Category: Bike Touring
If you're planning a bicycle touring trip to Ontario or Quebec this season, a good first stop might be the Cycling in the Ottawa-Gatineau area website.
Ottawa bicyclist Michael McGoldrick has assembled maps, pictures and descriptions of his many bike rides in and around the capital city at the recently launched website.
He's also added maps and descriptions of some longer rides elsewhere in Canada, such as the 120-mile P'tit Train du Nord trail in the Laurentians north of Montreal.
Michael has spent 20 years living in the Ottawa area and has been doing a lot of bicycling there in the past five or six years. He's learned a lot about cycling around town with his daily commute, and he and his wife spend one or two weeks every summer on longer bike tours around Canada …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/04/16/new-online-resource-for-bike-rides-and-tours-in-canada/
You gotta like Andy Hampsten. Here's what the only American to win the Giro d'Italia (1988) says about riding his bicycle:
“… And I ride my bike a lot. I love riding my bike. I raced for 20-some years and it was great. It was, by far, the most fun I've had. The best job I've ever had. I would almost have done it for free because I could ride my bike. I loved being outside. I loved seeing new things. I loved the adventure of riding. I loved the camaraderie. You just meet strangers on a bike and have some fun. It is just fun every time I go out on my bike.”
This quote comes at the end of a Q&A with Hampsten in May's Bicycling magazine by Bruce Hildenbrand. Hampsten, 46, talked about that amazing climb up the Gavia into a snowstorm that secured the pink jersey at the '88 Giro …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/04/15/what-andy-hampsten-says-about-bicycling/
Chicago added, two dropped from 2007
The wild and wooly New Belgium Brewing Co. bike festival and freak show known as Tour de Fat is back on the calendar in 11 cities this summer.
Chicago was added to the list, but Flagstaff and Missoula were dropped.
The makers of Fat Tire beer will be visiting Chicago, San Francisco, Truckee, Seattle, Portland, Boise, Fort Collins, Denver, Durango, Tempe and Austin (dates below).
This is the eighth year that the cycling circus is touring the western US. Festival goers often dress in costume and decorate their most fun bikes in an opening parade. There's musical and acrobatic entertainment. There's also plenty of beer…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/04/09/new-belgiums-tour-de-fat-bike-festival-dates-for-2008/
Bruce Friedland at bpfphotography
Three dates marked the march toward spring this year along the 150-mile long Great Allegheny Passage:
Feb. 2 — Punxsutawney Phil poked his head out of his groundhog hole to proclaim more winter.
March 20 — The sun passed over the sun's equator, marking the vernal equinox; commonly known as the first day of spring.
April 3 — Crews pried open the doors to the 3,294-foot-long Big Savage Tunnel, which had been closed for the winter.
The final act marks the annual opening day for a continuous 318-mile bicycle path comprising the C&O Canal towpath and Great Allegheny Passage all the way from Washington DC to McKeesport, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh. Tradition holds that the Tunnel Troll accompanies the first cyclist to pass through, bringing blue skies and smooth paths …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/04/05/spring-comes-to-great-allegheny-passage/
From the looks of Daniel Lang's Project VELAIA website, this is an ideal season to be bicycle touring in New Zealand. Not too hot. Not too cold.
Lang is a 22-year-old, self-described “velosopher, environmentalist, and often minimalistic outdoor adventurer” who is nearly 16,000 miles into an around the world bike tour.
His website is worth a look for the wonderful pictures, like the one above, as well as the stories the German traveler is spinning from the road…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/04/04/world-cyclist-biking-through-new-zealand/
The Redlands Bicycle Classic, which runs today through Sunday in southern California, is featuring live video from the start house for the 5K men's and women's time trial.
Among those racing are Tom Danielson (above, Slipstream), Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing), Rory Sutherland (Health Net) and Chris Baldwin (Toyota). Among the women, High Road, Webcor, Value Act Capital, Aaron's and Cheerwine are supplying strong teams.
The four-day event isn't just for watching pro cyclists. If you're in the area and would rather ride than watch, you can jump onto the Redlands Bicycle Classic Rotary Ride. It offers 6- to 60-mile bike tour options throughout the countryside. Also, public races for ages 3 and up are offered on Saturday morning. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/04/03/live-video-from-redlands-bicycle-classic/
Attila Horvath gets his inspiration while pedaling down the road. But unlike the moments of creativity that some of us mistakenly believe we achieve on the bicycle, Horvath's are worth hearing.
Horvath is a bike rocker, maybe the only one around. Here's a link to two bicycling songs — “Ride On” and “Flyin Free” — on his Attila Horvath MySpace page.
The musician who makes his home in Athens, Ohio, wrote an article about his work in the March issue of Adventure Cyclist, the monthly magazine of Adventure Cycling Association …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/04/02/spinning-along-with-bike-rocker-attila-horvath/
Six West Seattle students — ages 10 – 18 — were to begin a 22-day bicycle ride across the US today to deliver a message about global warming.
Their 5,400-mile route is charted to take the group through 65 cities that have signed on with Seattle Mayor Greg Nickel's Climate Action Now program. The noble endeavor is led by a Chief Sealth High School teacher who has organized similar rides in the past.
They're calling the bike tour “An Inconvenient Ride,” borrowing from Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth campaign …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/03/31/an-inconvenient-ride-sets-off-from-washington-dc-on-monday/
Photo by Vicki&Chuck RogersThe Bicycle Alliance of Washington is launching a letter-writing campaign to prevent the Olympic National Park from banning bicycles on Hurricane Ridge Road for the next two years.
You can see from this photo why bicycle riders like to challenge themselves on the 17-mile ride from nearly sea level to the 5,420-foot elevation at the Hurricane Ridge parking lot.
Interim park superintendent Sue McGill has unilaterally decided to ban bicycles from using that road for two years while road repairs are being made to a section of the road. That ban even extends to weekends when road crews will not be working …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/03/18/olympic-national-park-to-ban-bicycles-from-hurricane-ridge/
The first thing I learned to fix on my bicycle when I was growing up was the kickstand. The friggin' thing seemed like it was always coming loose and my crank arm struck it on each pedal stroke.
Ten years later, my Fuji Dynamic 10 came without a kickstand, which I thought at the time was an amazing innovation (omitting a part an innovation?). The heavy kickstand seems to be pretty much a thing of the past, although I secretly yearned for one when touring or on mass rides where I couldn't find any lean-room.
Tom Nostrant from Aberdeen, Washington, must have been thinking the same thing. I met him at the Seattle International Bike Expo recently where he was showing off his Click-Stand, a simple, lightweight, folding bike stand.
Depending on length, the thing weighs about 75 grams — 2.6 ounces. It's made from aluminum, folds to 7 to 10 inches, and opens with a flick of the wrist…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/03/17/click-stand-alternative-to-bicycle-kickstand/
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