News

Tour Schedule
http://bit.ly/bSzKE1

Why I’m Biking to Boston
http://bit.ly/9s9b9n

Greetings, friend!

I am pleased to announce to you my Spring tour, which will encompass all of the major cities from Chapel Hill to Boston.

One reason that I am extra-excited about this trip is that I’m going to be doing things a little differently. Instead of driving a car from city to city, making my way up the coast powered by fossil fuels and reliance on our vast (and vastly expensive) interstate system, engulfed in our hurried, irreverent culture, I am going to attempt to inhabit a new mindset: slow movement. Meditative travel.

I am going to ride my bike to Boston.

This is a totally new kind of adventure for me. I have never been on an extended bicycle trip and have no way of fully grasping what’s in store.

But I’ve known for a long time that the centeredness required to be faithful to the music I’ve written is contradicted by the superficiality and hurriedness in the typical career of a professional musician.

If I am going to come to your city and be fully present with you in the moment, I need to be in my body, breathing, and having been present with the land as it passed below and around me.

Thus, I present to you: The Two Wheel Tour.

• Check out my tour schedule. I hope to see you at one of the shows!
• Read all about the bike that I’m riding to Boston: Why I’m Going to Boston on a Radish and My review of the Xtracycle Radish
• Photos of me on my new bike
• Help support the Two Wheel Tour by donating anything from a water bottle to the bike itself!
• Stay in touch on Facebook and Twitter! I’ll be tweeting and blogging from the road.
• Join me for a leg of the Two Wheel Tour

For the month of April I’m touring up the East Coast, playing shows in every city from Richmond to Boston. But I’ve made a different kind of decision about my manner of travel… instead of taking the train, renting a tour van or borrowing a car, I’m going to be traveling on human power. That is… I’m traveling from Richmond to Boston on my bike.

The first thing I said to myself once the decision was made (after are you crazy?) was: how?

I am not simply a traveling minstrel. I am a professional musician, with equipment and merchandise. I can’t just pick up and go, or play a spontaneous show. I have amps, cords, pedals, boxes, t-shirts, cds and posters… not to mention all of the personal gear needed to sustain me for a month. How was I going to fit all of that stuff onto a bicycle?

After a month of research about panniers, trailers, touring bikes, etc., I came across a small company in California that makes extra-sized bicycles for exactly this predicament: Xtracycle. I have found photos of cyclists carrying surfboards, tires, and even other bikes on Xtracycle’s cargo cycles. So I got myself a Radish.

The Xtracycle Radish

The Radish is one of the few out-of-the-box cargo bikes that Xtracycle sells (mostly people buy the kit, which extend the back of any given bike). I was lucky enough to test ride a diverse selection of cargo bikes at a sweet little bike shop in Carrboro, North Carolina called Cycle9, which is one of the few bike shops on the East Coast that stocks these kinds of cargo bikes. The good folks at Cycle9 put a helmet on me and let me ride one of their Radishes all over town, which I promptly fell in love with (check out my review of the Radish).

So with all of the cargo space in my Xtracycle Radish – and after investing in a smaller guitar and amp – the question was answered. I can fit everything I need on a bike.

But the question still stands: why go to all of this work? Why not just drive a car like any other rational American would?

It would be easy for me to spout off a guilt-based justification about how quickly our society is killing the Earth, and how each of us is individually contributing a great deal to that destruction by owning and over-using personal vehicles. And it would be true. I do feel guilty and hypocritical about simultaneously mourning the destruction of the natural world and contributing to it.

But the deeper reason why I am riding my bike the 600 miles to Boston: I find driving, for all of it’s convenience, to be spiritually deadening.

So let’s turn the question on it’s head… why, when I could be actively using my body, engaging with the land and the environment around me, viscerally feeling the miles go by underneath me, and genuinely living would I isolate myself in a sound-proof, wind-proof, experience-proof chamber?

Why in the world would anyone do that?

Thus it is out of my love for this world, my love for my body, my love for experiential living that has led me to make the decision to bike.

Not out of hatred for what we’re doing to our planet, but out of love for the feeling of wind on my skin, the feeling of having my instincts engage when I’m lost or in danger, the feeling of being alive.

So, my smart answer for why I’m biking to Boston?

Because it’s faster than walking.

• To come to one of the shows or to join me for a leg of the journey, check out my itinerary!
• To provide support for my trip, take a gander at the expenses and donation page.
• Read my review of the Xtracycle Radish.
• For more photos of me and my Radish, click here
• Visit the Xtracycle website and Cycle9 website

You’re Invited

For the month of April, I’m going to be riding my bike up the East Coast, stopping in every major city from Richmond to Boston.

I would like to welcome you to join me for a leg of my journey.

Do you have a bike with panniers?

Do you want to get some exercise and have some fun?

Just check out the dates of my rides below to see when I’m going to be riding out of your city.

• Richmond to DC……………..March 30
• DC to Baltimore……………..April 5th
• Baltimore to Philly…………..April 12th
• Philly to New York…………..April 20th
• New York to Boston…………April 26th
• Boston to Rindge…………….May 4th

Contact me to arrange a rendezvous!

This April I am going to be riding my bike from Richmond to Boston for a myriad of reasons that I’ve explained here.

And while I have a lot of great and exciting reasons for biking this tour instead of relying on fossil fuels, money isn’t one of them. In fact, this may turn out to be my most expensive tour ever.

That’s why I’m giving my fans and supporters the opportunity to help sponsor the trip, even if you aren’t able to come out and pay an admission fee or buy a CD. I’ve listed the expenses that I could come up with off the top of my head below.

Any donation you give will be much appreciated… from my 5 dollar water bottle to the 800 dollar bike I’m riding, your support is greatly valued.

Many Thanks,
Jon Watts

Give your support below by clicking on the “donate” button for the item you wish to donate. You will then be taken to paypal’s check out page, where you will be prompted to enter your card information. No membership is needed.

Helmet – $25

Lock – $35

Waterbottle – $5

Xtracycle Radish (bike) – $800

Side Extender (2) – $45

Rear Safety light – $20

Front light – $15

Travel Guitar – $200

Guitar Pickup – $120

Guitar Set up – $30

Small Amplifier – $100

Thanks to:

Al of Richmond, VA

for his generous donation of an amp.

Guitar Strings – $8

Thanks to:

Jacob of Richmond, VA

Emily of Newtown, PA

for their generous donation of guitar strings.

Cord – $14

Single Bike Tire – $10

You Name it