Reset

Profiles

, , , , ,

“Being On the Road Changed Us Forever”: Around the World on Two Bikes in Two Years

Jane10 Avid travelers Jane and Stephen Mountain recently returned to North America after a two-year bicycling trip around the world. Here's what they learned... and what they're planning next.

I'm Jane, and my husband Stephen and I have fallen into a pattern of ditching all the responsibilities of a normal life. It started on our first trip together almost 20 years ago. We backpacked around Europe, fought the entire time, and finally broke up when we ran out of money and patience.

Stephen moved to Chamonix to work the ski season and I moved to Geneva to learn French (he ended up breaking his collarbone and my French is hopeless, as it turns out). We reunited in London, got back together, and got married.

Read More

Life

, , , , , , , , ,

“Knowledge Is Not Understanding” — The Case of the Backwards Bicycle

I loved this video from Smarter Every Day, where host Destin Sandlin learns to ride a bicycle that has been custom welded to reverse the handlebars.

It sounds easy—all you have to do is think left when you normally think right, and vice versa. Can’t be too hard, right? But it is hard... very hard.

After he learns to ride the reverse bicycle, he then has another big problem: how to switch back to an ordinary bicycle. It turns out that's really tough, too.

Lesson: “Once you have a rigid way of thinking in your head, sometimes you cannot change it, even if you want to."

Read More