Last updated: October 18, 2026

This page explains how Bicycle Tours chooses topics and researches, writes, checks and updates its content.

Our purpose

We publish guides about bike touring, bikepacking, route preparation and touring gear for riders planning day trips, multi-day bike tours and bikepacking trips. Our guides focus on planning bike trips: choosing a style and bike, researching routes, packing, logistics and safety on tour.

How we choose topics

We cover the questions our readers need answered to make a decision or finish a task. Each topic gets one main guide, so we do not publish several near-identical pages on the same question.

How we research

  • We base our guides on official route and land-management sources such as the National Park Service, state departments of transportation and Adventure Cycling Association route information, the National Weather Service, NHTSA bicycle safety guidance and manufacturer manuals.
  • We separate facts, estimates and opinion. Facts and figures link to their source; estimates state their assumptions; opinions are labeled as our view.
  • Where a guide covers safety, we link to the official source rather than restating it as our own advice, and we place warnings where readers will see them.

Research-based and hands-on content

Most of our guides are research-based: they compare published specifications, manuals and official guidance. If an article is based on our own hands-on use of a product, it says so and describes what we did. We never present research as personal experience.

What we do not do

  • We do not invent test results, scores, star ratings, statistics, testimonials or reviews.
  • We do not promise results, savings or performance that a source does not support.
  • We do not publish hand-typed prices or “deal” claims, because they go out of date quickly.
  • We do not accept payment, free products in exchange for coverage, or sponsored placements in our guides.

Safety-sensitive topics

Road, trail, weather and service conditions change. We do not describe current route conditions as fact; check official sources and recent conditions before every trip. Our first aid and emergency planning content does not replace training or emergency services.

Affiliate relationships

We earn commissions from some links, as explained in our Affiliate Disclosure. Commissions never decide which products we include or how we describe them, and articles with affiliate links say so before the first link.

Updates and corrections

We review guides when products, specifications, rules or official guidance change, and we show the date a guide was last updated. Errors are handled as described in our Corrections Policy.