Category: Bike travel

Seven kidnapped Estonians on a bicycle tour gone seriously wrong are free after French diplomats negotiated their release in Lebanon.

The men, in their 30s and 40s, were kidnapped at gunpoint after crossing over the border from Syria on their bicycle tour on March 23.

The May 20 video at left is one of two posted on YouTube.com.

The seven arrived at the French embassy in Beirut on Thursday. There was no immediate word whether a ransom was paid or other conditions of their release.

The French volunteered to help in the case …

Deep snow in the Cascade Mountains this winter and spring delayed the opening of the Northern Tier Bicycle Route through Washington until earlier today.

The bicycle route follows State Route 20, also known as the North Cascades Highway, over the breath-taking Washington (el. 5,477 feet) and Rainy (4,875 feet) passes in North Cascades National Park.

The highway is normally closed due to snow in late November until the spring. This year, state highway snow-removal crews arrived to find the snow 75 feet deep in places.

An April snowstorm and avalanche danger delayed the start of snow removal that took 6 weeks, about twice as long as normal. This year marked the second latest opening of the road …..

Last week, Winona Bateman at the Adventure Cycling Association asked me for a quote about why I support the US Bicycle Route System fund-raising campaign.

As usual in those circumstances, I couldn't think of anything too profound to say.

Essentially, I said it “tickles me” to think about future bicyclists being able to follow bicycle-route signs as they travel some 50,000 miles of bike-friendly road. I added:

“And just as intriguing is the idea of mom and pop businesses — bike shops, campgrounds, hostels — sprouting up to cater to these bicyclists who have taken to the long road.” ….

The first route updates to the US Bicycle Route System since 1982 have been approved by the transportation group that oversees state highways.

Shown in red at left, the new bicycle travel routes approved are:

USBR 1 in Maine and New Hampshire;
USBR 20 in Michigan
USBR 8, 87, 95 and 97 in Alaska.

Two existing routes — USBR 1 through Virginia and North Carolina, and USBR 76 through Virginia, Kentucky, and Illinois, are shown in blue.

The Adventure Cycling Association announced the new routes on Wednesday.

The remaining corridor routes on the map show the work that has yet to be done on the 50,000-mile US Bicycle Route System …

You'll probably be hearing a lot about the U.S. Bicycle Route System during May, National Bike Month.

The Adventure Cycling Association is launching a grassroots effort to raise $30,000 this month toward funding the 50,000-mile bicycle network to link cities, suburbs, parks and other destinations that traveling cyclists might want to visit.

The bicycle route system project has been gaining momentum since 2008 when AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) approved the grid of bicycle route corridors and the concept of continuity of bicycle routes across state lines.

Thirty states are currently at various stages in working to create bicycle routes through their states ….

Some bicycle travelers set off on an around the world bicycle tour in pursuit of a record, such as the UK's Vin Cox and his Guinness World Record achievement of 163 days, 6 hours and 58 minutes.

Then there's Heinz Stucke, the German who quit his job as a tool-and-die-maker in 1962 and left on a never-ending around the world bicycle journey that continues today.

In between those extremes is Volodia Sorokin of Bulgaria, left. The 58-year-old has been taking an on-and-off bicycle journey around the world for the past 16 years.

Presently, Sorokin is finishing his 4,600-mile cross-country bicycle travels in the U.S. He started in Washington DC in October and rode his bicycle across the southern tier and up the Pacific Coast from southern California to Alaska……

Some days in the life of a Siberian cyclist… a dazzling rush through some random encounters from Rob Lilwall on Vimeo.

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That was my first question when I cracked open the “Cycling Home from Siberia,” the latest bicycle travel book sent me by a publicist. After reading the first few pages of Rob Lilwall's travelogue, that first query was quickly expanded to:

“What inexperienced cyclist begins a bicycle tour of more than 3,000 miles across Siberia in September on a frozen highway known locally as 'The Road of Bones.'”

Although I knew Lilwall survived the ordeal (how could he have written the both otherwise), I was relieved to learn that the bicycle touring companion he was waiting for in Magadan was Alastair Humphreys. Today he's a well-known English bicycle adventurer and motivational speaker ….