Do every ride with the NM Touring Society and you’ll have bicycling chops like Michael Hedges has guitar playing chops on Aerial Boundaries .  The New Mexico Touring Society is my all time favorite cycling club.   I’ve been pouring over their “rides” page for years.   They have over one hundred routes and are fast updating it.   “No one can complain of lack of routes”.  Teachers need students, companies need customers, bicyclists need routes.  Places to ride!

The Freewheel, the NMTS monthly publication, is like the touring bicyclist’s localized New York Times.  This club does amazing things!  For one, they put on rides everyday.  They go to cool places like Tent Rocks, and have different strokes for different folks including this “get fitter faster” route through the fabulous foothills on Thursdays.  If you don’t want fitness being the main focus of your riding, they host three other rides every Thursday as well, some of which have the Flying Star eatery on the route itinerary, made famous for desserts.  Mostly they are just finding great pleasure in New Mexico’s wonderful network of roads and scenic attractions and exploring the intriguing New Mexican character wedded in the coming together of land and people through a long flowing history.  In NMTS I see very careful and generous hearted practitioners engaged in the art and science of bicycling.

In a recent newsletter I read they were cleaning up broken glass on Tramway Road just because they love that road.  The President’s Corner was a story about how a decent and kind motorist on the lookout helped save his buns when he misread a traffic signal.  Refreshing perspectives abound.  These are enthusiasts fast at work discovering and documenting how New Mexico is the bicycle touring capital of America the Beautiful.  These riders also nail the point that everyone can enjoy the ride and they’ll help you get started.  Start small, think big, build towards goals.  Thank you New Mexico Touring Society members for loving what you do, relishing where you’re at, and sharing it with the world.  This classy outfit is a rolling demonstration of what a powerful culture generator bicycling can be, rooted in patriotism, love of place shared.  What a joy exploring the world together on bicycles is.  Soak up the value intrinsic in this land and be a part of the good.  http://www.nmts.org/index.php