Unusual Tours got started from a real simple and practical beginning. The group of our friends that had participated in various recreational activities together over the years was increasingly turning to road bikes for fun and adventure. At first we got the group together to do the usual organized rides – Cycle Oregon, Seattle to Portland, Reach the Beach, Summit to Surf, etc. As more and more of our friends got into touring together we soon ran into the bicycle transportation challenge. Once you get enough cars to transport 4 people and 4 bikes per car, how you get enough extra drivers to shuttle all of the cars?

We solved that problem with an enclosed trailer outfitted with bike racks and shelving for gear on the inside walls. This certainly got the group to and from the traditional organized rides a lot easier. From there we quickly realized that we could create our own adventures and have a lot more fun by organizing our own tours. We accumulated the necessary camping gear to support the group and off we were. It was not long before we realized that our group touring approach was a wondrous improvement over the traditional bicycle touring options. The group was large enough to absorb the support costs effectively but was small enough that we could go places and do things that the organized rides could not. Now we could ride almost anywhere we wanted and do almost anything along the way.

One of the things that we learned along the way was that the trip was a lot more fun if the group could travel together in the same vehicle – and fuel costs go way down too. If there was any doubt left, the purchase of the bus committed us to turning this operation into a business and sharing the formula with others. From that point forward we worked to size all of the operations to the capacity of the bus – 22 guests. And then, while operating the business in “stealth mode” we operated test tours to shakedown the operation and test all of our equipment to make sure that everything can scale up to support 22 guests. And that brings us up to the present where we now have a proven operation that can provide your group with a truly unique bicycling experience.

Matt Miller
President – Unusual Tours