This is the 440th issue of Bike Bits, Adventure Cycling’s twice-monthly bicycle bulletin. Bike Bits is delivered to you, and 69,437 other readers, because you’ve signed up for it at the Adventure Cycling Association website. We want to inspire you to dream and to live your own bicycle adventures.

“Every so often a bird gets up and flies some place that it’s drawn to. I don’t suppose it could tell you why, but it does it anyway.”

Ian Hibell

The Mystery of Mr. X

Is a former cycling enthusiast behind the biggest anticycling group in the world? Read more

Cycling to a Greener Footprint

Hudson Doyle rode solo from Vancouver, Canada, to Colombia, taking note of the detrimental effects that our modern life is having on the environment. Read more

A Good Kind of Life Sentence

Adventure Cycling Life Members are a dedicated group of cyclists who provide important support to bicycling in America. Join the ranks of over 2,850 cyclists who have made the leap to Life Membership, and your support will ensure a strong foundation for bicycle travel for years to come. Read more

All Quiet on the Western Front

Except for a peloton of cyclists retracing the route of a bicycle reconnaissance corps from World War I, that is. Read more 

28 Times Around the Earth

Bike Your Park Day participants rode more than 700,000 miles on September 29. Thank you to the 199 volunteers and three generous sponsors — Ridgeland Tourism Commission, Amtrak, and Black Coffee Roasting Co. — for helping make Bike Your Park Day a success! Join us next year on September 28, 2019. Read more

Tierra des Gigantes

Exploring the Land of Giants by bicycle. Read more

Be a USBRS Insider

Subscribe to Adventure Cycling’s quarterly USBRS eNews for updates on U.S. Bicycle Route developments and ways you can be involved. Read more

From the Archive of Good Old Fashioned Child Labor

And we thought we had it bad when our parents made us get up early to walk the dog! Read more

Support What You Value

When you support Adventure Cycling with a holiday gift, your donation makes bicycle travel safer and more accessible. Plus, your donation will be doubled by our Holiday Trailblazers. Donate now

The Butterfield Overland Mail Route

Follow a photographer’s bicycling route from Tucson, Arizona, to San Francisco, California, via photographs. (Be sure to zoom out to see the whole route and more photos.) Read more

Until next time, click here for vicarious adventures in Peru.

Adventure Cycling Association is North America’s premier nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring, empowering, and connecting people to travel by bicycle. Membership is open to anyone and includes a one-year subscription to Adventure Cyclist magazine and discounted pricing on maps from our Adventure Cycling Route Network, which now includes 47,283 miles. To join, go here.

Illustrations by Greg Siple