Hey it’s the direct download link for The Pedalshift Project 423: Thanksgiving Eve Live.

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Followup: Is Bicycle Touring in Decline? 

More emails on this than any topic in a while. Some selected thoughts from listeners:

Regarding ACA

• Multiple listeners: Could ACA  be losing older members in its attempts to expand into younger audiences, but worse… might not be succeeding on either front? It’s hard to do both, and that’s the challenge… you need to find what drives your constituencies and sometimes you swing and miss.
• @BounceBackWesterner”I subscribed to the ACA magazine for one year.  I was happy with one edition, but then, it seemed like there was a trend to rides that were extremely challenging and demanding whether that be road or offroad. These folks predominantly seemed younger and maybe that’s where most of their subscriptions come from. “
• Another point: ACA was built on a need which may not exist anymore. Before they were the best and maybe only resource for routes and maps that had been vetted. Now there are way more resources.
• Listener Harry Hellerman was a great example of someone who’s let his ACA membership lapse after 20 years. The reason? Kind of what ACA was saying… he says he’s aging out and the roads are now occupied by larger and larger vehicles, so there’s a safety concern. 

Regarding Touring being down

• Multiple listeners: Travel is down across the board, but travel to the US in particular has taken a huge hit. Lots of factors there, but you can’t ignore the current politics as a possible reason here.
• Listener Andrew Piper: “Data point: For a 2-year comparison, the overall demand for search terms around “bike touring” is infact down 25%-35% YoY. However, using the same comparison, the demand for terms around “bikepacking” is up about 40%. Which does lend itself to the change in nomenclature more than an actual decline in interest.”
• “I think I am maybe a couple years younger than yourself at best. Of the people I have seen doing this, I always feel I am on the younger side of the sport. Logistically it makes sense. Who has time to do this….older people.” 
• Bicycling for older generations was a big part of freedom – it might not be that for younger generations?
• Listener Dr. G4 wrote a really thoughtful email from the perspective of a younger rider. 
  • Shorter touring is much more of a thing
  • Some of the places where the routes go don’t feel welcoming (political, demographics)
  • Real shift to urbanism amongst younger generation
  • Poor infrastructure/safety
  • perception: ACA represents an older version of bicycle travel (longer trips)
  • “I think what the next generation wants is not road maps, but trail maps and advocacy for more trails and trail amenities (and, I might note, probably videos, how-tos, explainers, and meetups, not print versions of easily-googleable information).”
  • “it’s clear from the overabundance of urbanist youth getting around by transit, bicycles, or even scooters that travel by bicycle isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. But turning them into bicycle tourers involves developing routes and programs that are closer to cities and farther from cars, marketing dedicated bicycle trails as one piece of an integrated solution for transit- and bicycle-accessible nature, specifically focussing on routes with many transit junctions to allow long routes to be chewed in smaller chunks, helping the rapidly-growing contingent of bicycle commuters to learn how to use their bicycles beyond weekdays to short or long weekends (with week-long or more tours being an eventual end goal, not the primary purpose), and politically advocating for car-displacing trains, trails, and cycle tracks that make all this possible.”

•Rails to Trails Conservancy may have the better model?

Hey it’s the direct download link for The Pedalshift Project 422: Is Bicycle Touring in Decline?.

Subscribe/Follow The Pedalshift Project:
RSS – iTunes – Overcast – Android – Google Podcasts – Stitcher – TuneIn – IHeartRadio – Spotify

Reach out to the show via email, Twitter and Instagram. Don’t forget to join the newsletter too.

Have some bike touring or overnight stories to share? Send your pics, audio or a quick tweet – all welcome. Email the show at pedalshift@pedalshift.net or call the lightly-used Pedalshift voicemail line at (202) 930-1109

Is Bicycle Touring in Decline? 

What the ACA Letter Tells Us

• Recent email to ACA membership on a vote regarding selling their building in Missoula
  • Membership down from almost 40,000 in 2023 to about 18,000 today.
  • Donations down.
  • Demand for guided tours has softened.
  • Sales of maps/routes have dropped with free digital tools and GPS routes everywhere.
• Their diagnosis
  • Members aging out of cycling.
  • Some people don’t feel enough value in a paid membership.
  • Travel patterns are changing; inflation and costs are up; maybe fewer people committing to long guided tours.
• The building sale piece:
  • ACA can sell their big, underutilized Missoula headquarters for ~$2.55M, then lease back just the space they need.
  • The goal is to buy a “runway” of a few years to rebuild membership and modernize programs (digital experience, routes, tours, events).
• This is serious—membership halving in a couple of years is not a blip.
• But this is one institution. It’s a single data point, not the whole story.

Is ACA’s Crisis Proof That Touring Is Dying?

• Possible “touring is in trouble” interpretation:
  • If the biggest U.S. touring org is shrinking, maybe demand really is falling.
  • Fewer people willing to pay for routes, maps, and guided tours could indicate less interest in traditional loaded touring.
• Alternative explanations:
  • Value perception problem:
  • If you can download GPX routes for free, people might not feel like they need a membership.
  • Younger riders may not connect with a membership model or a print magazine in the same way.
• Business model problem vs. touring problem:
  • Guided tours and paper maps are specific products. Those can decline even if DIY touring thrives.
  • If a streaming-era kid doesn’t buy DVDs, it doesn’t mean movies are dead—just that the business model changed. Same question here: is ACA Blockbuster, or are movies in trouble?

The Aging Out Effect

• The ACA explicitly mentions aging out of cycling.
• Talk through generational dynamics:
  • A lot of classic touring energy came from the boomers and older Gen X.
  • Long, multi-week tours require time, health, and often retirement or very flexible work.
• People aging out doesn’t necessarily mean the activity is dying, but:
  • If younger generations aren’t replacing those numbers, you get a visible decline.
• Touring can look intimidating: expensive gear, big time commitments, safety fears.
• Possible barriers for younger riders:
  • Student debt, unstable housing, fewer long chunks of vacation, higher baseline anxiety around traffic and climate disasters (heat, smoke, extreme weather).

The Rise of Bikepacking and Off-Road Travel

• Ttouring may just be changing costume:
  • More folks are drawn to bikepacking and gravel: lighter gear, off-road routes, “adventure” branding.
  • Social media and brands push a certain aesthetic: frame bags, dirt roads, epic photography.
• Contrast vibes:
  • Classic touring: fenders, racks, panniers, highways, small towns, campgrounds.
  • Bikepacking: singletrack/doubletrack, BLM land, forest roads, more “expedition-y”, often shorter but punchier trips.
• If someone is out for five days with bags on their bike, sleeping outside and moving every day… and we’re calling that bikepacking instead of touring… did touring really decline, or did it just get relabeled?
• Is bikepacking now the umbrella term for bike adventuring?

Is It Just a (pardon the pun) Cycle? 

• Historical perspective:
  • There was a big touring boom in the 1970s and again mini-waves around the early 2000s . 
  • We thought the 2020 COVID bike boom would impact things, but did it?
  • Outdoor sports often rise and fall with the economy, culture, and media stories.
• Economic cycle:
  • High inflation, higher travel costs, and general uncertainty can make long trips harder.
  • At the same time, travel has become more fragmented: people take 3-day trips instead of 3-week odysseys.
• Cultural cycle:
  • Right now, gravel and ultra-events (Unbound, etc.) get the headlines. Touring is slow and unsexy by comparison.
  • Slow unsexy things tend to look “dead” for a while… until the next backlash against all the hype and burnout.
• We might be in the hangover phase after the COVID bike boom and a big cultural swing toward short, ‘epic’ experiences.

Other Factors That Make Touring Feel Smaller

• Safety and traffic fears: distracted driving, speed, road rage, social media amplifying every horror story.
• Climate and weather extremes: heat domes, wildfire smoke, storms—touring has always danced with weather, but now the dice feel loaded.
• Information overload: paradoxically, infinite online info can make people freeze and not choose any tour.
• Shift to micro-touring: overnighters, weekend campouts, credit-card touring instead of epic cross-country runs. That looks less visible on the ACA radar but might be the real growth area.

What ACA’s Plan Signals About the Future

• Positive outlook: Selling an underused building to buy time to modernize could be a good sign. It’s a choice to adapt instead of slowly bleed out.
• They’re explicitly planning to invest in:
  • More routes and route updates
  • Digital and website improvements
  • Stronger advocacy tools
  • Expanded tours and member events
• The big question:
  • Can an organization built around old touring models reinvent itself for a world of bikepacking, GPS, and dispersed, remote communities?
  • Will they pivot toward being the hub for all forms of bike travel, not just pannier touring?

Final Take: Is Touring Actually in Decline?

Yes, in the classic sense.

• Fewer people paying for memberships, maps, and guided pannier tours.
• The touring demographic that built ACA is shrinking and aging.

No, if you widen the definition.

• Bikepacking, mixed-surface, overnighters, and “ride-to-your-Airbnb” trips are essentially touring by another name.
• People are still traveling by bicycle; they’re just doing it with different gear and routes.

Mostly, it’s in a messy transition.

• Legacy institutions and business models are under intense pressure.
• New formats (digital communities, route-sharing platforms, YouTube, social media) are where a lot of the energy lives now.
• The story isn’t “touring is dying”—it’s “touring is migrating.”

• Go on any kind of bike trip—overnight, credit-card, dirt, paved, doesn’t matter.
• Support whichever orgs, creators, or communities actually help them get out the door (ACA, local groups, creators, etc.).
• If you’re an ACA member, vote on the building sale by November 24. Whatever side you land on it seems like this will likely define things for ACA for the next several years.

•Bike touring has always been a niche. The question isn’t whether the niche survives—it’s what form it takes for the next generation. And we all get to shape that.

Hey it’s the direct download link for The Pedalshift Project 421: Bike Adventure Goals Scorecard.

Subscribe/Follow The Pedalshift Project:
RSS – iTunes – Overcast – Android – Google Podcasts – Stitcher – TuneIn – IHeartRadio – Spotify

Reach out to the show via email, Twitter and Instagram. Don’t forget to join the newsletter too.

Have some bike touring or overnight stories to share? Send your pics, audio or a quick tweet – all welcome. Email the show at pedalshift@pedalshift.net or call the lightly-used Pedalshift voicemail line at (202) 930-1109

2025 Bike Adventure Goals Scorecard

Celebrating plans already made, and taking care of yourself

Sort of?

A big ebike trip – maybe two. Taking the bike on a ride only the ebike can do… extra distance per day? Twice as fast? Looking at a push west and maybe north too.

Points for trying with the Lake Ontario trip.

Something international – you non-US folks have been very patient with this America-centric pod. We’ll see if we can get wheels down someplace I need a passport.

Check! Helllloooo Canada!

I also got to do off-pod adventures in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Belgium… no biking but a lot of walking and exploring.

West coast – what, you thought I wouldn’t hit the Pacific coast? Pffft… find another podcast! Probably summer.

Check! Mysterious Oregon trip!

More bike adjacent adventures – exploring someplace where I ride, a bike gets used, but it’s not necessarily the full focus.

Europe trip was an adventure but not bike-adjacent. But I have a small one coming up in a few weeks that is absolutely out of left field in terms of location, but wholeheartedly checks the box, so CHECK. Shall we do a preview? (You’ll have to listen to get that one!)