One of the great ironies at Adventure Cycling is that one of the most unpleasant sections of our legendary TransAmerica Trail is the 8-mile stretch between Lolo, Montana, and our home base in Missoula, Montana. We routinely get pleas from visiting cyclists: "Can you fix that #@*&%# part of the route?" Well as of last week, we can answer: "Yes, we have a fix!"

One of the biggest hurdles to great bike travel in the United States is the lack of consistent and affordable support for bicyclists on Amtrak, coach carriers, and airlines. Imagine if you could roll your bike safely onto a train or into a cargo bay on a motor coach anywhere in the U.S. — just think of the travel options this would open up for bike overnights, weeklong trips or cross-country trips.

Teens and tots on two epic cycling trips — and tips on how to get kids out on a bicycle tour.

Bad roads, good drivers, good bad food, great towns, disappearing snowbirds, simmering swamps — we experienced it all and more in the South, cycling over 1,000 miles from Charleston to Key West. Here's a Top 10 list of some highlights.

Spring has sprung here in Western Montana (well, kind of) but just as important, there are new welcoming signs on our headquarters building to greet visiting cyclists and let them know they've arrived at the mecca of bicycle travel.

Three Adventure Cycling staff (Ginny Sullivan, Winona Bateman, and myself) traveled last week to the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC. Although it was my eighth summit, it felt really new and fresh. Here are five highlights!

Over the last few months, Adventure Cycling has been very busy working to create new opportunities for bike travel in North America, for example by developing new routes like an Idaho hot springs off-pavement route and Bicycle Route 66, and advancing an official U.S. Bicycle Route System.

If you've ever cycled much on public roads, you've almost certainly had a motor vehicle come too close and scare the heck out of you. Or if you're Gina Evans or Arlen Hall, you've actually been hit by a truck or car at high speed.

Cyclists face a lot of nemeses on the road, from rumble strips to distracted drivers. Another one is bad chip seal.

When you read the title, you were probably thinking: "uh, Jim, there are nearly two months left in 2012." But actually, Adventure Cycling's fiscal year 2012 concluded on September 30 -- and it was a record setter in so many ways.

I just got back from the Adventure Travel World Summit in Lucerne, Switzerland, and as usual, was blown away by the growth in this sector of the tourism market.

On Monday, I wrote about my experience riding a segment of the Rhine River Bicycle Route (in Germany), and while I did it for the sheer enjoyment, I also did it to see first-hand the parallels between European routes and those being developed as part of the U.S. Bicycle Route System (USBRS).

Jim Sayer from Adventure Cycling (in the middle) with Richard Weston, a co-author of a new report on the economic impact of bike tourism in Europe, and Camille Thome, secretary-general of the Departements et Regions Cyclables, a leading French advocacy group, in Nantes, France.

It's been a sad week for cycling, but if you think I'm writing about Lance Armstrong, you would be mistaken. I'm deeply saddened by the death of Leslie Bohm, one of the best people I've met since taking the helm at Adventure Cycling seven years ago.

I really enjoy working at Adventure Cycling Association. I could probably write a list of 100 things that are terrific about this organization from the mission to the members to the staff to the unique headquarters.

Yesterday, June Curry, an amazing woman and a hero to many thousands of cyclists worldwide, passed away at the age of 91. June's story has been told many times but here's the snapshot:

Do you know that gut-wrenching feeling when your bike has been stolen off the street? You left it there a few minutes ago and, coming back, it's gone, the lock clipped, your heart sinking fast? That's the way I felt yesterday when the transportation committee of the U.S. House of Representatives voted by just two votes to keep biking and walking programs out of the next long-term transportation bill.

Breaking ground for an expanded bike-travel "mecca," approval of the first new official U.S. Bicycle Routes in nearly three decades, a cool new website to promote overnight bike trips, record map sales and lots of new route development and improvement: these are just a few of the highlights from a rock-solid year for Adventure Cycling Association.

Last month, I wrote that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) had issued an important new technical advisory (TA) on rumble strips for the first time in 10 years.

This coming week, I'll be traveling with Adventure Cycling's special projects director, Ginny Sullivan, to the 10th annual National Bike Summit. The summit has come a long way since its inception when, as Congressman Jim Oberstar joked, you could fit the attendees in a phone booth.

We in the American bicycling community are so fortunate to have Congressman Jim Oberstar as our friend and leader.

We are two weeks into our family's trip down Adventure Cycling's Pacific Coast Route from border to border — and are woefully behind in posting blog bits about our adventure thus far.