By Tom Ewing
October 23, 2025
Organizers of the Bikecentennial used many pitches to encourage cyclists to sign up to ride across the country. One distinctive strategy was to promote the route as a low cost way to see the country during the Bicentennial year. Given that the US inflation rate at the beginning of 1975 was close to 12%, one of the highest rates since World War II, this attention to the costs of a trip made sense. Charts published in October 1975 and October 2025 indicated that rise in prices before, during, and after 1975.
A lengthy report published in the Ridgewood News (New Jersey) fifty years ago, October 16, 1975, highlighted this appeal in the tag line, “A National Economy Trail: A Summer on Wheels for $500,” as part of the proposed map of the Bikecentennial. The first paragraph of the report amplified this appeal: “How do you beat the high price of gasoline, save on motel bills, avoid the beeline monotony of the highways and improve your physical and mental health all at once? By bicycling, of course!”
The article provided extensive descriptions of plans developed by Bikecentennial, Inc., including the range of options for overnight accommodations, including commercial lodging, home hostels, campgrounds, and “floor space in public and private buildings such as school gymnasiums,” to the trained leadership and many route options. After describing the route through each of eleven states (including West Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley in western Virginia, which were later omitted from the final route), the article ended with this exhortation: “So if you were wondering whether to spend your summer hiatus at the ocean or the lake, white water canoeing or sun basking, Autobahning through the Alps or riding an elephant through India, forget all that quandary, take your bike out of storage and polish it up into first-rate condition. Start with a ride around the block and work your way up to the area’s bike trails. You may surprise yourself and wind up on that 4100-mile tour of America’s byways. What better way to celebrate the Bicentennial!”
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