The importance of supporting the bicycle touring community

The last two weeks have been very interesting ones for the bicycle touring community. During this period of time crazyguyonabike.com has been off the web and based on emails and newsgroup threads it's been very sorely missed by many, many people.

This temporary loss has given me time to reflect on the importance of personally supporting those bicycle touring resources that have done and continue to do so much to enhance my bicycle touring experience before, during and after a tour.

While there are numerous bicycle touring resources on the web the ones that I visit most often include Crazyguyonabike.com, the International Bicycle Touring Mailing List and Bikeforums.net. All three of these destinations are filled with exciting information, strong communities and a lot of very useful information.

The loss of any one or all of these resources would definately detract from my bicycle touring experience if only through the loss of places where I can share my adventures, ask questions in preparation for future tours and enjoy being a member of a community that shares a common interest.

With the past two weeks behind us perhaps it's a logical extension to take our thought processes to the next level and consider doing something for these people who have freely given us places to enjoy. Crazyguyonabike.com and the International Bicycle Touring Mailing List accept donations in any amount from people who wish to help out a little with keeping them alive. BikeForums.net offer a membership at a minimal cost.

Personally I took the step of making a donation to Crazyguyonabike.com approximately a month ago. Once I return from my tour in about two weeks I will be making a donation to the International Bicycle Touring Mailing List and signing up for a bikeforums.net membership.

I should note in passing that my understanding of crazyguyonabike.com problems is that a lack of money wasn't the issue but this doesn't mean that money won't help to keep the development effort of this resource going so that it can become even more useful and wonderful for all of us in the bicycle touring community.

Numerous people have asked about the possibility of making donations to Bicycle Touring 101 to help this site. At this time this type of help isn't needed for this site. I have a great relationship with an excellent service provider, Yowling, and unless something drastically changes I don't anticipate any real need in the immediate future. Instead I would ask that you turn your energy towards becoming a contributor and helping readers of Bicycle Touring 101 in that way instead.

Information about donating to the crazyguyonabike.com web site can be found at the following location once the site comes back up:

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/help/donate/?o=as

Information about donating to the International Bicycle Touring Mailing List:

Send an email to alex@phred.org asking how you can help.

Bikeforums.net membership information can be located here:

http://www.bikeforums.net/subscriptions.php?

While I've highlighted three resources that are very important to me personally there are many more bicycle touring resources out there. Consider what impact their loss would be to the touring community and if you feel so inclined then please consider doing something to help them out.

~Jamie N

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