Are you looking for the end-of-season challenge to test your bicycling fitness? If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you might consider the High Pass Challenge presented by the Cascade Bicycle Club.

Offered by the Seattle-based bicycle club for the first time in 2007, the Challenge is a 120-mile, one-day bike ride that features 7,500 feet of elevation gain.

Cyclists will begin in Packwood, Washington, between 7 and 8 a.m. on Sept. 23, and climb Independence Pass, pedal past Spirit Lake and arrive at the Windy Ridge Viewpoint of the Mount St. Helens blast zone in the national monument. ...   more »

Forget about the dishes in the sink. Forget about mowing the lawn and posting your blog. Forget about sleep. If you had 24 hours, how far could you ride your bicycle?

More than 400 bicyclists met at the National 24-Hour Challenge last weekend near Grand Rapids, Michigan, to seek the answer to that question. It was the 24th meeting for the event.

Seattle resident Craig Ragsdale, 29, learned he could set the course record by covering 502.6 miles. Just as amazing, 67-year-old Dave Thomsen of Austin, Minnesota, bicycled 403.9 miles. ...   more »

The forecast of scattered showers never materialized on Saturday for the Cascade Bicycle Club's Flying Wheels bicycle ride in eastern King County.

Some 3,150 bicycling enthusiasts showed up for the ride, which features hilly routes of 100 and 65 miles, and easier routes of 50 and 25 miles.

The ride that begins and ends at Redmond's Marymoor Park Velodrome is promoted as a warm-up ride for July's Seattle-to-Portland 200-mile bike tour. ...   more »

In spite of morning clouds, the sun shone in places where it doesn't usually shine on Saturday at the Summer Solstice Parade in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood.

About 100 cyclists wearing only body paint and a smile pedaled down the parade route in advance of the official Summer Solstice Parade presented by the Fremont Arts Council.

Although they've faced some rocky issues with the police department over the years, this 16th appearance by the Painted Cyclists seemed to be tolerated by the bike police who were on hand. ...   more »

Mike Grenville
at flickr.com

A few weeks ago I wrote that Seattle's contingent of World Naked Bike Ride was struggling to find a date for the ride because so many naked/painted-body bike rides were scheduled around the same time.

While many cities chose Saturday for the demonstration, Seattle riders must have been relieved the ride was rescheduled here, what with a constant drizzle and temperatures hovering in the low 50s.

Seattle's official date for its World Naked Bike Ride is July 14, with a corresponding night ride on June 30, Critical Mass. ...   more »

When you're half dozing after a long bike ride and you hear someone say, "I saw whales!" there are only a few places you could be.

One of them is San Juan Island, the main island of a cluster that sit in Washington State's Puget Sound hard by the Canadian border.

The small islands -- San Juan, Lopez, and Orcas -- are popular with bicyclists and many bicycle touring companies make a good business running cyclists out to the islands, feeding them, bedding them down at bed & breakfast inns, and sagging a few up some of the steeper hills. ...   more »