This is produced by Blackburn Media so you might be expecting an 18 minute long commercial for Blackburn racks but this video is simply a loving look at bicycle touring. Jim Blackburn gets a brief mention in the excellent historical overview but more attention is paid to other pioneers, like touring bike builder Bruce Gordon and the founders of Adventure Cycling, the prime source of cycle touring maps in the States. The history uncovered in this mini-doc is fascinating but it’s the clips of touring cyclists that really elevates this video.
It’s these scenes where you catch the fever for bicycle travel. It’s these people that “that make you want to sell your possessions, quit your job and escape on a bike,” as the producers so aptly put it. It had that effect on me. I’ve long felt there was no better way to see a new part of the world than from the seat of a bicycle—and no better way to see with new eyes a place you think you already know—so I may be an easy mark. But I think any cyclist will appreciate this long-ish video enough to stick with it and be won over by how honestly it captures the joy of cycling.
