Originally Posted by
tarwheel
I highly recommend the ACA membership offer. I signed up during one of Kerry's previous offers and it was money well spent. ACA maintains maps of touring routes across the USA and also conducts trips. Their magazine is one of the few publications that actually features bike touring.
They also do a lot of advocacy and facilitate the introduction of people to the world of travel by bike. My introduction to self contained touring was through Adventure Cycling. While I had been a long time roadie and had done supported tours, I had never done any unsupported touring. I had never even slept in a tent a night in my life. I am glad I joined an ACA tour as I learned a lot during the 93 days I spent riding across the country with people, both experienced and inexperienced.
In any event, the unsupported contention that the organization is "just a way of making money off cylclists and providing little in return" adds nothing. There is nothing informative there that might assist a reader in deciding whether he or she mightbenefit from taking advantage of the free offer, which is what this thread is supposed to be about. In other words, it's just a drive-by.