Cycling with Dr. Kurt

“As kids, we always had bikes, and then I had a paper route that I would ride my bike on. I’d carry my papers on a big old Schwinn,” said Kurt Kinbacher, associate professor of communication and social sciences. “I saved my money and bought a 10-speed when I was a kid, which was all the rage back then, and I haven’t stopped.”

Kinbacher is a Nebraska native, born in Lincoln, who started bicycle touring in 1985. He said he tried to run marathons, but instead turned to cycling. After finding his passion, he “started riding across things, like Wisconsin and America.”

In 1987, Kinbacher rode coast to coast, from Monterey, California, to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in a span of two months. This journey required him to ride 70-80 miles per day, almost everyday, with a day off every one or two weeks.

He continued touring until 1992 so he could pursue other “life things,” like graduate school. When a position opened up in his home state at CSC, he took the opportunity. It was not until two summers ago that he returned to cycling long distances.

Kinbacher estimates that he rode well over 2,200 miles this past summer, although he doesn’t use an odometer.

“I’m partly (still riding) because I still can,” Kinbacher said. “I can still do it. I’m not fast, but I can still go.”

He traveled to Lincoln to attend a Sandoz Board meeting and to visit his 95-year-old aunt and his sister, who live in the area.

He also journeyed to see old friends, meeting one in  Montana to ride part of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, a 3,084-mile trail that runs from Banff, Alberta, Canada, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico. He also rode through Wyoming to Idaho for his yearly get together with his high school friends.

“(T)here is a new movement in cycling, where people are riding off highways…,” Kinbacher said about his recent summer tour. “My goal this year was to ride on as many dirt roads, bike paths or single track as I could fit into the trip. (Nebraska made sense) because we have the great section roads and the fire roads out west. So it was a dirt road bicycle tour this year.”

During the school year, Kinbacher’s riding is limited to the weekends. However, he continues to be a part of the cycling community while taking part in “Warm Showers,” a cycling organization where cyclists can host other cyclists on their long travels.

Along with housing cyclists, he has also gained experience in bike repair for both his own bicycle and those of travelers passing through. In graduate school, he worked a youth program in Minnesota that fixed bicycles during the winter and rode them during the summer.

“It’s not industry grade bike repair, but it’ll get the job done. I can usually it to work long enough so they can cycle to somewhere that’ll fix it,” he said.

His experience studding his own tires with metal screws while in Minneapolis allows him to cycle during the winter. However, he doesn’t ride that often. To stay in shape, he will use a stationary bike to prepare for his plans to explore the area around Chadron next summer.

While continuing his passion for cycling, he has also grown his bicycle collection. With five current bikes, including a vintage racing bike and touring bikes, Kinbacher currently has another adventure touring bike on the way.

He joked, “Apparently, I need six bikes to be happy.”

Looking to the future, Kinbacher would like to recreate his coast to coast journey and stop in the same towns to see the difference between 1987 America and America now.

When asked what advice he had for future cyclists in the area, he said, “Say that you’re a bike tourist. Make that declaration and then give it a try. If you’re even thinking that it might be interesting, do it. This is a great area to find out if you like it or not.”