Bicycle Boom, Bikecentennial

 I came of age in the 1970s, some of the peak years for bicycle production and cycling enthusiasm. In 1974, 60% of bikes sold were for adults.Carlton Reid, Bike Boom, pg 110

Being from Ohio, I’d heard of the Tour of the Scioto River Valley also known by its acronym, TOSRV. There was a flourishing culture of get out and go at that time. By this I mean even if you didn’t have all the equipment or training, you still saw people getting out and doing things—such as riding across the country on heavy clunker bikes with no prior touring experience.

Bikecentennial was conceived by Greg and June Siple and Dan and Lys Burden, two married twenty-something married couples and touring partners. In 1972 while on a cycling Hemistour, beginning in Alaska and finishing in Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, they cooked up the idea that, in addition to the elaborate plans already in motion for the USA to celebrate its bicentennial anniversary of independence, they’d initiate a cross-country bike project appropriately called Bikecentennial. The idea was for people of all ages to get out and explore the back roads of America, staying in campgrounds, churches, community centers, and county/village parks.

The two couples were not new to organized rides, as Greg Siple and his father were the founders of TOSRV, nor were they new to route planning, since they had been planning the Hemistour for close to five years. Yet it would take some heavy lifting to get Bikecentennial off the ground.

So the Burdens interrupted their trip and returned to the US while the Siples continued onto the southern tip of Argentina. The Burdens traveled around giving presentations and 70s-style crowdsourcing the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail, a route that would cross ten states, 22 national forests, two national parks, and 112 counties between Astoria, Oregon and Yorktown, Virginia. Yorktown being the site of a famous Revolutionary War battle.

There was a notice in the newspaper about a lecture at the Kettering Public Library given by the Siples who by this time had finished up their Hemistour. The presenters promised to talk about their bike tour and show slides. I remember walking into the room and sitting transfixed by the images of such a long tour done all by bikes. At the end they introduced the idea of Bikecentennial. I was all in.

But how would I get my parents on board?                       

I was only fifteen and would need their permission. I’d also need a sleeping bag. This might have been the same time I discovered Frostline outdoor kits. I fantasized about cycling across the country. As a high school sophomore I approached my American history teacher and discussed with him Bikecentennial, trying to feel out his interest in cycling. That would be a no. I didn’t know a single person who was game for this kind of adventure.

Bikecentennial eventually morphed into Adventure Cycling Association headquartered in Missoula, MT. ACA puts out maps and other resources for the cycle tourer. In fact, when I did a trip down the coast of Florida from Jacksonville to Key West in 2015 I ordered their maps. In Cocoa Beach I came across a very nice, well put-together woman on her bike who called after me. I stopped and she caught up to ask me about my trip. She told me she had biked Bikecentennial in 1976 and finished it. Pregnant, except she didn’t know it at the time. She invited me to her house to have breakfast and do laundry. I’d just had a break, so I passed, but I couldn’t help but think of all the interconnections between me and Bikecentennial.

It has always been one of my lifelong regrets that I didn’t do it. Someday.*

So in the summer of 2020, I DID do a cross-country bike trip from Chicago to Seaside, OR following the Lewis & Clark Trail.