staehpj1

The 50th Anniversary of Bikecentennial is coming up in 2026 I am curious if there is likely to be any big surge of folks riding the TA for that. I am entertaining the notion if I am still able at age 75. I think the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence could be called the Semiquincentennial or Quarter Millenial or Sestercentennial or maybe SemiQ. Hopefully by then the pandemic will be in the rear view mirror. There was a thread suggesting the possibility of the ride on the ACA forums, but so far it hasn't gotten much traction.

GamblerGORD53

Yah, 1976 was the epitomy of patriotism, 1967 in Canada. I would applaud you if you did. Just don't expect there's another one. LOL. WAY too far removed.
There's still lots riding, but patriotism is in the dumps now. Millenials couldn't care less. It's no better up here either.

staehpj1

You may be right about it not getting traction, but I hope not.

I am not so sure about 1976 being the epitome of patriotism, at least in the minds of the general public. The time leading up to it was a time of social turmoil. The youth of the day were a part of the anti war movement. The older generation resented them for it. There was the drug culture. The soldiers coming home from Vietnam were spit on. The generational divide was pretty stark.

I actually see some parallels today in that we are in very troubled times with a real danger of our democracy breaking down. If we actually make it through the next 5 years with an intact democracy we could wind up with a renewed enlivened democracy and very real reasons to celebrate it.

CliffordK

The US Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787. I don't remember a major celebration in 1987.

staehpj1

You are correct, we as a country chose to have the big celebration on the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I corrected my first post to reflect my error.

CliffordK

Bikecentennial

Apparently the Trans Am Bike Race takes basically the same route.

https://transambikerace.com/

4200 miles in 20 days?

While I have done double-centuries, I am slow enough that it would be impossible to do back to back double centuries... or triple doubles..

Nonetheless, it would be a unique event. It would take a lot of training... so best start planning now.

The original Bikecentennial, however, wasn't a single event, but people were given choices to do long or short rides.

CliffordK

One wouldn't necessarily have to follow the 1976 route.



It would be a unique ride if one could hit 48 states. Or even 49 states for the ambitious. Cut down through the South in the spring, and up into the North by mid to late summer.

One would note that the original ride was apparently organized far more as a tour than as a race. 82 days, or about 50 miles a day.

=================================================================

Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, DC, Maryland, Delaware, Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Alaska

I think that is 49 states (possibly 50 states by 2026). Unfortunately I seem to have hit New York and New Hampshire twice.

One could probably design the route to avoid duplicates by starting in Maine and ending in Alaska, but that would likely mean a lot more north and south riding, and may be difficult to align with seasons.

Now to start looking at bicycle appropriate routes.

indyfabz

You’re talking 5 years. Too early to promote it. People may get sick of hearing about it for so long. I have no doubt ACA will do something.

ClydeClydeson

A lot has changed in the past 50 years. Probably no big biking projects in the works, but maybe a caravan of mobility scooters can do the route.

staehpj1

Too early to promote. Not too early to plan. Some of that planning could be public. The pandemic (one would hope it would be sorted out by then, but who knows) and the state of the union are big question marks though.

BobG

Back in 2000 ACA had a Y2K version of the tour. An extra large group with two leaders. Several folks cancelled and some dropped out bringing the group down to the more typical, manageable 14 or so. The original large group would have stressed the facilities available and was a bad idea from the start. I had to leave the tour at Newton KS for a medical emergency turning the trip over to the second leader already on board.

pdlamb

@BobG brings up a point, the original Bikecentennial was a series of small groups spread out over the summer.

But it makes me think, what would a larger group look like? RAGBRAI would be insane, but perhaps a Cycle Oregon size crown? Of course with that many riders you'd have too many who really weren't sufficiently prepared or interested to stick it out -- you'd probably start out with 600 riders and 300 support people, dropping to 300 and 300 by the time you got to western Virginia or eastern Oregon. (And that's why you'd need 300 people driving SAG, to get all the rest of the riders to airports!)

indyfabz

I’ll bet they will at least more heavily encourage people to go out on their own in commemoration.

BTW…I have a local friend who was one of the original participants. Turned out he went to college with my mom. Years ago he gave a slide presentation. Pretty cool. Especially the dress of the time. While he doesn’t tour now, he still rides.

CliffordK

If one did say a 10,000 mile course, my guess it would be self-selecting to be < 500 people. And that might be ambitious. Then, if self paced like the Trans-Am, they would quickly be broken down to individuals and small groups.

One could bolster the numbers by organizing a bunch of shorter rides (century rides, half centuries, etc), or with good GPS tracking, encourage ride-alongs with the through riders (allow riders to select whether they would be open to ride-alongs).

Short rides could also be used to get participation from Hawaii and Alaska.

It will have to be a mix of early promotion and planning.

If one chose to simply do an expanded Trans-Am, plus a few century rides and half century rides along the course, then it may well be something that could be pulled off in a couple of years.

On the other hand, if one chose to develop a new 10,000 mile course weaving across most of the states, then it might take quite some time to put together a new course, discuss routes, discuss times, perhaps even get organizers to ride most of the routes in advance (divide and conquer). Plus document the new course.

If I was going to do a ride that might take 2 to 4 months, I'd like to have at least a year in advance to prepare, perhaps two years.

GamblerGORD53

I really think the few years between Vietnam war and 1979 were the most peaceful and optimistic of our lives. Downhill ever since.
In 2019 I drove thru 8 provinces and then 26 days from Maine thru 21 states. After VA, I went thru the states south and west of the TransAm. Then ID and MT.
Didn't get a chance to bother riding my bike. Was planning to in Nashville, but it got to freaking 99F.

Anyway, any group more than 50 would need food truck and everything. The whole route goes thru what my great- Uncle called one horse towns. LOL.
Kind of defeats the purpose of doing it with a friend or 2, or alone. I sputter and stop so much late in the day, nobody would want me. I would have no use for tenting now anyway.

staehpj1

A large group sounds like a bad idea to me. Something like Bikecentennial was what I was thinking. A 4000 mile RAGBRAI sounds absurd to me,. I think it would lose all of the qualities of discovering what the country is really like that makes a trip across the US worthwhile, but what do I know.

I'd imagine using something close to the original route (The current TA), but could also imagine promoting alternate routes as well and perhaps even a new one.

staehpj1

Regardless of the overall plan, including local rides across the country to mark the occasion would be a good idea.

CliffordK

One question. Suppose one designed a 10,000 mile nationwide course. Would one want to design the local rides to coincide with the through riders passing through, or to do them independent? Or even using different routes?

Say one plans on most riders finishing in 1.5 to 4 months, then it could make scheduling local events mighty difficult (other than small simple GPS planed ride-alongs).

CliffordK

A big push could be to bring alternative transportation into the 21st century.

So, having events around bike commuting. Even organized around E-Bikes and E-Cargo Bikes.

staehpj1

Just my thoughts,,, Others likely will not agree.

Not sure how they would do that, but yeah that may be a good idea.

Just me, but I see any long ride as small groups scattered throughout the summer. I don't see coordinating timing of local rides with any big ride as necessary. They could just be throughout the summer. I don't see the 10,000 mile thing as a realistic option for very many people. Coast to coast is already ambitious enough to be challenging.

indyfabz

+1. I’m envisioning a promotional effort like they do with riding national parks and bike touring week, only on a larger scale.