Long seen as an iconic image in the world of music stardom, the tour bus is the most traditional method of transportation for touring artists. If private jets aren’t your thing, one can find most, if not all the comforts of home inside the lavish road vehicles, ensuring entertainers arrive at performances in style. But unless your stage show rivals that of U2 and their convoy of 120 transport vehicles to haul their gear from coast to coast, you may find yourself needing to settle for something a little more practical. If you’re a mid-level touring act, you’re probably already accustomed to a cargo van getting you from place to place, provided it doesn’t break down. However, for some of the more adventurous artists, there has always been the option of taking two wheels as opposed to four. Though the idea of cycling to performances isn’t near as popular as it perhaps once was, Rush drummer Neil Peart and members of Kraftwerk were known to cycle a percentage of the distance between tour dates earlier in their careers.For Ottawa’s Bosveld, cycling proved to be way to bring their music to audiences in new places in what they call “the most novel and memorable way we could think of.” Their unique style of music, dubbed “future-folk,” seemed to align perfectly with the out of the ordinary transportation. Finding sponsorship support from Ottawa retail chain Kunstadt Sports and bicycle seat manufacturer Moonsaddle, the duo set off on a tour around the province of Ontario for a string of performance dates in places including Oshawa, Toronto, Hamilton, and Peterborough. The month-long excursion saw the two cover around 1000 kilometers in total distance traveled. Before they took off on another touring adventure to Canada’s west coast and territories, we sat down with Thean Slabbert and Jeremy Mulder to talk about their two-wheeled tour and the triumphs and challenges it presented.Noisey: What inspired you two to undertake a tour by bicycle?
Thean Slabbert: Growing up, music and cycling have always played a big role in my life. These worlds existed separately, but I had always wanted to bring them together. While I've been dreaming up ideas about bicycle touring for years now, the idea didn't seem all that realistic until I saw cellist Ben Sollee touring on an Xtracycle. After seeing Ben's tour, I did quite a bit of research on cargo bikes and bike touring.
Jeremy Mulder: We both have a lot of friends whose primary method of transportation is their bike, so the concept of doing such a big tour with all our gear, though daunting, was never completely alien to us. The more we talked about it, the more it became conceivable, then plausible, and finally one afternoon we found ourselves all packed up and leaving!Had either of you taken on an extensive bike trip like this before in the past at all?
Slabbert: No. I commute a bit to work throughout the year, but neither of us really ever did any trips to prepare us for this time. I have done a few rides in the past, but nothing close to the 80-100km/day that we averaged on the tour. Yeah, we were pretty unprepared physically, but luckily that did not turn out to be as big an issue as it could have.I imagine it must have been pretty taxing day in and day out. What were each of you carrying in terms of gear on the bikes?
Mulder: We’re fortunate to have fairly minimal requirements in terms of instruments. Our live setup is most often Thean on guitar and vocals, me on effects-drenched saxophone. So besides a couple mics, a laptop, USB controller, and a few cables, most of our weight was provided by non-musical gear.
Slabbert: On the back of my Xtracycle, I carried a pretty heavy load, which included laptops, midi controllers, sound equipment, cables, mics, accessories and my guitar. I also carried my clothes — too many, as I discovered — our bike repair kit and tools, a tent and a tarp.Was it a difficult adjustment at all in learning to ride with that much weight?
Mulder: Thankfully the Xtracycle attachment doesn’t really change the riding experience itself. However, when you load down a bicycle with 120-150 pounds of gear, you do inevitably experience issues with stopping; in short, maneuverability suffers. Thean’s bike kept falling over when he’d park it, so that led to a few awkward moments. As a more avid cyclist though, Thean’s legs were able to better cope with the weight, so he ended up taking the heavier load–– a sacrifice I am incredibly thankful for!Would you two say that was your biggest difficulty over the course of the whole tour?
Slabbert: Unfortunately, there are a number of main streets and side streets in Ontario still without paved shoulders, without bike lanes, just generally without basic cycling infrastructure. This proved to be hazardous in dense traffic and riding on uphill sections, as some transport trucks and other vehicles came dangerously close to forcing us into undesired situations. Some of them proved difficult for myself and my anxiety, but Jeremy helped me cool down whenever I was getting stressed.
Mulder: For me, it was getting used to the amount of distance we needed to travel. It took a toll on my legs, and getting my endurance up to cycle long distances properly was the biggest struggle. That, or eating baked beans for most of our meals on the road!In staying places overnight between travel days and gigs, did you two camp the whole time on the road?
Slabbert: We stayed with people that we had met through past tours, and through friends-of-friends. Apart from that, we tapped into the Warmshowers.org community, which is a couch-surfing service for cycling tourists across the globe. We were pleasantly surprised by the encouragement of our various hosts, all of whom had either been bicycle tourists at some point, or were admirers of cyclists and wanted to encourage bike touring by offering a meal or their couch.
Mulder: Hosts cannot charge money for their hospitality, though as a guest it’s customary to help out in whatever way you can. We played little house shows for our hosts as a way to say thanks. We met some absolutely wonderful people through that site, and it was an absolute godsend for our budget.
Slabbert: We didn't have to use our tiny tent even once.
Mulder: And we probably would have killed each other had we been forced to use it every single night!You can miss so much by driving through places sometimes. What was the most incredible thing you two saw while out there on the bikes?
Mulder: One of my favourite aspects of the tour was all the natural beauty we saw as we biked. One day, as we pulled into Port Hope, it was remarkable. The sky and the water were a uniform shade of greyish-pink, and you couldn’t tell at all where one ended and the other began. We were so tired after biking over 100 kilometers that day, but we stopped and just stared.
Slabbert: Getting to cycle the parts of the Waterfront Trail where you could ride alongside Lake Ontario made me fall in love with the province, for the first time really.What advice would you give to any musician out there looking to put together their own tour like this?
Mulder: Our trip went fairly smooth with no bad weather and not a single flat tire, but you should always make sure you’re prepared and committed. Pack light because hills are hard, and train in advance because averaging 100 kilometers a day is a lot. Getting your body ready for the rigors of burning so much fuel and recovering quickly after each day is paramount.
Slabbert: Take what you have, don’t over-plan, and just go! Oh, and avoid letting Google Maps route you down the ‘Millennium Trail’ if you have skinny road tires.
Mulder: I would also recommend that someone who is interested should keep his or her mind open to new experiences, new sights, and new opportunities to connect with people. The world is full of creative, interesting people who are choosing to approach old mainstays, like the traditional band tour, from a different angle. On the way home, we considered traveling on horseback for the next tour, but after a few minutes we decided that horses eat too much and probably don’t like maple beans anyway.Calum Slingerland has had two bikes stolen from him in the past three years. If you’d like to give him an old one, find him on twitter - @C_Slingerland
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Thean Slabbert: Growing up, music and cycling have always played a big role in my life. These worlds existed separately, but I had always wanted to bring them together. While I've been dreaming up ideas about bicycle touring for years now, the idea didn't seem all that realistic until I saw cellist Ben Sollee touring on an Xtracycle. After seeing Ben's tour, I did quite a bit of research on cargo bikes and bike touring.
Jeremy Mulder: We both have a lot of friends whose primary method of transportation is their bike, so the concept of doing such a big tour with all our gear, though daunting, was never completely alien to us. The more we talked about it, the more it became conceivable, then plausible, and finally one afternoon we found ourselves all packed up and leaving!
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Slabbert: No. I commute a bit to work throughout the year, but neither of us really ever did any trips to prepare us for this time. I have done a few rides in the past, but nothing close to the 80-100km/day that we averaged on the tour. Yeah, we were pretty unprepared physically, but luckily that did not turn out to be as big an issue as it could have.I imagine it must have been pretty taxing day in and day out. What were each of you carrying in terms of gear on the bikes?
Mulder: We’re fortunate to have fairly minimal requirements in terms of instruments. Our live setup is most often Thean on guitar and vocals, me on effects-drenched saxophone. So besides a couple mics, a laptop, USB controller, and a few cables, most of our weight was provided by non-musical gear.
Slabbert: On the back of my Xtracycle, I carried a pretty heavy load, which included laptops, midi controllers, sound equipment, cables, mics, accessories and my guitar. I also carried my clothes — too many, as I discovered — our bike repair kit and tools, a tent and a tarp.Was it a difficult adjustment at all in learning to ride with that much weight?
Mulder: Thankfully the Xtracycle attachment doesn’t really change the riding experience itself. However, when you load down a bicycle with 120-150 pounds of gear, you do inevitably experience issues with stopping; in short, maneuverability suffers. Thean’s bike kept falling over when he’d park it, so that led to a few awkward moments. As a more avid cyclist though, Thean’s legs were able to better cope with the weight, so he ended up taking the heavier load–– a sacrifice I am incredibly thankful for!
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Slabbert: Unfortunately, there are a number of main streets and side streets in Ontario still without paved shoulders, without bike lanes, just generally without basic cycling infrastructure. This proved to be hazardous in dense traffic and riding on uphill sections, as some transport trucks and other vehicles came dangerously close to forcing us into undesired situations. Some of them proved difficult for myself and my anxiety, but Jeremy helped me cool down whenever I was getting stressed.
Mulder: For me, it was getting used to the amount of distance we needed to travel. It took a toll on my legs, and getting my endurance up to cycle long distances properly was the biggest struggle. That, or eating baked beans for most of our meals on the road!In staying places overnight between travel days and gigs, did you two camp the whole time on the road?
Slabbert: We stayed with people that we had met through past tours, and through friends-of-friends. Apart from that, we tapped into the Warmshowers.org community, which is a couch-surfing service for cycling tourists across the globe. We were pleasantly surprised by the encouragement of our various hosts, all of whom had either been bicycle tourists at some point, or were admirers of cyclists and wanted to encourage bike touring by offering a meal or their couch.
Mulder: Hosts cannot charge money for their hospitality, though as a guest it’s customary to help out in whatever way you can. We played little house shows for our hosts as a way to say thanks. We met some absolutely wonderful people through that site, and it was an absolute godsend for our budget.
Slabbert: We didn't have to use our tiny tent even once.
Mulder: And we probably would have killed each other had we been forced to use it every single night!You can miss so much by driving through places sometimes. What was the most incredible thing you two saw while out there on the bikes?
Mulder: One of my favourite aspects of the tour was all the natural beauty we saw as we biked. One day, as we pulled into Port Hope, it was remarkable. The sky and the water were a uniform shade of greyish-pink, and you couldn’t tell at all where one ended and the other began. We were so tired after biking over 100 kilometers that day, but we stopped and just stared.
Slabbert: Getting to cycle the parts of the Waterfront Trail where you could ride alongside Lake Ontario made me fall in love with the province, for the first time really.What advice would you give to any musician out there looking to put together their own tour like this?
Mulder: Our trip went fairly smooth with no bad weather and not a single flat tire, but you should always make sure you’re prepared and committed. Pack light because hills are hard, and train in advance because averaging 100 kilometers a day is a lot. Getting your body ready for the rigors of burning so much fuel and recovering quickly after each day is paramount.
Slabbert: Take what you have, don’t over-plan, and just go! Oh, and avoid letting Google Maps route you down the ‘Millennium Trail’ if you have skinny road tires.
Mulder: I would also recommend that someone who is interested should keep his or her mind open to new experiences, new sights, and new opportunities to connect with people. The world is full of creative, interesting people who are choosing to approach old mainstays, like the traditional band tour, from a different angle. On the way home, we considered traveling on horseback for the next tour, but after a few minutes we decided that horses eat too much and probably don’t like maple beans anyway.Calum Slingerland has had two bikes stolen from him in the past three years. If you’d like to give him an old one, find him on twitter - @C_Slingerland