Jeremy Mendelson joins the show to talk about his take on bike touring differently: from a bike touring focused lifestyle to vegan touring to riding  little clown bikes and much more.

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The Interview: bike touring differently with Jeremy Mendelson

Jeremy Mendelson is a transit planner, geographer, traveler, bus driver, advocate and co-founder of TransitMatters in Boston. He’s currently working in Colorado for the winter season and as we’ll talk about in the interview, that’s more of a means to an end in his bike travel oriented life setup. Living a more nomadic life that serves his bike touring is just the tip of the iceberg for how Jeremy tours differently. He’s a longtime vegan, which we chat about, and a fan of touring on the little clown bike itself, the Brompton. Such a great discussion…

Questions

• So much to chat about, but I think we should start by talking about your lifestyle… you describe yourself as living a semi-nomadic lifestyle. What was your journey to end up there?
• How did you get into bike touring differently?
• How does your perspective being a geographer inform your bike touring? Do you think you tour differently because of that?
• Let’s dive into the vegan thing. I find everyone who is fully plant-based eaters or trending in that direction have a good story to tell about how they got there. What’s yours?
• My experience is it’s not hard to eat totally plant-based almost anyplace, but in parts of the country (and the world) the tradeoff tends to mean having to eat a lot of processed stuff or sugary foods I would rather avoid. What’s your experience like and what do you do in “food deserts” on tour?
• Having just finished a weekend tour, I found my ability to stick with my eating plan was always battered by (a) my sudden intense caloric needs, (b) my weird cravings and (c) availability. What’s your general plan when you tour to eat plant-based?
• One of the big benefits I see with plant based eating on tour is cost savings… can you chat a bit about that?
• Let’s shift gears and chat about your adventures touring on a Brompton. What’s your favorite part about touring on “the little clown bike”?
• What gear do you tend to leave at home or pare down on when on the Brompton and how do you split it all up on the bike?
• You’re a bus driver and transit enthusiast so you’re a natural to chat about fast forwards. How do you use them and what’s your favorite one you’ve ever done?
• What’s next for you?
• Read and listen more at criticaltransit.com.

Resources

• Some further reading on moving more towards plant-based eating, because it’s a really personal choice and the information load can be a bit overwhelming:
  • Is a vegetarian diet really more environmentally friendly than eating meat? (CNN) – some shades of gray on the issue.
  • Diet for a Small Planet
  • The Omnivore’s Dilemma

If you want to hear more about touring on a Brompton, check out Pedalshift Tour Journals Vol. 5: California Coast. Can a loaded Brompton handle the hills of Big Sur? An hour and 46 minutes of touring stories for 10 bucks… and it helps support the show! Here’s a preview:

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Connections

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Music

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