Outdoor Recreation

TO EXCITE YOUR SENSES, TRY LONG-TRIP BICYCLE TOURING

As you read this (assuming it's not the middle of the night), there are an indeterminate number of crazy people out on the highways of Arizona. They're crazy about bicycles. They're crazy about touring on bicycles. They're addicted to cycling, especially cycling long distances, just like other people get addicted to politics or bridge or model trains.

Take, for instance, Bill Mueller, a Glendale retiree. He has cycled the perimeters of Arizona (1,861 miles), New Mexico (1,717 miles), and, most recently, Texas (3,300 miles).

In the spring and summer of 1987, Michael Hontas of Phoenix, who, at 35, hadn't ridden a bike since boyhood, cycled 3,000 miles through France and Spain.

Several Arizonans I know, including a man and a woman in their 60s, have pedaled across the United States. Numbers of people (some from as far away as Germany and Australia) have done the Almost-Across-Arizona ride: 500-odd miles from the Grand Canyon to Nogales.

I haven't tackled that daunting journey, but I've cycled the deserts and the mountains of our state for years and pedaled through California, Oregon, Washington, some of Massachusetts, and a good deal of Europe.

I'm a crazy, just like the rest. And there are quite a few of us since bicycle touring, if not exactly a major sport, is a pretty popular minor one.

We ride mostly on the state's older highways because the freeways have sponged much of the traffic off them. (True, there's a 10-mile stretch of Interstate Route 17 that some of us ride from New River to Rock Springs occasionally. The highway patrol doesn't mind, and it's the only way to get at those spectacular pancakes at the Rock Springs Cafe.) One of the nice things about touring by bicycle is that you're connected to the land. And it's a relaxed sort of sport. You see things better. You go past them slower. You may or may not stop to smell the desert's spring flowers. But your senses get filled to the brim with them.

You can bicycle tour with a group of like-minded friends. Half the fun is the socializing: the fellowship, the eating together, the overnighting together, the picnicking together. You can go with a commercial bike-tour outfit, or you can tour alone. A lot of the peripatetic cyclists prefer it that way.

"It's just you, the bike, your thoughts, and the road," wrote Nelson Pena in Bicycling. "Solo touring gives you total control - a welcome relief for any of you who've ever spent a weekend straining to keep up with more experienced riders."

WHEN YOU GO

Interested bikers can join a bike club and receive its newsletter and schedule of organized rides. (There are two major groups in the state: the Arizona Bicycle Club, P.O. Box 67173, Phoenix, AZ 85082-7173; and the Greater Arizona Bicycling Association, P.O. Box 43273, Tucson, AZ 85733). There are a number of tour outfits nationwide. You can get lists from the TourFinder issue of Bicycle USA (published by the League of American Wheelmen, 6707 Whitestone Rd., Suite 209, Baltimore, MD 21207).

Also, you should select a good touring bike. It may cost $500 or so, but it's money well-spent. Wear a helmet. Take water. If you're touring Arizona, obtain an Arizona Bicycle Suitability Map, showing what roads are good for cycling (Arizona Department of Transportation, Room 340-B, 206 S. 17th Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85007).