Long Awaited

I have been trying to get back on my bike ever since last Summer, when I was working around the clock to try to finish Clothe Yourself in Righteousness, and ever since I have been on the go non stop trying to promote it.

Needless to say, I am not at my best when I never take a break. My schedule has simply not allowed, however, for the type of trip that I did in 2010 on the Two Wheel Tour. But all of my art would be so much better if I did!

Faster Than Walking

There are so many reasons to be excited about slow travel, but the one that really stands out for me (above all the reactive reasons) is joy. I have been thinking back to this blog post that I wrote for the Two Wheel Tour.

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.

Read more

Schedule

So I’ve figured out a way to ride from Richmond, VA to Philadelphia on my Xtracycle Radish in between mine and Maggie’s upcoming shows. You are totally welcome to join me for any leg of it, just contact me.

I think I’ll be leaving:

• Richmond around Tuesday March 28th
• DC around Friday March 30th
• Baltimore around Sunday April 1st

I’m familiar with these road now so don’t need a guide! But I always love having company!

Last Spring, Jon Watts rode his bike from Virginia to Boston and then continued on to Buffalo, NY. In two months, Jon played 18 shows and covered 1,000 miles carrying 120 pounds of gear on the back of his bicycle in what ended up being a successful attempt at finding an alternative way to do a musical tour.

Click on the audio player below to hear an interview with Jon by Elise Gidding of BikeTouringBliss.com about his epic “2010 Two Wheel Tour”.

Jon Watts Interview with BikeTouringBliss.com – Jon biked 1,000 miles with 120 lbs of gear on his bike.

BikeTouringBliss.com is a series of free participatory interviews that you can log into and stream live.

Find out more:

• BikeTouringBliss.com
• Cycle9.com
• Jon’s tour Vlog (Weekly Videos from his Trip)

Last Spring, Jon rode 1,000 miles on a bicycle loaded down with 120 pounds of gear, playing shows all along the East Coast Corridor on the 2010 Two Wheel Tour.

It was intense. It was challenging. It was fun. It was an adventure, to be sure.

The website www.biketouringbliss.com, a branch of Cycle 9 is offering a free series on bike touring and will be interviewing Jon live. The interview is free for anyone to stream live. You can even ask questions, chatroom style!

Sign up to stream the interview!

Live interview with Jon Watts
Monday, Nov 15th at 9pm
Click here to participate and listen live!

for more info, visit the Cycle 9 website!

This is the second in a 3 part series on biking into Manhattan.
read Part One

Richmond to Boston on a bicycle

Me with all my gear loaded on my Xtracycle.

I recently completed a 1,000 mile bike tour in which I lugged all of my musical equipment from Richmond to Boston and then on to Buffalo.

This was a huge adventure. I had very little experience with biking, much less bike touring. Not to mention bike touring with 120 pounds of gear on the back of my bike!

Check out how I fit all of that gear on a bike in this post: How to Carry a Guitar on a Bike

The Hardest Part: Getting into Manhattan on a Bicycle

Of all the questions people asked me when I announced my intentions to do this tour on a bicycle rather than a car, the most common was “How are you going to get into MANHATTAN?”. It was asked of me enough to make me nervous, but not enough to really plan out my route. Who needs plans when there’s adventure to be had?!

I played my final Philadelphia show in Newtown, just across the river from Trenton, and packed up my bike to head up to Jersey City, where I would catch the ferry. Most of the day was spent on a beautiful bike/ped path but when I hit the NYC sprawl, I really hit it. Things got really nasty outside of Newark and did not get better. The biggest nightmare was getting across the Hackensack river. When I finally made it to Brooklyn, exhausted and covered in car fumes and industrial debris, I swore to myself that I would try a different route next time.

Get more details about my somewhat disastrous first
attempt at biking into Manhattan
in this blog post: How Not to Bike Into Manhattan

The Long Way Up: Biking into Manhattan on the George Washington Bridge

So when I started dating a woman in Manhattan and planned to bike there from Philadelphia, I wanted to uphold my promise to myself. I wanted to try out the George Washington Bridge.

I took the same route as before, this time from West Philadelphia. So I had to bike up through Northeast Philly (not fun), Trenton (even less fun), Newark, and North Jersey before I could even start to see Manhattan.

This was a long ride. The 20 or so extra miles that going across the GW Bridge adds to the trip really count. I felt every pedal stroke of it.

Bike Trail to George Washington Bridge

The most challenging thing about biking into Manhattan across the GW Bridge (other than the extra miles) was actually finding the bike path. The signage in Fort Lee is minimal. I was very lucky to have other bikers to follow, but in case you don’t, here’s how to find the entrance to the bike path across the GW Bridge:

1. Get Yourself into Fort Lee. I took Degraw Ave/Main St. from Hackensack, which worked out well.
2. Ignore all of the signs for cars to get on the bridge and continue all the way to the bottom of the hill.
3. Keep an eye out for other cyclists. This is a popular route, so you are bound to have some company.
4. Take a left at the bottom of the hill. The bike path starts up the George Washington Bridge at the intersection of Hudson Terrace and the Bruce Reynolds Blvd. in Fort Lee.
5. Take your time and enjoy the view as you’re going over the bridge. What an amazing place.
6. Think about how you’re going to get where you’re going in Manhattan. The GW Bridge does not drop you off in the nicest spot in town, but there’s a special way to head south without dealing with cars. Read on below

Getting from the George Washington Bridge to the Hudson River Park on your Bike

If you were to ride across the GW Bridge on your bike into Manhattan, you might arrive and say “Yes! I made it! Glad that’s over!”

You would be very disappointed.

There is a beautiful and easy path to get down into uptown Manhattan from the GW Bridge, but it takes some maneuvering. The Hudson River Greenway is a nice, bike-friendly way to get wherever you need to go… all the way to Soho! But first you have to get to it. I’ll make it easy on you:

1. Take Fort Washington Ave. South to Broadway
2. Right on Broadway
3. Immediate right on 158th, which takes you to the entrance to the Greenway.

The Best Route to Bike Into Manhattan

…was not this one. The extra miles were many, the landscape was gritty and in terms of beautiful landscapes, I didn’t see any.

Stay tuned for Part III in this series, in which I’ll reveal the best and most amazing way to bike from Philadelphia to Manhattan.

Xtracycle Radish Tour

For the past three months I have been touring on an Xtracycle Radish. From Richmond to Boston and then on to Buffalo, NY, I ended up riding about 1,000 miles with all of my gear, which turned out to be about 120 Lbs. (!)

Click here to find out how I fit all of

that equipment onto my bike.

Two Wheel Tour Vlog

For ten weeks, I recorded and uploaded a vlog every week, which included footage from my performances and from the ride… and revealed some of the secrets of how I made my trip happen!

Now, for the first time, all of that footage is combined into one window. You can watch all the way through or find the most interesting episodes, all from this page!