The Next Edition: Help Wanted!

I plan to write the second edition of Adventure Cycle-touring Handbook in early 2009. Before that, I am off riding from Turkey to India, full plan details are on my blog. Hopefully I’ll meet lots of bikers on the road and look forward to some company, especially for the camping parts of the trip, such as the lonely Pamir Highway in Tajikistan.

The second edition of the book will then be out by the end of 2009. It will be nearly 100% new content and again, I hope to find many contributions from bikers all over the world to make it once again a truly representative and internationally-oriented book that reflects the global community of long-distance cycling.

Photos

The second edition will have a lot more black and white photos than the first, probably averaging one per page – that’s 300 matchbox-sized B&W photos. I’ve been riding and photographing much more since the first edition but I still would prefer some variety and avoid pictures of myself in disguise pretending to be someone else…. Your photos could help out here! Here’s some of the types of pictures I’ll need:

Photos of bikes with touring gear, photos of suitable touring bikes without touring gear in order that the reader can identify and see the bike clearly. I don’t plan on using any company-provided studio shots of gear this time. Amateur photos may lack the professional edge – but have more spirit and enthusiasm behind them!

Photos of bike parts or gear. I’m thinking of racks, saddles, handlebars and accessories that are useful kit for long-distance bikers.

Photos of camping gear. I need more photos of tents and stoves in use, especially the tents I’m likely to recommend, though I have lots of photos of most of them. I can’t say which tents will make the final cut yet, though Hilleberg will still be high on the list, especially the Nallo I’m taking on my next trip, and some from MacPac, Vaude and Terra-Nova. And for sure Big Agnes’s Seedhouse tent! Anyone with strong views on what constitutes a great tent for cyclists – get in touch! Please send photos if you can. I’m not so up to date with good American tents we don’t see so often, like Mountain Hardwear. The camping gear section is an important one, geared just for cyclists who need the lightest yet toughest gear, so please send a link to your site or blog or let me know if you’ve got some good pixels I can use!

Country photos. These are photos of your ride that include the bike and maybe rider but illustrate something about the country you were in or the riding conditions. These are notoriously hard to describe, but a good photo says something about the country or situation that is useful to anyone looking at it. A photo of a cyclist standing looking at the camera won’t do it, nor will any other kind of posed shot – it needs to look natural.

The Colour Section: I will happily pay for these. The problem with paying for every black and white photo, or even giving away a copy of the book, is that to pay for 300+ images, the book will make no money at all. So generally, I can’t afford to offer anything for a black and white photo except for a credit next to your photo and my hearty thanks. But for colour half page photos, I will pay £25 or Euro or US$ equivalent, paid by internet banking (for the UK) or Paypal. Full page colour photos get £50 and for the cover photo – the money shot! (see here for more details) – I will pay £250 . We prefer colour slides, but alas those are disappearing, so top-quality digitals will have to do.

Tall tales from the saddle

The stories we had at the back of the book were all reportedly true, though one writer offered to change the ending of his story if I wanted him to… but in the belief that a good story well told works best, no questions were asked! The chase is on to find bikers who can write as competently as they travel – and writing’s hard for all of us, with the exception of literary giants like Colonel Edward Genochio who wrote in the first edition!

Please give it some thought. Can you tell a good story about your trip and make it interesting, entertaining and hopefully useful to other bikers? That’s what I was looking for when I picked the stories for the first edition. I thought every writer had something to say and a tale that needed telling. Whether it was centenarian Jean Bell letting us all know that whatever we may do, it’s probably all been done nearly a century ago, and in his case on wooden wheels, or the youngest writer, Alastair Bland telling us how to live off the land and make our own wine, I think it’s useful stuff and what sets us cyclists apart from other travellers.

And don’t forget: Trip Reports! NOW ACTIVE!

A nice feature of the first edition was the Trip Reports. It takes dozens to sort through to get the best to use in the book – but please humour me by filling one in here (you will need to register with us in order to submit a trip report!). Not all get published but they are all read and appreciated and I will keep them on my website for all to view (unless you ask me to withdraw yours). Trip reports help people – there is room to pass on any vital information or useful tips or recommendations and that’s what the book is all about.