Tag Archives: Bob Rogers

Preparing a Tandem Bicycle for the Andes and Amazon
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I am beginning to dismantle Zippy, world touring tandem, in preparation for our next self supported tour, this time South America. Before each tour, I completely dismantle Zippy for three reasons: to find our which parts need replacing so I can order them and fix the worn parts, catch any impending failures of frame, rims or drive-train, and to re-familiarize myself with every part. Since many of the places we tour are hundreds of miles from a proper bike shop, I have to be able to fix pretty much anything. Anyone who owns a tandem will tell you tandems need more attention than single bikes; I might have to rebuild the hub somewhere in the high Andes, or the middle of the Amazon basin, while being munched on by ants and mosquitoes and critters we’ve never seen before. Read the rest of this article…

Battle, Lam Son 719: Tchepone, Laos and the Hoh Chi Minh Trail
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From supposedly reliable intelligence, Abrams was able to follow the progress of troops and supplies south, and judge where and when the North planned to attack over the border into Vietnam. To paraphrase from A Better War, Lewis Sorley: Troops advanced south in waves 500 to 600, moving at 12.2 kilometers per day, mostly by foot, the trucks saved for supplies and ammunition. We were able to move perhaps 60 Kilometers on the unimproved section, partly because our load was not on our feet, but on our bicycle, and partly because we had no backup supplies; we had to get out of that jungle in short order. Read the rest of this article…

Laotian Time Bombs: A war’s explosive environmental legacy (Sierra Magazine, Feb. 2011)
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Our risk was nothing compared to the average Laotian farmer, wandering children, firewood gathering women, who know their next footstep can mean death, or for some worse, maiming, in a poor country where everyone must contribute.

Some facts: 270 million of these bombies were dropped on a country the size of Utah. Of the more than 50,000 people killed or maimed by the bombings, 20,000 have occurred after the end of the war. An average of one person a day is killed or maimed in Laos now, nearly 40 years later. Read the rest of this article…

Jorge Luis Borges, and The New Bohemians, on Life and Travel
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Often, due to our penchant for bicycle travel in the developing world, we are confronted with discomfort, sometimes a modicum of danger, fear, unknown foods, or disagreeable hygienic conditions. We meet those challenges to our normal way of living with a fresh eye to new learning, and a relinquishing of preconceptions of how thing “ought” to be. Humor is a tool to be kept close at hand, at least in retrospect.

The rewards are innumerable, the memories priceless. Read the rest of this article…

Adventure travel by tandem bicycle; funny way to be a happy couple: a preview
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A preview of The New Bohemians program about how to survive and thrive while adventure bicycle touring in remote parts of the developing world. Laugh while you learn the practicalities of day to day life on the roads from Tibet to Cambodia, Kazakhstan to Turkey. Read the rest of this article…

The Many Faces of Buddha
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Southeast Asia is made up of several compact, densely populated countries. Along with a change in currency and the sound of a different language, visitors to the region know they’ve crossed a national border simply by looking to the Buddha. Buddhist imagery and the philosophies it reflects are remarkably different from region to region worldwide, but the differences are especially pronounced in Southeast Asia. Read the rest of this article…

Traveling Today’s Tea Horse Road
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We`re hauling only one pound of tea on our aluminum horse built for two, a tandem bicycle we’re riding along the same course as an ancient trade route between the Tibetan Empire and the Chinese dynasties. Our cargo includes another 69 pounds of gear weighing us down as we angle up switchbacks and pound through potholes and washouts. Why would we subject ourselves to this arduous endurance test? To glimpse one of the most treacherous and lengthy trade routes on Earth. At least that is how the route was described by Jeff Fuchs, in his 2008 book, The Ancient Tea Horse Road: Travels with the Last of the Himalayan Muleteers. Fuchs has revived interest in the route after scouting its remaining traces to find clues to the people who last walked it. Read the rest of this article…