About Us
OnaVelo is a new venture with some tried and true experience. Rick and Tanya McFerrin are back from their second bike trip around the world and bring 25 plus years of experience to OnaVelo – doing what they love to do. OnaVelo is the (r)evolution of Two Wheel View – the youth development organization they founded in 2001. OnaVelo focuses on taking adventurous travelers on bike trips to some of their favorite international destinations.
Meet the OnaVelo team
The couple who started it all
Rick & Tanya
Cyclists, Adventurers, Free Spirits
Rick and Tanya McFerrin turned their passion for bike travel into a lifestyle after taking a two-year round-the-world cycling adventure more than 20 years ago. They founded a youth development organization called Two Wheel View in 2000 and have countless stories of “changing kids’ lives from the seat of a bike” on bicycle trips in Canada and abroad and through after school programs. Rick now runs a boutique bike touring company called OnaVelo. These lifetime adventurers and avid bikers do what they love to do.
Their bicycle adventures include epic trips. From 1998-2000, they travelled the world for 25 months and covered 24,000 km and 43 countries. When their boys were just 4, 6, and 8 years old, the family went on a 14-month, 14,000-km tandem bike trip from Calgary to Mexico City and back. In 2018 they returned from a 13-month, 15,000 km bike trip through parts of Scandinavia, the Baltics, Eastern Europe, India, S.E. Asia, Japan and western Canada. Their experiences and perspectives on the world, created the basis for ConnecTour.
The do-anything anchor
Allison
Designer , Wanderer , Blogger
Forever a wanderer and bicycle enthusiast, Allison discovered the joys of bike-packing while exploring the northern corners of Ladahk, India. The adventure, challenges, and satisfaction brought by that first trip evolved into a new way of life and travel. Allison worked for Two Wheel View, where she led youth bike trips and facilitated Earn-a-Bike after school programs. She also co-led adult trips through Argentina and the backroads of Alberta.
By day, Allison works as a language instructor for New Canadians and provides employment counsel to internationally educated professionals. Born and raised in Calgary, she is an amateur urban homesteader, itinerant artist, and loves coffee, bikes, and wandering the unbeaten paths of the world.
Storyteller, Stand-in Mechanic
Doug
Conservationist, Scribe, Seeker
It’s a big ol’ world, and Doug wants to see it all – in slow mo. A lifelong cycling enthusiast, Doug discovered the joy of bike touring on a recent trip through northwest Argentina led by Onavelo. “At bicycle speeds, you get a more powerful sense of place,” he says. Doug is a journalist, adventurer and conservationist. He and partner Lisa have explored much of Canada, and fill their weekends with cycling, kayaking, skiing, and hiking in the Rocky Mountains. When Rick is busy, Doug pitches in on fixing flats.
Media connector. Party & food planner.
Lisa
World Traveller. Nature Lover. Always Curious.
When Lisa Monforton moved to Calgary from Ontario 20 years ago, little did she know that being near the mountains would change her life and outlook. She was a confirmed winter-dreading flatlander – and fearful of heights. Those first winters in Alberta skiing and in summer tenting and hiking made her ask: “Why hadn’t I moved a lot sooner?” A long-time journalist working at newspapers in southern Ontario, she became the travel editor at the Calgary Herald. It was a pivotal job change, giving her the chance to travel the world, and to experience and write about new cultures.
News, updates & media coverage
Oh, the places you’ll go! touring on a bike
It’s not about where we travel, but why
Local cycle group to hit the road in 2021 in search of remarkable Canadians
News Release: Adventure and celebration of remarkable local people
Visiting cyclists making the most of recent social changes
