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Permalink Reply by Duppie on March 11, 2012 at 8:28am

Adventure Cycling Association does at least 3 a year:

TransAmerica, Northern Tier and Southern Tier. They take about 90 days each and are expensive. Here is one such itinerary: http://www.adventurecycling.org/tours/tourdetail.cfm?t=EV12&id=...

(the other ones can be found by clicking on the links on the right)

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Permalink Reply by Carrie on March 11, 2012 at 8:31am

Yeah, after my google search I saw some crazy expensive tours (5-8K) like the ones you posted here (and a few others) - and I just figured there has to be others out there that would be less expensive but maybe not as widely publicized?

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Permalink Reply by Melissa on March 11, 2012 at 8:51am

The organizers of this fully-supported fundraiser are hoping to make it an annual event: 

http://www.hazon.org/programs/cross-usa-ride/

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Permalink Reply by Duppie on March 11, 2012 at 8:54am

There may be cheaper ones, but generally you get what you pay for.

The ACA tours are generally well organized, and these specific ones include the cost of food for 3 months:  you don't have to cook every meal yourself (you share cooking) and you get nutritious and varied meals. They also include the cost of camping/hotels. You stay in a hotel an average of once a week.

 

(Alll this comes from reviews I read, I have not done one myself yet. It is still on my list).

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Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on March 11, 2012 at 8:59am

Don't throw out the possibility of doing a self-supported trip. When I rode a modified TransAmerica route, I crossed paths with many solo female XC riders, and you can also finding touring partners via the Adventure Cycling online forum. Self-supported touring isn't as hard as you think. Heck, I did it while boozing in taverns every other day, as my book Bars Across America: Drinking and Biking from Coast attests.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on March 12, 2012 at 3:20am

Lon Haldeman and Susan Notorangelo are ultra marathon cycling royalty, having won a couple of RAMs apiece (single and tandem) and Susan setting a women's PBP record in 1983. They run a company called PAC Tours out of Sharon, Wisconsin, and are very knowledgeable and really nice people. Not sure if this is a more attractive price point for you, but then I would expect a supported transcontinental bike ride to be somewhat pricey. It appears that they run a northern and southern transcontinental tour every other year or so.

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