Adventure Cycling Association

Bike Overnights are beginner-friendly, accessible, and inclusive bike adventures that anyone can do from their backyard. Specifically, we're asking that community rides we share take place over no more than 3 nights and that each day include less than 60 miles of riding. A lot of people do versions of this on our annual Bike Travel Weekend!

A Bike Overnight should be enjoyable for anyone, and we encourage you to plan a ride intentionally, thinking particularly about inclusion and access. We all start our journey to bike travel somewhere! An overnight or weekend trip is a great way to get started or keep enjoying adventure in your community.

Bike Overnights are meant for the general public! We also understand the need for safe spaces, especially in historically inaccessible and inequitable places like the outdoor recreation or cycling industries. We're happy to share rides that center and are only open to BIPOC, transgender, women, intersexed, gender nonconforming, or lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, asexual cyclists. If you post a ride, please make sure interested participants can reach you! It's always good to have a meeting, call, or Zoom before your ride to check in with everyone. You can learn more about great planning practices by reading our Planning and Leading a Bike Overnight guide (link above!).

Is there a lot of elevation? Do you have to ride fifty miles on a road with 45 MPH traffic and no shoulder? Are there places you can safely stop to drink water or have a snack? Would you feel comfortable bringing a group of four or five people you didn't know very well? Could you go on the trip with a minimal amount of gear? Are there places someone could take a bus or train back to the origin point?

There are a lot of questions you can ask yourself but maybe start with: would you take a friend who's never gone on a bike trip before? We want people to enjoy their bike trips! If you think your Bike Overnight is going to be Type 2 fun, it's probably not going to be fun for beginners.

No, not at all! If you have a great ride to cabins or a cool Airbnb with a hot tub, or know of other options, definitely do that! Not everyone is a fan of sleeping outside and that's okay. Bike travel comes in all shapes and sizes!

Sure! We've had some great Bike Travel Weekend rides involving families and have resources for you to learn more about that. We'd love to hear more about your experiences engaging in bike travel as a family as well and share lessons you've learned with other parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and people who love bikes and want to share that with kiddos!

That would be very kind of you but no! (Can we come on your trip?) First, think ahead about how much your trip might cost each participant, and second, please be very clear about costs you're asking participants to contribute to in your event description. It's ideal to make a cost-breakdown of the trip: trail pass, park fee, hotel costs, snacks, food or meals on the road, chipping in for gas, whatever.

Nothing, it's free!

If your Bike Overnight didn't meet the criteria of being shorter than 3 nights and under 60 miles a day, we probably deleted it. Please feel free to submit a ride that meets the guidelines of a Bike Overnight.