BRAG. GOBA. RABGRAI. TRIRI. RAW. What the heck is this, alphabet soup? No, it's a very short list of some of the across-state bicycle tours that already have ride dates scheduled for 2007.
I spent some time vicariously bicycling across several states last night as I updated some of my listings at Across State Bicycle Tours. I read about bike tours that skirted mighty rivers, summited mountain passes and crossed deserts. Quite a few already have dates set and some are already taking registrations.
For instance, I learned that the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure (GOBA) is called "Bike Me to the Moon" this year, and that Oklahoma Freewheel ... more»
Can you imagine riding your bicycle in the future along this corridor where these railroad tracks run today? I can.
This is a very short stretch of a 47-mile railroad right-of-way that runs north-south about two miles from my home in the growing communities just east of Seattle.
The current owner, the BNSF Railway, wants to sell the 100-foot right-of-way. A deal currently in the works calls for the Port of Seattle to buy it for $100 million to $180 million and turn it over to King County along with the funds to build a bike and hike trail on it. In return, the Port gets the King County-owned 625-acre airfield just south of Seattle.
If the land swap deal happens -- we'll probably know next year -- the old rail line could become the backbone for a network of existing bike trails. ... more»
Where would you go to bike the world's most dangerous road?
You might have your own local candidates for the distinction, but on a global basis it's the Unduavi-Yolosa Highway in the mountains near La Paz, Bolivia.
That's not me saying so. The Inter-American Development Bank judged this the World's Most Dangerous Road in 1995 based on the number of deaths per mile.
And the designation doesn't mean bicyclists avoid it. In fact, at least two La Paz-based bike touring companies ... more»
A family's lawsuit stemming from the death of a bicycle rider in the 2004 RAGBRAI is scheduled to go to trial in October 2007.
Betty Jo Ullrich and her daughters are suing Crawford County due to negligence in the death of Kirk Ullrich, 49, who died after his bicycle tire hit a crack in the road pavement and he fell.
It's early summer Down Under, where Australia's version of RAGBRAI began Saturday with 3,500 bicyclists leaving Wangaratta for the 534-km (331-mile) bike ride to Melbourne.
The Great Victorian Bike Ride has been running every year since 1984 with as few as 1,900 bicyclists in 1985 to as many as 8,100 for the "Great Ocean Road" in 2004.
This year's bike ride leaves from Wangaratta ... more»
The organizer of the annual Celebration of Life bicycle ride in Virginia Beach says he's cancelling the event next year because the city's streets are getting too congested for the 1,000-or so participants.
What's ironic is that Virginia Beach received an "honorable mention" on the list of Bicycle Friendly communities by the League of American Bicyclists. ... more»
Anyone who bicycles regularly this time of year should be thinking seriously about bike lights. James Sharp at the Lactic Acid Threshold blog admits to thinking a lot about lights. He writes:
"I love lights, in an unhealthy way. I think it is the combination of the fact that they enable me to ride more and the fact that they are packed with technological goodness -- two of my favorite things."
Sharp is a reviewer of GearReview.com, so he knows what to look for in light systems for bicycles. He likes the LEDs for the whiter light ... more»
While doping charges cloud his future in cycling, Floyd Landis visited the El Tour de Tucson bike ride that drew 8,125 participants this year.
Landis helped start the event on Saturday, watched from a scaffold, and talked with some of his supporters. He didn't participate in the 109-mile ride itself, although he has ridden in past years and actually won the race on a tandem in 1997.
The tandem's pilot that year was Dr. Arnie Baker, Landis' personal physician, who expanded on the cyclist's doping defenses ... more»
Keith Larsen and Rich Gardunia, left, are nearing the end of their cross-continental bicycle tour to raise money for cystic fibrosis, which has stricken several of Larsen's relatives.
The pair started from Dead Horse, Alaska, 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle, with a third person, Sarah Wagstaff. Their destination is Key West, Florida.
A reporter for an eastern Texas newspaper recently interviewed the two, who said their favorites states so far were Oregon for the trees and waterfalls ... more»
Occasionally I'll run across a story that the Chinese are giving up bicycles as a prime source of transportation in favor of cars. Bikes lanes are converted to car lanes, and health problems, like obesity, are on the rise.
Apparently there are still plenty of people riding bicycles to work, but not as many as before. Oh well, such is the price of Westernization, or modernization, or industrialization.
Now there's a new trend in China. The People's Daily reports that people are bicycling for "exercise and entertainment." The news outlet interviewed some people who bicycled from their faraway hometowns to attend the Tour of Hainan, a six-day ... more»
Some roads "were more like huge stretches of human-sized potholes or a collection of head-sized rocks. Sometimes I thought local transport officials built these “roads” just to play a cruel joke and fool people into believing there was actually a legitimate way to get from one place to another."
-- Patrick Cook-Deegan telling about his 2,800-miles bicycle tour across Southeast Asia this summer to raise funds for a school in Laos. ... more»
Towns in Florida and Arkansas are looking forward to seeing tourism dollars rolling into their communities on bicycles.
The small town of Lake Helen, located southwest of Daytona Beach, hopes to become the state's biking mecca through the newly opened Florida Discovery Bicycle Center.
The center is the first in the state to combine adult bicycle touring and safety training. It's a joint effort by the Florida Bicycle Association, the town of Lake Helen, and the River of Lakes Heritage Corridor ... more»
A murder on a bike path in Georgia and an assault and separate gun-pointing incidents on an Indiana bicycle trail show the need for cyclists to consider personal safety when out for a ride.
I don't want to be an alarmist about this. Bike trails aren't dangerous places. I've stumbled across these news stories in the past couple of months, and they may represent the only incidents of violence across the thousands of miles of bike trails used by millions of people during that time period.
Even so, it's probably worth repeating some words of caution.
Update: The University at Buffalo issued a warning Nov. 17, 2006, that people shouldn't travel alone on the Ellicott Creek bike path, or pathways in western New York.
Snow, rain and cold -- or a combination of all three -- conspire to bring an end to the recreational bicycling event season across most of the US by November. Not so in Arizona, however.
El Tour de Tucson, scheduled on Saturday, Nov. 17, is the state's biggest one-day bike ride, drawing thousands of cyclists who want to get in just one more century before the end of the year. Because it's the 25th anniversary, up to 10,000 cyclists are expected.
The bike ride features routes of 109, 80, 66 and 35 miles this year, as well as a fun ride for kids.
Actually, this year's El Tour serves two purposes. In addition to the Saturday perimeter ride, El Tour has been named the site of The League of American Bicyclists National Bike Rally for 2007 .... more»
"Don't be afraid to ask if you can pitch your tent on someone's private land. Asking for someone's hospitality is something no person should be shy about; besides, it is a good way to meet new people."
Canadians Benoit Cote and Genevieve Fortin giving some tips about bicycle travel. ... more»
Before the autumn monsoon hit, I had the opportunity last week to bicycle the Cedar River Trail that runs east from Renton, Washington.
It's a level, low-traffic trail that runs for 16 miles along an old railroad line that used to carry coal out of the Cascade Mountains to consumers in the Seattle area. I always try to incorporate parts of it on any bike rides I take in that area.
Over much of its length, the trail runs within sight of the Cedar River, which rushes out of springs and lakes in the Cascades. During the fall, the river is a highway for bright red sockeye salmon ... more»
Amgen is sponsoring three Breakaway from Cancer bicycle rides, beginning in November, for the runup to the 2nd annual Tour of California.
The first ride is scheduled in just a few days on Nov. 12 in Bethesda, Maryland. Other charity bike rides are scheduled on Dec. 3 in San Francisco and Feb. 11 in Thousand Oaks, California.
When I used to take my bicycle on transcontinental flights every summer, the biggest hassle was finding a bicycle box big enough to hold my 59cm road bike frame.
Bike shops gladly parted with shipping boxes they'd recently emptied, but those boxes usually held smaller-framed mountain bikes. I eventually learned to overlap and tape together two chopped up boxes to hold my bike.
Now some enterprising individuals are selling specially designed cardboard boxes to ship bikes. They feature low prices and little bike disassembly. Here are a few ... more»
BRAG. GOBA. RABGRAI. TRIRI. RAW. What the heck is this, alphabet soup? No, it's a very short list of some of the across-state bicycle tours that already have ride dates scheduled for 2007.
Can you imagine riding your bicycle in the future along this corridor where these railroad tracks run today? I can.
Where would you go to bike the world's most dangerous road? 
While doping charges cloud his future in cycling, Floyd Landis visited the El Tour de Tucson bike ride that drew 8,125 participants this year.
Keith Larsen and Rich Gardunia, left, are nearing the end of their cross-continental bicycle tour to raise money for cystic fibrosis, which has stricken several of Larsen's relatives.
Some roads "were more like huge stretches of human-sized potholes or a collection of head-sized rocks. Sometimes I thought local transport officials built these “roads” just to play a cruel joke and fool people into believing there was actually a legitimate way to get from one place to another."
Before the autumn monsoon hit, I had the opportunity last week to bicycle the Cedar River Trail that runs east from Renton, Washington.
Amgen is sponsoring three Breakaway from Cancer bicycle rides, beginning in November, for the runup to the 2nd annual Tour of California.
When I used to take my bicycle on transcontinental flights every summer, the biggest hassle was finding a bicycle box big enough to hold my 59cm road bike frame.
