous amount of it.
For years, when work got too much, I’d leave, get on a bicycle and disappear for a while. Somewhere along the way I realised those trips weren’t just holidays.
They were the bits of my life where I felt most like myself.
So this is an experiment.
I’m riding because I love riding. I’m travelling because I want to see what’s on the other side of the next hill. And I’m writing because I’m trying to make sense of what comes next.
There’s no grand plan here. No ten-step system. No promise that I’m going to figure everything out.
Just a man trying to fall back in love with life, while working out who the hell he wants to be.
THE WORK25+ years
on yachts.
on yachts.
THE ESCAPELong rides.
Slow travel.
Slow travel.
THE QUESTIONWhat comes
next?
next?