A professor of Chicano studies is taking a bicycle tour around the United States to study the nation's "Latino-ization."
Louis Mendoza, chairman of the Department of Chicano Studies at the University of Minnesota, left Santa Cruz on his touring bike in July headed to New York and is returning via the Sun Belt. He recently left El Paso.
At his very insightful A Journey Across Our America blog, Mendoza writes about the increasing presence of Hispanics in large and small cities all across the country. He told an El Paso newspaper that he chose to travel by bicycle because "I'd be more likely to have unpredictable experiences along the road." ... more»
The San Jose Mercury News recently ran the story about a guy who rode his bicycle cross-country more than 40 years before the first bicyclist took to the Bikecentennial route.
Charlie Klotz was a 20-year-old working in a pharmacy in Hollister, California, when he took off on his bicycle for a cross-country tour to New York City in 1935.
He pedaled between 100 and 130 miles a day, covering the 3,100 miles in 30 days. He still has the Speed King bicycle that he rode ... more»
A bicycle relay is slowly making its way cross-country to draw attention to the connections between fuel dependency, war and global climate instability.
Called the Peace Transit, the ride started in Louisville, Kentucky, on Nov. 3 with cyclists carrying a baton, a petition and a rock to cyclists in Bardstown. Passed along five more times, the items arrived in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday.
No single person is making this tour. This is a very effective way to get hundreds, if not thousands, of people involved in publicizing the problems of being too dependent on oil. ... more»
Here it is not even Thanksgiving, and organizers of 53 "across-state" bicycle tours already have dates and routes for week-long bicycle tours in 2008.
It's never too early to start planning for next summer's bicycling adventure. If you're interested in putting your seat in the saddle for one of these RAGBRAI-like bike rides, check my list at 2008 Across State Bicycle Tours.
Listed are the standbys like BRAG, RAGBRAI, GRABAAWR, Ride the Rockies, but new ones like Indiana's RAINSTORM (this acronym is really a reach). Here are 28 states with updated bike rides and links to those pages ... more»
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 ... more»
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... more»
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 ... more»
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 ... more»
Depending 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 ... more»
Congratulations 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 ... more»
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. ... more»
Many 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). ... more»
(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. ... more»
A professor of Chicano studies is taking a bicycle tour around the United States to study the nation's "Latino-ization."
A 31-year-old Hermosillo cyclist set a record in the 25th annual El Tour de Tucson on Saturday.
Some of you who follow the Biking Bis blog know that I underwent prostate surgery for cancer at the end of September. 
The busy mapmakers at Adventure Cycling Association have gone and done it again.
(This is the first in an occasional series of my favorite memories from bicycling -- a bike tour from Cincinnati to Hueston Woods in 1965.)
