Category: Bike Touring
A 31-year-old Hermosillo cyclist set a record in the 25th annual El Tour de Tucson on Saturday.
Carlos Hernandez bicycled the 109-mile course in 4:10:51, finishing just ahead of Michael Grabinger, 30, of Flagstaff and David Solomon, 27, also of Hermosillo.
While the bike ride is a race for the leaders, it's simply a pleasant recreational bike ride most of the nearly 10,000 cyclists who participate in the fund-raiser for local charities. There are also bike routes of 80, 66 and 35 miles this year …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/11/17/record-posted-in-2007-el-tour-de-tucson-bike-race/
Many of the long bicycle trails in the Eastern US don't fade away at the state line, they just change names and keep on truckin'.
I'd been digging into some cool, long-distance suggestions for bicycle tours on “non-motorized trails” when I discovered that many well-known bike trails meet at the state borders.
Such is the case on the Georgia-Alabama border where Silver Comet joins the Chief Ladiga. It happens twice between Maryland and Pennsylvania, where the C&O Canal and Northern Central meet the Great Allegheny Passage and York County Heritage Trail…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/11/16/6-eastern-bike-trails-that-make-the-connection/
Pat yourself on the back if you're one of the 5,100 bicycle riders who participated in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge this year.
The two-day charity bike ride raised $33 million for cancer research and care at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
How does $33 million for the two-day event compare to other charity bike rides? The Lance Armstrong Foundation reported that its LiveStrong Challenge rides raised about $10 million in 2006, and all 100 MS bike tours combined raised $67 million last year …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/11/12/the-biggest-bicycle-charity-ride-ever/
Some of you who follow the Biking Bis blog know that I underwent prostate surgery for cancer at the end of September.
Being attached to a catheter for a week and plainly having soreness where I sat limited my exercise to daily walks to the store and beyond for several weeks.
Then a week ago Thursday, five weeks to the day after my surgery, I climbed back onto the saddle — gingerly — and set off on my first ride. Over the next few days I rediscovered the fun of cycling, my appetite, and how bicycling seems more friendly in the fall …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/11/10/getting-back-into-bicycling-after-surgery/
Lake Washington bike trailDepending on where you live, it might be a little late in the season for taking scenic bike rides to catch sight of brilliant leaves along roads and trails.
If there's still time in your area, or you just want to see what's available to bicyclists in other parts of the country, Bicycling magazine and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy recently created a list of “leaf-peeping” bike tours.
Unfortunately, they both ignore the Pacific Northwest. Although people mostly think of giant conifers and other evergreens inhabiting the region, there's nothing more colorful than our local big leaf maples whose leaves have turned bright yellow in the fall …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/11/09/watching-the-seasons-change-fall-bicycle-rides/
Crazy Guy on a BikeCongratulations to everyone recognized by the Adventure Cycling Association for going “above and beyond” to make conditions for bicycle travelers safer and more enjoyable.
Those honored for 2007 were:
Pacesetter Award: Neil Gunton, webmaster of Crazy Guy on a Bike;
Trail Angels Award: Nita Larronde and Don Kearney, and Pie-O-Neer Café owner Kathy Knapp of Pie Town, New Mexico;
Sam Braxton Bike Shop Award: Bicycle Outfitters of Seminole, Florida;
Volunteer of the Year: Chuck Harmon of Dublin, Ohio …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/11/08/honoring-folks-who-make-a-difference-for-touring-bicyclists/
The busy mapmakers at Adventure Cycling Association have gone and done it again.
Before I could figure out how I'm going to pedal over their 36,180 miles of bicycle routes in a single lifetime, they've gone and added another 941 miles.
This is getting annoying. They've added a 152-mile spur off the Underground Railroad Route; a 394-mile Adirondack Park Loop in upstate New York, and a 395-mile Allegheny Mountains Loop between Virginia and West Virginia. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/11/07/3-new-bicycle-routes-from-adventure-cycling-association/
By MikeBitton at flickrMany of the rails-to-trails routes in Washington state are suitable for skinny-tired road bikes. In fact, more than half of the 63 rails-to-trails in the state have surfaces that road bikes can handle.
Not the Klickitat Trail in southern Washington. One of the most remote rails-to-trails in the US, it is recommended that visitors use mountain bikes, preferably with front suspension.
The 31-mile trail is the trail-of-the-month for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. The trail starts in Swale Canyon then hooks up with the meandering Klickitat River, nationally designated as a Wild and Scenic River. It ends at the confluence of the Klickitat and Columbia rivers (above). …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/11/04/klickitat-trail-welcomes-mountain-bikers-in-southern-washington/
(This is the first in an occasional series of my favorite memories from bicycling — a bike tour from Cincinnati to Hueston Woods in 1965.)
My first bicycle tour came at the tender age of 15. I can't believe my mother agreed to it; I certainly wouldn't approve of such a venture for my own son at that age.
My good friend Steve and I had been caddying at a country club all summer. I'd catch a ride to work with Steve's dad then hitchhike home after carrying some guy's bag for 18 holes.
I don't know who came up with the bicycling idea. We were always scheming. I do remember looking at a road map of Ohio and seeing there was a place called Hueston Woods State Park that had a campground symbol. It was near Oxford, which was 35-some miles from Cincinnati. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/11/02/good-times-taking-my-first-bike-tour/
There's a bicycle path in northern Pennsylvania called the Pine Creek Rail Trail that meanders 62 miles along a river that passes through a valley aptly called the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.
The Rails to Trails Conservancy conducted a survey there last year that proves the adage heard in the movie Field of Dreams: “Build it and they will come.”
The survey found that not only do they come, but they contribute to the local economies. While the trail has cost about $12.6 million to build since 1995, the Pine Creek survey determined that visitors spend from $5 million to $7 million a year, most of which is spent in the local communities along the trail.
Leaving aside the aesthetic or fitness benefits of a trail, that economic impact should encourage all communities to take those old bike trail plans off the shelf, dust them off, and start spreading the crushed limestone or asphalt…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/10/29/build-it-and-they-will-come-and-spend-pennsylvanias-pine-creek-rail-trail/
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