Duncan R. Jamieson
Ashland University
I describe myself as a long-distance bicycle traveler. Not being overly competitive, I have never participated in either amateur or professional bicycle races. I did once when I was about twelve accept a challenge from a friend who wanted to race about a mile. He beat me by a wheel length. As an adult riding Schwinn Paramount touring bicycles (named in order of acquisition “Par,” “Whitey” and “Stevens”), I do admit to picking up the pace on organized tours if I see a rider trying to reel me in. Sometimes I am successful in holding them off, sometimes not. I enjoy joining casual pacelines, pulling, dropping back until I work my way to the front for another pull. I generally ride at a pace around fifteen to eighteen mph, slower on the hills. All of this is to say that I identify more with Meaghan Marie Hackinen’s (1985-) experiences in South Away (2019) than I do with Shifting Gears (2023), though of the two I find the latter to be the better read.
In her first book, Hackinen is a self-described novice who has ridden very few miles at any one time. A recent graduate from Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, with a degree in archaeology and “no actionable plan for the future” other than knowing “I didn’t want to end up like my mother—or the rest of the content-in-their-mediocrity middle class” (7) suburbanites, she decided on an escape plan to avoid reality. With her younger sister, Alisha, she believed a 6,000 kilometer (3,728 miles) bicycle adventure would stave off the necessity of joining the real world. As a graduation present her parents bought her what can best be described as a big box store bicycle she named “Blue Steel” (11-12) which had neither toe clips or clipless pedals, and straight handlebars. What follows is an engaging, autobiographical travel memoir of first her journey from Terrace, British Columbia to Shawnigan, British Columbia, 1,450 kilometers (901 miles) where she met Alisha to continue the adventure down North America’s Pacific coast to the tip of Baja, Mexico.
Until she met up with her sister, Meaghan was alone and nervous for every nighttime sound, not knowing if it was a bear or human bent on harm.
Though her mother was risk adverse, Meaghan inherited a thirst to be “far from the madding crowd” from her grandmother Hackinen and her father. When her mother dissuaded Meghan from climbing trees for fear of falling, grandmother Hackinen encouraged her to climb to the top and carefully told her on which branches to support herself. Her father instilled in her a love for camping, so when she planned her first bicycle journey, to keep the costs to a minimum she planned to camp. Early on, staying at a deserted campsite she believed herself not to be “a real cyclist. . . . I’m still the pretender” (50). This sounds to me to be a bit harsh; in decades of long-distance cycling, I’ve never camped! Cheap Mom and Pop motels as well as diners or fast food kept my expenses to a minimum. Until she met up with her sister, Meaghan was alone and nervous for every nighttime sound, not knowing if it was a bear or human bent on harm. She did ride for a few days with a male cyclist, camping together in isolated places. That provided safety and companionship, but it also raised lingering doubts—how did she know he would not assault her? Later when she and Alisha rode together, people questioned their safety as two young, naïve women traveling by bicycle. It turned out fine, but as a male these are issues with which I have no direct experience.
Here I’d like to offer two thoughts from bicycling’s first couple, writer Elizabeth Robins (1855-1936) and her lithographer husband, Joseph Pennell (1857-1926). Active in the 1880s bicycling scene, they met when he submitted a series of illustrations for publication. The editor suggested Elizabeth prepare the commentary and they got along so well they decided to marry before going off to England where they lived for the next thirty years, sketching, writing and cycling. In the late 1890s Elizabeth became the first woman to bicycle over several of the highest passes in Alps, showing the world the physicality of women. Later, when they returned so she could conquer one more pass, her bicycle broke down and she had to go by coach, feeling as if she were an express package being shunted along. Like Meaghan over a century later, Elizabeth was not content to settle into the contented life of the middle class.
Safety from predators, real or imagined is only one indication of her innocence. She knew nothing about bicycle repair or maintenance. Spending one night with one of her father’s cycling companions, when asked her about Blue Steel’s tire size she didn’t know the answer. Further questioning led to a quick primer on bicycle maintenance. “I’m ashamed: I know everything about riding [Blue Steel]; but I’m clueless in terms of maintenance” (52). In this regard she was in good company. The doyenne of bicycle travel is, without question, the Irishwoman Dervla Murphy (1931-2022), who rode a variety of bicycles across Europe, Africa and Asia for more than fifty years, writing eleven books about the people and places she visited, along with an autobiography centered largely on her bicycling adventures. She never learned to fix a flat or change a tube, trusting that some good samaritan would address the issue. Relative to safety, as a Canadian, Meaghan never considered carrying a pistol for protection. Unlike Hackinen, Murphy carried a pistol which she needed in the Middle East when someone attempted to assault her. She scared him off firing it into the ceiling.
Despite her earlier opinion that she was not a cyclist, Meaghan came to realize she is. Along the way she and Alisha met up with Zach, who quit his job making pizzas and decided to set off on two wheels for South America with nothing to guide him but Lonely Planet. While not that adventuresome, Meaghan did come to believe that cycle touring was meant for her—while on the road she questioned her ability to return to the real world. In another instance she met a couple driving an RV who pitied cyclists having to travel under their own power while they had a climate-controlled steel cage that effortlessly carried them about. Conversely, Meaghan explained that cycling allowed her to see so much more, the slower pace offering a more intimate connection to the sights and sounds of the land through which she rode. In both instances, however, she realized that any form of continuous travel was not “real life” for most people.
South Away describes her adventure as an ultra-long-distance cyclist marathoner who has ridden across the United States, Canada and on some of the highest paved roads in Europe. Interested in challenging her boundaries, she began riding a Cannondale Synapse Road bicycle she named “Epona” after the patron goddess of horses. Realizing an undergraduate degree in archeology would not lead her to a satisfying life, and more interested in writing, she went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from the University of Saskatchewan.
Her second book, Shifting Gears, recounts the 2017 edition of the Trans America Bike race from Astoria, Washington to Yorktown, Virginia, 4,267 miles (6,867 kilometers). The route follows Bikecentennial’s (now Adventure Cycling) 1976 celebration of the founding of the United States. The race began in 2014 with very simple rules—no drafting and no non-commercial assistance. The clock begins as each rider crosses the starting line and does not stop until they cross the finish line. The winner is the person with the fastest speed COMBINED with the least amount of time off the bicycle. Each rider has a black and white tracking device that broadcasts live their precise location to the Trackleaders website, so anyone interested, including the riders themselves, who had a computer, tablet or smartphone could pinpoint the location and relative position of any of the 118 men and thirteen women who started and continued in the race. It is worth noting that several riders quit before reaching Yorktown; Meaghan herself considered dropping out about halfway as she rode through Kansas.
This is a fascinating read about grit and determination, friendships and competition, camaraderie and isolation, and above all the mental and physical strength to achieve a goal.
Lacking knowledge of the various challenges, Meaghan had no illusions of winning, but “I became possessed by the newfound conviction that I was capable of more than I’d previously imagined. I decided to throw my hat in the ring, and use the race as an opportunity to test my limits” (15). The year before Lael Wilcox became the first woman to win the race in eighteen days ten minutes; Meaghan’s goal was to finish in twenty-five days—she beat it by one hour and fifty-nine minutes!
Where South Away is an account of an interesting bicycle tour, Shifting Gears focuses on endurance bicycling racing. Meaghan rode with her tracking device which allowed her to keep a close eye on the leaders, male and female, as well as several riders who were regular companions. She introduces the reader to several of the men with whom she rode. Though not as intense as Jenny Graham’s Coffee First and Then the World (Bloomsbury, 2024), a recounting of her setting a Guinness Book record for the fastest woman to bicycle around the world, Meaghan’s book is another example of completing an exceptionally arduous goal. What I found most interesting is the comparisons I can make to my transcontinental ride. Meaghan rode from Astoria, Washington to Yorktown, Virginia while my pledge ride with The League of American Bicyclists went from Los Angeles, California to Boston, Massachusetts. Where Meaghan’s race began with 135 riders, only 31 of whom were women, my tour had fifty-five riders fairly equally divided gender-wise. The oldest rider at seventy-two was “Fast Eddie,” who offered pace line training to anyone interested. The majority of the riders were younger middle-aged with a small cohort of “Young Turks” who banded together. We took forty-seven days, including five rest days evenly spaced, to cross the continent. Where we averaged a bit over eighty miles a day, Meaghan covered more than double that every day. We started in the morning usually between seven and eight and finished in the early afternoon; the Meaghan and the other racers spent many more hours in the saddle, sometimes napping for only a few hours each day and riding long hours in the dark. Where we had scheduled motel housing each night along with breakfasts and dinners each day, Meaghan et al. had to make their own arrangements on the fly. We traveled slowly enough to enjoy the scenery and investigate interesting sites; Meaghan’s determination eliminated any possibility of the tourist gaze. Where we had a SAG (support and gear) Wagon, Meaghan carried her own supplies as did each rider.
Another interesting difference involves technology. I crossed the continent in 1991, Meaghan did it in 2017. We had no internet though one rider did have a cell phone. We had paper maps and cue sheets to follow the route. Meaghan and the other racers had GPS trackers which provided real time information on the route and the position of each rider. Even with this state-of-the-art technology, some riders managed to get lost, which meant they had to backtrack to regain the route.
This is a fascinating read about grit and determination, friendships and competition, camaraderie and isolation, and above all the mental and physical strength to achieve a goal. When Robert Louis Jefferson (1866-1914), English bicycle racer and traveler, determined to race from Catford, near London, to Moscow, Russia and back, a distance of 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers), a reviewer for the London Times questioned whether “the prize was worth the candle.” For Meaghan the response is emphatically YES. The women and men who rode the Trans America Bike Race earned nothing more than the satisfaction of achieving a goal; their response if the question were put to them would be a resounding YES, as it was for all of us who joined the 1991 Pedal for Power charity ride.
While South Away describes bicycle touring and Shifting Gears bicycle racing, they are equally worth the candle. I did find Meaghan’s writing style to be excessively florid, ornate and flowery, but that does not detract from the adventure. Taking the two books together, the reader sees the attraction of long-distance endurance bicycling. Meaghan’s strength, skill and development, mentally and physically, unfolds on each page. Anyone who wants to learn more about bicycle racing and bicycle travel will find these two books enlightening and engaging. I do admire her abilities, but I will continue to travel in the slow lane.
Copyright © Duncan R. Jamieson 2025
