Gene Bisbee

Author's details

Date registered: March 2, 2012

Latest posts

  1. World’s first LSD trip happened on a bike ride 70 years ago today — April 19, 2013
  2. “Bicycle Dreams” documentary tells the behind-the-scenes RAAM story — March 8, 2013
  3. Snow birds flock to Arizona for 2012 El Tour de Tucson; Marcotte wins again — November 17, 2012
  4. 14 ways to avoid and treat saddle sores from bicycling — July 24, 2012
  5. Bike Tour 1984: Postscript – TransAmerica tour comes full circle — July 20, 2012

Most commented posts

  1. 21 states require motorists give 3 feet or more when passing cyclists — 21 comments
  2. How I returned to bicycling after prostate surgery — 11 comments
  3. 14 ways to avoid and treat saddle sores from bicycling — 7 comments
  4. Myth-busting the RAGBRAI and Ride the Rockies bike tours — 6 comments
  5. 1984 Bike Tour: Day 17 – Not everyone welcomes bicycle tourists — 5 comments
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Author's posts listings

World’s first LSD trip happened on a bike ride 70 years ago today

Categories:

Main Page, Offbeat Bicycle News

April 19, 2013

by Gene Bisbee

April 19, 2013

The father of LSD says he was riding his bicycle the first time he felt the hallucinogenic effects of acid.

Could Albert Hofmann, who died at age 102 in 2008, have been the first cyclist to be accused of doping? You could certainly say took the first bike trip.

Hofmann told the International Herald Tribune …

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.bikingbis.com/2013/04/19/worlds-first-lsd-trip-happened-on-a-bike-ride/

“Bicycle Dreams” documentary tells the behind-the-scenes RAAM story

Categories:

Main Page, Racing

March 8, 2013

by Gene Bisbee

March 8, 2013

[The film "Bicycle Dreams" will be presented next Thursday (March 14, 2013) at 7 p.m. at the Harvard Exit Theater at 807 East Roy Street in Seattle. The showing is presented by the Bicycle Alliance of Washington. See details here for discount advance tickets.

If you're unfamiliar with it, here's a story I did in 2009 about the film. By the way, Dani Wyss won the race in 2009, but Jure Robic won the contest the following year. Tragically, he died in September 2010 in a collision with a car during a training ride.]

June 23, 2009 — Endurance cycling junkies no doubt are enjoying the contest between Jure Robic and Dani Wyss being played out this week as the Race Across America nears the finish line. ….

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.bikingbis.com/2013/03/08/bicycle-dreams-documentary-tells-the-behind-the-scenes-raam-story/

Snow birds flock to Arizona for 2012 El Tour de Tucson; Marcotte wins again

Categories:

Bike Touring, Main Page

November 17, 2012

by Gene Bisbee

November 17, 2012

Update: Nov. 17, 2012– Defending champion Eric Marcotte won his third straight El Tour de Tucson on Saturday in a head-to-head battle at the finish against Rafael Escarcega, the 2009 winner.

A 32-year-old resident of Scottsdale, Marcotte finished the 111-mile course in 4:13, about six minutes faster than last year.

Linnea Herbertson, a University of Arizona grad student, won the women’s division in a time of 4:39.

Former Olympic cyclist John Howard, 65, crashed near the finish …

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.bikingbis.com/2012/11/17/snow-birds-flock-to-arizona-for-2011-el-tour-de-tucson-marcotte-wins-again/

14 ways to avoid and treat saddle sores from bicycling

Categories:

Bicycle Fitness, Main Page

July 24, 2012

by Gene Bisbee

July 24, 2012

July 24, 2012 — Another project I’m working on has made it challenging to update this blog on a daily basis this summer. So here’s a 2007 story from the BikingBis.com vault about saddle sores, and how to prevent and treat them. Good luck staying comfortable in the saddle…

Warmer weather and longer bike rides are right around the corner for many of us, which means sore, blistered butts are also around the next bend.

It’s easier to get an idea how to avoid saddle sores when you understand what causes them. Basically it all starts with logging miles. …

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.bikingbis.com/2012/07/24/14-ways-to-avoid-and-treat-saddle-sores-from-bicycling/

Bike Tour 1984: Postscript – TransAmerica tour comes full circle

Categories:

Main Page, TransAmerica Tour 1984

July 20, 2012

by Gene Bisbee

July 20, 2012

I can't close off this cross-country bicycle trip without a postscript, because the tour really didn't end for me when we arrived in Oceanside. Still suffering from wanderlust, the trip ended for me up the Pacific coast with a chance meeting with another cyclist who had ridden ahead of us on our bike tour.

…. It made me realize that while we cross-country bicycle tourists are pedaling throughout the world, we're also cycling in our own world…

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.bikingbis.com/2012/07/20/bike-tour-1984-postscript-transamerica-tour-comes-full-circle/

1984 Bike Tour: Day 68 – End of the road

Categories:

Main Page, TransAmerica Tour 1984

July 19, 2012

by Gene Bisbee

July 19, 2012

OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA — Bruce and I achieved the goal — to ride from coast to coast — that we'd made up our minds to accomplish two years ago. It seems like the end arrived too soon.

Fittingly, this was one of the easiest days of the trip. From 2,727 feet, we were coasting down to sea level. Soon after leaving our pace quickened and we had to slow for switchbacks and suddenly we began passing orange groves. It was all so California. We passed a mission, but we didn't stop to investigate. As Lazy Louie would say, all the hills went down and we had the wind to our backs.

Traffic increased as we hit residential areas, and James nearly had a head-on as he sped around us in the van. We were all riding together, and each tried to be the first to spot the ocean. …

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.bikingbis.com/2012/07/19/1984-bike-tour-day-68-end-of-the-road/

1984 Bike Tour: Day 67 – Final toasts in the glow of a Coleman lantern

Categories:

Main Page, TransAmerica Tour 1984

July 18, 2012

by Gene Bisbee

July 18, 2012

The last full day on the road ended in warm camaraderie making toasts around a picnic table. But it began much chillier than that for me.

I was slow waking up as I felt totally exhausted from the day before, when I had left everyone else at a cramped motel room in Ocotillo and headed up here on my own. I was finally breaking camp when I heard the crunch of tires on the road leading to the campsite. It was James in the blue van. Everyone was worried about me. They got an early start and would be passing by soon. He offered to carry my gear. No, I brought it this far, I’ll take it the rest of the way….

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.bikingbis.com/2012/07/18/1984-bike-tour-day-67-final-toasts-in-the-glow-of-a-coleman-lantern/

1984 Bike Tour: Day 66 – Strange lights in the desert

Categories:

Main Page, TransAmerica Tour 1984

July 17, 2012

by Gene Bisbee

July 17, 2012

ANZA-BORREGO STATE PARK, CALIFORNIA — Too much heat? Not enough water? Too much pedaling through the desert? Too close to the end of the trip? I can't explain it, but I isolated myself from the group today and rode up to a solitary campground in the desert.
Expecting another hot day, we set the alarm for 4:30 but didn't really get going for hours. We all stopped for pictures at the Arizona-California border then cycled on Interstate 8 near the Mexican border through an area aptly named the Imperial Sand Dunes…

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.bikingbis.com/2012/07/17/1984-bike-tour-day-66-strange-lights-in-the-desert/

1984 Bicycle Tour: Day 65 – We find an oasis in the desert

Categories:

Main Page, TransAmerica Tour 1984

July 16, 2012

by Gene Bisbee

July 16, 2012


YUMA, ARIZONA — There are days on this cross-country trip that I anticipated from the first time I spread out the maps on the table in my apartment in Annapolis.

One was the climb up to the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia; another was going up and over Monarch Pass in Colorado. Today was another — 80 miles across the desert of southwestern Arizona where nothing was marked on the map except a thin line for Hwy. 95. …

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.bikingbis.com/2012/07/16/1984-bicycle-tour-day-65-we-find-an-oasis-in-the-desert/

1984 Bike Tour: Day 64 – I can feel the heat on my eyelids

Categories:

Main Page, TransAmerica Tour 1984

July 15, 2012

by Gene Bisbee

July 15, 2012


Looks like most of the residents of Hope, Arizona,
have given up all hope…

I awoke about sunup this morning and … no Bruce.

It had been so hot and dry, we didn't see the need to pitch the tent last night. We threw the tarp down and just slept on that, until, at some point in the night, I realized all kinds of insects were walking around on me. I took my mat and put it on a picnic table and went back to sleep. Jim had already booked the other table.

 Bruce woke up later, about 2 a.m., for the same reason I had, discovered the picnic tables already taken, and took off for a ride. He ended up at an all-night cafe where a group of 20 Native American runners showed up. …

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.bikingbis.com/2012/07/15/1984-bike-tour-day-64-i-can-feel-the-heat-on-my-eyelids/

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