finding thePerfect

Transcription

finding thePerfect

$6.95
JULY 2014
Vol.41 No.6
TOURING
AUSTRIA’S
RIVERS
20
ALONG THE
MEKONG
28
A publication of ADVENTURE CYCLING ASSOCIATION
Perfect
Reclined
Ride
finding the
R EC U M B E N T ROU N DU P 10
MYSTERY OF
MIKE RUST
34
A September to Remember
Great Lakes Relaxed Sept. 6 - 13 • Wine & Harvest Sept. 7 - 14 • Sierra Sampler Sept. 20 - 27
CHRIS GUIBERT
adventurecycling.org/tours
Letter
from the Editor
A BIKE FOR MIKE
The time has finally come for new wheels
➺ IT’S BEEN many moons since
I bought a new bike for general
riding and bike-travel purposes.
Since 1993, I’ve been riding a
Cannondale T-1000, a bike that
has served me well in all situations.
It’s been under me when I crossed
Scotland, Oregon, and Montana
(three times). In my more reckless
years, I even rode it on singletrack
and over countless miles of dirt.
Over the years, I’ve replaced just about everything — even
the fork — and some components more than five times. The
T-1000 has basically been a bicycle laboratory of crazy ideas,
most of which have worked quite well. My favorite setup
included a straight handlebar with Newk drop clip-ons and
a Bruce Gordon Rock n’ Road front tire (sadly, the T-1000
frame could not accommodate such a wide tire in back.)
Sometime around 1998 or so, Wes Williams of Ibis and
Willits fame sent me a bike that he’d built for himself. It
was a bit too big for me but I rode it happily for a couple of
months anyway. It was an all-rounder with 29-inch wheels,
drop handlebars, and rack mounts, and it handled all the
terrain I was fond of riding much more confidently and
gracefully than the experimental Cannondale. This was the
bike I’d always wanted. No collection of one-dimensional
bikes for me. One man, one bike. But there was a catch. I had
to return it to Wes. For a variety of reasons, I never had one
built for myself, but I never forgot that bike.
Jump ahead 13 years and I’m wandering the halls of
Interbike. Numbed by the multitude of bicycle clones I saw
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Michael Deme
[email protected]
MANAGING EDITOR
Alex Strickland
[email protected]
JULY 2014
Volume 41 Number 6
ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG
ART DIRECTOR
Greg Siple
[email protected]
everywhere I turned, I decided to visit Co-Motion’s booth
to look at some bicycles designed for touring. Well known
for tandems, Co-Motion also builds singles, some of which
have been the subject of our “Road Test” column. And that
year they debuted the Divide, a 29-inch off-road touring bike.
Well, I was smitten. And smitten I remained. Finally, the first
steps have been taken, necessary measurements made, and I
should take possession of my new bike by the end of July.
For many of you, reading about a diamond-shaped bicycle
is of no interest, so we hope you’ll find the content of this
issue satisfying. Inside you’ll find a roundup of recumbents
designed for touring, a road test of the Azub Six, and a
recumbent travel piece by Chet Rideout. And online, we’ll be
posting a profile of Catrike.
And remember to visit us online at adventurecycling.org/
mag where you’ll find additional content and online-only
features each month.
Michael Deme
Editor-in-Chief, Adventure Cyclist
[email protected]
CORRECTIONS:
• The “Letter from the Editor”
in the June issue incorrectly
stated that the famed Buffalo
Soldiers rode from Missoula to
St. Louis in 1987. Their journey
was in 1897.
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Dan D’Ambrosio
Patrick O’Grady
Willie Weir
Jan Heine
June Siple
Josh Tack
• In June’s “Early 20th
Century Crossers,” the
two photos of Norma Jean
Belloff (pp. 22-23) came to us
courtesy of Iris Paris and the
image of Ruth Orkin (p. 31)
was from the New York Public
Library Archives.
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR
Rick Bruner (509) 493.4930
[email protected]
DESIGN
IridiumGroup
72 Madison Ave.
New York, NY 10016
COPY EDITOR
Phyllis Picklesimer
03
contents
VOLUME 41 ∞ NUMBER 6
JULY 2014
is America’s only magzine
dedicated to bicycle travel.
It is published nine times
each year by the Adventure
Cycling Association, a
nonprofit service organization
for recreational bicyclists.
Individual membership costs
$40 yearly to U.S. addresses
and includes a subscription to
Adventure Cyclist and discounts
on Adventure Cycling maps.
For more information about
Adventure Cycling Association
and Adventure Cyclist magazine,
visit adventurecycling.org or
call (800) 755-2453.
SUBMISSIONS INFORMATION:
Adventure Cyclist accepts
stories, articles, and
photographs for publication
from various sources. We
publish stories about bicycle
travel and other recreational
cycling subjects but do not
cover competitive cycling. If you
are interested in submitting a
story or article to Adventure
Cyclist, please visit us online
at adventurecycling.org/
adventure-cyclist/adventurecyclist-submissions for further
information and guidelines.
CURRENT ISSUE NOTES:
“Seems like summer just started
and here we are finished with our
second-to-last summer issue. I guess
time flies when you’re having fun.
For the past four or five years, we’ve
given an issue over to non-diamondframe bicycles. Not being experts
ourselves on these human-powered
machines, we’ve turned to Bryan Ball
of Bentrideronline.com as a partner.
He’s been instrumental in helping us
shape content that we hope is useful
to both veteran recumbent riders and
novices alike. Thanks for your help
Bryan. It’s always appreciated.”
– Michael Deme
Editor-in-Chief, Adventure Cyclist
OUR COVER:
A recumbent cyclist enjoys the ride
during a recent Register’s Annual
Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa
(RAGBRAI). Photo by Dennis Coello.
04
ADVENTURE CYCLIST JULY 2 014
features
20
TOP 12 RECUMBENTS
FOR TOURING 10
PEDALING
THE MEKONG 28
➺ With a market full of
outstanding options, there’s
a perfect recumbent ride
out there for your next
adventure. by Bryan Ball
➺ Detouring away from a
dreaded stretch of tarmac
leads to unforgettable
meetings along the
backroads of Southeast
Asia. by Willie Weir
BIKE TOURING
AUSTRIA’S GREAT
RIVERS 20
➺ Traveling the bicycle
paths along the Inn
and Denube Rivers
gives a glimpse into the
spectacular scenery, great
food, and fascinating
history of Central Europe.
by Chet Rideout
THE MYSTERY
OF MIKE RUST 34
➺ A pioneering mountain
biker vanishes into thin
air, leaving a few troubling
clues behind — and no
answers. by Dan D’Ambrosio
34
51
$6.95
JULY 2014
Vol.41 No.6
TOURING
AUSTRIA’S
RIVERS
20
ALONG THE
MEKONG
28
MYSTERY OF
MIKE RUST
34
A publication of ADVENTURE CYCLING ASSOCIATION
Perfect
Reclined
Ride
finding the
R EC U M B E N T ROU N DU P 10
This Month Online
➺ For more Adventure Cyclist related
content, be sure to visit our website at
adventurecycling.org/mag.
28
PROFILE: CATRIKE
A visit to Catrike’s Florida factory shows
the high-tech approach the company
is taking to innovate for the future.
adventurecycling.org/catrike
DEPARTMENTS
LETTERS
COLUMNS
08 Waypoints
03 LETTER from the
Editor
18 Road Test
By Bryan Ball
Azub Six
38 Final Mile
41 C
ompanions Wanted
44 Life Member Profile
46 Marketplace/Classifieds
06 LETTER from the
Director
EARED UP
G
Highlighting some of the best
recumbent panniers, womens cycling
apparel, and more.
adventurecycling.org/onlinefeatures
42 Road Test
By Nick Legan
Tern Eclipse S18
51 Open Road Gallery
XXXBIKE MODEL
AZUB SIX
Tk tk tkt tk tk tk tk
Built for comfort
tkt tk tk tk tk tkt tk
over the long haul.
tk tk tk tkt tk tk tk
$3,000
tk tkt tk tk tk tk tkt
tk tk tk tk tkt tk.
$0,000.00
18
00
ACK YOUR PANNIERS CONTEST
P
Jump on Pinterest July 11-31, and
show us what you would bring on your
dream bike tour and you could win a
set of Arkel panniers! More info at
pinterest.com/advcyclingassoc/
adventure-cyclings-pack-your-panniers
@kleen:
@advcyclingassoc
Best. Issue. Ever. History,
people of color, gear, even
learned about trail finally.
More! More! Kudos all.
@AdvFamInMotion:
Just a little #afternoon
#reading! Love this
#magazine!! @acaroutes
@advcyclingassoc
05
Letter
from the Director
JULY 2014
Volume 41 Number 6
www.adventurecycling.org
MISSION
Adventure Cycling Association inspires and
empowers people to travel by bicycle.
SHORT STUFF
As part of the bike-travel boom, short tours are spreading too
➺ I’M WRITING from Adelaide,
Australia, at the end of an eventful
National Bike Month. I’ll write later
about my trip Down Under (I’m about
to mountain bike into the Outback
after presenting at a productive global
Velo-City Conference), but wanted to
mention a phenomenon I saw on an
earlier trip to Tennessee: the growing
popularity of short bike tours.
In mid-May, I was asked to do
a speaking tour through the state,
including a keynote at the Tennessee
Bike Summit. While there, I met with
members Austin Bauman and Robyn
Elliott. Austin and Robyn operate
small tour companies (Austin has
Green Fleet Bicycle Tours in Nashville,
Robyn has Bicycle Tours of Atlanta)
and they are seeing more demand for
day tours in their cities. While these
are typically short rides, they share
some of the same DNA with longer
tours — discovery, learning, enjoying
local people, cuisine and customs, and
experiencing the world by bike. Often,
these short tours re-introduce the bike
to folks who haven’t cycled for decades.
Austin and Robyn are part of a
national trend, including the franchising
of Bike and Roll rental and tour
businesses in multiple cities, and the
emergence of other day-tour operators.
In fact there is now a Bicycle Tour
Alliance that is developing best practices
for day tours and includes companies
from New Orleans and St. Louis to
Denver and Key West. You can learn
more at bicycletouralliance.org. (They’ll
also be hosting a conference in Nashville
in January 2015.)
Another trend is that these tour
operators are offering bike overnights.
Robyn is developing Southern Getaways.
In the Big Apple, another member,
Gotham Bike Tours, is offering three-
06
AREAS OF FOCUS
Provide the premier tools and inspiration
for people to travel by bicycle. Expand
and integrate bike travel networks for North
America. Create the best possible conditions
for bicycle travel.
HOW TO REACH US
To join, change your address, or ask questions
about membership, visit us online
at www.adventurecycling.org or call
(800) 755-2453 or (406) 721-1776.
EMAIL
[email protected]
SUBSCRIPTION ADDRESS
P.O. Box 8308
Missoula, MT 59807
HEADQUARTERS
150 E. Pine St.
Missoula, MT 59802
Jim and Robyn Elliott during a break in their
Atlanta bike tour.
day trips that utilize New York City’s
transit system to get out of town. As
proprietor Lukas Herbert notes, the idea
is to remove as many barriers as possible
to get people out on a bike overnight
for the first time. “Then, if they do our
tours, maybe they can ‘graduate’ to a
bigger, longer tour, maybe even strike
out on their own. Regardless, the goal
is to increase bike traveling, which is a
good thing.” (We’re pleased to note that
Gotham got the idea after learning about
Bike Overnights at an Adventure Cycling
member gathering in Manhattan.)
This is the grassroots level of the
global boom in bike travel. It ties in
beautifully with the renaissance in
American urban cycling — and with
the larger trend of companies offering
the broadest possible spectrum of bike
tour experiences. I’ll report in the
future on my travels in Australia, but in
the meantime, don’t forget that close
to home you may have a budding bike
tour company that will provide you new
ways to explore your own backyard!
Jim Sayer
Executive Director
[email protected]
STAFF
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Jim Sayer
[email protected]
CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER
Sheila Snyder, CPA
MEMBERSHIP & DEVELOPMENT
Julie Huck Paul Hansbarger
Amanda Lipsey Thomas Bassett
Gage Poore Josh Tack Meghan Holler
MEDIA
Winona Bateman Michael McCoy Alison Riley
PUBLICATIONS
Michael Deme Greg Siple Rachel Stevens
Cassie Nelson Alex Strickland
IT DEPARTMENT
John Sieber Richard Darne David Barth
TOURS
Arlen Hall Darrah Rogers Lydia Hess
Michael Lessard Mandy Hale
ROUTES AND MAPPING
Carla Majernik Jennifer Milyko
Nathan Taylor Casey Greene
Melissa Thompson
SALES AND MARKETING
Teri Maloughney
TRAVEL INITIATIVES
Virginia Sullivan Saara Snow
CYCLOSOURCE
Patrick Finley Geoff McMillion
OFFICE MANAGER
Beth Petersen
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
PRESIDENT
Wally Werner
VICE PRESIDENT
Donna O’Neal
SECRETARY
Andy Baur
TREASURER
Andy Huppert
BOARD MEMBERS
Leigh Carter Todd Copley Jennifer Garst
George Mendes Jeff Miller
Luis Vargas Carol York
In May 2014, we held our most successful U.S. Bicycle Route
System fundraiser to date, the 5th annual “Build It. Bike It. Be
a Part of It.” campaign. With the help of hundreds of donors,
we surpassed our goal of $125,000, raising more than $150,000
for the project! Many thanks to the organizations and individuals
that helped us reach our goal! Special thanks to the Tawani
Foundation and an anonymous donor for providing matching gifts.
Thank
you!
Business Sponsors
Club Sponsors
In-Kind Sponsors
AlphaGraphics • Beer & Bike Tours • Bikeflights.com • Bike2Power
Bike Touring News • Cygolite • Detours • Growler Cage • Nutcase
Ortlieb USA • Osprey Packs • Park Tool • Primal Wear
Thunder Island Brewing • Velo Orange
WayPoints
News you can use from around the world of bicycle travel
edited by Alex Strickland
IN 2011, New York
Times staffer Bruce
Weber cycled from the
Oregon Coast to New
York City, covering much
the same trail as the
pioneer pedaler Frank
Lenz blazed back in 1892.
But make no mistake
about it, Weber was not
bobbing over railroad ties
on a 57-pound no-speed
Victor, lost to the world.
As a test of deprivation
and endurance, this
odyssey wasn’t even
on a par with Weber’s
own previous transcontinental excursion,
registered in pre-Internet
1993, after he pushed his
conventional touring bike
an average of 65 miles
a day.
No, this latest
adventure was
accomplished on an
$8,000 custom-made
titanium framed
24-speed, moving at a
leisurely 50-mile a day
clip with a cell phone
mounted on its handle
bars. Still, Weber’s safe
arrival home was no
small feat for a 57-yearold ex-smoker who
08
generally spends his
workday at a desk writing
obituaries (a serious
health scare at the end
of the story underscores
that point).
Any one who has
ridden across the U.S.,
or has at least thought
about doing so, will likely
enjoy Weber’s detailed
travelogue, which is
based on the popular blog
he posted in real time on
the Times site.
But perhaps more
importantly, Weber’s
methodical meanderings
gave him plenty of time to
ponder his life’s journey —
past, present, and future
— and his deeply personal
reflections will resonate
with those near or past
the mid-life milestone.
Readers will
empathize to varying
degrees with Weber’s
acerbic persona and
left-leaning politics, as he
recounts his comfortable
but tension-filled
middle-class upbringing
in suburban New Jersey
and his struggle to find
domestic bliss. But all
can appreciate his dry wit
and occasional “laugh out
loud” lines. My favorite
episode was when his
penny-pinching dad
tried to sell him a used
car for $2,000. Weber’s
sympathetic mother,
overhearing the heated
exchange, piped in from
the couch: “Just give him
the #$%^&* car, Sam.”
-Review by
David V. Herlihy
STRANGE LOOP,
BIG ADVENTURE
Cycling and hiking up, down, and across the U.S.
➺ ADAM BRADLEY is no stranger to ambitious adventures from setting
a speed record on the Pacific Coast Trail in 2009 (65 days) to walking,
riding, and paddling from his front door in Reno, Nevada, to the Bering
Sea. But his latest goal might eclipse them all. Bradley has mapped out a
“Strange Loop” to take him more than 15,000 miles up, over, and through
nearly every part of the Continental U.S. on foot and by bicycle, starting
and finishing in Reno.
The route starts on foot by hooking into the Pacific Crest Trail and
heading south to Southern California, where Bradley will trade his hiking
shoes for clipless pedals and ride from San Diego to Baxter State Park in
Maine, the head of the Appalachian Trail. Back on foot, Bradley will hike
down the AT — racing the oncoming winter in New England — before
getting back on two wheels in Alabama to follow portions of the proposed
U.S. Bicycle Route System and then the Southern Tier Route to Sierra
Vista, Arizona. From there it’s a mere 5,100 miles of walking up the spine
of the Rockies along the Continental Divide Trail and then back down the
Pacific Crest Trail to Reno.
Bradley expects the trip to take about 16 months, culminating in the
fall of 2015, and marking the first time anyone has connected the three
major long-distance hiking routes (the Pacific Coast Traill, Appalachian
Trail, and Continental Divide Trail) under their own power. To follow his
progress, visit krudmeister.blogspot.com.
PHOTOGR APH COURTESY OF ADAM BR ADLEY
NEW YORK TIMES OBIT
WRITER FINDS THAT
LIFE IS A WHEEL
ALLIANCE DROPS ANNUAL
BENCHMARKING REPORT
Biannual analysis pulls latest data from around the country
➺ EARLIER this year, the
lower bicyclist and pedestrian
Alliance for Biking and
fatalities where there are more
bicycling and walking
united states
Walking released its massive
people biking and walking.
l More people tend to bike
compendium on the state
benchmarking report
of bicycling and walking in
or walk to work when a city
all 50 states, 52 major U.S.
has strong biking and walking
cities, and select mid-size
advocacy. In 1996, there
cities. Compiled every two
were just a handful of state
years, the Benchmarking
and local biking and walking
Report is a joint effort
advocacy organizations and
between the Alliance and
only 10 full-time staff working
the Centers for Disease
on these issues. Now, there
Control and Prevention’s
are over 230 state and local
Healthy Community Design
biking and walking advocacy
Initiative designed to examine how biking and groups and over 500 full-time staff. A growing
walking trends relate to public health, safety,
number of concerned citizens are organizing
and social and economic well being. A few
for safer, more accessible streets for walking and
highlights from the report include:
bicycling. l The average large American city
l A large percentage of commuters bike
experienced a 5.9% increase in population from
and walk to work in Alaska, Oregon, Montana,
2000 to 2010 without comparable increases
New York, and Vermont. Not so much in South
in land mass, and budgets are tight across the
Carolina, Atlanta, Mississippi, Tennessee, and
board. Both of these factors point to a need to
Texas. find cost-effective modes of transportation that
To download a full report visit
move people without taking up more space. bikewalkalliance.org/download-the-2014l There is safety in numbers — There are
benchmarking-report.
in the
2014
TOUR DE FRANCE,
RECUMBENT-STYLE
Vida Bike is putting on
its first-ever laid-back tour
of France, the country
where recumbent bikes
were popularized in the
1930s. In July and August
2014, Vida Bike will offer
the opportunity to tour
France in 39 different
stages. The length of the
stages varies from 25 to
40 miles each and riders
are free to pick up their
favorite stages.
The itinerary follows
cycling paths, greenways,
and veloroutes through
the most beautiful regions
of France from charming
villages to major towns.
This unique ride is more
than 1,200 miles long
and Vida Bike coordinates
luggage transport and
lodging, plus the company
offers recumbent rentals
for convenience.
The schedule is
available on Vida Bike’s
website vida-bike.com/
en/tour-de-francerecumbent.
CICERONE
GUIDES OFFER
EURO TOUR
BLUEPRINTS
WHEN it comes to
guidebooks, travelers’
loyalties to a particular
press can be as deeply
embedded as a Chicagoan
to their deep dish pizza.
But for cycling in the Old
World, Cicerone Press
makes a strong case for
branching out and giving
thin crust a try.
Diminutive in size
but big on information,
Cicerone makes books
covering routes all over
Continental Europe, and
especially the publisher’s
home stomping grounds
of the U.K.
The books are solidly
built, with waterresistant pages and small
enough dimensions to
avoid getting bent out
of shape in a pannier.
Inside there are detailed
route specifications,
plenty of lodging contact
information, maps, and
short vignettes on notable
spots along the way. We’d
like to see more details
about the best local grub,
but figure for most of
Cicerone’s routes through
gastronomic wonderlands
like Bavaria and France
all you’d have to do is
look up.
Cicerone also makes
guides for hikers,
mountaineers, and
climbers, should you be
so inclined. Available
at Barnes & Noble and
online through Amazon or
at ciceroneguides.com.
09
TOP TWELVE
RECUMBENTS
FOR TOURING
BY BRYAN BALL
10
DENNIS COELLO
T
ouring has
always been a
major part of the
recumbent market.
It’s not difficult to see
why. The comfort of
a recumbent allows
a rider to potentially
travel more miles per
day. When you’re sitting back in a recumbent seat, it’s much
easier to take in the
view around you. It’s
also easier to snap a
photo on the move,
especially from a trike.
Contrary to what you
may think, it can also
be easier to distribute
your touring load more
evenly on a recumbent.
More riders than ever
are choosing recumbents for their adventures. Here are some
of the best.
Azub T-Tris Azub has built their business
around expedition touring and they
know what they’re talking about (see
Road Test on page 18). They and their
customers have explored some of the
most remote places on earth, and Azub
has applied all of this knowledge into the
design of the T-Tris.
The T-Tris folds for transport and
is one of the only tadpole trikes in the
world that can easily carry four panniers. It’s also a very durable, comfortable, and good-handling three-wheeler.
The aluminum frame means that it’s
not too heavy and performs fairly well.
Azub started in the Czech Republic a
little over a decade ago and was primarily a European-only brand for most
Linear Limo
of that time. However, they’ve begun
building a very robust dealer network
in the U.S.
Price - Starting at $2,654
More info: azub.eu
Bacchetta Giro 26 ATT When you think
about Bacchetta, you won’t be blamed
for immediately focusing on their many
racing exploits and their lightweight
carbon fiber and aluminum highracer-style bikes. However, they’ve also
adapted that highracer design into a
pretty good touring bike.
The Bacchetta Giro 26 ATT comes
with an aluminum frame, dual disc
brakes, and three different seat options.
It can also be had with racks for four
panniers and with a 700C wheel option.
If you strip off all of the touring gear for
weekend rides with your local club, it
also isn’t much slower than its race-winning stablemates.
Price - $2,100
More info: bacchettabikes.com
Catrike Expedition Catrike is one of
the most popular trike companies in
the world (visit adventurecycling.org/
catrike to see a company profile). Their
12
top-selling model for several years now
has been the Expedition. Catrike keeps
introducing new models with new features, but the relatively unchanged
Expedition keeps on selling like hotcakes.
It’s not hard to see why. The Expedition is very versatile. It’s light and stiff
so it can easily be set up to be a fast
sports trike, yet it also makes a great
tourer or commuter. The Expedition
has a very robust aluminum spaceframe
design that is fairly unique, but it still
easily accepts most rack and pannier
combinations. The fact that there are so
many on the road also means that there
are aftermarket upgrades galore.
Price - $2,550
More info: catrike.com
Cruzbike Sofrider Front-wheel-drive
recumbents with moving bottom brackets have been rapidly gaining popularity the last few years. Cruzbike is at the
forefront of this emerging segment.
The North Carolina-based company has
made a lot of headlines with their numerous speed records and recent Race
Across America win, but they aren’t all
about performance. Some of their models have also garnered some favor with
expedition tourers.
Chief among them is the Sofrider.
Not only is it Cruzbike’s least expensive
model, it can also handle fatter tires,
fenders, and a seatpost-style pannier
rack. It also has the lowest learning
curve of any Cruzbike.
Price - $1,195
More info: cruzbike.com
ICE Adventure
Bacchetta Giro 26 ATT
Easy Racers Tour Easy/Gold Rush
The venerable Tour Easy has been in
production since 1978. It was one of the
first mass-produced recumbent bicycles
in the world and is still one of the very
best. It has crisscrossed the U.S. more
than any other recumbent design, and
it’s easy to see why it remains a popular
choice with laid-back cycling vagabonds. The lighter aluminum version is
called the Gold Rush and has become
equally popular.
The upright seating position and low
bottom bracket make it very comfortable, whereas the optional front fairing still allows it to be quick. It’s been
around for a long time so there are
many aftermarket options available for
things such as mid-ship pannier racks,
provisions for water bottles galore, and
double-legged kickstands. Easy Racers
has recently updated the design to make
the frame a bit stiffer and allow for easier use of the S&S couplers for transport.
Price - Tour Easy $2,495
Gold Rush $3,495
More info: easyracers.com
GREG SIPLE
Greenspeed Magnum Greenspeed is
one of the oldest names in the recumbent trike world. They’ve been building
some of the best trikes in the business
for nearly 25 years and pioneered
some features that are now standard
equipment on almost every trike in
the world. Their attention to detail has
even driven them to produce their own
custom trike-specific tires.
Their newest model is the Magnum.
The Magnum features a robust folding
aluminum frame with a 400-pound
weight limit and a smooth-shifting and
reliable component spec. The Magnum’s
seat is adjustable for both height, and
recline (a very unique feature in the
market). Greenspeed’s cargo rack is also
one of the best you’ll find.
Price - $3,290
More info: greenspeed.com.au
Recumbent manufacturing at Lightfoot Cycles along the TransAm Trail in Darby, Montana.
HPVelotechnik Street Machine Gte If
ICE Adventure The ICE Adventure is
there were an official recumbent touring bike of the rest of the world outside
of America, it would probably be the
HPVelotechnik Street Machine Gte.
Greenspeed Magnum
The aluminum-framed Gte was introduced in 2001 to replace the venerable
but slightly outdated Street Machine
GT. It’s lighter than its predecessor and
has proven to be every bit as robust and
reliable.
It also features a much more advanced “No Squat” rear suspension system, more seating options, and a slew
of drivetrain and accessory options.
HPVelotechnik once told me that they
put almost as much time into designing
the racks on their recumbents as they
do the rest of the bike. It shows. The
Street Machine Gte can easily handle four panniers and however much
weight you choose to throw on it. And
it will carry you and your belongings in
efficient full-suspension comfort.
Price - Starting at $2,695
More info: hpvelotechnik.com
a mass-produced descendant of the
company’s now-defunct custom-built
Expedition touring trike. Mass production has not made it any less special. If
anything, the Adventure is even more
capable than its bespoke predecessor.
The Adventure has loads of ground
clearance and a very comfortable seat
that isn’t nearly as low to the ground as
most other tadpole trikes. It folds for
transport and shipping and is available
with a very sturdy rack, the best fender
mounts in the business, and myriad
water bottle and accessory mounts. It’s
also available with a simple and bombproof elastomer-based full suspension
system and even comes in an HD version for larger riders. The HD features
a wider seat and tougher frame.
Price - $3,010
More info: icetrikes.co
Lightfoot Greenway Delta trikes don’t
get much love among serious recumbent riders, but the unique style can
make for excellent tourers. Some of the
best are built by Lightfoot Cycles in
Montana.
If you’re looking to carry a lot of gear
and aren’t solely focused on your average speed, the Lightfoot Greenway is a
great option. Its large cargo shelf can
carry more equipment than any single
person will ever need on a tour and the
whopping 109-speed drivetrain makes
sure you have gearing low enough to
haul that load up almost any hill. The
Greenway is available in multiple steering configurations and three different
track widths.
Price - $3,680
More info: lightfootcycles.com
Linear Limo Linear isn’t exactly a
household name in the recumbent
world, but their updated Limo model is
an outstanding long-distance touring machine. The basic design began
production in Iowa way back in 1985.
Lightfoot Greenway
The company was purchased by Peter
Stull and moved to upstate New York
in 2002. The bike’s frame structure
was almost completely reworked over
the next several years, and the newest
3.0 model is one of the most durable
recumbents you can buy.
It can carry two sets of panniers and
all types of fenders and accessories.
The large aluminum box frame also
allows it to remain fairly lightweight
13
while still retaining the strength needed for cross-country jaunts. Numerous
seat and drivetrain options are also
available. It also comes in an “LR”
Tour Easy in the category of long
wheelbase recumbent longevity. In
2005, the Kansas-based company updated their classic design with a dual
RANS
Stratus XP
model for those who want a slightly
lower seat height.
Price - $2,495
More info: linearrecumbent.co
RANS Stratus XP The RANS Stratus
is second only to the Easy Racers
14
26-inch version called the Stratus XP.
Like the original Stratus, the XP
enjoys the availability of a host of
aftermarket modifications, including the usual mid-ship pannier racks
preferred by so many LWB riders.
The larger wheels help it roll along
a bit faster than its predecessor, and
multiple seat options are available.
Price - $2,500
More info: rans.com
Volae Expedition Volae is a fairly new
name in the recumbent world, but they
probably have more heritage than five
other brands put together. Volae was
created by Hostel Shoppe (one of the
oldest and largest recumbent dealers
in the world), and the frames are hand
built by the famous Waterford shop in
Wisconsin.
Their touring-focused model is
called the Expedition. Like all Volaes,
the frame is exquisite. The Expedition
comes with dual disc brakes and 26inch wheels. A take-apart frame and
two different seat options are available
as well.
Price - $1,595
More info: volaerecumbents.com
Bryan Ball is the managing editor of ’BentRider
Online (bentrideronline.com). He contributed
“Getting Down, The Lowdown on Recumbents” to the
July/August 2007 issue and “Recumbent Primer” to
the July 2013 issue of Adventure Cyclist.
15
RECUMBENTS, TRIKES, QUADS, TANDEMS, AND FOLDERS
RECUMBENTS, TOURING:
AZUB azub.eu, +420 774 2982
29. Offers the Six, Max, Mini, and
other recumbent bikes and trikes
from €1890.
BACCHETTA bacchettabikes.
com, 866-364-9677. Offers 4
versions of the Giro and the Bella
from $1700.
CATRIKE catrike.com, 407999-0200. Offers the Expedition
and the Road touring trikes from
$2550.
CHALLENGE challengebikes.
com, +31 24 34308 54. Offers
the Seiran, Mistral SL, and
Ventus.
CRUZBIKE cruzbike.com, 888225-2789. Offers the Sofrider
(from $1195) and Quest (from
$1995).
round, Pino, Kettwiesel, Trix, and
custom touring configurations
from $3939.
METABIKES meta-bikes.com,
Offers the MetaPhysic with 700C,
650C or 26” wheels from $3295.
HP VELOTECHNIK hpvelotech
nik.com, +49 61 92 97 99 2 0.
Offers the Scorpion (basic model:
$3145), Street Machine Gte
($2695), and foldable Grasshopper fx ($2895).
NAZCA LIGFIETSEN nazcaligfietsen.nl, +31-522-490266.
Offers the Explorer, Gaucho Tour,
Fiero, Pioneer, and Paseo. From
$1925.
ICE TRIKES icetrikes.co, +44
1326 378848. Offers the
Adventure from $3010.
OPTIMA optima-cycles.nl,
+31(0)251-261222. Offers the
Falcon, Oryx, and Cougar from
€1795.
JUST TWO BIKES justtwobikes.
com, 800-499-1548. Offers the
Tricumbent from $2995 and the
side-by-side quad Sociable from
$3995.
RANS ransbikes.com, 785625-6346. Offers a variety of
recumbent models, tandems, and
unique uprights. Also, airplanes.
From $1995.
LIGHTFOOT lightfootcycles.
Rambler, Ranger, Verano and
Greenway Trike. Industrial trikes
also available as well as electric
assist. From $2500.
SLYWAY slywayprojects.com,
+39 0372 29589. Offers the
Explorer starting from €2652
(frame kit €1859).
TRISLED trisled.com.au, +61
3 5981 0337. Offers the Gizmo
touring trike (from $AU3700).
TURNER RECUMBENTS turner
recumbents.com, 520-2905646. Offers the Transport (from
$960) and the Tribent Tandem
(call for pricing).
VOLAE volaerecumbents.com,
715-340-1133. Offers the Tour
(from $1595), Expedition (from
$1595, and the Venture tandems
($4495).
RECUMBENTS, NON-TOURING:
ATOMICZOMBIE atomiczombie.
com, DIY plans for recumbents.
AVD WINDCHEETAH windchee
tah.co.uk, +44 (0) 161 969 9692.
Multiple recumbent trikes
STEINTRIKES steintrikes.com,
Offers the suspended Nomad,
Explorer, and Mad Max
trikes, plus the Speedster FS two-wheeler. From
$2750/$3895/$4195.
BRIKE freedomryder.com,
800-800-5828. Recumbent
handcycles.
LINEAR linearrecumbent.com,
607-587-8835. Offers the Limo
and Roadster from $2495.
TERRATRIKE terratrike.com,
800-945-9910. Offers the Tour II
(from $1499) and Tandem (from
$4999).
HUMAN POWERED MACHINES
hpm.catoregon.org, 800-3435568. Recumbents, trikes,
folders, and work bikes.
LONGBIKES longbikes.com,
303-986-9300. Offers the Slipstream, Eliminator and the Gulfstream and Jetstream tandems
from $3050.
TOXY toxy.de, +49 4127 922 83.
Offers the CL, LT and LT Special
Edition (from €2270). Speedhub,
Nuvinci, and BionX models also
available.
KMX TRIKES kmxus.com,
866-446-2065. Multiple trikes,
including a kids model.
HASE hasebikes.com, +49 23
09 93 77 0. Offers the Pino All-
M5 m5recumbents.com, +31
(0)118 628759. Offers the 26/26
and 26/20 high and low bar, the
Shock Proof 559 and 406, the
20/20 Fatty, and Tandem. All
from €1033.
TRIDENT tridenttrikes.com,
704-257-4611. Offers the
Stowaway ($1549), Transport
($1999), and Chameleon single
or tandem trikes (from $5995).
RESOURCES:
• recumbentcycling.blogspot.com
• bentrideronline.com
• bicycleman.com/recumbents/
recumbents.htm
• bikeapparel.com/recumbent-manufacturers.html
• atob.org.uk/folding-bikes.html
(buyer’s guide)
• recumbents.com/recumbents.
asp (buyer’s guide)
For an extensive list of folders,
recumbents, tandems and
more, check out
EASY RACERS easyracers.
Tour Easy Classic, Tour Easy
Adventure (S&S Couplings) and
Gold Rush Evo from $2995. All
models available in Expedition
distinction.
FLEVOBIKE flevobike.nl, +31
0321-337200. Offers the GreenMachine in many variations with
a 14-speed Rohloff Speed-hub
from €3950.
GREENSPEED greenspeed.
com.au, 618-514-3955. Offers
the GT5 Series II, GTT Tandem
Trike, and Magnum for touring
from $AU2990; Anura Quad also
available.
• rtrmag.com
16
GREG SIPLE
Below is a list of popular recumbents,
folding bikes, and tandems. If you know
of any brands or models missing from
this table that are specifically designed
for touring or bike travel, email us at
[email protected].
— Mike Deme
LIGHTNING CYCLE DYNAMICS
lightningbikes.com, 805-7360700. Offers the Lightning
Phantom II, P-38 and foldable
P-38 Voyager from $2100.
• recumbents.com
• biketcba.org/TRICORR/compare.html
• errcmagazine.com
• recumbentbicyclesource.com
• foldingbikes.co.uk
• recumbentjournal.com
• bikeroute.com/Recumbents
• foldsoc.co.uk
• foldingcyclist.com
EDGE edgerecumbents.com,
865-982-2555. Haiku, D’Jango,
and Hepcat recumbents. e2 trike.
MAXARYA maxarya.com, 416737-5745. Ray-1 and Ray-1X
recumbents, plus folding bikes.
RAPTOBIKE raptobike.com, +31
(0) 297 525 330. Low Racer and
Mid Racer models.
• ibike.org/library/bike-manufacturers.htm
SUN sunbicycles.com, 305-2381866. Recumbents, tandems and
trikes.
DAHON usa.dahon.com, 800442-3511. Customizable Mu P24
for touring.
WHIKE whike.com, +316 5478
3068. Recumbent with a sail
attachment.
KHS khsbicycles.com, 310-6327173 x 255. F-20A-H7, Mocha,
Latte, and iPed.
FOLDING BIKES
MEZZO mezzobikes.com, 800222-7557. D9 for touring.
AIRNIMAL airnimal.com, +44
(0) 1954-782020. Joey, the
Rhino, the Chameleon, and custom models for touring.
BIKE FRIDAY bikefriday.com,
800-777-0258. Variety of folding
bikes and accessories for touring
including the New World Tourist,
Silk, Pocket Llama, Family
Tandem Traveler, and others for
touring, commuting, and road
riding.
BIRDY birdybike.com, 503-9287723. Variety of folding bikes and
accessories for touring.
MONTAGUE montaguebikes.
com, 800-736-5348. Full-size
folders.
MOULTON www.moultonbicy
cles.co.uk, +44 (0) 1225 865895.
TSR-27, TSR-30 and the AM GT
for touring.
REISE & MÜLLER r-m.de/
faltrad, Multiple models for
touring, including the Birdy Touring and Birdy Rohloff Disc
STRIDA strida.com. Evo
3-speed.
BROMPTON brompton.com,
+44 (0)20 8232-8484. P6R, H6L,
and H2L-X for touring.
TERN BICYCLES ternbicycles.
com. Link and Eclipse.
CITIZEN FOLDING BIKES citizen
bike.com, 800-682-9579. Their
tagline is tremendous: “Folding
bikes for going and being human.”
CALFEE DESIGN calfeedesign.
com, 800-965-2171. Multiple
carbon and bamboo tandems
available.
TANDEMS
CO-MOTION co-motion.com,
866-282-6336. Mocha, Equator,
Java, and Primera for touring,
but many other models available
including triples, quads, and
quints. Coupler options also
available.
recumbents and custom upright
tandems.
DA VINCI davincitandems.com,
303-936-1241. 10 road, off road
and suspended tandem models,
including the Global Venture and
In-2-ition.
REX CYCLES rexcycles.com/
frames-parts, 916-446-5706.
Custom tandems, coupler options available.
DAWES dawescycles.com.
Galaxy Twin for touring plus 3
other models.
FANDANGO MOUNTAIN
TANDEMS mtbtandems.com,
678-445-0711. Custom touring
tandems available.
KHS khsbicycles.com, 310632-7173 x 255. Four models
available: Milano, Cross, Alite,
and Sport.
KOGA koga.com, +31 513 630
111. Twin Traveller.
LAPIERRE lapierre-bikes.co.uk.
Tandem X2 Touring.
LONGBIKES longbikes.
com, 303-986-9300. Tandem
ORBIT TANDEMS orbittandems.
co.uk, +44 01756 748822. Routier Tour, Summit Tour, Pegasus
Tour, and other models.
RODRIGUEZ rodcycle.com, 206527-4822. Toucan ST and custom
models, including triples, quads,
and quints.
SANTANA santanatandem.
com, 800-334-6136. All tandems
suitable for self-supported
touring (48-spoke wheel option
recommended).
SEVEN sevencycles.com, 617923-7774. Axiom 007 in titanium
(SL) and steel for touring, plus
other models.
THORN thorncycles.co.uk, +44
01278 441 505. Raven Twin.
VENTANA ventanausa.com, 916631-0544. El Conquistador off road
tandems in 26” and 29” wheels.
Bicycling Tours for
seniors 50+
Central Florida
P’tit train du Nord
Erie Canal, New York
Allegheny Passage, PA
Cape Cod, Massachusetts
“Its not how far nor how fast,
its the pleasure of the journey”
www.seniorcycling.com
Florida Keys.
37419 Branch River Road | Loudoun Heights, VA 20132 | [email protected]
17
Road Test
AZUB SIX
BY BRYAN BALL
➺ EVERY Azub recumbent bears a
sticker that proudly proclaims “Built
in Czech” and their sales director,
Honza Gala, can also proudly
proclaim (although he doesn’t) that he
probably knows more about touring
with a recumbent bicycle than anyone
else on the planet. Honza has ridden
the world and spent weeks on end in
some of the most remote places on
earth. And he’s by no means the only
Azub employee with such experience.
All of that knowledge is on display in
their Azub Six full-suspension shortwheelbase (SWB) recumbent bike.
The Six may appear at first glance
to be the most conventional bike in
Azub’s lineup. It’s easy to overlook the
old-school 20-inch front wheel/26inch rear configuration amidst their
collection of trikes, off-roaders, and
folders. The truth is that it’s really not
that conventional at all. Every detail
of the Six’s design is aimed at making
it one of the best touring recumbents
in the world.
Closer inspection reveals that
this bike means business. The beefy
aluminum frame is obviously built
to take a beating. The asymmetrical
rear swingarm is similarly stout and
designed to keep pivot joints to a
minimum. There is only one large
sealed bearing. It’s a simple but very
effective design. The flat powdercoat
finish that Azub uses is also tougher
than most glossy finishes I’ve seen.
18
Azubs can be ordered in nearly any
color and individual parts can be mixed
and matched for a very custom look.
You can order the Six with almost
any sort of drivetrain and braking
options you want, but when I ordered
this bike in for review I let Honza
choose the components and spec the
bike out like he would if he was taking
another one of his adventures. He made
some interesting choices.
The most visually striking accessory
on this particular Six are the pannier
racks. The Six’s standard rear rack is
combined with both their Expedition
and Super Expedition extensions.
This means that the Six can carry a
whopping three pairs of panniers. The
racks themselves all seem to be very
well made and can handle a combined
load of nearly 90 pounds. They also
allow you to customize your load and
get all of your heavier items down very
low to the ground and between the
wheels so that handling isn’t adversely
affected.
Suspension is very important when
touring on a recumbent in remote
areas with underdeveloped roads. The
Six came with a Suntour Epicon rear
air shock and a MEKS carbon front
suspension fork. Both are adjustable for
preload and rebound and have lock-out
features. The latter may come in very
handy if you experience a shock failure
in the middle of nowhere. Azub also
provided a protective boot for the Six’s
rear shock.
The Azub’s suspension worked
very well during the test. There was
minimum power loss from suspension
bob and the lock-out feature was great
on smooth roads when you want just a
bit more performance. Both lock-out
switches were easily reachable from the
cockpit.
Azub offers several disc-brake
options on their bikes and trikes
but they are firm believers in
more conventional rim brakes for
expedition-style touring. They are
easier to adjust, easier to get parts for,
and have fewer failure points. The
Shimano XT V-brakes on this Six
functioned very well indeed, but you
may want to consider going against
Azub’s wishes and opting for discs if
you plan on really loading up all six
of those available pannier mounting
points.
Probably the most controversial
components on that Azub specified on
this bike are in the drivetrain. With all
of the options, this bike would retail for
almost $4,000. At that price, relatively
low-end 24-speed Shimano Alivio
SPECIFICATIONS
AZUB SIX
Price: $3,000 base, $4,356 as tested
Seat Height: 22.5”
Bottom Bracket Height: 24.5”
Overall Length: 67-74”
Weight Limit: 275 lbs.
Frame: Aluminum 7004 T6
Rims: Remerx-X 36-Hole
Hubs: Azub sealed bearing 36-hole
Tires: Schwalbe Marathon Plus
Bottom Bracket: Shimano Deore
Crankset: Shimano Deore 22/32/22
Cassette: Shimano CS-HG51 11-32
Brake Levers: Avid Single Digit
Front Rear Derailleurs: Shimano Alivio
Brakes: Shimano XT V-Brake
Pedals: None
GEARING INCHES
42
32
22
11
104
75.6
52
13
88
64
15
76.3
55.5
38.1
18
63.6
46.2
31.8
21
54.5
39.6
27.2
24
47.7
34.7
23.8
28
40.9
29.7
20.4
32
35.8
26.0
17.9
44
components are a bit of a surprise.
Azub’s reasoning is that in remote
countries, 9 and 10-speed components
are still a bit hard to come by. I will
admit that while I can’t say that the
Alivio parts worked as well as the
higher-end stuff I’m used to, they are
plenty good enough for all but the
most dedicated bike snob. The gear
range provided by the mountain bikestyle crankset and wide-range cassette
should also give most riders anything
they need.
The Six can be ordered with either
underseat (USS) or over overseat
(OSS) steering. It can also be had with
a hardshell or mesh seat. Azub prefers
the OSS steering setup and hardshell
seat for long-distance touring. The
OSS bars are less likely to be damaged
in a crash and more easily replaceable
if they are. They are also a necessary
option if you intend on using the
Super Expedition rack extension
located under the seat. The hardshell
seat was chosen because it makes for a
smaller overall package.
I found the Six to be a very
comfortable ride. Not only does the
suspension do an excellent job of
smoothing out the bumps, the Azub
is also very ergonomically refined.
The handlebars are adjustable via a
folding stem much like you’ll find on
many recumbents. What sets the Six
apart is Azub’s Ideal Position System
(IPS). On most recumbents, you can
either adjust the boom or the seat in
order to dial in for leg length. Azub’s
system allows you to adjust to get
ideal leg extension while still keeping
your weight centered between the
wheels. All of the seat adjustments are
made with Azub’s trademark red quick
releases.
Once everything was dialed in, the
Six was a very pleasant place to be
indeed. Hardshell seats don’t always fit
me well but I’ve always liked Azub’s.
The optional Ventisit seat cushion
provided excellent ventilation and I
never felt like I was sitting in a pool
of my own sweat. Everything in the
cockpit felt like it was exactly where it
should be and there weren’t too many
CONTINUED ON PAGE 48
19
BIKE
TOURING
AUSTRIA’S
GREAT
RIVERS
Story and photos by Chet Rideout
THE IDEA AROSE from our common
lives as teachers and cyclists. As we finished
our bike tour in 2009 from Anacortes,
Washington, to Whitefish, Montana, I asked
my Italian biking pal Piero Tassinari if we
could plan a European tour in Austria along
the river trails. My thought was, since both
of us would be retired, we could ride in
September instead of touring in the crowds
and heat of August as we had in the past. He
agreed and said he had already ridden some
of them in previous years. We thought we
could do it in 2011 but it wasn’t until 2013
that our plans became reality.
I purchased maps of Austria and
the bike trails and established a game
plan. On this tour, my wife Lynn joined
us, and years were passing; my 70th
birthday lurked only a month away. She
was glad there would be fewer hills than
our previous tours, and we also decided
to stay at gasthofs (inns) and bike 25- to
30-mile days.
All three of us had long ago converted to recumbents because of their
ergonomics — we appreciated riding
in comfort, no longer suffering sore
muscles or numbness from long rides.
I carefully packed our bikes in big
Amtrak bike boxes for our long flight
to Europe, and we boarded a huge 747
British Airways jet (British Air doesn’t
charge extra for bicycles) bound for
London and then on to Munich.
In Munich we stayed at a B&B where
we could assemble our bikes and leave
our boxes behind for the return trip.
Then we took a train to Innsbruck.
Piero was waiting for us on the
Innsbruck train platform after his
shorter trip from Forli, Italy. Soon we
were wheeling through cobblestones in
the old part of this magnificent mountain town on our way to the Inn Bike
Trail, or Innradweg.
Early the next day, we began what
would be our morning ritual: eat breakfast, pack a sandwich for lunch, return
to the room to pack the panniers,
retrieve the bikes from the garage,
and load the panniers onto the racks
for travel. Although it had rained that
night, the trail was already drying out
and we were delighted to see the sun.
Before long, we rode up the cobblestoned main street of Schwaz, a mining
town. These silver and copper mines
were the source of the fabulous wealth
of the Hapsburg emperors during the
15th and 16th centuries. The parish
church, built in 1490, was spectacular
with the original worn stone floors and
wooden box pews. It was originally
divided into two seating areas, one for
the laborers and their families, and the
other for the well-heeled gentry.
After touring the town, we continued our journey. Outside Jennbach, a
transportation hub for the railroad, we
found the Esterhammer, a truly elegant
inn. Piero’s family arrived from Italy in
a camper, and it was a great reunion.
We gathered beside a flower-draped veranda and caught up on the latest news
over a beer. The hostess even offered to
do our laundry, and we found the
Esterhammer had an indoor pool.
The next day was Sunday, and there
was a celebration at the church up the
specialist for bike tours in Central Europe
Visit Central Europe – a paradise for cycling
Surprising density of ancient castles
& fairy–tale chateaux
Beautiful and varied countryside
Excellent network of paved backroads
Quality accommodation
Easy and convenient self-guided tours
Guided tours with local guides
8-day to 10-day tours
Vienna to Prague Greenways
Salzburg to Prague
Vienna to Krakow Amber Trail
Budapest to Krakow Amber Trail
Passau to Vienna Danube Trail
Vienna to Budapest Danube Trail
Prague to Dresden
Visit www.topbicycle.com for trip descriptions, dates and prices. For a free brochure, email us [email protected]
Czech Republic
22
inzerat_Top_bicycle.indd
ADVENTURE
CYCLIST1 JULY 2 014
Slovakia
Austria
Hungary
Germany
Poland
15.2.2008 16:51:31
MAP: MARTHA BOST WICK
road to commemorate the successful
grazing season of the cattle in high
pastures. A three-man brass ensemble
passed us on their way to regale the
congregation. We coasted down to
the trail, biking in fair weather past a
number of small towns, pausing only
for “refueling” at a bakery. Our goal was
Kufstein, a charming medieval town
near the German border. It has a castle
dating to the 13th century, which was
modified by Bavarian ruler Maximilian
in the 1500s. We stayed in what must
have been the honeymoon suite at an
elegant hotel, and again Piero’s family
joined us for a traditional Austrian supper in the old town.
We then headed north into Germany.
Here the trail ran as a towpath along
straight banks, and much of the way
was made up of a sandy gravel. The
trail signs on this side of the border
changed from Innradweg to Inntal (Inn
Valley). In May there had been huge
floods on the Inn and Danube, and we
saw another sign frequently: Umleitung
— detour. Mud slides and erosion from
powerful May floods had required that
the trail be rerouted. As we approached
Rosenheim, we found the first inn full,
but we soon settled in at the beautiful
Hoppingerhof.
In the morning, we retrieved our
bikes, and a truck pulled a huge trailer
out of the garage with 30 bicycles on
it labeled Eurobike. This trail supports
an enormous number of riders, mostly
during the summer. The Danube Bike
Trail from Passau to Vienna is ridden by
300,000 riders each year!
During the rest of the tour, we had
rain almost every day, but we had decent weather as we rode to Wasserburg.
After lunch, however, the trail left the
river and became quite hilly and the
rain returned. By the time we reached
Gars, it was very wet, and after quite
23
a strenuous day we stayed at a privat
zimmer, or private room.
Lynn was feeling the effects of our
last day and wanted to take a break
from the hills and the rain so we rolled
our bikes onto a train to Passau. Piero
still wanted to ride these last two days
along the Inn so he left in the rain
from the station. After a relatively
short trip, we disembarked and worked
our way to the Rotel Inn, a pleasant
place with a wonderful view of the
Inn River from the breakfast area. We
found, however, that it had the smallest bedrooms imaginable — 5 feet by
10!
My old camera had stopped working
so I purchased another in town, and
we walked around Passau. This was a
super town that we enjoyed more than
any others we visited on the tour. A
highlight was St. Stephen’s Cathedral.
The original church burned in 1662
and was rebuilt in spectacular fashion. Italian artists were brought in to
contribute exciting sculptures and
frescoes. We attended a mass and later
went to an organ concert performed
there on the largest organ in the world.
It had 18,000 organ pipes in four carillons, all controlled with one keyboard
— what a sound!
After our second night at the Rotel
Inn, Piero arrived from his solo biking
excursion as scheduled, somewhat
the worse for wear. He had ridden
through heavy rain both days on the
sandy gravel trail. The sand had worn
his brake shoes down to the metal and
scored the sides of his rims. While he
was getting settled at the inn, Lynn
and I, armed with rags and a bucket
of soapy water, washed the bikes and
cleaned and lubed their chains.
NUTS & BOLTS Austria & Germany
WHEN TO GO
The Inn and Danube trails are
extremely busy during the
summer months, especially in August. We rode in
September and it was quite
wet, which I attributed to
fall weather. In The Danube
Cycle Way, John Higginson
notes, however, that during
a 40-day July-August ride
on the Danube trail it rained
at least a portion of all but
five days. During the high
season, reservations must
be made in advance (at least
two days), and you will not
be lonesome; the trail will be
packed with cyclists. Conditions can be quite cool, even
in the summer; we found that
winds were seldom strong,
but usually flowed in our
direction (west to east).
MAPS, GUIDEBOOKS
The best maps are the
Bikeline series (1-3) for the
Danube Bike Trail. Bikeline #2
is the only one in English, and
covers the Passau-
Vienna stretch. For the Inn
trail I found the “Innradweg - Inn Bike Trail” map
by Freytag and Berndt to be
excellent. Maps of the cities
(Munich, Linz, and Vienna)
are best purchased locally
and are much cheaper in
Europe.
ROUTE
The trail is well marked, and
usually easy to follow. With the
guidebooks there should be
no problem. The guides also
make suggestions as to which
river bank you should follow at
which stage of the ride. EQUIPMENT
Since we wanted to use our
recumbents we boxed and
took our bikes, a process I
have found to be the toughest
part of any European bike
trip. We flew British Air because the boxed bikes travel
free. We decided not to camp
this time because locating
camp sites and shopping at
grocery stores is difficult,
very little money is saved,
and it rains often enough
(especially at night) to make
camping unpleasant. B&B
accommodations also
stored our bikes in a garage,
whereas they would be in the
rain while camping. We used
rear panniers; rental bikes
that I saw were provided
with rear racks, so panniers
would work well if you decide
to rent a bicycle. It would be
best, however, to make sure
they are waterproof. Bike
shops are common, and are
listed in the guidebooks.
FOOD
We stayed at privat zimmers
and gasthaus accommodations; both provide breakfast,
and we made a lunch from
rolls and lunch meats. Most
of these, except the zimmers,
also serve dinner. Bakeries
are also common along the
route. Water was plentiful
throughout the trip. COMMUNICATION
One of the biggest problems
we faced was communication
by phone. Finding a SIM card
for a cell phone that works in
both Austria and Germany is
difficult. A SIM card I bought
online in the U.S. did not
work at all, and it couldn’t
be tested until I arrived at
the airport in Munich. When I
purchased another in Germany, I had to figure out how to
buy minutes over a computer
with instructions in German!
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At breakfast the next morning we
met Stephan and his wife Simone from
eastern Germany. He told me about
the Bikeline map of the Danauradweg
or Danube Bike Trail. I wanted to get
one but, not finding one in English
in Passau, I had to wait until Linz.
After visiting a bike shop to fix Piero’s
brakes, we crossed the Danube and
were thrilled to again be touring on a
paved trail. From here downstream, the
Danube was huge because Passau was
at the confluence where the German
Danube and the much larger Inn River
combine.
During this first of two days riding to
Linz, we noticed that the river takes a
sharp S-shaped bend, and the trail exists only on the south side. We crossed
on a small ferry designed to haul bicycles. At Inzell we stayed at a gasthaus
and visited the quaint St. Nicholas
Church. In the year 1155, a nobleman
who was rescued from drowning by
local citizens had shown his appreciation by building this church for the
community. Our evening meal featured
stewed venison with spetzle and dark
beer — delicious!
We had read that the upcoming
trail traversed a very natural stretch
of river, and we enjoyed watching the
Mute Swans. At Ottensheim we crossed
the river again, this time on a ferry
suspended from a cable. It crossed the
river entirely by water power. The rudder on the raft made use of the rapidly
flowing river water to push it across
in either direction. Before long, we
reached Linz where we visited the New
Cathedral with seating for 20,000 and
rode trams about town, and I bought
the Bikeline guide at a bookstore. In
the afternoon, we loaded up and rode
in the rain to Langenstein.
The next day, we endured a very
cold and wet ride to the Mauthausen
Concentration Camp Memorial, making our visit very grim indeed. Here,
200,000 prisoners came from 40 countries — the majority were, surprisingly,
Spanish Catholics opposed to fascism.
Everyone should visit one of these
camps, but it is a sobering experience.
We left this sad memorial and again
ferried across the river. The weather
lifted and we pedaled on to Ardagger
Markt.
KOKOPEllI
TRAIl SySTEM
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only 142 miles to go.
Photo / Colin Meagher
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25
This town, which had been ravaged
by numerous floods in addition to this
year’s flood, had a beautiful gasthaus
called the Schiffsmeister Haus. This
building was always just above the
floodwaters and dated back to the 15th
century. The next morning, there was
driving rain, and we purchased some
ponchos to help keep us dry. For our
next overnight stop we picked the town
of Ybbs and toured the Fahrradmuseum
(bicycle museum). They had a comprehensive collection of European bicycles
all the way back to the velocipedes.
We were delighted the next morning
to see blue sky from our room! Joyfully
we biked down the trail, and before
long the skyline was dominated by the
sight of the spectacular Benedictine
Abbey on top of a high plateau in Melk.
We visited the abbey, which was built in
the early 1700s. Inside is a high baroque
church with a dome reaching almost
200 feet above the floor with frescoes
and gilded statuary in every direction.
The abbey also houses one of the most
comprehensive church libraries in
Europe, as well as quite a collection of
Passau, Germany, sits at the junction of the Ilz, Inn, and Danube rivers.
religious art.
Again mounting our loaded bikes,
we crossed a high bridge and on the
north side of the river rode east into the
Wachau Valley, famous for its extensive
vineyards and sunflower fields. This
region has supported an agricultural
community for 30,000 years and has a
Mediterranean climate. In Spitz we visited a 14th century church and stayed at
a fine inn.
At Krems we stopped at one of the
local wineries and enjoyed their red
wine during lunch in the city park.
Downstream in Traismauer the Infostation directed us to a privat zimmer
called Familie Schopper, and the lady of
the house waved us into their driveway
when we approached.
We rode east to Tulln where we talked with two road bikers from Vienna,
and miles later we stayed at the Gasthof
Bar in Greifenstein. Checking our maps
that evening we found that it was only
about 15 miles to Vienna.
The next day, we hit the trail at 8:30
B A C C H E T TA B i c y c l e s I n c . 2 0 1 3 a d # 1 G i r o 2 0 t o u r - 1 / 4 P a g e H o r i z o n t a l 7 . 3 7 5 " w x 2 . 3 7 5 " h
26
AM,
eventually turned off the Danube
River Trail onto the Danube Canal
Trail, which led to the town of Wien
(Vienna). This is a big city with a
population of 1.6 million so even with
our maps we found navigation a little
difficult. We eventually found the Ring
Roads that circle the old town, and with
considerable difficulty we found our
way to our two-night stop, an apartment we had rented through AirBnB.
After settling Lynn in bed with a cold,
Piero found on his iPhone that there
was a bicycle tour of Vienna available
through a company called Pedal Power
(pedalpower.at). He signed us up on an
English-speaking tour for the next day.
The following morning Lynn stayed
back while Piero and I rode our unloaded bikes toward the historic town center. The group gathering for the Pedal
Power tour hailed from Australia, New
Zealand, England, and Canada, and we
got in some lively conversations. Our
host, Horst Harrer, had a great sense
of humor. He told us scandalous stories
about Vienna’s past and present. On
the tour, we saw the Jesuit Church of
St. Michael with its flat ceiling painted
with the trompe l’oeil effect, making it
look like a dome. We viewed spectacular statuary in copper and marble and
the Mozart Memorial. I was particularly
struck by Mozart’s enormous musical legacy and the fact that he died (a
victim of too much gambling and too
many parties, according to Horst) at
age 34!
The next day we discussed our
wonderful trip over coffee and said our
goodbyes at the train station. Piero was
heading to Innsbruck then back to Italy,
and we were on our way to Munich.
We arrived during Oktoberfest and
had to weave our way through crowds
of revelers on the way to our rented
room. After boxing our bikes, we again
traveled by cab to the airport to embark
upon our 14-hour return to Seattle.
Chet Rideout has been an avid photographer and
cyclist since 1980, and has written articles about
his recumbent touring trips in the U.S., Canada,
France, and Italy. He and his wife, Lynn, live in Port
Townsend, Washington, where they like to explore the
regional waters by sea kayak.
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27
Pedaling the M
“H
eat and dust. One long, boring
road.”
“I pedaled 140 kilometers a
day just to get it over with.”
“Miserable. Just plain miserable!”
With comments like these from fellow touring cyclists, it was hard to get
excited about the next leg of our journey in Southeast Asia. The route from
Pakse, Laos, to Phnom Penh, Cambodia,
was obviously one to be endured at
worst and tolerated at best.
We had coasted down from the
Bolaven Plateau, the lush, cool, cof-
fee-growing region of southern Laos.
When you’ve come from a land of
butterflies, waterfalls, and amazing
coffee, heat and dust are disappointing
following acts.
I studied our map and wanted to
weep. West of this pathetic route was
the Mekong. In past travels, every
moment that Kat and I had spent on or
near this mighty river had been bliss.
But there wasn’t anything close to a
contiguous route, and large sections
showed no roads at all. It was a journey
for a boat, not a bike (except for those
Story and photos by Willie Weir
massive falls that make boat travel impossible between Laos and Cambodia).
Most of the cyclists we encountered
were on a schedule. They were on
round-the-world adventures or had decided to traverse as much of Southeast
Asia as they could in a month. They saw
two points on a map, and the main road
was the only way to connect them.
But we had an advantage: time.
We had no agenda, other than wanting to experience this part of the world.
If trucks were on the road and life was
along the river, we’d choose the river.
What did we have to lose? We could
always head back to the main road if
the river route proved impossible. We
ekong
decided to follow the Mekong as closely
as we could, however we could.
It was one of the best travel decisions
we ever made.
The main road, south of Pakse, is east
of the Mekong. The road on the west
side follows the river and leads to Wat
Phu. The Laos government had (or has)
great plans for this temple site (designated a World Heritage Site in 2001). It is a
relative of the massive Khmer complex
of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
We stayed in a delightful riverside
guest house where we could sip cold
Beerlaos Lager while gazing out at the
river. It is a popular day trip from Pakse
for locals and travelers.
What Wat Phu
lacks in grandness (it
is tiny in comparison
to Angkor Wat), it
makes up for in location and intimacy.
The temple is at the
base of mount Phu Kao and isn’t officially open until 8:30 AM but we got up
before dawn, pedaled our bikes to the
site, and slipped through the unlocked
gate. We left our bikes and climbed the
hundreds of stone steps, breathing in
air scented by giant blooming plumeria
(frangipani).
South of Wat Phu the road ended
and the fun began. We traveled through
community after community connected
by dirt tracks, footpaths, and rickety
suspension bridges. We pedaled by
tiny shops, riverside monasteries and
schools; by lush terraced vegetable gardens, diesel-powered rice-milling machines; and large mounds of earth filled
with wood smoking down to charcoal.
We passed monks and students, and
groups of old women playing cards.
There were smiles and waves and
greetings of “sabaidee.” And there were
plenty of looks of astonishment and
surprise as two foreigners on loaded-down bikes negotiated the tiny pathways under the cool canopy of trees and
towering bamboo.
We didn’t always end up on the
“right” path, and we did plenty of
backtracking. One dead end led to a
stay with local teachers and the most
amazing multi-modal school commute
we’d ever seen. (You can read the tale in
the August/September issue).
A massive set of falls separates Laos
and Cambodia so we had to pedal
back to the main highway to cross the
border. There we met some touring
cyclists who reconfirmed that the main
road was hot and miserable. So once we
cleared customs, we took the first road
back toward the river.
The lack of a continuous route was
part of the adventure. At one point
when we could progress no further, we
hired a father and son duo to take us
downriver in their longboat.
In one village, we camped on a high
bank of the Mekong next to the police
station (police shack, really). The officers were happy to show us the flattest
patch of ant-free dirt and what part of
the river to watch to spot the elusive
Irrawaddy dolphins.
I’ll never forget cooling off at the
river’s edge one evening as the setting
orange-red sun appeared to light the
palm trees ablaze. Kids were laughing
and playing in the water and small
silent boats carried passengers along its
smooth, ripple-free surface. A strange
call from the opposite bank of the
Mekong caught our attention. We
looked up to see the unmistakable silhouette of a hornbill.
Our most exhausting day came with
a pedal across an island in the middle
of the Mekong. After being delivered
by a boat we hired, we followed on old
oxcart path the length of the island.
The route through stands of teak trees
was partially marked, which was maddening, and sections of soft sand often
swallowed our tires.
By the time we’d made it to the
southern end of the island, we were
spent. Our bodies were coated with
several layers of dust and sweat.
30
NUTS & BOLTS Mekong
WHEN TO GO
The dry season is October
through April, with March
and April the hottest of
those months.
LODGING
A tent or a hammock with
mosquito netting is a good
idea. There are guest houses
and hotels, and some home
stays along the Mekong,
but in some of the more
remote stretches, having
backup shelter is wise. Ask
permission from a family (or
the police) before pitching
your tent. With the hazards
of land mines in Cambodia
and unexploded ordnance
in Laos, wild camping is not
worth the risk.
PAKSE
Bangkok is the epicenter of
cheap flights when it comes
to Southeast Asia. From
Bangkok you could put your
bike on a Thai train to Ubon
Ratchathani, and then it’s
just a couple days’ bike ride
to Pakse, Laos. The Bolaven
Plateau to the east of Pakse
is lovely and worth at least
a week-long loop trip. Pakse
is also the gateway to 4,000
islands, a beautiful archipelago popular with the backpacker crowd in the Mekong,
85 miles to the south.
MEKONG DISCOVERY
TRAIL
When searching the Internet
for information about traveling the Mekong River Basin
in Cambodia, you’ll likely
The tourism department has a program in which families offer homestays.
The homes participating have a small
— and very subtle — sign. After much
searching, we found a home with a sign
and inquired about staying.
Due to annual flooding, all the dwellings along the Mekong are built on
stilts. Stairs lead to an open room under
come upon the Mekong
Discovery Trail. It isn’t
really a trail in the traditional sense, but a series of
eco-adventures to help promote tourism in this region.
It is great in concept, but
presently it’s a disorganized
mess. From the pamphlets
and web information we
could find, phone numbers
didn’t work, trails weren’t
marked, and now the official
website is down, with the
link instead taking you to
tourismcambodia.com.
So, if you are trying to plan
a trip in advance or book a
trip with a tour company,
double check your sources
and try to find someone who
has recently used the guide
service or tour company. Or
wing it like we did!
a thatched roof. The floor was made up
of woven bamboo mats.
We parked our bikes below and were
shown our sleeping area, a corner of the
great room partitioned with sheets. It
was stiflingly hot, and we both knew we
wouldn’t sleep. With a combination of
hand waving and sign language, we communicated that we’d like to set up our
tent outside instead. Why anyone would
want to sleep on the ground with the
pigs, snakes, and bugs was beyond comprehension. They reluctantly agreed.
But before we could set up our tent,
the head of the village came by and
indicated it was dangerous to sleep
outside and we’d have to sleep upstairs.
I was hot and cranky and hungry.
“Fine. We won’t stay here then,” I
grumbled.
We got on our bikes. The family was
obviously upset. They were losing out
on much-needed income.
Not more than 300 meters down the
little dirt road, we found an opening near
the river where we could pitch our tent. I
had it nearly set up when a woman came
over and with a stern look and a wag of
her finger indicated we couldn’t camp
there. We were to follow her, and she’d
take us to a place to stay. Exhausted, hungry, and annoyed, we walked our bikes
slowly behind her and finally arrived at
the house we’d just left — awkward.
Kat went down to the river to wash
up, and I carried our gear up the stairs
and moved into our hot and humid corner. This was going to be a long night.
Opposite our sleeping space was
Grandma’s corner. Her few remaining
black-stained teeth and bright red-orange lips pegged her as a long-time betel chewer. I watched as she extracted a
huge wad of betel from her mouth, took
a large glug of water, swished and spit
a stream of brown/orange discharge
straight into the air. It disappeared
through the porous floor.
There was a two-second pause, and a
voice from below said, “What was that?”
It was Kat. She had returned from
the river’s edge and was hanging up her
towel.
A look of horror flashed on our host’s
face as she realized that her mother had
just spat on their guest.
After cleaning herself off, Kat arrived
in the doorway. There was a long, silent,
awkward pause. I didn’t know what to
do or say. Sure, this woman’s mother
had spat on my wife, but that was an
accident. We had initially turned down
their space for us in their home, and
instead we had asked to pitch our tent
where the pigs normally sleep. What
message had that sent?
Grandma had her head down, avoid-
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31
Nanning
Hanoi
Haiphong
LAOS
Gulf of
Tonkin
Vientiane
ko
n
g
VIETNAM
THAILAND
Ubon
Ratchathani
Da Nang
Pakse
Bolaven
Plateau
Wat Phu
CAMBODIA
Kampong
Cham
Kratie
Phnom Penh
Ho Chi Minh City
S
T
OU
0
H
CH
IN
A
SE
A
Miles
100
200
ing, and floating our bikes down the
Mekong, we pedaled into Phnom Penh
during rush hour traffic. It was crazy,
noisy, and chaotic. We spent four days
exploring the city before finally saying
goodbye to the Mekong. Its course
winds southeast into Vietnam and the
Mekong Delta, whereas ours turned
south to the Gulf of Thailand and then
northwest back to Bangkok.
When I think back on our time along
the Mekong, my mind keeps revisiting an
encounter with a busload of Australians.
We were visiting the 100-pillar pagoda in Sambor when we were approached
by some men who were outside a tour
bus. They looked Cambodian but had
thick Australian accents.
This was no ordinary tourist trip. The
bus was filled with native Cambodians
who had all fled the terror of the Khmer
Rouge back in the late 70s. They all attended the same temple in Sydney. The
group had pooled their money and filled
the bus with food and medical supplies.
They were traveling around to each
other’s home villages and distributing
the materials. For many of them, this
was their first visit back to Cambodia.
We asked them what it was like to come
back. One man tried to answer, but tears
soon choked him up and he excused
himself.
What an extraordinary journey: It
was one of the few times in my life that
I wished I could have stopped riding my
bike and boarded a bus. And, truth be
told, we could have. We met the group
again in Kratie outside a hotel where
they were packing up their bus. Some of
the women came over and gave us gifts
of fruit, snacks, and bottles of water. We
laughed and talked with the group until
it was time for them all to board. As the
bus pulled away, I turned to Kat and said,
“If we had asked to join them, if only
for a couple of days, they would have
said yes. We could have left our bikes in
Kratie and found a way to return.”
It was a moment in time I’d like to
revisit, allowing myself just 30 more
seconds and a chance to change the
course of a journey.
Then I recall that we only met them
because of another choice we made —
to slow down and make our way along
an unknown path less traveled. It was a
decision that transformed a portion of
our journey that we had initially dreaded
into a treasure of travel memories.
Willie Weir is a contributing writer for Adventure
Cyclist. He has learned that slowing down is not a
sign of aging, but the bedrock of wisdom.
Chatting with school children along the Mekong in Cambodia.
32
GLEN PAWELSKI
CHINA
Me
ing eye contact. Our host was looking
out the window toward the river.
I felt ashamed. I wanted to make it
alright, but I was socially paralyzed.
Kat broke the silence.
She walked over to our host, pointed out the window toward the bright
orange glow of the sunset over the Mekong, smiled, and said, “You live here.
This is one of the most beautiful places
I’ve ever seen. Thank you.”
The woman didn’t understand a single word Kat spoke. But Kat’s emotion
said it all, and a smile swept over our
host’s face. I swore I saw a mischievous
grin on Grandma’s face as well.
It was by far the hottest night of our
long journey, but we both slept well.
The closer we got to Phnom Penh,
the wider the roads got. We chose the
side of the Mekong that had the smallest road. “Traffic” now included bicycles, scooters, oxcarts, motorcycles, and
the occasional car. It was more chaotic
than the small paths up north, but it
was a delightful chaos. I declared one
stretch “The Day of a Thousand Hellos”
because that is the number of times I
answered back to someone greeting us
from the side of the road.
We stopped frequently for refreshing
glasses of sugar cane-juice squeezed
fresh by women with muscular arms
who passed the stalks of cane repeatedly through a manual press (they have
gas-powered presses in the big city).
I asked to have a go at one stop, and I
soon learned that cycling does nothing
to prepare you for a job as a cane juicer.
We stayed in hotels in the cities of
Kratie and Kampong Chan, wandering
the streets late into the cooler evenings.
After two weeks of pedaling, walk-
Headed for the heart of the redwoods.
Then decided to seek out a vineyard
worth a second visit. This one’s now
marked as a favorite.
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33
The Mystery of Mike Rust
A pioneering mountain biker vanishes into thin air,
leaving a few troubling clues behind — but no answers
by Dan D’Ambrosio
F
ive years after he disappeared
near Saguache, Colorado, on
March 31, 2009, Mike Rust’s
family still does not know what
happened to him. They’re certain he is
dead and that foul play was involved,
but Rust has simply vanished into the
vast emptiness of Colorado’s San Luis
Valley, where he had retreated to the
isolation of 80 acres of land and a ramshackle house he built himself.
Rust was a pioneer of mountain
biking, helping to establish the sport in
Colorado at the same time it was gaining a pedal-hold in California. Together
with a partner, Don McClung, Rust
started Colorado Cyclery in Crested
Butte in 1985, moving to Salida in 1986
where the business quickly became
a magnet for the growing legions of
mountain biking enthusiasts.
Rust’s older brother Paul, the second
of seven children that included six
brothers (Mike was number four), remembers joining Mike for an epic ride
to the top of Monarch Pass, then back
down to Salida on a hiking trail that had
never been biked.
“It was a blast. In those early days,
nobody had done it,” Paul Rust said.
Paul also remembers his brother’s
approach to business.
“It was great. They couldn’t keep up,”
he said. “If you ordered a bike from them,
you might get that bike in a few months
or you might see it by the end of the year.
Their priority was riding. Selling bikes
helped pay the rent, but if they had the
rent paid, the priority was riding.”
Mike Rust was inducted into the
Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in Crested
Butte in 1991, which notes his cycling
experiences were very influential on
the early Crested Butte mountain bike
scene “both in the technical and com-
A heart-breaking event
At the height of his success with
Colorado Cyclery, Mike Rust checked
out and moved to his 80 acres outside
of Saguache, using the proceeds from
the sale of his business, which mystified
some people but not his brother Paul.
“Salida got too civilized for him —
too expensive, too many people. It just
got too crowded,” Paul said. “He wanted
out of that. He wanted to be way out
where people couldn’t find him.”
His brother was a loner, Paul said, yet
“great in a social setting.”
“All my brothers, we all liked a good
time,” Paul said. “When my brothers
and I got together, we’d ride bikes, go
skiing, and party until we passed out at
night. It was great, but Mike liked his
own company. He was very comfortable
in his own company.”
Mike Rust’s remaining siblings — two
other brothers have died — created a
website, missingmikerust.com, where
they are offering a $25,000 reward for
information about Rust’s disappearance
or whereabouts.
“Mike’s family needs closure in this
case — they need to know what happened to Mike, and they want to lay his
body to rest,” the website says. “Imagine
what it’s like to lose a family member
and not to know what happened to
them. It’s a heart-breaking event. If
you know what happened to Mike Rust
or can help searchers locate his body,
please tell his family.”
Rust, 56 years old when he disappeared, bore a passing resemblance to
Paul Newman, with piercing blue eyes
and handsome chiseled features. In
a large black and white photo of him
on the website, he leans against the
seat of a dirt bike — Rust also loved
motorcycles — wearing a worn leather
jacket and a disarming smile, his long
silver hair uncombed and unruly. In
two more color photos taken on his
property, Rust, still obviously in riding
shape, conveys the independent, unconventional spirit that took him to the
solitary life he was living in the sparsely
populated expanse of western Colorado.
Something bad going on
Also a lifelong cyclist, Paul Rust owns
Rocky Mountain High Wheelers in
Colorado Springs, making state-of-the-art
WARD LEARNED THAT
RUST IS NOT THE ONLY
PERSON WHO HAS
DISAPPEARED IN THE
VALLEY. THERE ARE
MORE THAN A DOZEN
UNSOLVED CASES.
high wheelers that he and his brothers
rode across Ireland as well as in
Colorado’s “Ride the Rockies” annual tour.
“I’ve never been interested in making old bicycles,” Paul said. “They’re
meant to be brand new, with chromoly
frames and aluminum wheels. They’re
strong and lightweight. They just happen to have a large wheel up front and a
small wheel in back.”
Paul remembers the phone call he
received from Mike’s girlfriend on the
night of March 31, 2009. She said she
had talked to Mike earlier in the day
but now couldn’t reach him. She was
worried.
“I said there’s nothing I can do about
it now. It’s dark,” Paul remembered.
“Mike’s a big boy. He can take care of
himself.”
When Mike’s girlfriend called the
next morning to say she had been to his
place and he was nowhere to be found,
and that there were groceries on the
floor, Paul said he would be right down.
He was joined by his younger brother
Marty, who had driven the 160 miles to
Mike’s property the night before, arriving at midnight.
Paul and Marty started going
through Mike’s things, looking for
clues, checking out tracks left around
the isolated property. Mike always had
motorcycles around the place.
“We jumped on the motorcycles and
started following tracks,” Paul Rust said.
“We followed tracks for two days, trying
to put two and two together. By the
second day, we decided we’d better call
the police. He was missing. Something
bad happened.”
In fact, Paul was already convinced
his brother was dead.
“I thought right away by the second day that he was dead somewhere
because it was Mike,” Paul said. “He was
so strong-willed and tough. There’s no
way somebody could have held him. I
knew something bad was going on.”
Once the brothers reported Mike
Rust missing, the authorities mounted
an impressive search for him. Paul said
the National Guard came out. There
were hundreds of people involved,
some with dogs, some on horseback, as
well as two Blackhawk helicopters that
searched for an entire day with the help
of a C-130 refueler.
“We had a lot of resources in the first
two weeks,” Paul said. “When we came
up with nothing, I knew he had been
disposed of rather efficiently.”
The only clues were discovered by
one of the dog handlers, who found
Mike Rust’s bloody vest on the ground,
along with a pistol butt, about three
miles from his house on a dirt road
about a half-mile off the highway. Rust’s
motorcycle was found a month later,
20 miles away, dumped down a steep
incline in the remote country. Nothing
else has been found.
Not the running kind
Paul Rust has formulated a scenario
MAP: MARTHA BOST WICK
petitive arenas.”
“Mike’s first Pearl Pass Tour was in
1980,” the Hall of Fame website says.
“He carried his own gear to Aspen,
sleeping bag and all, and rode back to
Crested Butte the following day over
East Maroon Pass on his Littlejohn
framed bicycle.”
Incredibly, the Mountain Bike Hall
of Fame does not acknowledge Rust’s
disappearance, ending its short biography of him by saying, “Currently Mike
resides in the sleepy community of
Saguache, Colorado.”
The Passion of Cycling:
• Tests of today’s best bikes
• Rides off the beaten path
• Technical articles
• Cycling history
4x year, $ 36
www.bikequarterly.com
36
whoever had broken into his house,
Paul doesn’t have a problem picturing
what happened next.
“He was kind of a hothead,” he said.
“It was easy for him to get mad, and he
was never apprehensive about letting
you know it. He was not afraid of a fight
and never backed down. He just wasn’t
the running kind. I can say that about
all my brothers.”
A great soul
Nathan Ward grew up in Salida in a
house just four blocks from Colorado
Cyclery. When he was in high school,
Ward knew Mike Rust and his partner,
although not well. Ward grew up to be
a bicycle adventurer, writing regularly
for Adventure Cyclist, and in February
2013, he and several partners started an
independent film company called Grit
and Thistle Film Co.
Grit and Thistle’s latest effort is a
film about Mike Rust called “The Rider
and the Wolf.”
“This is a feature film, by far the
biggest project we’ve ever done,” Ward
said. “All of our actors and bike talents
are volunteers. Even Mike’s family and
friends helped us out by working for
free and volunteering.”
Ward said the film is
“90 percent pure documentary,” but does include
a re-enactment of the last
hour of Rust’s life based
on the police report and
“stuff we found out afterwards.”
“We re-created it using
his brothers as the bad
guys, which is odd,” Ward
said. “There are two bad
guys in the film. No one
knows, it could have been
one, it could have been
four.”
As a native of Salida,
Ward is familiar with the
desolate valley where Rust had chosen
to retreat to his 80 acres and handbuilt
home.
“There are no building inspectors.
You can do anything you want,” Ward
said. “It’s a land of independent people,
armed to the teeth, who are known
to shoot at cops if they come on their
property. This is the cultural setting.
The geographical setting is stunningly
beautiful. You can see 70 miles as the
crow flies. There are big peaks, big sky,
and lots and lots of open space.”
Ward learned that Rust is not the
only person who has disappeared in
the valley. There are more than a dozen
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE FAMILY OF MIKE RUST
of his brother’s final hours in his own
head. He figures Mike was robbed by
somebody who had been in his house
before and knew he had guns.
“Any detective will tell you 90 percent
of the time robberies are committed
by somebody who’s been
there before,” Paul said.
“I think that person came
back with a couple of
other people. ‘Hey, I know
someone who lives way
out. I know he has some
guns in there.’ That’s what
they were after.”
Paul sees his brother
arriving home from a
grocery trip to Saguache
and dropping his groceries on the floor when he
realized someone had
broken into his home.
“He was very observant. Coming in he knew
somebody was there,”
Paul said. “He knew somebody took his
pistol, which was my brother Joe’s gun
and had sentimental value. That’s probably what enraged him. He probably
took off and started following tracks,
eventually catching up with them.”
Paul Rust doesn’t think his brother
had a gun with him when he chased
after the thieves because all of his other
guns were accounted for in the house.
One of Mike’s best friends in the valley
is a private detective who kept a collection of guns at Mike’s house and all
were still there.
“He could have taken a gun with him
but he probably wasn’t thinking,” Paul
said.
Once his brother caught up with
37
Final Mile
At journey’s end
THE LAST
CAMP
STORY BY ZAND B. MARTIN
➺ THERE is cleaning to be done.
The bags have to be emptied out and
packed anew, breaking set habits; calls
need to be made and arrangements
confirmed. Trash will be consolidated
and fuel shuttled off, and all things will
be separated and divorced from their
expedition-spun meanings. Carbon
rasped from stove legs will stain fingers,
and once-abandoned living spaces will
sprout drying lines and sundered stacks
of 18-gallon blue plastic bins, ready to
absorb the detritus of endeavor. Lists
and receipts and maps and journals
will clutter a table beside cans of beer.
Reactionary maintenance will be
forgotten. In the rage of small
necessaries, the march of tasks
will weave through the great
thing just accomplished but
barely talked about. The goal
needs to be put to bed, silenced,
zip-tied to shattering
conclusion.
But that is tomorrow.
Tonight those thoughts
flutter, but forwards
is balanced with
backwards, and the
reel of recognition
38
has begun to play. What might not
have seemed real that morning, or the
many mornings before, has come to
pass. The trip is over, you did it, you’re
finished. A short descent is all that’s
left. All the structures and efforts up
to this point break down tomorrow as
their meaning fades. Tonight — the
last camp — is what stands in the place
of transition from peaks painted with
snow reflecting sunlight to unwanted
complexity over the threshold.
For ours, we find a field in a place
more telling of physical transition
than temporal. The last sloping spurs
of the Tien Shan diminish here and
fade into union with the grass ocean of
the Kazakh steppe. Satisfied with our
progress, we stop for the night. It is
singularly planar in geometric contrast
to the low mountains behind. Horsemen
wander the periphery of our tired vision,
so recently alert, and now going out of
focus as nylon sprouts mirror shapes one
final time. The riders wander to unseen
homes as habits take hold. As the day
considers ending, a solar haze paints
the steppe in mirage, a bizarre
fata morgana unusual in the chill
of March. The haze melts into
alpenglow as dinner comes
ready, telling of the shifting
geography and season. As
water boils, flocks flow around
scrub knolls told not by
sight but by the laziness of
massed sheep, and ingrained
systems click forward in their
ordained and rehearsed steps.
It’s a symphony of piles, stacks,
grease, grit, and noodles.
Last camps are places of rushed
preparation and excitement for re-entry
into that more harsh environment,
but also of last quiet, last meal (if you
planned right), and last untroubled
laughter. The subtle temperature
fluctuation that in a few days’ time you
just won’t notice anymore. The empty
food bag and the empty fuel bottle; the
full memory card. The last camp is the
pivot on which the experience turns,
from internal to external; you will lose
yourself tomorrow so today look at the
peaks around you, at the river current
folding gently around the bend, at the
tanned cheeks and dirty hair of those
who lifted you to this point.
We barely noticed Kordai. The pass
did not shout with snow or tug on faded
clothes with switchbacks or tunnels.
It rose unobtrusively, populated by a
blended mélange of goats and sheep
and the occasional lonely fir. At the
tipping point, we paused for water
and handfuls of Iranian crackers and
candied almonds that had somehow
survived from Tashkent. Behind us
stretched the assembled ranges of
Asia, building south to the Himalayas,
and west to our genesis in Istanbul.
We moved east through Turkey, the
Caucasus, and Central Asia, focused less
on this cold season than on altitude and
biome. In Bukhara it was 60 degrees
and sunny, while the Black Sea coast
saw rain, Georgia snow, and Kyrgyzstan
avalanche and blizzard. The Trans-Ili
Alatau foothills here seem a diagram of
mountains and tell of winter in windloaded cornices desiccated by a snap of
longed-for spring.
PHOTOGR APHS BY Z AND B. MARTIN
The blur of habitual travel has
blended the days or weeks into a
rhythm of experience that has rolled
forward into boiling tea, clearing
hitches from cord, and storm-proofing
wet, packed-out boot socks without any
apparent input of energy or thought.
The utterly reliant machine we’ve
built is simple and beautiful, but it has
served its purpose and in the morning
will begin its last efforts. Tonight it has
found this lonely spot where simplicity
finds its last substantiation.
Accessing the next pass has been
habit and assumption. We’ve been
programmed for this step, and the next,
and the next. But there are no more
passes, only a downhill fade as we drop
trying to remember flight times and
jotted paths through urban mazes. In
its place is a sugar rush of excitement
and bad sleep, of staying up too late
because it doesn’t matter anymore. The
trained guilt evaporates. It is a time of
not changing socks or scrubbing the pot
with the attention it yesterday required,
of not shepherding battery life or the
last bit of cheese or oil or chocolate.
An empty pot usually signals the
retreat of the off-duty cook to softer,
warmer spaces. Tonight, elbow resting
on upturned bike, we linger and stare.
The light is magnificent, our muscles
tired. Two months before, we rolled
across the Galata Bridge and pulled up
in the square between the Yeni Cami
and the ferry dock. Asia lay just across
the water, and through the lens of
the Bosporus we could barely discern
the great landmass before us. Now, in
ending, we move plastic backgammon
pieces in practiced rhythm about the
inked triangles of a sewn cloth board
and consider the thing just ahead. It
would be a shame to make a mistake
now or to break the silence.
Ahead there is a vague guilt around
our deep desire for copious hot water,
or the stupid roadside joy of having
someone else cook our food for us
and owing them nothing but money.
We want to call our moms and check
our email. But somewhere there is the
harsh realization, not quite sunk in,
that the day after tomorrow will be just
another day. Someone will inevitably
look forward and remark on a return
to normality, to the “real world,” as if
the depth of connection possible in a
small team working hard in adverse
conditions in the out-of-doors is fake,
or meaning removed for its rarity. This
is what we did for 400,000 years.
The electric light on the horizon, the
imagined urbanity of congested land,
and the staccato sounds of gathering
engine brakes on a distant highway all
begin the process of waking us up to
the unreal world. There is an unhappy
cognizance around the realization of a
future memory. We recline and consider
our urbane future selves considering
this final moment of simple comfort. A
warm puffy jacket, simple food, a good
friend, a sunset outlining peaks, and
an evening with no agenda, no needs
but scrap paper and pen, a book, and a
sleeping bag. And still, between future
shocks, the sun sinks on the last camp
and makes beautiful the weary, happy,
knowing smiles of the stubbled and
tanned.
We pedal into Almaty at dusk after 11
hours in the saddle and 160 kilometers on
the road — our biggest day. With that, we
finished what we had set out to do: cycle
from Istanbul to Kazakhstan, a shade less
than 4,000 kilometers, in two months.
Through geographies sensible (snowbound mountain ranges, ancient rivers,
and inland seas) and not (jigsaw borders
and boundaries fortified in bureaucracy),
we moved east from the edge of Europe
to the center of Asia. We relied on the
generosity of peoples of steppe, desert,
and mountain, as well as scattered expats
and the high-tide traces of the great
Russian and Soviet empires. We beat the
streets of Almaty, “Fatherland of Apples,”
for bike boxes and the biggest bucket of
plov we could find.
The day would be a march of fools,
racing for a drab spot of asphalt in
an unknown city with cheap airfares.
Finding closure in a hotel parking lot
is difficult. Joy overwhelms thoughts of
sensible endings, and like so many trips
before, I look back to the night before,
to our real ending.
We revere last camps each time they
come, and so we set up just upstream,
just up valley, just out of town, halfafraid of this finality, of what it will
bring to us and our team. These points
come in succession and mark our real
ending in golden light.
Zand B. Martin is an explorer, teacher, and writer.
His first bike trip, “Silk Road in Winter,” took him
from Istanbul to Kazakhstan through occasionally
unfortunate weather. You can read more about his
travels at zandmartin.com.
39
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FOR A CHANCE TO WIN
Spread the joy of cycling and you could win some cool prizes
■ For each cyclist you refer to Adventure Cycling, you will
have one chance to win a Novara Ponderosa 27.5 valued
at more than $999. The winner will be drawn from all eligible members in January of 2015.
■ Each month, we’ll draw a mini-prize winner who will
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Designs, Cygolite, Osprey, and others.
n The more cyclists you refer, the more chances you
have to win!
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designed to spotlight these key supporters. Corporate Members are companies that believe in what we do and wish to provide additional assistance
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through a higher level of support. These corporate membership funds go
toward special projects and the creation of new programs. To learn more
about how your business can become a corporate supporter of Adventure
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GOLD
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SILVER
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www.TwoKnobbyTires.com
40
Cumberland Trail
Connection
Companions Wanted
AROUND THE WORLD I’m looking to see if
anyone is interested in an around-the-world
bike trip. I would love to put together a trip with
mostly cycling but possibly add off-bike activities
such as canoeing/kayaking and hiking. No set
routes in mind, except I would like to do the
Pan-American Highway and start from Alaska,
but I’m flexible. I’m restless and need to get out
on the road. I’m a 28-year-old male, will be mostly
camping, and generally keeping costs minimal.
Please send an email if interested or if you have
any ideas. [email protected]
PERTH TO SYDNEY Wildflowers and Wombats
Tour, a 4,000-kilometer, two-month trip from
Perth to Sydney, August 10-October 10, 2014. I
will be trying to average 100 kilometers per day
and take a couple days off per week (the first
week or two will be shorter). I’m a 52-year-old
Australian guy with more than 20 long distance
cycle tours done already. I’m planning to start the
trip on the Munda Biddi Trail from Mundaring
to Albany then continue across the Nullabor to
South Australia and New South Wales. The first
part of this trip is off road so a mountain bike or
larger-tired touring bike will be best. This is a
self-supporting tour and you will need to carry
your own camping gear, food, and water. I can
give you advice and mechanical assistance in this
area if you have not toured before. troppojeff@
gmail.com
CROSS COUNTRY We plan on leaving in late
August or September 1, 2014, from San Francisco
to cycle the Western Express and TransAmerica
Trail to Virginia. We’re looking for someone to
ride part or all of route with us. We’re hoping
to ride 75 to 125 miles each day with rest days
thrown in. [email protected]
TRANSAMERICA 64-year-old woman, young at
heart and healthy with lots of endurance, looking
to join group or individual to do the TransAm. I
can leave August 1, or after. 60-plus miles per day,
self-contained with some hotels. Excited for fun
exploring the U.S. [email protected]
PORTUGAL IN THE FALL Starting in Santiago,
Spain, south through Portugal to the southern
coast. Camping and self supported. 52-yearold fit female meandering 40 to 50 miles a day.
[email protected]
FATHER-SON EUROPE SUMMER RIDE I have
been touring in Europe for 20 years and last
year brought my eight-year-old son with me on
our tandem. I’m looking for another father-andson team who can ride at least 30 miles mostly
on bike trails in Europe. Must be patient to be
spending several hours a day riding. August 14-28
Providing partners for tours, domestic and abroad, since 1978
in Germany (mostly), Luxembourg, and France.
I’m the author of popular European touring
guide: Cycling Along Europe’s Rivers: Bicycle Touring
Made Easy and Affordable. [email protected]
THE BALKANS I’m an experienced cyclotourist
and Russian speaker looking for another intrepid
cyclist (mid-30s plus) for a three-week tour
through Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, and
Bosnia-Herzegovina. I’m planning to fly to Milan,
Italy, in mid-September then departing in early
October. Will average 40 to 45 miles a day with
overnights in B&Bs and sobe. I prefer a DC-area
resident so we can get acquainted prior to the
trip. [email protected]
GREAT DIVIDE Looking for a few riders to
enjoy the ride from Banff, Alberta, to Mexico.
Leaving Banff the last week of August to finish
in late September. If interested, email Merv.
[email protected]
GREAT DIVIDE Experienced and adventurous
fit female cyclotourist/hiker seeking optimistic
companions to join me on self-contained bike
journey on the Idaho Hot Springs/Great Divide
Route for three to five weeks leaving in July/
August 2014. Flexible about route, dates, mileage,
“must-sees,” and “must-dos.” Prefer mostly
camping, own cooking, and rare restaurants. Please
contact me if interested or for more information. I
reside in Colorado. [email protected]
HOT SPRINGS MOUNTAIN BIKE ROUTE At
62, I have just left the small solar business
I started in 1997 and a long tour is how I’ll
celebrate. My target is to ride the new Idaho Hot
Springs Mountain Bike Route. I expect to ride
out of Boise around July 27 or 28. I’m seeking
companions to provide mutual support and safety
on one or more of the singletrack sections. I’m
in good shape and not in a hurry. Last summer,
I rode from Durango, Colorado, to Moab, Utah,
via the San Juan Huts system with my 15-yearold son, and my last long (3,700-mile) tour was
in 1976. Dates, routes, and plans are all subject to
change as opportunities present themselves. Call
Allan at (505) 780-2738 or email.
[email protected]
COSTA RICA 2015 A group of up to 15 riders
plan a two-week trip from the Caribbean to the
Pacific in January 2015. Van supported, 30 miles per
day, hotel stays. Estimated cost $1,600 plus food and
hotel. Email for more information. We are TransAm
veterans (2013). [email protected]
CLIMATE RIDE/ TRIRI SEPTEMBER
ESCAPADE I’m seeking company for a Climate
Ride Independent Challenge. If you’re within
an approximate 80-kilometer/50 mile-radius of
Waukegan, Illinois, I’d love to have company for
all or part of a late-season round trip from the
Waukegan vicinity to Camby, Indiana, starting
September 8, 2014, for the Touring Ride in
Rural Indiana September Escapade (TRIRI SE),
which runs September 14-19. I’ll ride about 100
kilometers/62 miles per day, self-supported and
self-contained, using hotels and camping. I’m also
allowing for at least two rest days before and after
TRIRI SE. [email protected]
LOOP OUT OF LAS VEGAS I’m 73, an
experienced touring cyclist looking for one or
more riding partners. My plan is to leave Las
Vegas, bike through Reno on the way to Portland,
Oregon. Back south along the coast to San Jose,
then through Yosemite and Death Valley back
to Vegas. Rest days as needed, plus a few days
in Portland. 50 to 100 miles daily, camping as
required; otherwise motels. Thinking of a late
July/early August departure. 2,450 miles total —
about 30 riding days. My wife isn’t comfortable
about my riding solo, especially when it’ll be
pretty hot. I can deal with heat, but would like
the security of a riding partner or partners.
[email protected]
BRAZIL TO PERU Interoceanic Highway.
Come join me in this new South American
epic trip from São Paulo, Brazil, to Cusco, and
Lima, Peru, a journey of over 3,000 miles across
plains, through the Amazon basin, and over the
Andes. Leave late summer 2015 during their dry
season. Hoping to finish within 60 days. Highway
recently completed to provide first real road from
the Amazon to Peru. [email protected]
GRAND CANYON TO AUSTIN September
2014. I’m a 33-year-old male experienced cycle
commuter but fairly new to touring. I’m planning
to ride from Cedar City, Utah, to Austin, Texas,
this fall using the Grand Canyon Connector and
Southern Tier routes. Looking for anyone who
wants to join me on an epic adventure through
what I consider the most beautiful part of our
country. No real timetable for how long it will
take but I plan on carrying a lot of weight (extra
water through the desert), so anywhere from 40
to 70 miles a day (on average) sounds reasonable.
[email protected]
Adventure Cycling Association assumes, but cannot verify, that the persons above are truthfully
representing themselves. Ads are free to Adventure
Cycling members. You can see more ads and post
them at adventurecycling.org/adventure-cyclist/
companions-wanted or send them to Adventure
Cyclist, P.O. Box 8308, Missoula, MT 59807.
41
Road Test
TERN ECLIPSE S18
BY NICK LEGAN
➺ NOT ALL ADVENTURE riding takes
place on remote or desolate roads.
Although most of us conjure images of
a winding tarmac heaven or a beautiful
ribbon of dirt when the word comes
up, many of us actually live in urban
areas. So while the bliss of conquering a
mountain pass is satisfying, sometimes
the flow of riding in traffic can get the
endorphins coursing through your veins
in a short 20-minute ride.
For those in the especially cramped
quarters of a major metropolis, cycling
is a great transportation solution.
A folding bicycle can help justify a
designated commuter/grocery-getter
machine if you happen to pay through
the nose for the square footage in
which you reside. It’s also easier on the
other end of your commute, making
it possible to take your bike into your
office instead of relying on the best that
the lock industry offers to ensure your
bike’s safety.
BACKGROUND
Tern made a splash in the world
of folding bikes several years ago.
In fact this is only the company’s
third model year. Of course, Tern is
by no means the only folding bike
manufacturer. Moulton, Bike Friday,
Dahon, and Brompton are all players
in the folding bike market. While Bike
Friday produces mostly made-to-order
travel bikes, Brompton goes after the
tweed set and Moulton has a cult status
42
in some circles. Dahon is also very
popular and has a large variety of
models. Tern pushes an edgier take on
folding bikes. Ride quality and style are
Tern’s primary focus with folded size a
third priority.
ÜBER COMMUTER/LIMITED TOURER
As a commuting bike, the Eclipse
S18 ticks every box this reviewer has
when considering an urban bicycle.
Fenders? Yep. Lights? Check. Racks?
You bet. Reliable tires? Affirmative.
How about a kickstand? Why
not!
In fact, what’s most
impressive about the
Eclipse S18 is how
thoroughly Tern has
anticipated the needs of
a commuting cyclist.
They’ve even included
a comfy set of Ergon
grips with integrated
bar-ends and a
pump that’s hidden
in the seatpost.
Essentially you just
need to add a rider,
perhaps a pannier
and a spare tube to
the mix and you’re set.
As a touring bike, the
Tern has serious potential
but only for certain riders.
I like a bike with more cockpit
adjustability for long rides. I’m a
fairly average 5-feet, 10-inches tall, but
with a background in racing I like bikes
a bit longer than many do. With only
one size on offer, the Tern will either
fit you or it won’t. And if it doesn’t, you
don’t have many options to make it fit.
Because of the folding stem/handlebar
mast, bar height and reach is limited.
That said, the Andros stem fitted to
the Eclipse S18 is really slick. I couldn’t
stop playing with it when the bike first
arrived. It allows for height, reach, and
bar-angle adjustment with the flip of a
latch and two levers.
The Biologic Pump Post 2.0 seatpost
allows for an incredible range of height
adjustment so the Tern should easily fit
even fairly short riders. It’s on the taller
end of the spectrum that riders will
start to disagree with the ergonomics of
the Tern because the reach from saddle
to bar is fairly short.
The front and rear racks are sturdy
SPECIFICATIONS
TERN ECLIPSE S18
Price: $2,100 (as reviewed)
Sizes available: one size
Weight: 34.8 pounds (with quick
release pedals)
TEST BIKE MEASUREMENTS
1. Distance: Seatpost to
Handlebar: Min: 22.4 in Max:
28.7 in
2. Distance: Saddle to Pedal:
Min: 31.3 in Max: 41.3 in
3. Suggested Rider: 4’10” – 6’5”
4. Max Rider Weight: 254 lb.
5. Folding Size: 16.5 in x 35 in
x 29.9 in
6. Folding Time: 10 seconds
7. Frame: 7005-AL with
patented OCL Joint and Double
Truss
8. Fork: Aluminum 6061 with
rack and fender mounts
9. Rims: Kinetix Comp
10. Hubs: BioLogic Joule 3
dynamo disc (front), Kinetix
Pro, sealed cartridge bearings,
disc (rear)
20. Stem: Andros 3Djust
21. Handlebar: Kinetix Pro,
double-butted 7050-AL
22. Headset: Flux Pro
23. Saddle: BioLogic Phia
11. Tires: Schwalbe Big Apple
GEARING IN INCHES
12. Bottom bracket: Cartridge,
sealed bearings
11109.1 74.2
13. Crankset: FSA Vero
compact, 50/34T
12100.0 68.0
14. Cassette: Shimano 9 spd,
11-32T
1675.0 51.0
15. Brake levers: Avid FR5
2157.1 38.9
16. Shift levers: SRAM trigger,
2 x 9 spd
17. Brake calipers: Avid BB7
cable-actuated discs
18. Pedals: MKS EZY QR
19. Seat post: BioLogic
PostPump 2.0
5034
1485.7 58.3
1866.7 45.3
2450.0 34.0
2842.9 29.1
3237.5 25.5
Contact: Tern Bicycles,
ternbicycles.com
models and I wouldn’t hesitate to
use them for an extended tour. In
fact, because of the small wheel size,
the center of gravity of the bike is
extremely low, making for great
stability.
As for gearing, consider the effect of
the small wheels before scoffing at the
double chainring setup on the Tern.
The gearing is definitely biased toward
the hill-crawler side of the spectrum,
meaning that a loaded bike would still
make for miles of smiles. Although I’m
more accustomed to Shimano shifters,
the SRAM X7 mountain bike thumb
shifters and their associated derailers
shifted well both on the FSA crank and
rear SRAM cassette.
The stoppers on the Eclipse S18
are Avid BB7 mechanical disc brakes,
a personal favorite thanks to the easy
setup, adjustability, and reliability.
While they don’t self-adjust for pad
wear like a set of hydraulic disc brakes,
mechanical disc brakes certainly have a
place in the world. Many long-distance
riders prefer them because they are
field serviceable.
Other nice component selections
include the dynamo front hub that
powers front and rear lights. This is a
very reliable route to take as it means
you’ll never have to worry about
charging your lights. Schwalbe’s Big
Apple tires roll extremely well while
providing excellent puncture resistance.
One small miss for this reviewer
were the stock pedals. The quill-style
platforms have the added value that
they are removable without tools, but
the shape of them left me wanting
something more substantial. This may
be nitpicky, as it’s easily remedied and
the stock pedals do help in tight spaces
or when you’re storing your bike on a
boat, in a car, or a tiny apartment.
RIDE QUALITY
With the Eclispe S18, Tern nailed
its design priorities of “a big ride”
and an attractive bicycle. The Tern
rode exceptionally well with neutral
handling, even with a pannier or two
on board. At times I would forget that I
was riding smaller wheels.
43
Life Member Profile
Catherine Walker and David Fuqua
STORY BY ALEX STRICKLAND
➺ WHEN Catherine Walker met
“WHEN YOU’RE
ACTUALLY ON THE
ROAD PEDALING, YOU
DON’T TALK MUCH. I
LIKE THE ALONENESS
OF RIDING, BEING
ALONE TOGETHER.
BUT IN CAMP, IT’S
‘TELL ME ABOUT YOUR
DAY’ AND ‘WHAT DID
YOU NOTICE?’”
44
her future husband, David Fuqua,
in 1994, she hadn’t been on a bike
in years. Sure, there was the old
Peugot in college to get around the
University of Washington’s sprawling
campus and some tandem racing with
a former flame, but as with so many
bike-mad kids, two-wheeled travel
had fallen by the wayside with the
arrival of a driver’s license and the
prom.
So when David, an avid cyclist,
suggested the two ride across
Washington as part of an American
Lung Association group not long after
they met, there was lots to do.
“It was my first touring ride, and
it was across the state,” Walker said.
“Luckily, David had done lots of longer
rides like RamRod (Ride Around
Mount Rainier in One Day) and was
diligent about training, so he got us
trained up.”
The couple was married two years
later and began amassing a resumé of
cycling trips that included Adventure
Cycling-led tours and then, in 2004, a
ride across the country from Seattle
to Washington, DC, to celebrate
Catherine’s 50th birthday.
“It was a paradox,” Catherine said
about riding from coast to coast.
“There’s this relatively slow mode of
travel on the bike. And yet we did it in
48 days — with quite a few 100-mile
days — so it’s not like you have a lot of
time to sightsee.”
The cross-country ride, like the
couple’s other regional tours, was done
as part of a group, which allowed David
and Catherine to enjoy the trip support
and camaraderie around camp that
they most relish about bicycle travel.
“We like to be out there with other
people,” Catherine said. “When you’re
actually on the road pedaling, you don’t
talk much. I like the aloneness of the
riding, being alone together. But in the
camp it’s ‘Tell me about your day’ and
‘What did you notice?’”
Over the years, Catherine and David
have noticed plenty and collected
fond memories from their many rides,
including the one that prompted them
to join Adventure Cycling back in 1995.
“We joined to go on a Great Divide
trip through Montana in the fall of
’95, and at the time we were building a
house here in Seattle,” Catherine said.
“My clearest memory is pulling into
these tiny towns and searching for the
nearest pay phone to call the architect
and the contractor because there was
always something going on.”
With that introduction — assisted
by David’s familiarity with the
organization from riding across
the country in 1987 when it was
still Bikecentennial — Catherine’s
relationship with Adventure Cycling
only grew over the years. First, she
PHOTOGR APH COURTESY OF DAVID FUQUA
REI exec and furniture maker still
finding time for the ‘magic’ of tours
LIFE MEMBERSHIP
A lifetime of benefits and long-term support for bicycle travel.
Of course, with only one size
offered, the geometry isn’t optimized
for riders both big and small. But the
Tern delivers good, middle-of-the-road
handling that made evading potholes
easy without requiring constant rider
input to keep the bike on a heading.
Thanks to the wide tires, the ride
was nice and smooth. If you want a
racier feel, narrower tires would help,
but that would be missing the point of
this bike. It’s meant to be robust — a
sort of apocalypse bike for the urban
jungle.
GREG SIPLE
Funds from the Life Membership program
are put into a special account to provide
long-term support for Adventure Cycling
Association. In the past, these funds
have helped us purchase and update our
headquarters building, saving us thousands
of dollars in interest payments.
If bicycle travel is an important part of
your life, please consider making a lifetime
commitment by joining as an Adventure
Cycling Life Member. To find out more, visit
adventurecycling.org/membership or give
Julie Huck a call at (800) 755-2453 x 214.
Thanks to these new life members who
joined with their support since March:
• Bruce D Adams Jr., Stockton, CA
• Michele Baber, West Chester, OH
• Michael Barry & Jessica Mattia-Barry,
Tucson, AZ
• Ken Berger, Cincinnati, OH
• Glenn & Donna Boutilier, Cincinnati, OH
• Jeff Crouse, APO, AE
• Kim D’auria-Vazira, DPO, AE
• Mike Dillon, Los Gatos, CA
• William M Doumas, Tucson, AZ
joined the board of directors for
Recreation Equipment, Inc. (REI)
with Angel Rodriguez, who also
served on the Adventure Cycling
board. Then she and David signed up
for tour after tour, traveling through
the red rock canyons of Utah and
mountains of Montana. They always
found time for a trip or two each year
despite increasing demands on their
schedules, which were brought on in
part by Catherine’s position as senior
vice president and general counsel at
REI.
As the years and the trips grew in
number, Catherine and David became
interested in life membership with
Adventure Cycling. “I’m a joiner. If I
like an organization and believe in it, I
might as well support it at a leadership
level,” Catherine said. “Besides, it’s one
less thing to remember each year! Plus
there’s the low-hassle factor. We don’t
have to worry about renewing,” she
said.
That gives the couple more time
to dream up future trips ranging
from riding Europe for the first time
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 43
TERN ECLIPSE S18
CONCLUSION
• Maryanne Gallagher, Gill, MA
• Langston J Goree, New York, NY
• Sigrid C. Haines, Gaithersburg, MD
• John & Sarah Holman, Morristown, NJ
• Krrish Jiwan, Pharr, TX
• John Mielnik, Roselle, IL
• Zane Jenkins Siple, Lolo, MT
• David A. Waters, Milwaukee, WI
— “France, Italy, or Mallorca” — to
simply committing to at least one tour
each year with Adventure Cycling.
The couple also talks about making
another cross-country trip, this
time at a leisurely pace and with the
flexibility to rent a car or take a train
through sections they decide not to
ride. “No plans, no schedule, nothing,”
she said.
Regardless of their route, it’s
unlikely you’ll see Catherine and
David pulling their bikes up to a
hotel anytime soon. They prefer the
communal atmosphere of camping to
the indoor amenities — and isolation —
of a hotel room.
“Even though we’re older now and
it’s getting harder to sleep on the
ground, it’s hard to imagine going to
hotels,” Catherine said. “We’d miss that
community piece of touring — hanging
out and getting to know each other in a
little village of tents. There’s something
really magical about that.”
Alex Strickland is Adventure Cyclist’s Managing
Editor.
As a commuter bike, especially for
someone with limited space at home or
at the office, the Tern Eclipse S18 is an
exceptional machine. It’s ready to roll
right off the showroom floor. At $2,100
the S18 isn’t inexpensive, but consider
that you’re buying a fully equipped
bike. Brand-name accessories like the
dynamo-powered lights, racks, fenders,
an integrated pump, Ergon grips,
Schwalbe tires, etc., don’t come cheap.
The Tern is a better tool for the
urban warrior than for the backroad
meanderer though. Its somewhat
limiting size will keep some touring
cyclists from using it on multi-day
jaunts. Another detail that limits the
range of the bike is the single water
bottle cage mount.
More to the urban assault point,
the low-key gray paint, mostly black
running gear, and the gray colormatched 24-inch rims kept me flying
under the radar, nice for urban settings
where flash can lead to theft. I quite
like the aesthetics of the Tern.
This bike is best suited for riders
under six feet tall or those who like
an especially upright position and are
looking for a ready-made commuter
bike to squeeze into their apartment. As
such, the Eclipse S18 is sure to please.
Nick Legan lives in Boulder, Colorado, but firmly
believes that adventure is a state of mind and has
little to do with geography. As a former pro cycling
team mechanic, he’s seen parking lots the world over
and a few great roads along the way.
45
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Rick Bruner. Phone/fax: (509) 493-4930, Email:
[email protected].
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47
Market Place
continued
THE MYSTERY OF MIKE RUST
unsolved cases.
“I’m sure statistically almost everyone is a good person. We don’t want
to give the county a bad name,” Ward
said. “But, yeah, you could get killed. It
happens. That area is the perfect place
to hide a body. People from out of the
area go there to hide bodies. There are
hundreds of miles of back roads with
hardly any people or law and lots of
mine shafts.”
Covering about 4,000 square miles,
the San Luis Valley has only about
6,000 residents in eight small communities and just eight law enforcement
officers, according to Ward.
“The law doesn’t have the resources
whatsoever to cover an area that size,”
Ward said.
Ward talked to some of the law
enforcement officers who described
driving, “running lights,” for 45 minutes
before they get to the scene of a shooting or domestic violence, and when
they get there, they’re alone.
ROAD TEST - AZUB SIX
distracting noises from Azub’s chain
management system.
If you’re just getting into
recumbents, the Six isn’t a bad choice
for a first bike. The riding position
isn’t too extreme, the bottom bracket
is pretty much even with the seat
height, and the seat isn’t as laid back as
a high-performance bike. Low-speed
handling is also outstanding and very
user friendly. This is very important on
a touring bike that may be trundling up
mountain roads with a full load at little
more than walking pace.
The Six’s performance won’t
disappoint more veteran riders
either. This is by no means a racer,
but the stiff frame and hardshell seat
minimize any power loss and help this
Azub fly along. If you order it with
just the rear rack and use some faster
tires, it would fit right in on weekend
group rides.
I was obviously quite impressed
with the Six, but of course no bike
is perfect. When Azub first started
48
“There’s no backup. That’s another
45 minutes away,” Ward said. “There
has been criticism for not attacking
these problems, but they don’t have the
resources to do it.”
Paul Rust said he never stops thinking about his brother’s disappearance,
but “it doesn’t run my life, I’m not
obsessed by it.” Paul said his brother has
friends who have vowed to never stop
searching, but he believes the case will
only be solved if someone’s conscience
forces them to talk.
“If we were going to find him, the
bones would have surfaced by now,”
Paul said.
In the meantime, Paul remembers
the “great soul” his brother was.
“He was somebody you would have
wanted to cross the country with 100
or 200 years ago in a wagon,” he said.
“Lewis and Clark would have liked to
have had him along for the trip.”
Dan D’Ambrosio is a staff writer covering business for
the Burlington Free Press in Burlington, Vermont.
making a name for themselves, it was
as a lower-cost alternative to other
hard-core touring recumbents from
companies such as HPVelotechnik.
This is no longer the case. The Six
starts out at $3,000 but almost no
one orders it that way. I spoke to
a few dealers and more common
configurations cost somewhere in
range of $3,500 to 4,000. You can
easily drop five or six grand on one if
you go crazy with options. Spending
that much on your bike may be worth
it in the long run, but it can really cut
into your travel budget.
That said, you are buying a bit more
personality. The Azub Six isn’t only
one of the most capable touring
recumbents in the world, it is also
endlessly customizable, comes from
a great company with incredible
knowledge, and is rare enough that
you’re not likely to encounter another
one.
Bryan Ball is the managing editor of ’BentRider
Online (bentrideronline.com).
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RATE: $115 for the first 30 words, $2 for each additional word.
For more information, please contact Rick Bruner at phone/fax:
(509) 493-4930, email: [email protected].
ACCOMMODATIONS
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at $45/night. Camping Available. Shuttles Available.
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BICYCLE TOURING GEAR
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Q-CADDY BICYCLE CUE SHEET HOLDER
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BIKE SHOPS
16TH ANNUAL TANDEM WEEKEND Sept 5-6-7,
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FOOD
TONASKET NATURAL FOODS — For you riders
on the Northern Tier route and Okanogan Valley
make sure to stop at the Tonasket Natural Foods
Co-op for all natural and organic food, produce,
coffee. Great lunches at our deli. Free wifi, 21
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tonasketcoop.com.
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CROATIA BY BIKE AND BOAT This is absolutely
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is outfitted with all the necessary comforts,
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TOPBICYCLE TOURS IN CENTRAL EUROPE — 7to 10-day self-guided and guided cycling vacations.
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Quality bike rental available. www.topbicycle.
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SELF-GUIDED CYCLING TRIPS IN ITALY AND
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Ride with us on the best rental bikes in Europe,
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CYCLE ACROSS AUSTRALIA Bicycle the
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PEDAL AND SEA ADVENTURES We’re a
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NORTH AMERICAN TOURS & EVENTS
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com, 402-499-0874.
PAC TOUR Ride Across America Fast. Join
Transcontinental Record Holders Lon Haldeman
& Susan Notorangelo for your cycling adventures
from 7 to 30 days. Specializing in Training
Camps, Historic Route 66, Rural Wisconsin,
Eastern Mountains, Peru, Africa, and over 80
cross-country events since 1981. PAC Tour: www.
pactour.com, 262-736-2453.
WOMEN ONLY BIKE TOURS For all ages and
abilities. Fully supported, inn-to-inn, bike path
& road tours. Cross-country, National Parks,
Europe & more. Bicycle workshops, wine tasting,
yoga. Call for free catalog. 800-247-1444, www.
womantours.com.
CANDISC The “Flyway Byway” Tour will cycle
the unspoiled Missouri River and prairie pothole
region where teeming flocks of waterfowl have
gathered for untold centuries. In Steele, stand
beside the world’s largest Sandhill Crane rising
40 feet high on the prairie. Experience North
Dakota’s unique German-Russian Heritage
including the nationally historic beautiful Gothicstyle St. Mary’s Church and Iron Cross Cemetery
at Hague and the breathtaking early-1900s church
of Saints Peter and Paul in Strasburg. Plan to
explore legendary Fort Mandan where Lewis and
Clark met Sakakawea, their Indian guide to the
Pacific. Take time in Washburn for the world class
Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. parkrec.
nd.gov/activities/candisc.html, ndfm@restel.
com, 800-799-4242.
AMERICA BY BICYCLE, INC. Your full service
bicycle touring leader. Choose from 38 tours
ranging from 5 to 52 days. Let us take you on your
dream ride Coast to Coast! abbike.com. 888-7977057. FREE CATALOG.
continued next page
49
Classified Ads
continued
TIMBERLINE ADVENTURES Fully supported
bicycling & hiking adventure vacations with
an organization whose sole focus for 31 years is
extraordinary adventure throughout western
U.S. & Canada. Website: www.timbertours.com,
Email: timber@earth net.net, Phone: 800-417-2453.
CROSSROADS CYCLING ADVENTURES The
long-distance specialists! Come ride with Tracy
Leiner owner, cyclist, and tour director. Tracy travels
with every group, every day! Small groups, personal
attention, business-class hotels and meals. Luggage
delivered to your hotel room and A/C turned on
BEFORE you arrive! Extensive pre-trip support
including training plan, telephone consultations, and
rider/staff email introductions. Ride coast to coast or
split the tour into multiple segments. Celebrating 18
years of excellence. Rider references available (800)
971-2453, www.crossroadscycling.com.
VACATION BICYCLING Let’s bike in style
together. Join us for fun, beautiful and
unforgettable 7-day bicycle tours from $1099.
Fully supported, hotels, food & SAG in GA: Silver
Comet Trail; SC: Charleston; NV: Las Vegas & Red
Rock; FL: Florida Keys; MA: Martha’s Vineyard;
NC: Outer Banks; TX: San Antonio & Austin; &
HI: Maui. Come join us! 706-363-0341 or 800490-2173 or www.VacationBicycling.com.
CLASSIC ADVENTURES Bicycling Vacations
since 1979. Full route support, experienced
guides, gourmet cuisine. Austria, France, Greece/
Crete, Germany, Lake Constance, Quebec,
Vermont, Mississippi-Natchez Trace, Texas Hill
Country, NY Finger Lakes, Historic Erie Canal,
Coast to Coast. Free Catalog (800) 777-8090
www.classicadventures.com.
CYCLE AMERICA® Enjoy a Fully Supported
Cycling Vacation this Summer. Ride Seattle to
Boston on an epic Coast-to-Coast tour or explore
America’s treasures on our series of National Park
trips. First-Rate Support, Great Routes and Good
Friends! Let Us Help You Plan Your Next Fun
and Affordable Adventure. 800-245-3263. www.
CycleAmerica.com.
COAST 2 COAST Hassle-free closely following
Southern Tier averaging 63 miles per day. Fully
supported including freshly-prepared greattasting meals, and a mechanic. You dip your rear
wheel into the Pacific and your front wheel into
the Atlantic, we will do everything in between.
We even do your dirty laundry! March 6 - April
27, 2015. BubbasPamperedPedalers.com or
[email protected].
23RD ANNUAL OATBRAN One Awesome
Tour Bike Ride Across Nevada, Sept. 21-27.
2014. “America’s Loneliest Bike Tour” is a fully
supported motel-style tour across US Hwy 50,
420 miles, border to border, from Lake Tahoe
to the Great Basin National Park. Limited to 50
riders. For more info: BiketheWest.com.
50
CYCLE NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAIN RIDE
(August 2-3, 2014) Lake Lure, NC — Join us for the
Inaugural CNC Mountain Ride and enjoy lakeside
camping and cycling on scenic country roads in the
North Carolina Mountains. Register for 1 or 2 days.
Various loop rides of differing mileage. Additional
lodging options are available. Fully supported with
SAG support and rest stops. [email protected],
www.ncsports.org.
BIKE THE KATY TRAIL The longest rail trail
in the country. August 31-September 6, 2014.
All-inclusive luxurious seven day/six night tour
staying at quaint B&Bs and Historic Hotels.
Complete details from BubbasPampered
Pedalers.com.
CAROLINA TAILWINDS Choose between FLAT
and easy or HILLY and challenging destinations
throughout SC, NC, VA, MD, TN and NY. All
tours feature country inns and the finest local
cuisine. We have hammered out the details so
that you can hammer out the miles. Browse our
tours at www.CarolinaTailwinds.com and give
us a call at 888-251-3206.
MASS BIKEPIKE TOUR August 7-10, 2014 —
Not just a ride, it’s a Celebration of Cycling in
Massachusetts. Spectacular, arrowed routes,
quaint towns, museums, history and local culture.
Most meals, SAG, refreshment stops, maps, cue
sheets. Find out why we’re “The Friendliest Ride
in the East.” www.MassBikePike.org or 617
710-1832.
SEPTEMBER ESCAPADE TRIRI September
14-19, 2014. Scenic, historic tour of south central
Indiana with inn or camping overnights at
Indiana State Parks, two layover days, and ten
catered meals. Contact: 812-333-8176; triri@triri.
org or www.triri.org.
SOCKEYE CYCLE CO. Alaska Bicycle Tours,
Rentals, Sales, Service. POB 829, 24 Portage
St. Haines, AK 99827-0829, TF 877-292-4154,
907-766-2869, Fax 907-766-2851, 381 Fifth Ave.
Skagway, AK (May – Sept) 907-983-2851. www.
cyclealaska.com.
YELLOWSTONE TO GLACIER Cycle 6 days
and 424 miles on the 10th Annual Park-2Park Montana fully-supported ride from West
Yellowstone to West Glacier including all meals,
SAG, and mechanic. Spectacular vistas and
climbs. www.park2parkmontana.org.
BIKE-OHIO.COM Bicycle vacations and tours in
Ohio. Each month from June through September,
we offer four day hotel vacations. We visit
geography, attractions, and festivals that make
Ohio unique.
FLORIDA KEYS HOTEL TRIP Fully supported,
outstanding hotel accommodations, DoubleTree
by Hilton, Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn.
6-day trip December 7-13 2014. Key Largo to
Key West & back. Stunning beach scenery, great
meals, 2 layover days in Key West. Only $950.00.
www.floridakeysbikeride.com, 847-309-4740,
[email protected].
BICYCLE RIDE ACROSS GEORGIA (BRAG)
23rd annual Georgia BikeFest, Columbus, GA,
October 10-12, 2014. WinterRide, Feb. 17-22,
2015, St. Marys, GA. Great fun for families and
groups. Various mileage options. 770-498-5153,
[email protected], www.brag.org.
FLORIDA KEYS The ultimate Bicycle Vacation.
Bike the entire key system, down and back.
Fully-supported including breakfasts and most
dinners. Beautiful sunsets. Swim with the
dolphins. Snorkel. Dive. The Seven Mile Bridge
just might be the most beautiful seven miles
you will ever bike. November 1 - 8, 2014. Details
from BubbasPamperedPedalers.com or
[email protected]. It’s just not a bicycle tour,
it’s a Keys EXPERIENCE … It’s all GOOD!!
THE GREAT ALLEGHENY PASSAGE AND
C&O CANAL 334.5 continuous trail miles from
Pittsburgh to DC; custom or group tours; includes
B&Bs, inns, excellent meals, luggage shuttle, full
SAG support, vehicle or people and gear shuttle;
attractions including Frank Lloyd Wright’s
Fallingwater, Antietam battlefield plus so much
more ... Call Trail Gail at 301-722-4887 240-7277039 or www.mountainsidebiketours.net “You
Pedal, We Pamper.”
CYCLE NORTH CAROLINA 16th Annual
“Mountains to Coast” (September 27 – October
4). Cycle 450 plus miles while experiencing the
North Carolina countryside on scenic back roads
amidst beautiful fall colors. Explore quaint towns,
visit famous State Parks, Historic Sites, wineries,
and more. Fully supported with SAG Support and
rest stops. Various registration options available.
[email protected], www.ncsports.org.
FAMILY FUN, ERIE CANAL / NIAGARA
FALLS July 6-13 — Introduce your family to
self-contained touring! Travel the beautiful
Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail and nearby
roadways, to the edge of world-famous Niagara
Falls carrying all of our camping gear, personal
supplies, and group gear on our bicycles, without
a support vehicle. www.adventurecycling.org/
tours.
WISCONSIN BACKROADS HOTEL TOURS
Fully supported affordable 5-7 day bicycling
vacations. $590 includes HOTELS w/indoor
pools-whirlpools, buffet dinners, food stops, &
emergency support. Quiet, scenic, all paved back
roads. NORTHWOODS, DOOR COUNTY, Spring
Green, New Glarus, & more. Celebrating our 30th
year. www.pedalacrosswisconsin.com, 847707-6888, 847-309-4740, [email protected].
OREGON COAST LOOP August 16- 22, 2014.
After gathering near the bicycle-friendly town
of Eugene, we’ll head north, cycling through
vineyards and orchards. We’ll continue down
the craggy coastline, camping near the beach,
and watching waves break against lighthouses
— and we’ll almost definitely catch site of a few
sea lions. Our group will also visit the coastal
towns of Lincoln City, Newport, Yachats, and
Florence, each with its own unique flavor.
www.adventurecycling.org/tours.
Open Road Gallery
No.
3830
Recumbent Remedy
PHOTOGRAPH BY GREG SIPLE STORY BY GAGE POORE
➺ LOW ON FUNDS and having just graduated from the University of Cincinnati, David and
Bethany Hoffman found themselves willing but unable to participate in Bikecentennial’s crosscountry ride during the summer of 1976 — and instead saved for a move across the country to Grand
Junction, Colorado, later that autumn. It was another 24 years before Bethany and David were able
to participate in a multi-day bike tour. “I believe it was Bethany who re-kindled the cycling spirit in
our household,” David wrote. “She came home one day and announced the desire to sign up for the
Bicycle Tour of Colorado. I did the 500 miles on a borrowed bike and we did it every subsequent year
for five or six years.”
Their pursuit of adventures grew along with the collection of bicycles and touring gear in their garage,
and in 2002 they rode 1,500 miles from Jackson, Wyoming, to Cleveland, Ohio, with their children
Ben and Lillian, who were on the cusp of leaving the family nest. “As that trip wore on,” David wrote, “I
realized that I would need to find an alternative for myself if I was to cycle into my 70s and beyond. My
shoulders and neck became more of an issue as the ride progressed, so I looked into recumbent bikes
when we returned to Colorado. I was intrigued with the novelty and the engineering of the recumbent
bikes.” Eventually, he decided on a RANS Stratus, and Bethany followed suit.
The couple visited Adventure Cycling in June of 2011 on a tour from Burlington, Washington,
to their home in Colorado. They experienced extreme late-spring rain and snow along with the
physical and mental trials of long-distance bicycle travel but had a wonderful trip overall. Regarding
their bicycles, Bethany wrote, “This time, we’re on recumbents, slow uphill but a gas down! We’re so
fortunate to be traveling the West for this month; wildlife, mountains, making memories as we go.”
From Adventure Cycling’s National Bicycle Touring Portrait Collection. © 2014 Adventure Cycling Association.
Bring the
Bicycle Eclectic
traveling portrait
exhibition to your
town. Contact Greg
Siple for more information: gsiple@
adventurecycling.
org
See more portraits at
adventurecycling.
org/gspg
51
Non-profit
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
P.O. Box 8308
Missoula, Montana 59807-8308
Adventure Cycling
Association
America’s Bicycle Travel Experts
·
·
·
maps tours gear resources
Questions? 800.755.2453
www.adventurecycling.org
North
America
Europe
400+
TOURS
70+
COUNTRIES
1
WEBSITE
South
America
Find your next adventure on
biketoursdirect.com.
Africa
Representing local bike tour
companies worldwide
423.756.8907 · 877.462.2423
[email protected]
WE’RE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE…
WILL SOON BE
Asia
Australia

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