The Pedalshift Project 190: A Decade of Bike Touring with Mysterious James

Happy New Year! January 2020 is very special because we bring you something long denied to you. More Mysterious James. We realized we’ve been doing this bike touring thing for an entire decade, so we talk about our thoughts on a decade of touring, lessons learned and thoughts on the future.


The Pedalshift Project 190: A Decade of Bike Touring with Mysterious James

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The Interview: A Decade of Bike Touring with MJ

If you’re here, you wanted to know what or who Mysterious James aka MJ is. Here’s the deal:
 
– MJ is an enigma wrapped in a riddle dropped in a box of Cracker Jack
 
– MJ is a massive user of Twitter and other social media
 
– MJ does not have an account on any of these
 
– MJ is a ghost, but not dead.
 
– MJ has been transformed by bike touring, and now says hello to people, but only if he deems them odd enough to talk to.
 
– MJ is lanky and about the size of a small giraffe.
 
– MJ rides a Surly Long Haul Trucker, the Cadillac of touring bikes. It’s also a little culty.
 
– MJ and I used to have similar jobs, but not really
 
– MJ shall always be mysterious
 
The supplements I mentioned: I literally cannot find them! Sorry folks! Amino something or other?
 
The MJ jolt  it doesn’t end here… it is the month of Mysterious James and we have two more episodes coming at you featuring MJ. We get competitive and do something never done on the Pedalshift Project… next week we begin a new tradition – the Pedalshift Bike Touring Draft where James and I draft components for a fictional tour and you get to vote on who did it better. And the week after that we choose a poker full house hand of 5 touring routes – 3 ACAs and 2 wild cards, and you get to decide who drew the better hand.
 
January is super fun, but it all leads into the next bike tour, the Kessel Run in central FL, which we’re previewing at the end of the month, and will be documented into February.

As always we like to close out the show with a special shoutout to the Pedalshift Society! Because of support from listeners like you, Pedalshift is a weekly bicycle touring podcast with a global community, expanding into live shows and covering new tours like this spring’s DC to Cincinnatti bike tour! If you like what you hear, you can support the show for 5 bucks, 2 bucks or even a buck a month. And there’s one-shot and annual options if you’re not into the small monthly thing. Check it all out at pedalshift.net/society.

Kimberly Wilson
Caleb Jenkinson
Cameron Lien
Andrew MacGregor
Michael Hart
Keith Nagel
Brock Dittus
Thomas Skadow
Marco Lo
Terrance Manson
Harry Telgadas
Chris Barron
Mark Van Raam
Brad Hipwell
Stuart Buchan
Mr. T
Roxy Arning
Nathan Pulton
Stephen Dickerson
Vince LoGreco
Paul Culbertson
Scott Culbertson
Cody Floerchinger
Tom Benenati
Greg Braithwaite
Sandy Pizzio
Jeff Muster
Seth Pollack
Joseph Quinn
Drue Porter
Byron Paterson
Joachim Raber
Ray Jackson
Jeff Frey
Kenny Mikey
Lisa Hart
John Denkler
Steve Hankel
Miguel Quinones
Alejandro Avilés-Reyes
Keith Spangler
Greg Towner
Dan Gebhart
Jody Dzuranin
Lucas Barwick
Michael Baker
Brian Bechtol
Reinhart Bigl
Greg Middlemis
Connie Moore
William Gothmann
Brian Benton
Joan Churchill
Mike Bender
Rick Weinberg
Billy Crafton
Gary Matushak
Greg L’Etoile-Lopes
James Sloan
Jonathan Dillard
John Funk
Tom Bilcze
Ronald Piroli
Dave Roll
Brian Hafner
Misha LeBlanc
Ari Messinger
David Gratke
Todd Groesbeck
Wally Estrella
Sue Reinert
John Leko
Stephen Granata
Phillip Mueller
Kevan Olhausen
Robert Lackey

Music

You’ve been hearing about Jason Kent and his music for many fine episodes. Sunfields’ latest album may be their best yet. Go get it.

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