Join us in the 2015 Bike Tour a Month Challenge!
Bicycle adventures come in all shapes and sizes. From epic multi-month tours on dirt roads in remote places, to shorter trips not too far from town. Since putting down some roots in Portland to get serious about promoting bicycle tourism, our trips have been of the far shorter variety. I had coffee with our friend Joshua Bryant a local frame builder in town the other day. He had just come back from a snowy bike overnight testing out his latest creation, the NFD (National Forest Development) bike. We talked briefly about the idea of doing a bike tour every month, calling it an “S24O R-12” or something like that.
A photo posted by Joshua Bryant (@franco650b) on
For the non bike geeks out there “S24O” is a bike tour that you complete in less than 24 hours. You essentially ride out in the afternoon, overnight somewhere and come back the next morning. “R-12” is a term borrowed from the randonneuring community, that denotes a rider that completes a randonneuring event of 200k or longer in 12 consecutive months.
What I’m proposing is nothing as rigid or stringent, but just a little impetus to get people “out there” on the bike. Looking back (way back), I had set this as a New Year’s resolution in 2008, little did I know where it would take us. It seems like a good time to take on this resolution again. Who’s with us?!
So here’s the ground rules.
-You must complete one overnight bike trip per month for 12 consecutive months.
-Since this whole challenge thing is starting mid-January, you can double up in February.
-You can stay for more than one night.
-While tenting is preferred, an overnight to a cabin or yurt is perfectly acceptable especially in the colder months.
-Bikepacking or bike touring or bike whatevering is OK!
-There is no minimum or maximum distance you have to ride.
-You must have fun. This is not meant to be a death march.
-If you use Instagram, tag your photos #BikeTourR12 (to avoid a nonsensical hashtag like S24OR12 or something).
-Post some photos to the Bike Tour a Month Flickr Group! Prep and gear photos are totally OK and encouraged.
-Use the tag #BikeTourR12
That’s it! Again, this is really meant to just get us out there having fun.
This month, we are biking out to Stub Stewart State Park this week to stay in a cabin. We’ve toured there before and have usually treated it as the end destination. This time, we’re spending a few days there so we can use it to explore some local gravel roads. We’ll put up a separate post about that when we get back. If you want to follow along on Instagram we’re using the tag #gravelgetaway.
A photo posted by PathLessPedaled (@pathlesspedaled) on
Tags In
18 Comments
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Subscribe
Patreon
Join Team Supple on Patreon
PayPal
Is it OK to travel via mass transit/multimodal to get out of town to start the S24O?
Multi-modal totally counts. Also, love the idea of a patch at the end of the year!
Oh, I would pay for a spoke card or patch if I complete the challenge! Kinda like coffeeneuring does, but better :0-)
OK, We’re in. We are still on our year-long tour so the first 7 months of this challenge will be easy!
Janet and Jay
Us who only dream of touring will enjoy the post as well. The learning of what others pack and how they map their route make the winter months interesting.
Love this idea! Though to me calling it a “bike TOUR a month” seems a little off, since I associate tour with multiple days/nights. Maybe Bike Overnight A Month? Then the acronym would be BOAM. “Hey, did you BOAM this month?” 😉
[…] along comes The Path Less Pedaled. On Monday, they threw down the gauntlet: A Bike “Tour” a month in 2015. I was interested, but winter is tough: While the weather is temperate enough here to pull off such […]
Sounds like an enjoyable challenge. I’m up for it.
I’m in ! We just did our January overnighter this past weekend! So much fun we may go back next weekend!
[…] couple week’s ago, our friends over at Path Less Pedaled put out a challenge. The idea is to go on a bike tour every month in 2015. Since I’ll be on the road for at least ¼ […]
I love this idea for 2015! Although to complete it I need to get out somewhere tonight being the 30th already!!
We hope you include Coastal Mountain Sport Haus in that challenge once this year.
I’m in!
I was posting some cycling group pictures and came across one of Russ and Laura from a couple of years back, when they came and stayed in Rockaway Beach. Then I saw this challenge. Since you can “intermodel” it, might I suggest a bus ride from Portland out to the Coast on the bike friendly “WAVE” bus, http://www.tillamookbus.com, $20 miles roundtrip, then a 15 mile northward trek to Sea Haven Motel (where we are very bike friendly, too)! You can even have the WAVE drop you off at our door, then start your tour fresh in the morning and tackle a ride up Nehakanie Mountain!
What a cool idea! Let me turn the motivation knob up to 11 and I’ll set off!
I am totally late in starting this but really excited to do it! I will start this weekend and catch up 😀
Such a great idea!
I did not see this post before and it is now March. I will miss out on the first two months but going for 10 months but 12 trips
[…] are registered for the bike tour a month challenge (hosted by Path Less Pedaled) and July was slipping away fast. We originally planned on a local tour […]