A day ride is a ride limited to a maximum of one day. It can range from 10 to 100 miles and can last from 2 to 10 hours or more. Some of the most beautiful regions of America, Europe, and other countries can be explored on one-day rides. In fact, an entire vacation can be spent star-touring, that is, staying at a central motel, hotel, or campground and, each day, taking a day ride out and back in a different direction.
Nonetheless, most day rides are devoted to fitness rather than to vacation touring. And today’s fast-paced lifestyle places such demands on people’s time that, even in bicycling, the trend is toward short, fast day rides that provide an intense workout. Most working people cannot devote a full day each week to taking a long ride.
For this same reason, more than half the clientele on most ex tended tours consists of people in their 50s, or those who are retired, and who have the leisure and money to go on rides lasting from a week to a month or more.
A local bicycle club is the best source for day rides in your area. By pooling the road knowledge of many members, clubs can offer a variety of well-tested day rides via the quietest and most scenic routes. Additionally, most clubs hold a sociable monthly meeting where you can meet other bicyclists and watch films or slides of local bicycling events. Bicycle clubs also sponsor time trials, local races, overnight or longer tours, and an annual century ride. They also offer workshops in bicycle maintenance and repair and in efficient riding skills. You can learn a tremendous amount in a short time by watching and learning from other riders.
Another excellent source of day rides for your area (or others, if you want to go farther afield) is the numerous books of bike rides which have been written for many states and regions. The best listing of these books is found in the annual Bicycle USA Almanac published by the League of American Wheelmen and in Bikecentennial’s Cyclosource.
Day Riding with a Bicycle Club
Undoubtedly, joining a club is the fastest way to learn where the best routes for day rides are in your region. But the actual day rides offered by clubs vary. If your club specializes in short, fast rides for busy young people, you may start out with an elite group of youthful riders, all superbly mounted on high-performance racing bikes. Within a few minutes they will have disappeared into the wild blue yonder, traveling in a pack at 30 m.p.h., and that’s probably the last you will see of them on this ride. Having a rides program devoted exclusively to fast, short rides is responsible for the widely held belief that bicycle clubs are only for elite, superfast riders.
Other clubs, particularly larger ones, will offer a more varied program that includes both moderately paced rides and rides for beginners. If your club has no such program, you can make many new bicycling friends by offering to lead such rides yourself.
Local AYH (American Youth Hostels) groups also usually offer a series of day rides that are touring rather than racing oriented.
On a typical club day ride, everyone starts out together and rides at his or her own pace, following a map provided by the leader. After about two hours, you stop for refreshments at a café. Or you may be asked to bring a snack lunch. Later, you return by a different route, or perhaps by the way you came.
Almost all clubs allow guests so that newcomers can try out a ride before joining. Local day rides usually have no vehicle support. So unless it’s a beginner’s ride, make sure you can go the distance and maintain a respectable speed of 10 - 12 m.p.h. You’re also expected to be self-sufficient and to be able to at least handle a flat on your own. Where appropriate, you should also carry water, adequate clothing, and raingear. Never depend on another club member to bail you out.
Tips on Group Riding
During a day ride you may want to ride in a pack with the other riders to lessen resistance against a headwind. Advice on riding in a pack is given in sections 7 and 15. When riding in a group of any kind, the front rider usually warns those behind of glass, potholes or other hazards by calling out, “Glass!” “Pothole !” “Stopping!” or “Car!” The lead rider also makes hand signals to indicate any turn.
Should you pass or overtake another bicyclist, always do so on her or his left, calling out, “Passing on your left!” Avoid overtaking on the right. And except in a race, never draft another rider without asking permission. Unless he or she knows you are there, the lead rider can make an abrupt turn or stop suddenly. Incidentally, to draft means to ride very closely behind one or more other riders so that they shelter you from having to pedal against a headwind.
Maps to Take You Roaming in the United States
To locate routes for day rides on your own, you must first have detailed local road maps. Half-inch-to-the-mile maps are available for virtually every county in every state. While they show no con tours and few topographic details, they do show every publicly maintained road, both paved and unpaved. To order these maps you must first write for a county index to the state highway department at the state capital. You can then order individual maps. Prices are usually nominal.
More expensive but superior are topographical maps of the- United States, published by the U.S. Geological Survey. They are available in these series: 7 1/2 minutes (1:24,000 or 1” = 2,000’) quads of approximately 6 x 8 mile sections; 15 minute (1:62,000 or 1” = 1 mile) series, which covers 12 x 17 mile sections; and the
1:250,000 (1” = 4 miles) series, which covers 70 x 110 mile sectors. The 7 1/2-minute series is most practical for mountain biking; the 15- minute series for road bike day rides; and the 1:250,000 series for longer tours.
Topographical maps accurately represent all natural and man made features and show contours, elevations, rivers, peaks, valleys, roads, and towns. With their aid you can tell whether a road is level or hilly. Roads paralleling rivers or railroads are often least hilly. To order topographical maps you must first write for an index to the state you are interested in. State indexes are obtainable from the the Internet. With the aid of such maps you can pick what seem the quietest and most scenic roads in your area. Frequently roads that do not connect two towns carry less traffic, as do older roads from which traffic has been siphoned off by a new Interstate or freeway.
Roads with wide, paved shoulders, similar to those on Interstates, frequently offer the safest riding, even though such roads may carry more traffic. You may also ride on Interstates in some Northwestern states and in Colorado, where no alternative route exists.
Use Your Car to Get Out of Town
Once you’ve located some potential routes on your map, drive out and reconnoiter them in your car. Look for potential problems such as narrow roads carrying trucks and RVs, congested areas, and traffic from quarries or plants.
Don’t overlook the possibility that, while your city or town may be surrounded by busy roads and highways, a drive of 15-20 minutes can take you and your bike by car to the starting point of one or more quiet roads, ideal for bicycling. Many younger riders are willing to brave traffic while riding in or out of town. I don’t see this as a necessity for any adult who owns a car. Provided you can park safely, it’s far better to drive out through busy, congested suburbs and begin to bicycle once you’re out in the country.
Again, all too many bicyclists persist in believing that day rides must follow a circular route that brings you back on a different road. To accomplish this you are often routed one way on a narrow, congested road with steady traffic. In reality it is often far more comfortable to go out and back on the same quiet, traffic-free road and to forget about a circular route. Coming back provides an entirely fresh view of the scenery. I certainly wouldn’t ride on a busy, narrow road just to return by a different route. Yet all too many people who organize rides seem totally insensitive to traffic.
Day rides described in some, though certainly not all, books of bicycle rides suffer from this same rigid thinking. Too often, they begin and end at an urban center and then apologize for the congested roads the rider must use. How much more enjoyable these rides would be if the writers broke out of their mindset that all day rides must begin and end in a town or city.
Incidentally, if you contemplate moving upon retirement, it could pay to relocate in an area that offers top-rung day rides and touring throughout the year. Two such towns are Fredericksburg and Kerrville in the Hill Country of south central Texas. Even then you will want to drive a dozen miles out of Kerrville before beginning to ride. It’s the country for a hundred miles or more around these towns that offers good bicycling, not the towns themselves.
To carry your bike or bikes, you may need a car-top rack. A variety of models are available, from car-top carriers carrying bikes upright on the roof to others that carry bikes on the rear of the trunk, and still others that fit inside the back of a pickup truck.
Star Touring by Day Rides
In contrast to taking a continuous tour, where each night is spent at a different place, you might consider a star-touring vacation. This implies making your base for several nights at the same motel, hotel, or campground. Each day you then bicycle out in a different direction, returning to your base for the night. After sampling all the day rides available from one base, you bicycle or drive to the next base and begin star touring from there.
Having your car along is an advantage, particularly if the distance between base towns is far. You can also use your car to drive out as far as 50 miles from your base before beginning a day ride. In this way you can cover a vastly greater variety of day rides from a single base. In some areas it is quite possible to spend two whole weeks at the same base, sampling a new ride each day with the aid of your car.
You can star tour in other countries as well as in the United States. Because of weekend tourists, always have a confirmed reservation for Saturday nights and national holidays.
Endless panoramas of huge LakeTaupo reward
the touring cyclist on New Zealand’s NorthIsland.
The Best U.S. Towns for Star Touring
For starters, I’d suggest joining Bikecentennial, the national bicycle route information service and requesting a copy of their Cyclosource catalog. Listed in its pages are dozens of bicycling guidebooks that describe day rides galore. Bikecentennial’s The Cyclist’s Yellow Pages, also free to members, and the annual Bicycle USA Almanac issued by the League of American Wheelmen are two other treasure troves of leads and publications to top day ride locales, both in the United States and abroad. You should also write for the book catalogs of The Countryman Press and Globe Pequot Press, which list guidebooks to day tours in the New England and mid-Atlantic states. Through these and similar sources, you can learn about remote backroads known only to bicyclists and a few cognoscenti.
Among states or regions thereof covered by day ride guides are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. Also included in Bikecentennial’s Cyclosource are guides to mountain-bike day rides in these same states plus others in South Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho, and the Canadian Rockies.
I’d be rather careful about day rides on paved roads in national parks. Many of these roads are quite narrow and during the season are clogged with RVs, most of which are fitted with huge extension mirrors. By contrast, unpaved park roads frequently offer terrific mountain biking.
Mountain Bicycle Day Rides
Mountain bikes can be ridden on any publicly maintained unpaved road, plus all unpaved roads on city, county, state, or federal property where vehicular traffic is allowed. All roads in national forests, even those closed to motor vehicles, are usually open to mountain bikes.
In national parks mountain bikes are permitted on all 4-wheel drive trails, or on any primitive dirt road open to vehicles. Through out the West, bikes are free to roam vehicular tracks on all Bureau of Land Management lands — that is, huge tracts of unwooded public lands. Many Nordic ski areas also offer good mountain bike riding in summer. You’ll also find many scenic trails in state forests where mountain bikes are allowed while some large state parks have networks of suitable roads.
(You should, however, ride only on walking and hiking trails where bicycles are clearly permitted and welcome. Riding on narrow trails elsewhere can interfere with hikers and give bicyclists a poor image in the eyes of fellow outdoors people. Moreover, bicycling on unauthorized trails on state or federal lands can earn you a ranger citation and a stiff fine. In general, there are more trails where mountain bicycles are permitted in the West than in the East.
Bicycles tend to be prohibited or unwelcome on major trail systems in the East, such as the Appalachian Trail and hiking trails in the Adirondacks and White Mountain National Forest. Naturally, you should also be careful not to ride on private roads or land without the owner’s permission.)
Among the best state parks for mountain-bike day rides is Anza Borrego State Park in southern California — a desert park at its best in winter. Other good star-touring centers, or areas, for mountain bike day rides include these:
- Colorado: Breckenridge, Boulder, Crested Butte, Frisco, Steamboat Springs, Vail, Winter Park.
- Idaho: Ketchum; Sawtooth Mountains; and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area.
- Montana: Missoula, and in most national forests, especially the Absaroka, Beartooth, Gallatin, and Snowy Mountains.
- New Mexico: Gila National Forest, north of Silver City, plus national monuments like Dinosaur.
- Oregon: Hood River and Rogue River National Forests.
- Utah: Moab and Canyonlands National Park; also in most national forests.
- Wyoming: Yellowstone National Park; Jackson Hole; along the Madison River; in most national forests; and Cody, Cooke City, Ennis, Emigrant, Nevada City and Roosevelt.
Wyoming’s YellowstoneNational
Park offers outstanding day rides for mountain bikers.
Not open to mountain biking are most narrow hiking trails, while all wilderness areas are closed to all-terrain bikes. Nonetheless, some hiking trails in western national forests have been opened to bicycling. On these authorized trails, ATB fans are welcome to enjoy the bone-rattling excitement of bombing down steep trails strewn with rocks, tree roots, marshes and other technical challenges.
Most adults, however, prefer the smoother riding available on the hundreds of old railroad beds and logging and mining roads that web the Rockies and other mountain ranges.
Incidentally, whenever you meet hikers or horse riders while mountain biking, slow down and let them by. Likewise, when overtaking them, slow down and let them know you are there. Never try to race past. If you meet a motorcycle group, it’s best to pull off the road and wait until they’ve all gone by.
Day Rides at Bicycle Rallies, Conventions and Festivals
Bicycle rallies, conventions, festivals and other gatherings of bi cyclists feature at least one day ride during each day of the event. At larger events, some of which draw thousands of bicyclists, three or more different day rides are programmed daily: a shorter ride of 25 miles; a medium distance ride of 40—50 miles; and a longer ride. At these events you’ll find hundreds of participants to share workshops, rides, and camaraderie.
The best nationwide source for bicycle events (including century rides) is the publication Bicycle USA, free when you join the League of American Wheelmen (the national organization of bicyclists), the address for which is on the Internet. Local bike-club newsletters also feature most events in their own and nearby states.
Centuries — The Longest Day Rides
Nowadays, most century events offer not only the standard 100- mile day ride but also shorter rides of 25 and 50 miles plus others of 25, 50, and 100 kilometers (15, 30, and 60 miles). Thus virtually any century event held within convenient driving distance offers an opportunity for a grand day ride along with a large turnout of fellow bicyclists.
Century rides are noncompetitive 100-mile or 100-kilometer fun rides. Most begin at 7A.M. —though you can start as late as 8 A.M. — and you are given 10-12 hours to complete the 100-mile itinerary. Each participant rides at her or his own pace and there are usually three or four rest stops with food and water available. Sag wagons patrol the route and bring in sagging riders or those with mechanical problems.
Friendly, unofficial races often take place during centuries but the majority of riders are just out to enjoy the ride and to prove to themselves that they can ride 100 miles in a day. For elite ironmen some clubs offer double or even triple centuries (covering 300 miles in 24 hours). Most centuries are held in the fall.
While dozens of tandem couples participate in these bicycling events, each year sees an increasing number of day ride events and tours for tandems only. A complete list is published in the newsletter of the Tandem Club of America.
A Little Help from the Wind
For unscheduled day rides always try to plan a ride that takes you into the wind on the way out, and that provides a tailwind on the way back. Or you might be able to ride out through a wooded area that shields you from a headwind, and return by a more open route on which a tailwind can help speed your return. Any strategy that ensures a tailwind on the second half of the ride makes the ride easier and more enjoyable. A strong tailwind can easily help you to pedal at 20-30 m.p.h. or more.
During summer it’s also good strategy to schedule a day ride as early in the day as possible. Not only do you miss the late afternoon heat and possible thunderstorms but in high mountain areas you avoid being on high ridges and high passes where afternoon lightning can occur.
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