Adventure Cycling Tip #1: Find the Others

January 7, 2025

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“Wow, those are wide handlebars. They could hook another rider if you’re not careful.”

This is the first thing that the elder statesman of a well-known racing-oriented local cycling club said as he rode up next to me in the middle of my solo ride.

It didn’t occur to him that I wasn’t riding with anyone else and so my preposterously wide handlebars were posing no danger to anyone. He could only think in terms of a racing mindset where riders might be packed tightly in a peloton or jostling during a sprint finish.

My Salsa Cowbell handlebars, in fact, were hardly wide by today’s standards where even modestly wide gravel handlebars like the 44cm Enve Gravel Bar flares out to a width of 56cm at the bar ends.

If you’re curious about handlebar widths, flare, back sweep, reach and other terminology, this is a great resource from Bikepacking.com or read my previous post Why “Shallow Drop” Bars Aren’t Just for Gravel Bikes.

I wasn’t in a race and I was alone. If I had been riding in a group, I’m certain I could have kept a safe distance from other riders despite the width of my handlebars. So why the need to police my choice in handlebars?

If you’ve ever done something to your bike that is outside the mainstream, chances are you’ve had a similar interaction. From handlebar bags and fenders to ergonomic bar end grips and suspended leather saddles, everything my adventure mindset has led me to experiment with has resulted in raised eyebrows and occasional scorn. I’ve learned to shrug it off.

If you want to raise the adventure quotient of your rides–which can mean longer rides, multi-day outings, challenging terrain and remote destinations–then your priorities are going to be different and you’re going to have to go against the grain of mainstream road cycling culture. But there’s an easy way to minimize the pushback you’ll receive, which leads us to Adventure Cycling Tip #1: Find the others.

Find the others

Once you embrace the adventure mindset I described in the last post, you’ll find yourself riding in places and in ways that make you curious about why bikes are the way they are and how you might adapt them to be better suited for your adventures. Experimenting with doing things differently is crucial to getting your bike dialed so you can head out on adventures confident that you’re prepared for unexpected encounters.

Nurturing your adventure mindset is not easy, so why hamstring yourself by riding with others who try to police your style or equipment?

“Finding the others” simply means finding people to ride with who also have an adventure mindset. Not only will they accept whatever deviations from the mainstream you’re experimenting with, they will also be experimenting themselves which opens up opportunities for you to learn from others.

OK, so how do you find the others? Well, start off by talking openly about your “why I ride” answer within the groups that you currently ride in. We don’t typically talk about this which means defaulting to the racing mindset and fitness goals (with the occasional acknowledgement of an appreciation of the social aspect of riding).

By sharing your adventure mindset you might discover others are curious or have been trying to nurture their own latent adventure mindset. You might not be able to shift the culture of the longstanding club ride, but you might find the others who are ready to go exploring and experimenting with you.

The Adventure Mindset’s 3 agreements

It’s not a race
Slow down
There’s always a solution

If you can find others who are willing to accept these three agreements, you’re well on your way to honing your adventure mindset and upping the adventure quotient on your rides.

It’s not a race

Two cyclists looking at a map to find a route

Riding with an adventure mindset means exploring new routes, or even wandering with no route at all. You don’t want riding companions who ride as if they’re in a race, always concerned about their average speed or heart rate zones. And you don’t want riding partners who are anxious to race ahead when you might be lost or you need to slow things down to check your location on a map, as in the photo above and right.

Slow Down

In one sense, “slow down” is obviously related to “it’s not a race.” But the meaning I intend here is more about being in the moment, and not even in the “stop and smell the roses” sense of being in the moment although that has its benefits as well. Increasing the adventure quotient of a ride requires slowing down because the higher the level of adventure the more there is riding on every decision you make.

On adventures, roads are sometimes closed, washed out or otherwise impassable and navigation decisions can be highly consequential. Try to avoid riding mates who insist on rushing things along. Even better, find others who you trust so that crucial mid-ride decisions can be made collaboratively.

Slowing down and being in the moment doesn’t necessarily mean riding at a slower speed, but it does mean tuning in to changes in the weather, the sounds your machine is making, and what your body is telling you. Trying to keep up with the racer on your adventure ride when your drivetrain is starting to make ungodly sounds is a recipe for disaster.

There’s always a solution

Bicycle chain stuck between the cassette and spokes

Slowing down in a literal sense means that getting into a sticky situation is just part of the adventure. When you’re not worried about your ride’s average speed, a chain jammed between your cassette and the spokes is simply a puzzle to solve. OK, it’s a less fun puzzle when you’re deep in the Plumas National Forest and getting devoured by mosquitoes. But the point is that rushing in a crisis situation is like problem solving with blinders on. You limit yourself from seeing the full range of the possible solutions.

When you’re riding with others in an adventure mindset, you’ve all agreed it’s not a race. You all stop and wait for each other when there’s a problem to be solved which means that the range of solutions to consider is expanded even further.

Of course, not even putting multiple creative minds together can solve all problems. I was once with a group of very seasoned adventure cyclists when Claire’s free hub wouldn’t engage. That meant no amount of pedaling could result in forward motion. We were at the bottom of the last climb that would get us out of the backcountry and back onto a paved road.

The best solution we could come up with was to zip tie the ribs on the backside of the cassette to the spokes to create a fixed gear set up. Zip ties are strong, but it didn’t take Claire more than three or four pedal strokes to snap all six of them. That was the day I learned the trick of hiding a hundred dollar bill somewhere on your bike. We hike-a-biked out to the paved road where Claire was able to flag down a vehicle and offer to pay for a ride back to civilization. There’s always a solution!

How to find the others

Mainstream cycling culture is becoming far less monolithic. Many old school road cycling clubs are adding weekly gravel rides and new riders who don’t feel like mainstream clubs represent them are forming their own groups. Radical Adventure Riders, which has a particular focus on BIPOC and FTWN-B folks, has 20 chapters across the U.S. and welcomes applications for new chapters. The Adventure Cycling Association doesn’t organize local group rides, but they do put on guided tours where you’ll likely meet adventure-minded cyclists.

Local bike shops are another great resource. If you find a local shop that carries touring bikes, cargo bikes, and other non-racing type bikes (e.g., steel bikes), there’s a good chance they have a shop ride or know of other group rides that embrace an adventure mindset. There’s a good chance you’ll find these shops, like Swell Bicycles in San Francisco (right), sharing about their countercultural group rides on Instagram.

Finally, if you’re comfortable just getting out there and going for it, start planning your own adventure rides. If you’re new to finding and planning routes, check out our free Gravel Route Planning Guide. If you start getting out there, you’ll find the others. I promise.

I was recently on a solo tour in a remote corner of Japan. I hadn’t seen another cyclist all day. To my surprise, as I came around a bend high up on a ridge line many miles from anywhere, there was a British guy and an American guy standing next to their bikes while admiring the view. We were all on steel bikes optimized for adventure: my Black Mountain Cycles Mod Zero, a Soma Wolverine and a Surly Long Haul Trucker. We chatted for almost a half hour as the sun was setting. At one point, we looked at each other’s bikes and one of us commented that if we happened to live in the same part of the world we’d probably be riding buddies!

The others are out there. You don’t need to go to Japan to find them. But they are crucial to strengthening your adventure mindset and also happen to be just the kind of companions you want on adventures!

How’s it going?

Comova’s name has two meanings. It’s the first two letters of the words coast, mountains and valleys. It’s also Spanish for “How’s it going?” Eventually your adventure mindset might develop to the point that you’re eager for a big solo outing like a self-supported century or a solo overnighter. Until then, adventures with like-minded riders mean you can offer each other an occasional “How’s it going?”

Try this next time you’re in the middle of a challenging adventure ride: Pedal up next to a riding partner who looks like they are at a low point. With a big smile, ask them “How’s it going?”

It’s a known fact that humans can endure more pain and for longer durations when in the company of others. Your question is a way of saying “We’ll get through this together.” And by emphasizing “together,” you’re also implicitly confirming the three agreements of an adventure mindset: it’s not a race; slow down; and there’s always a solution.