Alex Wetmore and the Inspirational International Bicycle Touring Mailing List

When I first became interested in Bicycle Touring I looked around on the web to see if I could find any helpful information about this new activity. The first really useful place that I discovered was the International Bicycle Touring Mailing List. This Mailing List is populated with very nice people from all over the world who really do their best to try to help each other out. In many ways the people on this Mailing List inspired me to first go out on my own tours and then much later to create the Bicycle Touring 101 web site.

Alex Wetmore is the owner and one of the administrators of the Mailing List. I asked Alex if I could interview him about his web site including the Mailing Lists that he provides as well as hear a little bit more about his own touring adventures.

Here's what he had to say....

What is the history of the touring list? Where did it come from, why did you decide to start the list up etc?

The touring list was founded in November 1995 by Steve Ciccarelli. Here is a link to the first message posted.

I joined the list in the fall of 1996. I had just started my first full time job and wanted to buy a touring bike and I used the list for some research.

I started hosting the list on December 15, 1999. The list used to be run on cycling.org and that service was sold very abruptly to topica.com, a commercial list and bulk email provider. Their terms of use were very restrictive and many list members had concerns about them running the system. I had the resources available to run the list and everyone moved over about a day later.

Phred.org is apparently named after a 1970's comic strip about Phred the terrorist. Not being a reader of that comic strip I really don't know anything about it. Who was Phred and what made you name your web site after him?

Phred predates the touring list by four years and my hosting of the touring list by almost eight years. I first named my computer phred when I was in college and needed to name my machine when it was connected to the internet. I liked Doonesbury and found phred to be an interesting character. I never really expected the name to be used for anything but as a personal vanity domain.

The touring list is on phred.org because I didn't really take the time to register another domain before picking it up. Most of the other lists are on bikelist.org. The touring list has never moved because people seem to identify with the domain name.

What other lists and services are available for people to use on your website(s). Do many people use them?

There are about ten other cycling lists. The most popular ones are the internet-bob list, Rivendell Bike Works list, Classic Rendevouz list, and Framebuilders list. The touring and internet-bob lists are the largest.

These lists all have searchable archives where you can find lots of useful information. I also have a number of web pages about my experience with bicycles. You can find them at alex wetmore's bicycle pages.

Does it take a lot of your time to manage these resources?

A couple of hours a week on average. Most of this time is spent reading and answering email from users who have trouble subscribing, unsubscribing, posting, or accessing the archives.

What's your bicycle touring background and do you get the chance to go on bicycle tours very often?

I've done four or five week long tours and many shorter tours in the past decade. I've never done a long tour. There are many touring list members with many more touring miles than I've done.

I really like 24 hour tours. I think that there is something really powerful about being able to do a quick overnighter and still have the rest of the weekend to spend with your family. I've done two of these tours so far, but they were my two most recent tours.

The first happened in 2002 in New Zealand. I cycled the Rainbow Road which is a 4x4 track through the mountains. I did this in November (their spring) when the weather was still a little dicey. My wife dropped me off for the start in St Arnaud and I rode about 40 miles the first day, mostly climbing on this dirt road. It was more difficult than I expected largely because there were tons of streams to ford.

The picture to the right above shows the first river that I had to cross. You can sort of see my Bike Friday on the left for scale (look for the red front pannier).

I crossed the summit of the pass at about 8pm (I think) and took the picture that you can see to the left below.

As you can see the clouds were getting a little nasty. I kept riding until dark and setup camp. I had been planning on staying in a campers hut, but never found the signs for it (I should have found it before that pass). I ended up camping using a hammock under a powerline tower. My feet were freezing from all of the fording.

I didn't sleep that well due to the weather and woke up at about 3am to some snow. At 5am I started riding again in the snow. I didn't expect snow (it wasn't in the forecast) and had borderline planned for it -- I could handle snow if I wore everything that I brought.

What I didn't plan on were my gloves getting wet, and so my hands were freezing. Luckily there were no more streams to cross (after the saddle they had bridges over all of them) and my feet didn't get wet. I cycled the rest of the 4x4 track until getting to a ski resort that was closed for the season. I was very lucky to find someone in a 4x4
who could give me a ride for the last 10 miles which were down a very steep descent.

This is a strange trip report to share. Parts of it were scary (riding tens of miles from the nearest human in snow with hardly adequate clothing) but I really enjoyed the ride and the adventure. I'm forever grateful for the stranger who stopped and gave me a ride back into town.

The rest of my tours have been in the Pacific Northwest and particularily in WA state. I mostly find routes here by pouring over maps and looking for interesting roads in lightly used sections of the state. Probablythe best route that I've done was riding across the eastern part of the state by going through the Colville Indian Reservation. The scenery was spectacular and there was little traffic. I really enjoy finding the road less travelled and going down it.

You can read about that trip in my Winthrop to Bead Lake tour report.

As a cyclist you have toured using a variety of different equipment. What types of bikes have you used and do you have a personal preference at this time?

I have toured on a wide variety of equipment, perhaps the widest variety of any of the regular posters on the list. I've done week long tours on upright bikes, recumbents, and recumbent tandems. I've done shorter tours on upright tandems and folding bikes too.

Right now I prefer upright bicycles for solo touring and recumbent tandems for touring with a friend. I can't really explain why this has worked out to be my preference, but it has.

For years now you've been reading about other people's touring experiences. Where would you like to tour in the future when time, money and responsibilities allow?

I think that there is great touring available pretty much anywhere on this planet. Most of my trips have literally been in my back yard (starting from home or within an hour drive) and I really feel like there is a lot more of Washington State (where I live) to see. I can't think any of continent that I wouldn't enjoy touring on.

Managing a web site with as many end-users as your's has must be a complicated and tricky endeavour. Is there anything that your users could do to make your life as an admin considerably easier?

Carefully read all of the directions that are emailed to you when you sign up for the list. They include how to get off of the list later, how to post, and how to read the archives. Please make sure that you sign up with the email address that you plan to send email from.

Over the years your web site has continued to evolve with new mailing lists, web pages and services. The latest example that I can think of is your new wiki. Do you have other new services or ideas coming up that we should look forward to trying?

I tend to try things like the wiki on a whim (and this one hasn't even really been well announced or utilized so far). Given time I'd like to expand the searchable archives to allow for posting.

Is there anything else that you would like to add?

I enjoy running the list and have really liked being on it for the last eight years. I've learned a lot and made many good friends through the touring list.

Josh Putnam is the silent co-administrator of the list. He really was instrumental in the touring list early on and has been very helpful a number of times in running the lists, recommending new lists, and for bouncing ideas off of. Anyone interested in touring and bicycles really should take some time to read through his messages in the archives or to check out his very interesting bicycle web pages.

I just finished reading a very interesting paper about internet social groups and it is great reading for anyone who has been around the touring list or similar groups for a long period.

An interview with Alex Wetmore, International Bicycle Touring Mailing List.

As I mentioned previously the International Bicycle Touring Mailing List is a great resource for touring cyclists of all levels of experience from rank beginner through to round the world tourer. A great bunch of friendly, knowledgable and very kind people populate the list so please don't hesitate to drop by and ask your bicycle touring related questions. When you first arrive you might consider introducing yourself. I know that you will receive a warm and very friendly welcome!

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