When I wrote about Farmington, Missouri, opening a bike hostel in an old jail on the TransAmerica Trail this fall, I wondered how many hostels are primarily devoted to bicycle travelers.
I could name three off the top of my head from my TransAmerica trip 25 years ago -- [...]
One of the bicycling world's most articulate travel authors passed away recently on what she said was going to be her last around-the-world bike tour.
Anne Mustoe of Great Britain died in a hospital in Aleppo, Syria, on Nov. 10. She was 76.
The former girl's school headmistress started her around-the-world [...]
Bronze level bicycle-friendly Philadelphia is in the throes of a bike-riders vs. everybody-else controversy.
After two pedestrians were struck and killed by bicycle riders in Philadelphia in October, the police launched a crackdown last month against cyclists on sidewalks as well as those who don't make full stops at stop signs or' [...]
Visitors to the 2010 Winter Olympics based in Vancouver next February should certainly consider riding bicycles as the easiest way to get around town.
Of course, people might want to think twice about riding their bicycles to the mountaintop skiing slopes, but bikes should be an ideal choice for [...]
Note: Dawn Lumsden of Canada and Finley Fagan of Australia are on a long-term, around-the-world bike tour with their two SPCA-rescue dogs, Jack and Paco. Right now, they're settled into a Berlin apartment for the time-being and are writing about their ongoing adventures at their Cycling Gypsies blog.
Dawn' [...]
Bicycling, recycling, composting all come together at the Pedal Co-op in Philadelphia.
Using bikes, trailers and some muscle, these entrepreneurs have created a business that specializes in low-cost, bike-powered hauling.
Although they provide package and bakery deliveries and intercity moving, I guess you could say their [...]
Many bicyclists are seeking to influence a political agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference that begins next week in Copenhagen.
A global bike commute challenge is underway and cyclists are joining climate-change bike rides in selected cities this coming weekend for Ride Planet Earth. Meanwhile, activists in The Bike Bloc Project who [...]
"Comeback 2.0: Up Close and Personal" is the story of Lance Armstrong's return to professional cycling in 2009.
The story is told in his own journal entries interspersed throughout the book with color photos by Liz Kreutz, who followed Armstrong throughout the 2009 season.
The 208-page book will be released on' [...]
I'm still kind of stunned that a bicycling fall I had way back in January has forced me off the bike in November.
Although I had badly bruised the muscles around my right hip in that fall, it's my right knee that's been feeling the pain since August.
I finally found' [...]
Let's admit it. Too many bicyclists keep too many unused bicycles in their garages or their basements. I'll include myself among the guilty.
Maybe there's an emotional attachment to an old relic. Or it's difficult to find an alternative to taking the bicycle to the dump, an unceremonious end for a trusty [...]
When most people start bicycling, they'll do anything to avoid hills. Sometimes they'll ride miles out of their way to miss a climb, or drive their car to a flat area to ride.
As they get stronger and learn how to use their gears more efficiently, hills are a challenge to be [...]
When two girls, aged 11 and 10, on bicycles were struck and killed by a van driver in October 1987, the people of Davie resolved to make the small south Florida city safer for bicyclists.
By the end of the year the town council budgeted $150,000 for its first bike [...]
So you've been riding and repairing your own bike for years, and now you want to start your own bicycle repair business?
It can be tempting and fulfilling, especially if you find yourself unemployed or working for a real jerk.
But there are a few things you should' [...]
When we last left two-time Race Across America champion Danny Chew and his nephew Steven Perezluha, the pair were rejoicing after traveling 5,115 miles by bike to Alaska.
When they turned around and started home in August, they also headed into trouble.
Eighteen-year-old Perezluha told his hometown newspaper, the Orlando Sentinel:
"The" [...]
Do you like to ride your bike for a charity? You're not alone.
Roughly two-thirds of the 1,700 recreational road bicycling events held in 2008 raised money for a cause, collecting nearly $200 million for charities in the US.
That's just part of the' [...]
Bicyclists in more than a dozen US cities are planning to ride 29 miles on Sunday, Nov. 29, to mark the 29th anniversary of the first reported AIDS case.
The number of miles may be small but the cause is great. The bike rides are a preview of the Dec. 1 World [...]
Drew Hunter's father, fiance and best friend rode across a rainswept bridge on the Massachusetts coastline on Sunday to complete a cross-country bike ride to raise funds for kayaking safety programs.
Dubbed the Tour de Hunter, the 5,000-mide bike ride honored the memory of Hunter, a 28-year-old former Marshfield resident who died [...]
I'm amazed at what technically minded people can throw together in their garages. Here's a guy who may one day enable us to take virtual bike tours across the US without leaving home.
He calls it Stationary Cycling through Google Street View. It's a huge improvement over what I used to do.
Back in the' [...]
As the end of the year rolls around, it's time to consider your options for replacing that 2009 calendar or else you'll end up with a big ol' bare spot on the wall.
Here are a few bike-theme calendars that I've run across that are either inspirational, scenic, or downright' [...]
We can vote early and often for our favorite bike trails in this election.
A few weeks ago Google Maps sought nominations for off-road photographic visits by its Street Views trike.
After receiving 25,000 ideas, the Google Maps staff came up with 24 finalists (trails in blue on map). They're asking' [...]
A bike parts maker is recalling its EA30 stem used on some 6,400 bicycles in the past two years after reports that the stem can crack.
The recall by Easton Sports involves the Raleigh 2007, XXIX 700c MTN, RX1.0, Diamondback 2007, Mission, and Sortie bicycles with the EA30 stem.
The Scotts [...]
A bicycling manual for police officers in the UK might be getting a lot of laughs over there, but bike-police training is a serious business in the US.
The Independent reports that a 93-page, 2-volume manual gives advice on how to balance to avoid a fall, and how to brake, [...]
The federal judge in the contract dispute between Trek Bicycle and Greg LeMond says both parties should think about an out-of-court settlement to avoid a messy trial on the lawsuits in the spring.
Central in the suit - countersuit are allegations that LeMond made against Lance Armstrong and the Texan's reaction [...]
It's a deadly mistake to design streets and roads with only cars in mind, especially as more commuters are turning to walking and bicycling.
That's no surprise to those of us on bikes. But it's always welcome to see groups like the Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy [...]
The five-member Harrison family is more than 2,000 miles into a 7,000-mile epic bike tour from Kentucky to Alaska by way of Florida and Texas.
Bill and Amarind and their three children -- Cheyenne (6), Jasmine (4) and Robin (3) -- are undertaking the bike tour on a quintuple bike that can [...]
It's never too soon to start planning for a major bike ride next year.
Although cross-country bike travel isn't in the cards for me, I started checking into self-contained or fully supported coast-to-coast bike tours that are offered in 2010.
Here a a few that I stumbled across that are [...]
The chocolate maker is sending 5,000 bikes to central and southern Ghana where they'll give people access to schools, medical care and local markets.
Chocaholics participated in the bike' [...]
Bike travelers on the Great Allegheny Passage pump about $40 million a year into the local economies and $7.5 million into wages along the 132-mile rail-to-trail from Cumberland, Maryland, to the outskirts of Pittsburgh.
Those are the not-so-surprising findings of the Great Allegheny Passage Economic Impact Study conducted in [...]
Lance Armstrong will have some competition as the most popular kid in the peloton for Australia's Tour Down Under next January now that favorite son Cadel Evans, right, has committed to the bike race.
Evans had earlier been quoted that he was going to skip his nation's bike race [...]
Here are the latest and final election results. Trust me. There will be no charges of mudslinging or requests for recounts.
I'm talking about the results from the Bicycle Travel Award contest hosted by Adventure Cycling Association, the nonprofit that has developed 38,000 miles of bike routes [...]
We all know that Twitter is a great resource for social networking, and it's the one place where you'll always be able to find out what Lance Armstrong is up to on a daily, in not hourly, basis.
But I never have been so entertained -- and wasted so much time' [...]
Update: Nov. 16 -- More than 500 bicyclists showed up to honor David Vincent Sherman on the "Today We Ride for Dave" bike ride around High Point, North Carolina.
Sherman was killed by a hit and run motorist last month. The cyclists in the 25- and 50-mile rides were there to pay [...]
Imagine rolling along on your bike for a leisurely country ride and suddenly being thrust into the finish line of a major bike race.
That's the stunt set up by Frenchman Remi Gallard in this video at left. It looks like something [...]
This has to be one of the most difficult one-day organized bike tours for weekend warrior bicyclists in 2010.
The l’Étape du Tour departs from Pau, France, on July 18 and follows the same route the pros will take later in the week over two mountain passes with a finish [...]
The scales of justice tipped in favor of bicyclists in a Los Angeles County courtroom on Monday.
A jury convicted an LA-area emergency room doctor with a handful of felony counts for slamming on his brakes in front of a pair of cyclists on a hilly road in 2008. His actions [...]
My son gained two strong opinions at college about combination U-locks for bicycles: They're great when they work, but a real pain when they malfunction.
When he went off to college for the first time this fall, he took a brand-new Kryptonite combination' [...]
The Velib bike-sharing program in Paris has caught the attention of many urban transportation planners in the US. Let's hope they don't lose their nerve when they learn about the wanton and wholesale destruction of that Parisian bicycle fleet.
Nearly 8,000 of the Velib' [...]
A former church pastor from Washington will be heading to prison soon to serve his sentence stemming from the 2003 death of a college coed who was riding with a friend along the roadside.
Randall Foos maintained in court that he didn't see the bicyclist, Sara Casey, because the sun was in his' [...]
"I don't think it's a possibility next year, or ever, for that matter. ... I can't foresee what the politics in cycling will possibly lead to but the organisations in control are not working well together. There are people caught in the crossfire and I happen to be one" [...]
Olympic and two-time world gold medalist Kristin Armstrong is preparing for life after pro cycling.
The 36-year-old from Boise, Idaho, carried out her planned retirement after winning a gold medal in the time trial event at the World Championships in Switzerland in September. That honor went right up on the [...]
If you're planning a bike vacation to Oregon, you'll certainly want to include a stop at the Oregon Tourism Commission's Ride Oregon website.
I just stumbled across this resource recently and was amazed at the amount of bicycling information that's packed into the website.
There are some pretty pictures displayed [...]
The 2010 LiveStrong Challenge fund-raising campaign is returning to Seattle, San Jose, Philadelphia and Austin -- the same cities that hosted the events in 2009.
Because the current dire economic conditions that exist now may extend into next year, LiveStrong opted to put [...]
A 32-year-old Florida woman with a history of alcohol abuse was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the death of a Pensacola man who was riding his bicycle to his night shift job in June.
Michael Steele, 25, was killed when the woman driving a GMC Yukon hit his bike from [...]
Bicyclists in Seattle should feel fortunate that the creators of Ride the City chose their town as the latest addition to the online bike-route mapping tool.
Since launching the website for New York City last year, Vaidila Kungys and Jordan Anderson have added Chicago, Austin, Louisville, San Diego and now Seattle to [...]
"Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever."
The text message that Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel sent to Lance Armstrong after the American cyclist broke his collarbone at the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon bike race in March. Bruyneel told a Belgian magazine that Armstrong considered abandoning his comeback at the time.
Armstrong [...]
My neighbor likes to give his dog a nice run at the end of a leash while he rides his bicycle. I cringe a little bit when I see them take off like this, but they always return in one piece.
While my concern is for his safety, an [...]
The organizers of the 2010 Giro d'Italia announced a rigorous 2,118-mile route last weekend for the bike race that rolls out from May 8 to 30.
With the rescheduling of the 2010 Tour of California to May 16-23, pro cycling teams and their members will have to choose between competing' [...]
Between the heavy rains on Friday and the fog on Sunday, Saturday was the archetypal fall day on an American college campus.Sixteen cities will host the 2010 Tour of California when the fifth edition of the bike race rolls out May 16 to 23.
This is a couple of months later than the previous four Tours of California that were scheduled in February. The new schedule will surely mean drier, [...]
"Race Across the Sky" is a documentary on this year's epic Leadville 100 bike race that featured a rematch between David Wiens and Lance Armstrong and about 1,000 mountain bike riders.
Wiens, at 45, had won the grueling mountain bike race six straight times, including in 2008 when Armstrong decided to' [...]
Two auctions are on tap this weekend in Seattle to raise funds for nonprofits that support bicycling.
Fortunately, the auctions for the Bicycle Alliance of Washington and The Bikery are on different nights.
First up is the Bicycle Alliance of Washington auction and gala beginning at 5:30 p.m. [...]
Any plans you had for bicycling the Green River Trail in the next few years are being sandbagged.
Crews are racing to erect a 3- to 4-foot high sandbag wall along the trail to help contain expected floodwaters in Kent and Tukwila if heavy [...]
The League of American Bicyclists named 15 more cities to its Bicycle-Friendly Community list this week, bringing the grand total to 124.
While cities named to the list over the past 14 years are predominantly from western states, the League trumpeted the fact that 10 of the 15 newest communities [...]
About 40 bike riders from across Canada are currently in the middle of a 3,100-mile relay ride to this weekend's LiveStrong Challenge in Austin.
Calling themselves Give to Live, the group crossed over to Port Angeles, Washington, from Vancouver on Oct. 12 as they began their 12-day bike tour to the heart [...]
Congratulations to Garmin Slipstream's sprinter Tyler Farrar.
The 25-year-old from Wenatchee, Washington, scored more points than any other US cyclist on the UCI's individual world rankings. Topping the virtual podium were Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde and Samuel Sanchez, all from Spain.
Farrar has 9 first-place finishes in [...]
While a lot of attention is focused on making big cities more bicycle friendly, the next battle is being waged in the suburbs.
In South Jersey suburbs around Philadelphia, for instance, planners are going up against road networks built solely for the automobile, and bicyclists are facing motorists who don't look out' [...]
Let's hope the bike racers competing in events on the 2010 National Racing Calendar aren't in it for the dough, because there's less prize money to go around this year.
USA Cycling says the overall prize list for the 27 bike races on this year's calendar is $981,310, down about' [...]
Google Maps is looking for help in selecting places to send its StreetView trike.
Noting that some of the most interesting and scenic locales are not accessible by car, Google is accepting suggestions on what else should be featured on StreetView.
Of course, I'm' [...]
Who doesn't like bike theft story with a happy ending. Here's one from Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
A college professor discovered that her much-loved Trek bicycle had been stolen from the front porch one night after she left it resting against her husband's locked-up bike.
Much distraught, she started hunting around' [...]
"Every part of the trail is fascinating."
-- A quote from Caitlin Truesdale, a ninth-grader at Pingree High School in Peabody, Massachusetts, who won the Bikeway Naming Essay Contest.
She chose to name the 4.6-mile trail the Peabody Independence Gateway. The bikeway has been in the works for 19 years. It cost [...]
Electra Bicycles is recalling 6,400 bikes with front-mounted trays and baskets and Moser Enterprises is recalling 5,000 Schwalbe bike tires.
The bikes in the recall include the 2009 Delivery 3i, Delivery 8D, Holiday 3i, Holiday 8i and Surf 3i bicycles with front-mounted trays or baskets as well as trays or [...]
The 2010 Tour de France bike race that rolls out July 3-25 will be a 2,232-mile counterclockwise loop around France that sees four mountain stages in the Pyrenees and an individual time trial in the final week.
In fact, the organizers found the climb up the Col du Tourmalet so nice [...]
Google keeps adding data to its maps to make them more detailed.
That's good news for bicyclists who want to find bike trail routes in their cities that might take them near their destinations.
As I found from tracing some bike trails in the Seattle area, some are labeled and some [...]
Mark Junge wants to prove that he can go on bike tours too, even though he's a daily supplemental oxygen user.
Junge, a retired historian, photographer and writer from Wyoming, is leaving New York City this week for a 816-mile bike tour to Charleston, South Carolina. He expects the bike ride [...]
Washington state bicycle advocates are pushing for a law to make it illegal for a motorist to seriously injure or kill a vulnerable roadway user -- such as a bike rider -- in a crash caused by ordinary negligence.
All too often, motorists receive mere traffic tickets and don't' [...]
Lance Armstrong isn't the only bicyclist who can bring out the fans to raise money for cancer.
Actor Patrick Dempsey of the TV series "Grey's Anatomy" sponsored the Dempsey Challenge charity bike ride in Lewiston, Maine, last weekend, near his hometown of Buckfield. The event raised nearly $1 million.
After his' [...]
Hill-climbing specialists from across the state of Florida are descending on Lake County this weekend for the Mount Dora Bicycle Festival.
This is the 35th anniversary of the bike gathering, which features entertainment beginning Friday night and 11 supported bike rides of 25 to 100 miles throughout the weekend.
But the [...]
Santa Rosa seems to be one of the few cities in California to know, for sure, that it's going to be a host city on the 2010 Tour of California bike race.
The city's Chamber of Commerce chief confirmed to the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat that the bike race would return to Santa [...]
An updated edition of "Major Taylor, The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World" by Andrew Ritchie may start a discussion of who is America's greatest cyclist.
Although this summer's book by John Wilcockson calls Lance Armstrong "The World's Greatest Champion," you can make the argument that Marshall "Major" Taylor should hold that [...]
Why do cyclists spend $5,000 on a bike? Do you think it's absurd?
"Well, there's only one answer. There's only one word. And that's performance."
This video has been hanging around on YouTube since August, but I just ran across it a couple of days ago.
"It's all about performance. That's the" [...]
Not-in-my-backyard naysayers often allege that proposed bicycle trails will ruin the quality of life in their neighborhoods and destroy property values.
But it seems that the opposite is the case in follow-up studies or polls of neighbors.
For instance, the Ithaca (NY) Journal reports that 81% of residents who live [...]
A scenic auto tour through Washington, Idaho and British Columbia is seeing new life as a 280-mile bicycle touring route.
The International Selkirk Loop links the small towns and recreation spots at the foot of the Selkirk Mountains. Because the route follows river and lake valleys, the grades are gentle to [...]
When I started this blog nearly 5 years ago, fixies and singlespeeds were the next big thing. A couple of years later it was the line of Coasting bikes that used Shimano's automatic shifting system.
Now I'm reading that there are a half-dozen' [...]
This has to be a sad day in down in Shiner, Texas, population 2,070. It looks like native son Lance Armstrong has jilted good-old Texas-brewed Shiner Bock for Michelob Ultra.
Armstrong has signed a 3-year agreement to be the pitchman for the light beer brand owned by Belgium-based brewing giant Anheuser Busch InBev. [...]
The National Park Service is proposing regulation changes to allow bicyclists to use pathways at the Big Bend National Park in Texas and the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
The National Parks Traveler blog says that the Big Bend proposal is controversial, while the Grand Teton regulations aren't.
What's stirring up the' [...]
The Adventure Cycling Association is looking for photos that "capture the beauty and wonder" of bike travel for its 1st Annual Bicycle Travel Photo Contest.
The non-profit's blog also says:
"We are especially interested in images that showcase the wide range of bike touring experiences: road and dirt riding, rural and" [...]
The Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park opened this past weekend in Poughkeepsie, New York, drawing thousands of people on bikes and on foot to enjoy the new views of the Hudson River.
Friday morning I biked down to City Hall to help tabulate the results of a bicycle-pedestrian count made earlier in the week.
I don't know if this will make an impact on Missouri lawmakers, but it should: The half-million people who watched September's Tour of Missouri bike race spent $38.1 million in the state.
That sounds like a good return on the $1.5 million that the state had to kick in to [...]
Bike commuting rose in 2008. That's good news if you believe in the Virtuous Cycle -- the theory that there's safety in numbers for bicycle riders.
The latest Ken Burns documentary, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," began airing on PBS on Sunday. It got me thinking about how the parks are wonderful destinations for bike touring.
When the cover of Parade magazine teased a story with "Bike Friendly City," my wife asked me to guess the city.
Australia's Cadel Evans finished a disappointing year on a high note by winning the road race of the UCI Road World Championships on Sunday in Switzerland.
Those of you heading to Wenatchee, Washington, for Saturday's Dam2Dam charity bike ride should consider paying a visit to the Apple Capital Recreation Loop Trail if you have any extra time.
Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara streaked to victory at the UCI World Road Championships on Thursday to regain his individual time trial title.
My son told me from college earlier this week that some of his buddies saw two guys with a hacksaw trying to steal bikes from a bike rack outside his dorm about noon Sunday. 
Kristin Armstrong of the US won her second World Championship in the individual time trial on Wednesday, following up on her gold medal performance at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Later this fall, 24 people will travel to Africa to ride their bikes in Zambia and South Africa to learn more about what World Bicycle Relief can make possible.
Volunteers are needed at the end of the month to count people bicycling or walking to their destinations in 25 cities across the state of Washington.
Live or same-day coverage of the UCI Road World Championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland, will be available on webcasts and cable TV broadcasts from Wednesday through Sunday this week.
It has been a sad few days along the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail between Cumberland and Pittsburgh.
When James Bowthorpe (left) arrives in London on his belt-driven Santos Travelmaster bike on Saturday, he'll set a new world record -- around the world by bike in 175 days.
