As the bike industry continues its niche-ification of road bikes, I stumbled across an engaging book exemplifying that it’s the rider, not the machine, which defines an adventure.
Edward Abair’s Discovering the US on a Bicycle is a humble yet bold autobiography of one man’s journey across the North American continent from California to Florida and then up to New York. After returning from the Vietnam war where he served as a medic, Abair decides in 1972 to set out on a 10-speed, putting himself at the mercy of others for both room on the road and a place to sleep.
While any cyclist can relate to Abair’s ups and downs on the bike — the joy of a tailwind at the end of a long ride, the fear of trailer trucks on narrow roads, an enormous appetite while logging huge miles — I most enjoyed the perspective Abair gained of a diverse and changing country through his months-long solo adventure.
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With only a sleeping bag and tarp for bedding, Abair sleeps in parks, in strangers’ front yards, behind high schools and even, on a few occasions, in jail cells.
The adventure road bike has now become a thing. Designed to take riders off their regular beaten paths, these machines have slightly wider tires, more relaxed front ends and lower bottom brackets than regular road bikes. Abair’s mechanical considerations were much more basic. The only thought he gave to fork rake, for instance, was noting that his steel fork still rode fine after being substantially bent. His upgrades, such as they were: a generator light to ride with at night, plus a rack to carry his bedroll, clothing, food and other supplies. He rode in Bermuda shorts and loafers, with a baseball cap and eyeglasses.
While the bike was certainly the mechanism for a summer-long adventure, there was nothing at all special or ‘optimized’ about his 10-speed steed.
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