Below you will find a smattering of timely, relevant bicycle travel story ideas. These are broad, interconnected topics ripe for topical or regional spin.

The New Road Trip: Gas & oil are skyrocketing and the planet is a bit hot under the collar, but luckily there is really no need to sacrifice one's wanderlust. Take the new road trip. See the country by bicycle. There are lots of potential angles to this one: eco-friendly vacations, affordable family trips (our family-friendly tours are selling like hotcakes), or hardcore bike adventure (you can drive 3,000 miles but can you bike them?), among others. With well-placed regional spin, this particular story may grab your readers and viewers as incredibly relevant, timely and inspiring — we don't have to give things up — just do them differently!

Bicycle Travel is Growing: While this is difficult to measure exactly (many people just grab a map and go), in the last 10 years we’ve seen a 27 % growth in our membership and a 42% growth in map sales. (From 2000-2007 we sold 189,912 bike maps!) Our Adventure Cycling Route Network has grown to 38,158 miles because of this support and is one of the largest route networks in the world. In the last ten years, we've also seen the number of tour-operators worldwide double (based on submissions to our Cyclists Yellow Pages).

A Booming Trend — Bike Touring to Raise Awareness & Funds:
We are seeing an absolutely booming trend in people doing bike tours as a fundraising effort (we get multiple announcements every week), for example, www.3reasons.org. In particular there is a real trend with people, many of them young, doing rides to raise money & awareness about the environment, for example the eight college students riding Across the Rockies for Alternative Transportation this summer or the PlantingAmerica.org effort to plant one million trees this summer by bike (using our TransAmerica Trail). Of course, it’s not just younger people riding for climate change, also many adults raising awareness, such as http://www.rideforclimate.com/usa/.

Youth Cycling
We're seeing growth in the number of high school groups doing multi-day tours. There is also a push to inspire young people to get out and ride in an effort to improve their quality of life, inspire their imaginations, and engage them with the people and landscapes of their communities & country. Our own efforts to promote youth cycling led to the creation of the Pedal Pioneers: A Guide to Bicycle Travel with Kids, designed to help teachers, youth group leaders, and other bicyclists organize their own youth tours. To date this guide has inspired over 1,000 kids to get out and ride.

Direct your media inquiries to our media director, Winona Sorensen, at or (406) 721-1776, ext 219. Please join our press list or check out the latest news releases.