Save 20% When You Support Indie Media

Subscribe to Bikepacking.com or EscapeCollective.com to get the deal

While the landscape of cycling media has changed since Showers Pass was founded in 1997, we still rely on great storytellers, diligent product testers, and exhaustive researchers to help us keep up on what’s happening across the wide world of riding as recreation, sport, travel, and industry. In recent years, publishers have consolidated, gone dark, or changed their reporting to feed the ever-hungry machine of their corporate ownership…but a few bright lights of independent bike media still shine.

They write content that serves the rider, not the algorithm. Deep-dive investigations into where stolen bikes actually go, honest gear reviews that tell you a helmet runs small, or that a pair of pants didn’t stand up to a full season of use. A route report from a remote corner of Kyrgyzstan that plants a seed in your brain and grows into a full-blown trip three years later.

This is why we follow independent media, and why we’ve partnered with a couple of the best to offer their subscribers a standing deal on Showers Pass gear. 

Bikepacking.com and Escape Collective members now get 20% off regularly-priced Showers Pass gear. Once you sign up, you get access to a members-only area where you'll find our discount (and that from dozens of other brands.) It's our small thank-you to the readers keeping these outlets rolling. But we also want to be direct about why we think this matters.

Good gear journalism is hard to find.

When you're trying to figure out whether a rain jacket is worth it, you don't need another sponsored post or a list ranking gear in order of advertiser dollars. You need someone who actually rode in the thing, in real conditions, over real miles, and told you the truth about it. Service journalism costs money to produce, requiring editors, testers, time, and independence from the brands being covered. Your membership makes that possible. 

Fuel the dreams that fuel the rides - Bikepacking.

Bikepacking.com is a rare thing: a global community connected by curiosity about far-flung places and the bikes that can get you there. Their route guides, trip reports, and storytelling are useful and also the sort of coverage that gets you mentally packing your bags for somewhere you've never been. We’ve seen their coverage of new routes like the Baja Divide turn casual riders into adventurers, with their low-impact tourism dollars helping sustain the places they visit.

Escape Collective: journalism that nobody else is doing.

Drop-bar cycling media largely runs on press releases and podium interviews. Staffed by refugees from other titles acquired by media conglomerates, Escape Collective does these things too (it’s clear they’re racing fans.) But they also carve out a different path: long-form investigations into bike theft rings, exposés on crowdfunded products that never deliver, and in-depth reporting on the financial machinery behind professional road racing. This is miles away from the kind of reporting that makes money from affiliate clicks or doing racing fanboy service. It makes the whole sport better and more honest, and it only exists because readers decided it was worth paying for when they crowdfunded the launch of Escape.

Independent media and independent brands have a lot in common.

Showers Pass isn't backed by a conglomerate or VC dollars. We're a small Portland-based team that believes weather shouldn't keep people from riding, and we build gear to prove it. The outlets we're partnering with aren't backed by big money either. They're run by people who care deeply about cycling and made a bet that readers would too. In these times of increasing consolidation, we think it’s important to call out the value of your support for independent brands and media. 

If you're already a member of Bikepacking.com or Escape Collective, use your discount and #EnjoyTheRide with Showers Pass. If you're not, maybe it’s time to subscribe. We hope the 20% discount helps you support reporting that matters!