Official Eastern Express route in ACA!!!!

[grncab97]

I was just suggesting to a friend who wanted to ride TA but skip KY to do the Eastern Express and tried to send her a link but the website no longer exists.  So I looked at AC maps and there it was! So glad to see it as part of the AC maps.  Looking forward to the paper version since I am old school. When did this get included into AC maps and does anyone know if there is a timeline for the paper version?

[John Nettles]

Good. I only hope they cleaned up a few of the areas that could be better, i.e. near Terra Haute so it goes through the covered bridges area.

I am glad the route did not go by the wayside when the original creator decided to let it go. 

[BikeliciousBabe]

Frank Moritz ended up leading our unsupported Northern Tier Tour from Red Wing, MN to Booneville, NY.  Great guy.

[staehpj1]

I was just suggesting to a friend who wanted to ride TA but skip KY to do the Eastern Express and tried to send her a link but the website no longer exists.  So I looked at AC maps and there it was! So glad to see it as part of the AC maps.  Looking forward to the paper version since I am old school. When did this get included into AC maps and does anyone know if there is a timeline for the paper version?

Great news about them having the EE available.  My bet is that there probably won't be a paper version.  I hope I am wrong.  I love AC paper maps, but suspect we will see fewer and fewer of them with even the existing routes getting phased out in paper.

I plan to do the TA for the 50th anniversary of Bikecentennial and since I will be 75, depending on how well I age between now and then a shorter easier option may be attractive even though I'd like to do something as close to Bikecentennial as possible.  I did the TA in 2007 and remember what a challenge the Ozarks and Appalachians were.  At 75 I am sure it won't be any easier so realistically I am staying open to the possibility of using the EE.  I also have not ruled out having sag support despite my general distain for it.

[CMajernik]

At the present time, ACA is not planning to make paper/print maps for this route due to other strategic priorities. It takes a lot more time to produce the print maps as compared to producing the digital data for a route.

[RossKB]

One of the differences I note between the ACA "Eastern Express" and Frank Moritz's original Eastern Express is that the ACA Eastern Express goes right through Indianapolis, while Frank Moritz's takes a much southerly route through Indiana. While cities like Columbus and Dayton have infrastructure that allows bikers pretty easy access to the center of the city,  I could imagine it could be very frustrating running into traffic lights every few blocks if you don't have any inherent reason to stop in Indianapolis.  Does anyone have any experience riding this route through Indianapolis? It looks like there is decent bicycle infrastructure to the southwest of Indianapolis, but am not sure about the eastern side.  Thanks a lot!  Ross

[John Nettles]

I have not ridden the new EE route of ACA's. 

I did a very similar route I created years ago that incorporated the covered bridges of western Indiana on a tour from Saint Louis to Indianapolis.  The updated westbound route to leave Indianapolis is Route GIIN-W (search GIIN-E for eastbound).  The updated route uses quieter roads than what I rode originally.  I drove the updated route a year or so ago and it was still fine. I don't think there was/is too much issue with stop & go traffic BUT I did pass through Indianapolis on a Saturday so that could effect it somewhat. However, they had bike lanes in places and wider outer lanes in places so it wasn't that bad.  ACA's routes is the basically the same as my in-route alternate route (Route GIIA-W) and it was fine overall.  A bit sketchy to me in a couple of places but definitely doable. 

Obviously, if you take my route west of Indianapolis, you would need to eventually switch over to the EE as my route went a bit further north to take in lots of covered bridges as toward Terre Haute. 

Route GIIN-W https://ridewithgps.com/routes/37770063 
Route GIIA-W https://ridewithgps.com/routes/37770158 

That said and to more accurately address your comment, I can totally understand why ACA wants to route directly to Indianapolis as it connects with their CNYC route in addition to being a major transportation and supply point.  It appears they are using USBR-23 to get from Martinsburg to Indianapolis. 

My guess is that either the original EE east of Indianapolis or the current CYNC route between Indianapolis to Zanesville will eventually be removed as there would be two very similar routes and the time/money to maintain both routes would not be justified. It will probably be the EE as that already has been removed from the ACA website.  However, since the EE is a digital only map, perhaps they could create a bypass route (using the original EE) from Martinsburg to Zanesville for those that do not need/want to go through Indianapolis, Dayton, and Columbus.
Tailwinds, John

[RossKB]

Thanks for your thoughtful response and the route John.  That's the one great thing about bike touring is that there are so many options.  And some really attractive things you will have to pass up! (Which may be covered bridges for me.)  One other thing that makes big cities less attractive to me as a bike tourer is that if I am not staying in the city, I am not completely comfortable with the options for leaving my bike to explore a museum, etc.  (Although I have thought about contacting a LBS and seeing if they would be willing to bikesit.). Best,
Ross