For Jeff Kadet, cycling isn’t a sport or a pastime. It’s a way of living. Since the early 1980s, Jeff and his wife have been exploring the world one ride at a time, carrying their belongings on touring bikes and tracing their routes through the landscapes of Europe, Asia, and North America. What began with two three-speed bicycles in Singapore grew into a lifelong rhythm of travel defined by curiosity, endurance, and shared discovery.
Now in their seventies, they still spend several months each year cycling across France and its neighboring regions. Their bicycles may be over thirty years old, but their enthusiasm hasn’t faded. “We’ve always enjoyed the process more than the destination,” Jeff says. “There’s something deeply satisfying about covering distance under your own power.”
From a $50 Bike to a Life of Touring
Jeff’s first real step into cycling came in his late twenties while living in New York City. He bought an old used bike for fifty dollars and began riding around Manhattan on weekends. One of his earliest memories is from July 4, 1976, when he rode downtown to watch the parade of tall ships sailing along the Hudson River during the Bicentennial celebration.
A few years later, after moving to Singapore in 1979, he met his wife, and together they began exploring the island on two three-speed Raleigh bicycles. “We never went anywhere very fast, but we did get there,” Jeff recalls. What began as casual weekend rides turned into regular multi-hour trips and eventually led them toward self-contained touring.
When they moved to Houston in 1982, they upgraded to ten-speed bikes and began taking long loops through the Texas countryside, sometimes getting caught in summer thunderstorms and stopping at Dairy Queen for a banana split mid-ride. Their first self-contained tour came in 1983, riding from Houston to Austin and back with panniers full of gear. “Given the heat in the Texas summers, this was not the smartest thing we’ve ever done,” Jeff wrote. It was, however, the beginning of a lifelong way of traveling by bike.
Finding Freedom on the Road
That first tour marked the beginning of a new way of traveling. Over the next decades, cycling became Jeff and his wife’s preferred mode of exploration wherever they lived. In Japan, where they moved in the late 1980s, they often took ferry boats out of Tokyo and spent one or two weeks cycling back. Later, while living in Moscow, they kept their two Dawes touring bikes with friends in Western Europe and traveled there each summer to ride through France, England, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. “What a pleasure,” Jeff wrote after describing those trips.
After Jeff retired, their travels expanded even further. They returned to Europe almost every year, spending months at a time cycling through France and nearby regions. Between 2013 and 2016, they lived in the French Basque Country near St-Jean-Pied-de-Port, using it as a base for local rides and longer tours, including a memorable trip to Paris to see their niece perform in a children’s choir. “We spent a couple of weeks pedaling to Paris to see her perform,” Jeff recalled. “This was probably the longest travel for the shortest performance ever since her performance lasted less than one hour.”
A Routine Built Around Cycling
At home in Seattle, Jeff and his wife live without a car and rely on their bicycles for almost all daily transportation, including grocery trips and errands. When the weather allows, they ride 20 to 30 kilometers through nearby neighborhoods, keeping the rhythm of cycling alive between longer tours abroad.
They’ve also toured extensively across North America, including rides from San Diego to Tucson, New York to Chicago, and from Seattle to Vancouver and back through the North Cascades. While Jeff appreciates the wide-open beauty of the American West, he finds that touring in Europe is far more comfortable. In France, he writes, there is a network of well-paved local roads with light traffic that makes cycling to almost any destination possible. By contrast, much of the riding they’ve done in the United States has been on major arterials, simply because there are fewer smaller routes to choose from.
Jeff believes the difference comes down to history. Much of the western United States was settled after the invention of the automobile, which means towns are spaced for cars rather than for travelers on foot or by bike. In Europe, by contrast, centuries of development around walking paths and short distances between villages have created a landscape that feels naturally suited to cycling.
Returning Again and Again to France
Of all the countries they’ve toured, France remains Jeff’s favorite. “There’s such incredible variety in the countryside,” he says. “It’s hard to name favorites.” Still, he lists a few regions they return to again and again: the French Basque Country, the Cantal and the Puy Mary, the Gorges du Tarn and Gorges de la Jonte, the area around Annecy and Chambéry, and the landscapes of Provence and the Verdon.
Each area offers its own kind of magic, from the quiet mountain passes of the Massif Central to the deep limestone canyons of southern France. They’ve revisited some places nearly ten times, tracing familiar routes that now feel like old friends. Among Jeff’s personal highlights are three circular routes he recommends to other riders:
- A loop through the Gorges de la Jonte and the Gorges du Tarn, connected by the D986.
- A ride around both sides of the Gorges du Verdon.
- A circle from Aurillac to the Puy Mary and back through Salers.
Even after so many years, he says, there are still new roads to discover and new variations of familiar rides to enjoy.
Discovering Bikemap
Jeff has been a Bikemap Premium user since 2009 and has created more than 800 routes. In the early years, he would manually draw each ride on the Bikemap website and upload photos afterward. Once he learned how to record rides directly on his phone, it became part of his daily touring routine.
Each day after finishing a ride, he records the route and attaches photos, creating a digital record of every trip. Bikemap has also become an important planning tool during his tours, helping to map out daily rides and connect smaller roads between towns.
The Meaning of Cycling
When asked what cycling means to him, Jeff says: “It’s something my wife and I love doing together. It’s always been about enjoying the process rather than achieving something.”
During his working years—often 80 hours a week—cycling offered a form of release, a way to reset. Now that he’s retired, it’s an essential part of staying active and connected to the world. “My wife likes to talk about the endorphins,” he says. “For me, it’s the satisfaction of moving through the landscape by our own power. It feels honest.”
Cycling also gives Jeff a sense of perspective. He describes it as a continuous lesson in patience, planning, and resilience. “There’s never a perfect ride,” he says. “Some days you’re cold, wet, or tired. But every day on a bike gives you something—a view, a conversation, a memory.”
One additional gift of traveling by bike, Jeff says, is what it reveals about people. “Pedaling through different countries and meeting people along the way, we’ve seen and experienced the best of human nature,” he reflects. “It gives my wife and me a reaffirmation of the essential goodness and kindness of people.”
In a time of polarized politics and constant disagreement over social and environmental issues, Jeff finds that cycling offers a counterbalance, a reminder that, on a personal level, people are just people. “When we stop at a viewpoint, arrive at a hotel or B&B, or buy food in a small store, we talk with the people we meet,” he says. “Even when we haven’t started a conversation, it’s not uncommon for someone to offer help or directions if we look lost, going out of their way to be helpful.”
Over the years, he and his wife have found that kindness transcends borders. “Irrespective of the country,” Jeff says, “people are more often than not friendly, kind, and generous. That reaffirmation that the world might not be going to hell after all feels good. It’s an important ‘plus’ of our kind of bicycle touring.”
Still Riding Strong
After more than forty years of bicycle touring, Jeff and his wife continue to find joy in slow, self-powered travel. Their Dawes touring bikes, now over thirty years old, are still going strong, though they did finally replace their panniers after three decades of use.
For Jeff, cycling has never been about racing or achievement. It’s about being in motion, exploring the world with his wife, and staying connected to the rhythm of life at a human pace. He writes that riding provides never-ending pleasure and a sense of exhilaration, along with a deeper appreciation of the surroundings. More than distance or speed, what matters most to him is enjoying the process rather than the destination.
We hope Jeff’s story inspires you to plan your next ride or maybe even a long tour of your own. 🚴♀️✨ Do you have a cycling story worth sharing? We’d love to feature you! Send us a message now to be part of our next edition.
Keep exploring, keep pedaling, and see you on the road. 🌍
