Cycling Nomad

Bicycle touring has been a small though influential subset of bicycle popular culture since the advent of the 2-wheeled human-powered vehicle in the early 19th century. Ranging in length and scope from weekend getaways to multi-year multi-continental treks, bicycle touring is a phenomenological immersion into the nomadic spirit inherent to man. Unlike it’s modern predecessor, the automobile-dependent ‘road-trip’, the human-powered cadence and lack of spatial confines inherent to touring offers an intimate embrace of the journey.

The cyclists’ reason’s for embarking on such grueling endurance journeys is as varied as the people themselves, but one certainty is that the slow rhythmic pace of a tour ensures one will be completely in touch with the moment – smelling the cedar trail of logging trucks as they roar by, hearing the bark of sea lions on secluded offshore rock outcroppings, seeing and feeling the endless extent of the ever changing 360 degree panorama. Smelling the roses is but one of endless opportunities of an adventure at 12 miles per hour.

These photographs document a cycling tour from Vancouver British Columbia to San Francisco in summer 2007.

Benji Damron