40 bicyclists take a breather in Rapid on the way to D.C.

By James C. Falcon, Journal Staff Writer | Thursday, July 13, 2006

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RAPID CITY -- Although tourists coming and going from Rapid City is a natural, daily occurrence, especially in the summer time, a group here this week is different. It took them 19 days to arrive - by bicycle.

On Monday afternoon, 40 members of the Adventure Cyclists group pulled into Rapid City after an 82-mile trip from Newcastle, Wyo. The trip to Rapid City was no problem, apparently. The previous day, the group rode about 109 miles.

Adventure Cycling Association, based in Missoula, Mont., is a nonprofit organization that advocates the use of bicycles for transportation.

This trip is the 30th Anniversary Supported Cross Country Ride. The organization's "inaugural transcontinental bike epic" was made in 1976. The group called this trip its "Bikecentennial."

Ryan Kaplan, a 26-year-old teacher from Farmington, N.H., serves as event director for this cross-country ride. He has been affiliated with Adventure Cyclists for three years but has been bicycling for 11 years. At 15, he participated in his first nationwide tour from Seattle to New Hampshire. He has cycled by himself and has led other groups.

On Tuesday afternoon, Kaplan relaxed in the lounge of the Surbeck Center at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. He had his feet up on a table, exposing a small, 5-year-old tattoo of a cyclist on his left leg.

"I ride because it's meditation to me." Kaplan said. "It gives me time to reflect."

As a high school teacher, Kaplan takes advantage of summer vacation to fulfill his hobby. Plans of his summer activities help get Kaplan through the year.

Kaplan and three other staff members accompany the group of 40 during their route. They alternate between joining the cyclists and driving support vehicles, Kaplan said. These support vehicles hold the group's luggage, as well as cyclists who opt to "sag" - to ride in a support vehicle because of illness or injury.

The trip can be dangerous. One of the riders was killed in a collision with a car during the first leg of the tour in late-June. The group decided to continue the trip.

Only severe lightning or potential flood hazards stop the riders. Even through rain and hail, the group keeps going.

"We ride." Kaplan said, grinning broadly. "It's the nature of this travel."

On an average day during the 3,290 mile trip, a cyclist rides about 85 miles, eight or nine hours a day. After a few hundred miles - or "centuries" - the group takes a layover day that lasts one day and two nights. Their stay in Rapid City was one such example.

During a typical layover day, the cyclists take the opportunity to frequent local bike shops to buy needed equipment (such as saddles or tires), pick up mail at the post office, shop, and "most importantly," Kaplan said, "relax - off the bicycle."

Of the 40 riders, the oldest is Martin Berndt, a week shy of 73 years old.

Berndt, a retired electrical engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., began cycling when he was 10 but didn't begin seriously cycling until 35 years ago. The majority of his annual bicycling - 2,000 to 3,000 miles - is from "mostly commuting and running errands."

He has participated in about four one-week, 500-mile-long tours. For this trip, he is riding a "bicycle red" Guerciotti, an Italian racing bicycle that he saved from a Dumpster and restored.

Despite his septuagenarian status, Berndt has no intentions on retiring from bicycling any time soon.

"I'm living in denial," he said, laughing. "I'll tell you when it happens. I have no excuse not to."

"I'm glad my wife let me go for seven weeks," Berndt said. "She's a wonderful woman, but she's not into biking. She knew that when she married me."

As Berndt talks, his roommate, William "Bill" Cook laughs and inflates his tires, readying for Wednesday's return to the road. Cook is the second oldest rider. The maintainer of a blog, "Cycling Across the U.S.A." Cook is a retired journalist and founder of Barcroft Cycles, a bicycle manufacturing company and "hobby business" that sells recumbent bicycles. One such bicycle, the Barcroft Dakota - named after his home state of North Dakota - is Cook's method of transportation during the trip.

Cook is one of three cyclists riding a recumbent bicycle.

"I love bicycling," Jim Sayer, the executive director of Adventure Cyclists, said. "To work for a bicycling organization is great."

During a presentation for the riders on Monday evening, Sayer said that 28 percent of all travel in the U.S. consists of trips that are one mile or shorter. Of these trips, 65 percent are taken by automobile.

Sayer had previously said that bicycles were "a microchip of the 1800s." It was the main method of transportation, Sayer said, especially for people who couldn't afford a horse and wagon. However, Sayer said, the dominance of automobiles as a mode of transportation began in the 1950s. Bicycles were relegated to secondary status - basically, toys.

You can read about the cyclists' trip on Bill Cook's blog, "Cycling Across the U.S.A." at www.washingtonbureau.typepad.com/bikeblog.

James Falcon can be reached at JamesC.Falcon@rapidcityjournal.com