Back in January when I set a 4,000-mile bicycle-riding goal for 2008, I didn't want to have to resort to fulfilling my resolution on New Year's Eve.

Of course, that's what I ended up doing today. 

I completed 4,002 miles in 2008 with a 10-mile ride up to Lewis Creek Park on Cougar Mountain this morning. My son suggested that route, because it's all downhill on the way home -- a good treat for my accomplishment.

Now, I'll probably spend the first week of 2009 cleaning my bicycle. ...   more »

The East Coast Greenway is a 3,000-mile bicycle-pedestrian route from Calais, Maine, to Key West, Florida.

The route is proposed as an off-road path that links cities along the eastern seaboard. Currently, about one-fifth of the route is on traffic-free paths with more on the way.

But before things get too far along, however, the Greenway wants to establish a set of uniform signs that can be used along its length.

To get some public feedback, the Greenway folks are distributing an online Bicycle Signage Survey that takes 12 minutes to complete (your time may vary) .....   more »

[Update: Tuesday, Dec. 30 -- The driver of the first car turned herself into police Monday night, accompanied by family members and her pastor. Her story to police is that she thought she hit a bicycle in the road, not a person. She was booked on of hit and run, vehicular manslaughter and driving with a suspended license. The driver of the second car hasn't come forward.]

Does anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area take responsibility for their actions while driving?

Authorities in Conta Costa County are trying to solve another hit and run bicyclist fatality, this one on Saturday evening involving two motorists, neither of whom stopped. It follows by a month the hit and run death of bicyclist Mark Pendleton in a rural part of the county.

The latest fatality occurred about 6 p.m. in urban Richmond. Police say Laura Casey was riding her bicycle south on a sparsely populated portion of Carson Boulevard when she was struck from behind and knocked to the ground. Reports the Chronicle:

As Casey screamed for help, several people ran to her aid, officials said, but before they could reach her, a second vehicle hit her and dragged her about 25 feet ...   more »

Here's a book about precarious border crossings, bandits, wars and civil unrest, and big ol' hairy rats.

The latest John LeCarre spy novel? No. It's the latest bicycle tour book from Tim and Cindie Travis entitled "Down the Road in South America."

Don't get me wrong. The book also tells about the wonderful people that the Travises meet on their journeys and the remarkable landmarks and scenery that they experience from the saddles of their loaded bicycles.

I suppose the book is best described by its subtitle, "A bicycle tour through poverty, paradise, and the places in between." ...   more »

The sight of black pavement in my neighborhood this morning was enough to coax me out onto my bicycle after about a week-long hibernation.

Ordinarily I use better judgement about picking my bicycle rides, but we've been snowed in for awhile. And with only a few days remaining to knock out the last 90 miles of my 4,000-mile bicycling goal for 2008, just about any conditions are adequate for a bike ride.

By the end of the day, I was 33 miles closer to my goal. By riding gingerly or walking through sections of slush or carrying my bike over snow dunes at some intersections, it was one of the slowest rides of the year ...   more »

RAGBRAI -- and any other organized bicycle rides -- are welcome again in Crawford County, Iowa.

The county's board of supervisors earlier this week rescinded the ban they instituted in October 2007. That's when their insurance carrier paid $350,000 to settle a negligence lawsuit with the family of a man who died in the 2004 RAGBRAI.

The decision to allow organized bike rides again ends an ugly prohibition that threatened to spill over into other counties. 

The change of heart occurred after the Register's Annual Great Annual Bicycle Ride Across Iowa .....   more »

Looking through some pictures for an end-of-year family photo album this week, I stumbled across some bike ride pictures and realized I had enjoyed many excellent bicycle rides this year.

Here are my 10 favorites (with links if I blogged about it) in no particular order:

Seattle to Portland -- Although my son and I had done Ride Around Washington several times, we had never ridden the 200-mile STP together. He nailed it effortlessly (above) with just a handful of training rides; I chalked it up to his being 17 years old.

John Wayne Pioneer Trail -- With the family out of town for a few days this summer, I took the opportunity to finally ride the rail-to-trail over Snoqualmie Pass. Amazing scenery. I returned in October and met a guy from Oklahoma who was riding his horse 2,000 miles to visit a friend in western Washington.

Overnight to Kanaskat -- My son and I had never independently taken an overnight bicycle camping trip together. We rectified that this spring ...   more »

After being struck by cars, robbed, and kidnapped on his worldwide bicycle tour, Okhwan Yoon has reached the southwestern US where he's continuing his solo trek.

Yoon, 46, has been on the road for seven years, travelling through 169 countries on his quest to ride his bicycle in nearly every country on Earth.

The South Korean is quite the media hound, as there are many stories about his travels online. Googling his name, I could follow him into Brazil (where he was struck by a hit-and-run driver), then Central America and Mexico, where an interview appears at YouTube.

After crossing the border and riding to San Diego, he continued to Los Angeles and is now in Tucson, where he was interviewed at the local newspaper ...   more »

When Lance Armstrong comes out of retirement, he really comes out of retirement.

CNN says that Armstrong and girlfriend Anna Hansen are expecting a baby in June. What's so amazing about this is that the couple conceived without the use of any artificial fertilization.

Armstrong was first diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996. Before undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, he had some sperm stored that was later used to conceive his first three children with his first wife, Kristin ...   more »

While I was trying to gain some traction in foot deep snow on Sunday, I remembered why I had some misgivings about setting a goal of 4,000 miles for 2008.

Ten days left in the year, and I'm 98 miles shy of my goal. It's been snowing for four days and I'm seeing no sign of it letting up.

So I take off for the slowest ride I've ever taken -- 5 1/2 miles in an hour and 12 minutes -- by following the water pipeline trail over to Lake Boren in nearby Newcastle, WA.

The snow on the roads was the consistency of a slurpee, so I could barely push my bike uphill. I made decent time on the packed footpath until that petered out, then I slipped and slid the rest of the way.

A couple of things made this trip worthwhile, though: I gained a real appreciation for snow cyclists like Jill at Up in Alaska (arcticglass.blogspot.com) and realized I could probably hit my 4,000-mile goal if I went back and rounded up the mileages of all my rides.

King County (WA) is getting closer to filling some missing links in its countywide bicycle route network.

The latest proposal is a 17-mile trail that links four other bike paths as it rolls between the Puget Sound and Lake Washington south of Seattle.

Dubbed the Lake-to-Sound Trail, the bike path is designed to intersect the Cedar River Trail, the Green River Trail, the Westside Trail and the Des Moines Creek Trail. It will pass through Renton, Tukwila, Burien, SeaTac, Normandy Park and Des Moines. The trail also visits the Tukwila light-rail station ...   more »

The Tour de Georgia bike race isn't returning in 2009, but a North Georgia town has a plan to boost tourism using bicycles anyway.

Hotels in the historic town of Alpharetta are offering special packages that enable tourists to have bicycle rental, delivery and pick-up all included in their room rate.

The offer enables visitors to ride the bicycles to attractions around town or head out to ride the scenic Big Creek Greenway bike path.

That bike path runs for 6.2 miles through the Alpharetta area and was recently connected to another 3-mile section in Roswell ....   more »

When Mr. McQuire offered Ben Braddock one word of advice -- "plastics" -- in The Graduate, I'm sure he wasn't talking about bicycles.

But a team of students from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, created a bicycle made from recycled plastic bottles to win the Juicy Ideas contest supported in part by Google.

The four industrial design students from ASU competed against 268 teams from 28 colleges to create something of value in 10 days from a "throwaway" item and post a YouTube video (above) that explained their product.

The winners -- Ryan Klinger, of Huntersville, NC; Andrew Drake of Gaithersburg, Md.; Spencer Price of Louisville, Ky.; and Justin Henry of San Diego -- will get a trip to Google headquarters in Mountain View ...   more »

An old hand at helping Lance Armstrong win championships -- he once even gave up his bike to Armstrong -- has been named to the Team Astana roster to compete at the Tour Down Under in Australia.

Jose Luis Ruberia, 35, of Spain bicycled with Armstrong on the Postal Service and Discovery pro cycling teams, participating in some of Armstrong's Tour de France championships.

Other teammates Assan Bazayev (Kazakhstan), Steve Morabito (Switzerland) and Maxim Iglinskiy (Kazakhstan) all rode in the 2008 Giro d'Italia. ....   more »

If you ask me, a bicycle tour is as good a way as any to commemorate a monumental event.

Ryan Bowen would probably agree, as he's bicycling from Los Angeles to Washington DC to mark the election and inauguration of Barack Obama.

The 22-year-old graduate (shown at left and in the video on the jump) of Occidental College in LA is hoping to interest some other like-minded Obama-supporting bicyclists along the way who might want to join him on the ride into DC.

He told the LA Times that he'd like to have an escort of 50 or more bicyclists by the end of the trip.

"That would be my dream, to roll into Washington with something like that." ...   more »