With You By Bike: One Couple’s Life-Changing Journey Around the World

by Katrina Rosen

After many years together Katrina and Mike's marriage has unravelled. In a quest to mend their relationship they embark on a year long, 13,000 kilometre cycling tour with the hope of strengthening their commitment to one another. Katrina is an adventure athlete who craves the wild; her husband, Mike, watches sports with his buddies. Like many couples, after 11 years in a relationship they’ve grown apart and have become mere acquaintances, as opposed to husband and wife. When they hit rock bottom they realize it's time for a change and they make the dramatic decision to travel the world by bike. The couple ride through barren landscapes, scorching fires, and humid jungles. From backcountry roads in New Zealand, sharing a picnic with a man and his multiple wives in Malaysia, or camping at an orphanage in Cambodia; at every turn, they are touched by locals who feed them stories and laughter. Together they repair 54 flat tires, navigate heat exhaustion in Vietnam, altitude sickness in Tibet, and two robberies before they face the last hard climb to the world’s tallest mountain. With You By Bike is honest and raw, describing Katrina’s search for forgiveness, acceptance, and change. It’s about rediscovering choice from the seat of a bicycle, exploring the world, and finding love by veering off the beaten path.

328 pages, Paperback

Published September 3, 2019

Reviews

[Katya Stirkul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read about the journey Katrina and her husband, Mike, took to hopefully rediscover themselves as a couple. It was honest and raw as she wrote about some of the struggles they had been through and that led them to feeling very far apart despite being married. It was interesting reading about their biking journey through the different countries and you really got a feel for the people they encountered and friends they made along the way. It was also quite humorous at times! Overall, this was a very enjoyable read and I'm definitely trying to scheme how I can undertake an adventure of some sorts with my own husband!

[Marco · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great travel book also telling you to follow your dreams

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an amazing mix of many things; relationships, love, travel, biking, trusting strangers, learning to love and forgive yourself and really how to live life to the fullest. Katrina Rosen weaves together such a perfect mix of it all. It's a true story and a sensitive topic to begin with, yet she tells her tale so honestly and gracefully and you are rooting for her and her husband Mike to fall back in love again. I loved reading about the locals they met in many different places and the connections strangers can so easily form when open to it. Her words flow so beautifully across the pages. Caution: it may make you want to plan an adventure or hop on a bike sometime soon!

[Dinah Might · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much. I expect we'll see it on a best sellers list in the near future.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was addictive to read. I couldn’t put it down. It inspired me to travel more and be a better partner. A real amazing story.

[Outsidegeek · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best adventure travel books I’ve ever read! It is much more than just a travel story.

[Nanette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this book to my husband for our 40th wedding anniversary since we’re both cyclists. He has been following a Canadian group online touring across North America so I thought he would like this book, especially since it’s about a couple from Canada. The book implies that the couple rides around the world – – as in starts someplace and rides and rides and rides, maybe boarding a ship and rides and rides circumventing the world. It sounded promising. But, nope. The couple rides a few days in Canada and decides they’re cold and so they hop on a plane to Las Vegas, and ride to Lake Mead and then onto Moab in Utah. These rides were very suspicious to us since we live in Las Vegas and have done them all. The heat, the author complained about, in September, is nonexistent. By then temperatures in the Mojave desert have dropped, and the extreme heat she complains of, would not be the case. interestingly, days later when they’re in Zion national Park it snows. So the authors timeline is messed up. They ride to Colorado. It snows in Colorado so they rent a vehicle and fly to New Zealand. There seems to be as much air travel as bike travel. and the whininess of the author really was irritating. Her extra marital affair, even if only emotional (that’s never clear), is grating on the nerves. My husband said it’s more a soap opera than a travel narrative. The authors husband is humored and minimized in the book such that he seems to be a comical halfwit, not looking at their map for the first month of travel, unable to pack his panniers with any intelligence, etc. We had to put the book down when they landed in New Zealand and took all of their food into their tent to keep it away from the possum. Food in a tent? But the real annoyance was the “you go out of the tent. See what that noise is,” “no, you go out of the tent to see what that noise is.” Children. The writing is subpar. I’m glad for them that cycling saved their marriage, but the story is uncompelling from a reader, cyclist, and married couple’s point of view.

[Tom Bilcze · Rating 4 out of 5]

A common theme in bicycling touring books is change. It often takes the form of changes in the author’s life as the days, months, and sometimes years pass under their tires. Katrina Rosen and her husband Mike set out on a journey to change the course of their failing marriage. Pedaling into the unknown is a more accurate theme. The couple had no definite plans for their route and how to repair their relationship.

The author chronicles this journey of discovery: discovering foreign lands, discovering herself, and rediscovering her lost love for her husband. This is not only a story of lost and rediscovered love. It is very much a book that tells the story of people, places, and cultures while discovering the joys and challenges that go along with relying on your bike and yourself to complete the journey.

The author shared one of my favorite thoughts that her tour was about the journey and not the destination. She affirmed my philosophy that the paths my life travel should be about the experiences on the journey. Living life fully will get me to my ultimate destination as a happier person.

[Srinidhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like reading travelogues that transport me to the locations the author is describing through words. Katrina Rosen has successfully done that in this book and is also candid in her expression of feelings and dilemmas that torment her. The vivid descriptions of the landscapes, experiences with other folks, across the world sounds very authentic.
Rosen does not try to pad her story with superfluous wordplay and phraseology. Simple, easy to read, and engaging With you by bike is definitely a worthy read.

[Karen Mackay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given this book as a gift for the basic fact that my husband and I had ridden many parts of the same route. It was fun to read about the places we had been and had some of the same experiences. If you love to travel the world by bike (or are thinking of it) I would highly recommend this book.

[DessiReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like adventure books this is a great book to read about a couple who biked through different countries. I thought it had good mix of stories between adventures and personal life. I enjoyed reading about their interactions with others and how they were able to accomplish reaching Nepal on their bikes.

[Marie Halloran · Rating 4 out of 5]

A special book written by a special woman who I am happy to call my friend. The challenge of a marriage gone cold. The decision to take to the road on bikes to find their way back to each other. What they saw, the people they got to know, the experiences and challenges met. The final outcome…. Love.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katrina and her husband Mike abandon their lives in Canada to randomly cycle across New Zealand and Asia in efforts to rebuild their marriage. An interesting read, although a bit tedious at times and in need of editing for simple spelling mistakes.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cycle and am from the author's hometown, so I could relate! Interesting account.

[Krystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me forever to read, but was well worth it. I learned a lot about other countries and really let my mind go free to the possibilities. Well worth the time spent.

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reminder to find your adventure.

[Keira Bowness · Rating 4 out of 5]

Realised part way through that I have already read it.

[Anika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an amazing book, so many wild storieas and adventures. I know Katrina Rosen personally and she had always wanted to write a book. I love this book a lot because she explains evrything so well and the places she went sound amazing. Just a little bit jealous of the places she went.