Category: Bike Touring
The Withlacoochee State Trail's 46-mile length makes it the longest rail-trail in Florida and a great route for bicycling.
Featured as Trail of the Month by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, the path runs between Citrus Springs in the north and Trilby in the south in an area generally between Tampa and Orlando.
While the trail is open to all, its path through small towns, ranches and natural areas of the Withlacoochee State Forest means bicyclists have the trail all to themselves for long stretches …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/01/30/bike-trail-in-florida-featured-by-rails-to-trails-conservancy/
Just when I think I'll be wearing my rainjacket for the rest of my bicycling life, we get hit with a day like this — sunny, temp in the high 40s, calm, did I mention sunny?
After suffering through weeks of windstorms, snowstorms, freezing temperatures and rain, lots of rain, cyclists up here by the hundreds emerged into the sunshine for their rides on Saturday.
Here's what I enjoyed on today's bike ride …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/01/28/what-a-day-for-a-bike-ride/
Here's one of the best reasons for towns to support bicycling — those sweaty, sunburnt cyclists usually have money in their wallets and they're hungry, thirsty and looking for some off-bike activity.
Small towns across Iowa know this; they compete to be named host cities to 10,000-plus cyclists on RAGBRAI every year.
Cumberland Mayor Lee Fiedler knows it too; he's busy convincing downtown businessmen that the opening of the Great Allegheny Passage will deposit some 250,000 hikers and bicyclists on the city's doorstep this year and they need to keep businesses open on weekends. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/01/26/bicyclists-cycle-tourist-dollars-into-towns/
This year's RAGBRAI — Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa — is going to be the flattest bike ride ever.
Organizers issued that good news when they announced the host towns for RAGBRAI's 35th annual rolling party across Iowa, scheduled for July 22-26.
Following a 478-mile west-to-east route, RAGBRAI will start this year in Rock Rapids …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/01/25/2007-ragbrai-host-towns-announced/
Dan Sheret goes over the equipment he must pack when he leaves on his around the world self-supported bicycle tour — Ability Trek 2007 — in June.
Panniers. Satellite phone. Water filter. Freeze-dried meals. Below-knee prosthesis for the right leg.
You see, the North Carolina man underwent an amputation of his lower right leg about five years ago because an ankle injured in an accident would not heal correctly. That didn't stop him from bicycling cross-country in 2003, and it won't stop him from bicycling around the world beginning in June 2007.
Sheret is a long-distance endurance amputee cyclist whose problem has turned into his strength and an inspiration to all …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/01/24/amputee-prepares-for-around-the-world-bicycle-ride/
The Lance Armstrong Foundation has announced the dates for three LiveStrong bicycle rides in 2007 to benefit cancer research.
The 2007 LiveStrong Challenge bike events are:
Philadelphia — August 25-26
Portland, Oregon — September 29-30
Austin — October 12-14
The Austin ride also includes the annual Ride for the Roses celebration for the top fund-raisers.
On the LiveStrong website, the 7-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor talks about his participation …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/01/23/3-livestrong-bicycle-rides-scheduled-for-2007/
Thomas Stevens might have been the first around-the-world bicyclist beginning in 1884, but he certainly wasn't the last.
The Pattersons, at left in Morocco, took the plunge in 2002 after Pat had turned 62 and Catherine had recovered from a heart attack.
Their nearly four-year bicycle tour took them through 57 countries on 4 continents. They made many friends and covered thousands of scenic miles, but also had to endure a collision with a truck in Portugal and a hold-up at gunpoint in Peru … It's all at their website, WorldRiders2. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/01/23/another-around-the-world-bicycle-tour-2002-2006/
When Tom Stevens stepped off the Alameda Ferry in Oakland to begin his around the world bicycle ride in 1884, there were a couple of things he didn't have to worry about — cars and trucks.
Of course, that meant he had to do without roads, too.
National Public Radio ran an interview this weekend with Thomas Pauly, a University of Delaware faculty member who wrote a forward to a re-release of Stevens' travelogue — “Around the World on a Bicycle.”
In that interview, I was struck by some of the connections between Stevens' ride of 120 years ago and our rides today. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/01/21/thomas-stevens-around-the-world-bicycle-tour-in-1884/
What makes someone a Trail Angel? In Gillian Hoggard's case, it's providing free lodging to cross-country bicycle tourists who have made it to Ordway, Colorado.
The Adventure Cycling Association named Gillian as the recipient of the 2006 June Curry Trail Angel Award. In its fourth year, the award goes to an individual or group that makes bicyclists' journeys easier by their acts of goodwill.
Word of mouth on the TransAmerica Bicycle Route has identified Gillian's home at the end of a gravel driveway on the north side of Ordway as a welcome respite while passing through the often hot, dry eastern Colorado plains (that picture was taken enroute to Ordway in 1984) …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/01/20/newest-trail-angel-makes-life-easier-for-bicycle-travelers/
When you attend most bicycling events, you're probably doing more than just improving your health. A nonprofit group usually gets a share of the event proceeds.
But there are hundreds of major bike rides sponsored by big health foundations throughout the US where the top goal is fund-raising, often through a system of pledges for participating bicyclists.
Many of the larger health-related nonprofits have a series of rides in different venues throughout the US. They include Multiple Sclerosis, Leukemia, Lung, Diabetes, and LiveStrong bike tours. Here, in no particular order, are some of them:
Bicycle ride series:
MS Bike Rides (National Multiple Sclerosis Society)
Marking its 28th year, the MS Bike Rides sponsor about 100 bike tours in 48 states …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/01/11/charity-bike-rides/
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