Keep those directions handy

When Linda and I do our supported tour, usually with the Oregon Bicycle Ride, we see lots of these cue clips. OBR gaved us handlebar bags last year with a plastic compartment for cue sheets. Problem is the sheets they gave us were specifically sized to fit the plastic compartment. Standard paper is too big. Maybe we need cue clips? Corrie

Cue Clip Keeps Directions Handy

So I went riding on Monday, a long route with eight zillion turns provided by somebody who seemingly went out of their way to send me out of mine. It had directions like this:

• R on Hwy Z 1.5
• L on Cherry 0.8
• R on Market 0
• Quick L over RR tracks, then R on Festus Horine 3.9
• L on N. 5th (under RR tracks) 0.6
• R on N. Mill and cross Hwy A 1.2
• R on American Legion Rd then L at fork in the road 0.6

Preserving abandoned rail lines

Rails to Trails Conservancy is an organization we might want to support. They are at work across the nation preserving abandoned rail corridors for public access use. The work must be done locally but these guys provide resources. This blog from BikeBis showed up recently. It is about a trail on the coast but we also have a trail we should be working toward here. I’ve made a first draft of a page on the Breakheart Trail. It’s not finished but you’ll find links to the Conservancy and some pictures from Bill Manschrek who has brought this project to our attention. Thanks Bill. –Corrie

Preserving a western Washington railroad for a bike trail

by Gene Bisbee at 11:26AM (PDT) on April 30, 2008 | Permanent Link | Cosmos

Trail supporters to meet Thursday in Kirkland

The Cascade Bicycle Club is rallying support to preserve a future abandoned rail bed as a main link for off-road bicycle travel through Renton, Newcastle, Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland.

In a scheme that gets more complicated as time goes on, the Port of Seattle plans to buy the 42-mile Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad right-of-way for future use as a commuter corridor with rail and a hike-bike trail. The devil is in the details, though, as the Port wants the rail line to have priority over the trail, while King County wants the uses “coequal.”

Read the rest of this story.

Touring Bike For You?

Touring Bikes–I’ve already got bikes under the deck and filling the garage–Corrie

Seven Vacanza
Most expensive

In spite of logging thousands of bicycle touring miles in my life, I’ve never owned a strictly production touring bicycle. I’ve taken whatever bike I had at the time and modified it for carrying gear over the long haul — sometimes more successfully than others.

That’s why the article about choosing a touring bicycle in Adventure Cyclist’s April issue was so interesting for me. Technical editor John Schubert gives an excellent primer on what to look for in a touring bike, then reviews some of the top contenders in several price ranges.

See More Touring Bikes recommended by Adventure Cycling

Climb Every Mountain

So, you like climbing? Colorado’s your place. Maybe you’ll support this guy’s effort to raise money for Zambian Relief. –Corrie

Biking to and climbing Colorado’s “fourteeners”

by Gene Bisbee at 04:24PM (PDT) on April 19, 2008 | Permanent Link | Cosmos

There are 54 mountain peaks surpassing 14,000 feet elevation in Colorado, and Andy Henrichs plans to bike to each and every one of them this summer then trudge to the summit.

The athletic trainer for Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale is setting out on the quest to raise money for World Bicycle Relief’s Project Zambia. He hopes to raise enough money to supply two bikes to the project each peak he climbs.

Read more

Fielder’s Training Tips

Fiedler coves strength training with an emphasis on the core as well as nutrition. Good basic info.–Corrie

Bicycling is a great activity with many benefits. A regular routine of cycling will help you increase your fitness level, decrease your stress level and maybe even help you avoid depression.

So if you’ve been bicycling for a while you might feel like you’ve plateaued. Your fitness level hasn’t gone down, but it hasn’t really improved noticeably in a while. Or maybe you’re brand new at it and just want to get better. Regardless of your situation, consider these ways you can become an even better biker:

Read the tips

Death Valley Days Relived

Jen wanted links to the Crusty Cassette write up of our Death Valley Trip so I put together a page with a single link that will put the tale together in order along with a slideshow of the pcis I had at Flickr.

 Death Valley Days

–Corrie

Top Ten Tours–Adventure Cycling

One more for the tourists.

Adventure Cycling Names Ten Top Touring Areas in North America Missoula, Mont. —Adventure Cyclist magazine has your next cycling destination. Ten of them, in fact. In its inaugural “Ten Top Touring Areas” feature, Adventure Cyclist (Adventure Cycling Association’

Read More 

Or just open Adevenure Cylcing’s PDF 

10 amazing logos for across-state bicycle tours

Top of the Day to all you Irish out there. You win a prize: Gene’s list of cross-state tours for 2008. It’s worth another look if you like multi-events. –Corrie

10 amazing logos for across-state bicycle tours

by Gene Bisbee at 06:00AM (PDT) on March 16, 2008  |  Permanent Link  |  Cosmos

Border Raiders bike tour in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri

It has taken a while for me to find them, but the Biking Bis blog is listing 94 multi-day bicycle tours in 47 states for 2008. That’s 7 more states and 13 more tours than last year. You’ll find them at “2008 Across State Bicycle Tours.”

See more logos 

Bicycling to climb every mountain

 Why’s everyone trying to make me look bad just ’cause I can’t ride?

Beware the ides of March, Caesar was warned. I say, beware the tourists. They’ll hur’ cha. Two stories for the tourists today.

I love Gene Bisbee’s blog. Not only is it in the Northwest (Seattle) but he seems to have sources around the world. I highly recommend reading him every morning, not just when I point something out.–Corrie

Bicycling to climb every mountain

by Gene Bisbee at 05:00AM (PDT) on March 14, 2008  |  Permanent Link  |  Cosmos

David Sylvester is setting off this week on a quest to bicycle to the trailhead of the highest peak in each of the 48 contiguous states and climb to the top of each and every one. He’ll be accompanied by his faithful companion Chiva, a 2-year-old shepherd/husky mix.

If successful, they’ll be the first dog-human team to accomplish the feat. And you thought all the Earth’s frontiers had been conquered. Not with a dog, they haven’t.

Read More 

Bike to China. Why not?

For the tourist junkies out there. You know who you are. Here’s a challenge. Bike from England to China and back. ’s’only 15,000 miles.

This is just one blog entry and picture. Read this and more at http://www.2wheels.org.uk/blog/–Corrie

Braked down the hillside from the world’s most booooootiful campspot to the main road and went down down down an extraordinary green valley (how long it has been since things have been green and lush) full of Kazakhs chasing livestock around on horseback (the Kazakhs, not the livestock), and selling honey and honey-flavoured kvas, back into the hotlands, the flatlands, the really rather drablands of the Xinjiang semi-desert.