Support Tom Pauser’s Bike Ride Across America!

On September 24th, 2023, Tom will dip his rear wheel into the Pacific Ocean and then depart from Dog Beach in San Diego on an epic 3,600+ mile solo and unsupported cycling journey along Adventure Cycling Associations Southern Tier Route to St. Augustine, Florida. Then he will dip his front tire into the Atlantic Ocean to complete the STR. Upon completion, Tom will then meander his way over to US-1 and A1A, head south down, and continue towards Smoke Inn Headquarters in Boynton Beach.

“A journey that I have been wanting to do for over 30 years became more of a reality over the past year thru a conversation I had with Abe over me using the Smoke Inn logo for a cycling jersey I wanted to create to show off my Smoke Inn pride.

Somehow the conversation morphed into what I really wanted to do, and that was to complete a coast-to-coast cycling ride, and how cool it would be to show off and promote Smoke Inn, have a #fueledbycigars hashtag, and be able to show the world that you can still be a fitness instructor, be in the best shape of your entire life, be in your 50’s, and still be able to enjoy life and smoke a lot cigars. First Abe told me I was nuts, but the more we talked about it, the more the fictional conversation turned into a more factual idea of actually doing it. All of a sudden I blurted out a date, and we seemed to be in an Initial Planning Meeting of sorts.

The planning was underway and set in motion. For the “Southern Tier Route”, spring and fall are the two recommended timeframes to make the journey, can be done either East to West, or West to East (obviously), and I chose the fall timeframe as although it’ll still be hot in the deserts when I begin, I anticipate that the weather will begin cooling down as the days progress on my easterly path. I’ll be using my 2020 Trek 920 adventure bike fitted with an upgraded SRAM Force group set (brakes, rear derailleur, shifters, cassette, crank, chain, hubs, tires, and inserts), Ortlieb bags, solar panel, Wahoo GPS, tent, stove, and other cool stuff to bring me across the nation.

Thank you for reading and always remember to keep it FIT, and keep it LIT!”
– Tom Pauser