Cycling Pioneer, a book by Lon Haldeman

By Lars Hundley

I am the third publisher at Road Bike Rider, which has been sending out a weekly newsletter for more than 20 years. Many of our newsletter readers have been here since the beginning and have read about Lon Haldeman over the years. I’m sure that some of you have even participated in one or more of his guided PAC Tour bicycling expeditions that he has been leading since 1985.

If you’re not yet familiar with Lon, he has ridden and organized more than 100 bike tours and races across the United States since 1981, and has set eight different transcontinental cycling records from seven to 12 days.

Lon was kind enough to send me a signed copy of his new book, Cycling Pioneer, a Record Setting Ride from New York City to Los Angeles and Back. The book tells the story of how Lon set a new transcontinental cycling record in 1981. During his first attempt, he broke the New York to Los Angeles record by riding it in 12 days and 18 hours. Then he turned right around and rode back, breaking the Los Angeles to New York record with a time of 10 days and 23 hours. Completing both rides, he also set a new record for the round trip that took him a total of 24 days and 2 hours.

I began cycling in the late 1980s, near the end of the toe clip and friction shifter era, when clipless pedals and index shifting were starting to take hold. So I particularly enjoyed reading about Lon’s equipment back in 1981 as he started off from New York City.

Lon began his attempt riding an Austro-Daimler bike with just a single 52 tooth chainring in front and a 13-21 Suntour freewheel in back. As a cyclist from Illinois, he thought that would be a fast way to travel. But by New Jersey he was already almost stalling out on the hills and had to switch to his spare Trek bike, which had 42/52 chainrings, but still only a 13-21 freewheel. He rode all the steep climbs with a 42 x 21 as his lowest gear through Maryland and Pennsylvania, and eventually had to search for a 13-26 freewheel from a bike shop.

I enjoyed the many stories Lon tells in his book, including how he rode and won the first Great American Bike Race, which was later renamed Race Across America. Or how a trip to Peru with his dad and brother gave him the idea to come back and ride a mountain bike from Lima, over the Andes mountains at 16,000 feet and back down the other side to the Amazon river. After that ride, Lon ending up raising money to build a school in Iquitos and continued with additional volunteer efforts in Peru (along with leading guided bike tours there) over the next 25 years.

The book is filled with fun stories and photos. I enjoyed it, and I think you would too.

You can order a copy of the book directly from Lon on his PAC Tour site: https://www.pactour.com/cyclingpioneer

Readers, do you have any good Lon stories to share in the comments?