I'm concerned about the direction of Adventure Cycling in the past few years.
There is only one organization in the U.S. devoted to long-distance bicycling touring - ACA.
Formerly known as Bikecentennial, it grew out of the desire of cyclists to commemorate the Bicentennial by cycling across the U.S.A.
But it seems that the organization is less and less invested in that mission.

ACA seems to be moving in the direction of Backroads or other touring companies -
Offering high-priced, van-supported, inn-to-inn packages - but that's not what Bikecentennial was, at all.
In fact, ACA no longer offers the original TransAmerica tours for the past two years.
If ACA simply wants to be another high-end touring company focusing on marketing to an affluent clientele they should say as much.
It simply may be that the older, low-cost, low-impact, holistic model doesn't work any more.
But I doubt it - especially given the younger people I meet.

Other things - -
The "Companions Wanted" section of the disappeared - recreated by a user in the forum. Why?
​Memberships have exploded in cost with the disappearance of student and senior membership options
I suspect that their goal of increasing revenue will have a net result in a loss of members.
Then there is the increased politicization of ACA and its webpages.
I think that most touring cyclists are on the liberal side of the political divide,
But I am sure that there are many conservatives, as well. I know quite a few.
When you have a single cycle touring organization, it should be apolitical.
Not only is it bad business, but many people don't want more political activism, they want less.

Look at the people in the Cookie Lady's photo albums. Say in August 1986.
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/...id=45949&v=13I
June Curry opened up her house and heart to thousands of cyclists.
Most of them were a far cry from people nowadays who drop $4000 on a two-week ACA tour.

Technology has advanced, traffic has increased, camping has become more difficult and expensive,
but I believe that there are many people - especially young people -
who want to explore the country on a bicycle on a dime
to make friends with other cyclists from around the world
and to meet people who they might otherwise never encounter.




Pic - June Curry in 2004 at the Cookie House
A Roadside Education on the TransAm Trail
By Carlyn Arteaga, Brandon Arteaga and Andrea Anderson
Legend of the Cookie Lady
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/...v=Kt#pic_53340

I never looked into ACA as I never went cross country, just a 3 week tour in one state that I planned myself and improvised on the way, having one of those very detailed state atlases with me at all times.

The links you cited, crazyguyonabike, now that guy rocks. I only discovered his blog this year. He's local to me, some time I should look him up.

I agree with everything Jama has to say about ACA. I dropped my membership about ten years ago after having been a leader or participant in at least 10 tours/events. The current organization barely resembles the original Bikecentennial.

I found my '93 tour group at the Cookie Lady link! ...


photo by June Curry

When I think ACA, I think maps. I could care less about their supported tours and politics.

I allowed my membership to lapse after the first year due to their mouthpiece politics. Doesn't belong there. Then I found that I can plan my own cross country route using online sources.

I have some of the same concerns. I am a member first for the maps and maybe second to support their evangelism for touring. I do have doubts that the latter is worth my support. Their magazine and catalog are of vety little to no interest to me.

I have never considered going on a guided or supported tour.

I'd like to see them pull off something like 1976 (bike centennial) again in 2026, but have heard no rumblings.

I had considered leaving them money when I die, but they areno konger in the running.

If ACA has strayed from what it once was, you and some friends should consider creating your own organization. Imagine what your ideal organization would do, what services and such you would like to offer.

I don’t live in America, I live in Japan. There are many touring organizations here, and several prefectures in Japan have created their own websites, maps, and such to attract cycle tourists. Routes are figured out and planned, and printed, local businesses, hotels, and such along the routes are solicited to be added to tour brochures for a small fee. Your typical cycle touring brochure is like an old gas station map, showing the route, and places of interest, and small ads for participating businesses.

There are websites and apps in Japan as well, run by the same organizations which print the tour brochures. Brochures are put in stands at train stations, bike shops, and camping outfitters.

An interesting feature some tours have are stamp rallies. Participating businesses or sites keep a rubber stamp which is unique to each location, and cycle tours, hikers, etc stop at each place and stamp their brochures. If you complete all the stamps you can collect a coupon or some silly prize. For some reason these are popular in Japan.

I’ve done a lot of riding around America, all I know of the ACA are their maps.

I did two ACA trips, first was 2012, second in 2017. Thus, got their magazine for a year each time. I was not that impressed.

The first one in 2012 was the Glacier Waterton loop. That was close to their office so one of their staff came to meet us and chat with us. I had mentioned that I had done two REI Travel trips, he was more interested in my experience with that than anything else I had to say, they were a competitor in putting on trips and he wanted to know as much as he could about the competition.

If they really are a bike advocate organization, I have not seen any evidence of that. But that does not mean much because I am unaware of that sort of thing. They could be quite active and I would not know about it.

I am not doing any more ACA trips. Both of the ones I did were the group meal plan where groups are formed to prepare meals. Of all the the camping trips I have done in the past decade and a half, those two trips were the ones where I had the biggest problem getting my blood sugar under control after the trip, they seem to promote carbs with minimal protein which really messes with my diabetes. I even had to skip some of their meals they were so carb heavy, and skipping meals on a bike tour is not a good idea. I even brought some of my own food from home on the second trip, they told me they would have extra cooking gear in the van I could use for my own food prep, which was not accurate. Trips that I have done with catered or restaurant fare always have a better balance of foods that work well for me, I have no trouble at all with other organizations that use catering or organization planed menus.

I do put the ACA triangle on the back of my bike on my own tours, I think it is a nice safety add-on, even though I am subtly advertising for a group I have no plans to support in the future.



Above photo from this past June. I was on a solo trip (not an ACA trip or route), I think using the triangle makes me a bit safer.

Great pic!
Yeesh, Linda was brave.

I'm an ACA Life Member, mostly because I worked with their staff and AASHTO on restarting the US Bicycle Route System for about 15 years. I'm not directly involved with that anymore, but it's good to see the system growing in a healthy manner.

ACA just finished their new Strategic Plan, and it's available at https://www.adventurecycling.org/mem...icycle-travel/ . Not exactly a hidden agenda, but notably a shift from focusing on longer-distance bicycle travel to shorter trips, apparently to be more "accessible & relevant".

There's little in the strategic plan or most of the ACA website that's explicitly partisan, but there have been an uptick of items in the magazine with partisan political content, mostly incidental barbs and jabs at the unfavored political party, or stating somewhat-biased positions as unquestioned truths. And yet this magazine is an oasis of neutrality compared to American Bicyclist, Bicycling, and many other publications. And I'll leave it at that so as not to run afoul of the mods.

I have a special nostalgial for bikecentennial despite not riding it in 1976. I wanted to and missed the chance, but I read and dreamed about it. So AC caught and maintained my attention until decades later I rode the TA.

I do really like their maps. I am lazy about planning and can just buy the maps and head out on a trip of any length up to coast to coast. I may deviate from their route a good bit as the mood strikes me, but it is nice to know that I have a route that I can just head out on.

Their other stuff (magazine, etc) wouldn't have even put them on my radar.

I like the maps. I met some German tourists last summer riding the northern tier, and they were using the maps. I bought a couple for my area.

As a brown rider who has been on the receiving end of racist comments and who's always felt a little like I was on the outside looking in, I appreciate the efforts of Adventure Cycling and other organizations to recognize that my lived experience may be different from others and thus try to be more inclusive.

I question a national organization developing and maintaining local tour routes. It seems like local clubs and groups could handle that more nimbly and efficiently and a national cycletouring organization should focus on regional and national routes.

Velocipalooza Semiquincentennial

I was a member for a number of years; I thought supporting the organization was worthwhile, and I enjoyed the magazine. Then the mission started to diverge from supporting and encouraging long-distance bicycle touring, and a few years later the magazine went to heck in a handbasket, so I let my membership lapse.

A few theories:

One, extreme adventure has drunk too much Mountain Dew. The AT and TransAm are just as hard as they ever were, but they're too tame to brag about. It seems like cross-country cycle touring and blogging about it (public visibility) peaked roughly 2005-2015. Early in that timeframe, someone speculated that 2,000 people a year started to hike the Appalachian Trail, and 200 of them finished it; while 200 people a year started to ride the TransAm, and most of them finished it. By the time I rode the TransAm, I'd guess the cycling census was 1,000-1,500 per year, from cgoab journals with liberal extrapolation. This year there was a small handful of journals there. Of course, the propietor went off the rails, IMHO, and drove a number of people away, so there could be many more on one of the other social media sites, or just not blogging for public consumption. Meanwhile, the AT traffic, according to my little sister who finished it a few years back, has exploded. Now there aren't trail angels, there's a trail service financial system to shuttle people off every road crossing, put hikers up overnight, etc. And when the AT is conquered, it's time to move on to the Pacific Crest Trail, and try to finish it around wildfires and smoke. Or go to Africa, Asia, or South America for even more extreme adventure.

Second, as a few people have noted, after you've done one tour, online maps, web searches, and smart phones let you plan and re-plan a bike tour without the need to take a pre-mapped route.

Third, I've had a pet theory for a while that specialty magazines run out of new things to publish after a few years. Examples? Bicycling magazine, for one. Subscribe for two years, and at first you're drawn in by New! Product! Reviews! and century training plans. After a year or so, you start noticing that you've read these articles before. Bicycle Quarterly, because it's published quarterly, took two or three years to hit that spot, IMHO. They then pivoted from quasi-scientific tire reviews and racing brevets to (could you guess?) tours in Africa, races across Europe, and touring in Japan. Fine Woodworking was another hobbyist magazine I followed for a while; after great articles on how to make great woodworking joints, design articles using those joints, and finishing the pieces, they slithered over to making your own plywood so you can build extremely bent wood pieces. Adventure Cyclist had some great columnists for a while to supplement the "I rode across the country" articles. John Schubert retired, Sheldon Brown died, Aaron Teasdale moved on, and they honestly haven't been able to replace them. Now the magazine has to fill its pages with "We rode across the country with X" articles, where X is a disability, different gender, racial diversity, etc. You can only inspire with the same story so many times.

Fourth, the organization has lost its roots in volunteer or founders' leadership to professional non-profit leadership (if that's not a contradiction in terms). There seems to be a playbook -- or maybe it's a management course -- in how to run a non-profit. First, fund-raise from large money sources. Second, look around for outside-the-box revenue streams; these can be open lots of stores (REI), or look for new audiences or tours (AC). You plan on how to survive declining revenues as your legacy programs wilt, and hope those new revenues will pick up before the organization goes out of business.

I've been life member for long time.

The primary service I've used them for is mapping including more recently online traces (last year parts of Delmarva, Route 66 and Lewis and Clark).

I'll read the magazine sometimes but also receive a lot of other publications and don't get everything read. I used the companions wanted section twice with mixed success. Their organized rides were never my particular focus since in the US, I find it easier to organize my own trips.

I will continue to recommend them for services I find useful.

Our '99 group was perfectly balanced both in male/female ratio and age spread. 7 men, 6 women including one married couple. Ages 18-78. I doubt that any of the younger folks could afford the self-supported TransAm at today's prices even if it was still offered ...


photo by June Curry

The organization is one beneficiary of one of my TOD accounts. I recently decided to decrease its percentage,

I feel kinda sad because ACA’s unsupported Northern Tier tour was my introduction to that type of riding back in 1999. I had never even camped before.

Their primary purpose of providing routes and general information for USA cycle touring has been replaced by online services which are more current and easier to access. Much of which are free and those that charge are very reasonable and far superior. If I were to do a US tour I see no unique value ACA offers or need for their services.

The other services such as tours, swag etc are what is keeping the doors open and the only hope for a future.

Times they are a changing.

There's an older Brit guy on YT doing the TransAm now from Astoria. He did most of the official route and does mostly camping, but really got peeved at the traffic on poor no-shoulder highways. He did have company for 400 miles or so. After Yellowstone he decided to take hwy 26. He's likely in Iowa by now.
Last year he finished the GDR ok, starting in Canmore.

Everytime I looked at vlogs about that TA route, I think > BORING<. I have ZERO interest in gravel or rail trails.
I rode from motel to motel just fine a day at a time on my own 3,900 mile Can/Am route, none were booked ahead. I was OK with busy traffic and wider shoulders. I did ride some real quiet side roads.

It does solicit and vet information from local people and groups. Personally, I brought about change to its Atlantic Coast route that were helpful due to increasing suburban sprawl in my area. The proposed rerouting came from my experience riding with my local club.

After I posted a trip report on its forum about one of my tours across PA, it contacted me to assist in the development of part of the new Chicago to NYC route.

I have also suggested a few other minor route adjustments here and there based on my experiences. At least one was added to a map addendum. Don’t know if it made it into the next run of printed maps.

I don’t know if it’s still the case, but the website used to have a function where you could submit updates like the closure or addition of services, Don’t know how many people made the effort to do that.

Three things I like about the Adventure Cycling Routes...

1. There is a bit more vetting than a random route one might pull from RWGPS. I was reminded of this when I received a review on a route I had between Washington DC and Annapolis. I had plotted the route mostly for my own purposes of a fairly direct route on a state capitol ride - and hadn't been paying as much attention that it was available as a public route...I also think I created more than one and this wasn't what I eventually cycled.

So I could understand why the reviewer found it to be a busy highways and not a scenic ride.

While there can be issues with Adventure Cycling routes I also find them on average than pot luck of a random trace.

2. Adventure Cycling has services along the way both in GPS track and and paper map. While I don't necessarily stay at those service points (1) it helps me more quickly chunk up distances to look for services in remote areas (2) some places like north bank of Columbia River it gave some non-tradional alternatives my simple Google search would have missed.

3. Sometimes can have just the GPS track but also times to put the laminated map in my handle bar bag. For example last year I picked up the Route 66 map and followed it to Chicago.

Local groups might be better at getting some alternatives or keeping up with changes - but then I have difficulty of finding the local groups and adjusting to differing goals for those groups.

I have ridden a number of the longer AC routes including the TA. There was very little gravel and no railtrails that I recall. The biggest complaint I heard from others about their routes was too much traffic.

I think the Katy is an option, and there is a 40+ mile trail (paved) east of Missoula that is not a rail trail but is very nice since it keeps you off U.S. 93.

One thing I have noticed over the years is that, at least on the Atlantic Coast route, is that it has included trail miles for the sake of trail miles. For example, south of New Paltz, NY, the route now uses the Wallkill Trail. Boring and not the best surface. The worst part is that it end in the middle of nowhere, and you have to loop around and then take some not so nice roads to join up with the old route. I made the mistake of following the new route in 2018. Not fun. In 2021, I followed the old route, like I had way back in 1999, and it was far, far better.

Another example is also in NY. The routing now uses the southern end of the Harlem Valley Trail. Fine. It keeps you off a shoulderless highway for a little while, but then it puts you on busy roads with truck traffic to get you back to the original route. I plotted a benign dirt alternative from the end of the trail that is really nice and much shorter. It should at least be shown as an option for people with bikes that can handle unpaved roads.