erbfarm

I'd really like to start a cycle touring group in my area (southern NH) but would like to follow the model of an existing group. Is there a touring group in your area? If so, could you send me a link to a website that tells about the group so I could contact them? I don't mean a professional organization like Adventure Cycling or something like that. I'm just thinking of a club of some sort where there are organized 2 or 3 day tours each month and then maybe a longer week length tour or two during the nicer weather. Thanks very much!!

staehpj1

Never heard of a club like that. I have heard of larger bikes clubs with a touring component.

It might be worth considering starting this within an existing club. Just a thought.

BTW: Where are you located? Is there much current interest in touring? Good local destinations?

cyccommute 

Denver Bicycle Touring Club. It does long tours about 4 times per year and they are of the 'someone carry my stuff 'cause I'm to lazy to' variety And you'd better not ask people to sleep on the ground but we have gone to some interesting places.

dcullen

Potomac Peddlers is a very active touring group that does many overnight and longer tours

https://www.bikepptc.org/

Doug

bokes

I just found a group here in SF that often goes loaded bike camping for the weekend.
https://bike.meetup.com/387/

Machka 

There are two such clubs in my area:


Edmonton Bicycle and Touring Club: https://www.bikeclub.ca/

and

Elbow Valley Cycle Club in Calgary: https://www.elbowvalleycc.org/

And here's Winnipeg's Club: https://www.winnipegcycletouringclub.ca/joomla/

Most large cities in Canada have a cycletouring club. I've been a member of the three above, and would strongly recommend joining your local cycletouring club if you're just starting out as a cycletourist, or if you want a bit of company on your rides, or if you want to meet other cycletourists in your area.

I've also recommended to people here who are looking for information about a certain place, or who are looking for cycling partners to join them for a tour of a certain place, to look for the local cycletouring club in that area ... and either get information from them, or perhaps do a tour with them.

Aushiker

G'day

The local touring focused group in my state, is the Cycling Touring Association of Western Australia.

Good luck with your group.

Andrew

Neil_B

https://www.btcnj.com/

Also, Bicycle Club of Philadelphia began in 1979 as a touring group. That aspect of the club seems to have disappeared, but there are still a few tourists in the group.

staehpj1

That is much like other touring clubs. Lots of day rides and maybe a tour once in a while, but also maybe not. It doesn't sound like what the OP had in mind. Was it actually once actually touring focused?

All of the touring clubs that I have had any experience with were not much different than the other non-racing bike clubs that don't consider themselves touring clubs. By that I mean most have a schedule of day rides that is the real meat and potatoes of the group, with maybe a tour once in a while that really isn't the focus of the club.

That is what I meant in my first post. I think that the more "full service" club has a better chance of success. The problem is that the touring part of the group has a tendency to die out unless there is someone who acts as the driving force for that portion of the club.

Some of the clubs mentioned in other posts fit that model and aren't really touring clubs in my mind. Perhaps the difference is in how you define touring. To me day rides are not touring and staying in one place and doing day rides for multiple days isn't either. Nothing wrong with either though, they just aren't touring at least by my definition.

Neil_B

Come to think of it, we've never had a hard and fast definition of what qualifies as a bike tour and what doesn't. There are a lot of opinions on this board. One person once posted that unless you camp, it's not a bike tour. A couple of my tours involved a bit of train travel, and I'm sure some folks think they don't count. My 32 mile round trip overnight camping tour last weekend probably will be written off by some folks for not enough miles or not enough days.

staehpj1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_touring says:
"Bicycle touring is a leisure travel activity which involves travelling by bicycle for the pleasure of the journey rather than through need or to race. The range of cycling which the words cover varies from country to country. In some they imply a journey of two or more days. In others, bicycle touring encompasses long-distance challenges such as Paris-Brest-Paris and means all but competitive and utility cycling"

My personal definition would be in line with the "imply a journey of two or more days" requirement. Camping definitely not required (I personally prefer it though). I hate to include things like the cross state rides (RAGBRAI, etc.) and MS 150 type multiday rides, but have to concede that they probably qualify.

I think that riding has to be somewhat the focus of the trip at least to some extent. Riding from the airport to a motel going sightseeing and riding back in a day or two wouldn't be touring to me.

I tend to think that the S24O type trip as kind of like "camping" in the back yard, but they still are bike touring to my way of thinking.

What do the rest of you think? What is and what isn't bike touring?

Neil_B

So does partial use of a train or bus qualify as a tour?

oldride

I think it has to be more than a day ride. An overight is needed to consider it a tour. It's sort of like the difference between a day hike and a backpack trip.

vik 

Qualify?....is there a merit badge for bike touring I was unaware of???....

Neil_B

Perhaps I want to know if a couple of the tours I've ridden meet "the touring community's"* standard.

* AKA a few of the posters here.

Booger1

In my book it's easy,if your not sleeping at home,it involves a bicycle ride out of your town(1 mile or 100 miles),your touring.

Machka 

What you've described there is called "Hub and Spoke" touring, and is a valid form of touring.

Machka 

What you've described here is also touring. There's no difference between cycling from your home to a motel going sightseeing and riding back in a day or two, and cycling from the airport ... They are both touring. You're just in a different location, which to me is a big part of touring. When I go touring, I want to be in different locations to see different things.

staehpj1

Machka, Your definition is apparently considerably broader than mine. Care to take a stab at an actual definition?

Does anyone here subscribe to the "all but competitive and utility cycling" definition?

robow

My definition of touring and mind you it's probably much too defined for some:

Ride your bike. Sleep somewhere other than your own bed. Ride your bike

staehpj1

To phrase it a bit differently... To me partial use of a train or bus does not disqualify it in my definition, not that my definition matters. It is your tour so your definition is the one that matters.

staehpj1

That is quite elegant.

Machka 

No, I'd actually rather not define touring. I think a definition is limiting and creates division.

However, I do think that robow's definition is close to my concept of a tour.

"Ride your bike. Sleep somewhere other than your own bed. Ride your bike"

Only I think I'd modify "Ride your bike" to something like "Travel ... mostly by bicycle, or with the goal of cycling on a day in the near future" to encompass all the diffrent modes of transportation we use from time to time when we tour, and the fact that we take days off now and then. If you're going to call it a cycling tour, I do think that the cycling mode of transportation should be the greatest percentage of the trip, but not necessarily all of it.

I'd even be looser on the "sleep somewhere other than your own bed" definition because I could envision a situation where you ride out 3 or 4 days to the north, and back, then stay overnight in your own bed and spend a day restocking etc., and then ride out 3 or 4 days to the south and back, as one tour.

I think there are lots of different types of tours such as Point A to Point B tours, Hub and Spoke tours, Weekend tours, Supported tours, Unsupported tours, Solo tours, Group tours, tours that are incorporated into other vacation travel (i.e. if a couple flew to Germany, travelled around by train, etc. for a while, then rented bicycles and rode for a day, stayed overnight in an inn, and rode back the next day, that would be a short cycling tour), etc. etc. etc.

It's all about going somewhere, seeing different things, exploring, having a bit of an adventure, etc. for me.

ZeCanon

The Green Mountain Bicycle Club (thegmbc.com) has a touring component and is just over the border from you in Vermont.

rhm

To me, the word "tour" implies going to see a place; add "bike" to that, and you're "going to see a place by bike." You might, for example, do a tour of/to/through/around the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. In turn, "going to see a place" implies that you aren't familiar with the place already, so there is a limit to how much "touring" you can do very close to home. Nonetheless, it doesn't matter how many days it takes, and where you sleep.

That said, there is no need to be so literal. "Bike touring" implies a set of goals, strategies, fixations, equipment, &c that together add up to something we all know and love and which, as Machka said, we don't need to define.