Cyclist finishes biking every street in Austin

Aaron Chamberlain setting off to bike the Rosedale neighborhood earlier this year. Pam LeBlanc photo

Aaron Chamberlain, the cyclist on a quest to pedal his fixed-gear bicycle down every street in Austin, wrapped up his mission Tuesday night when he rolled down Bunche Road in East Austin.

It took Chamberlain a little more than a year to reach his goal. He started on Nov. 27, 2018, inspired by long-distance runner Rickey Gates, who ran every street in San Francisco. Chamberlain put his own spin on the #everysinglestreet project, methodically riding – not running – up and down streets before and after work. (Gates gave Chamberlain a shout out on Twitter to congratulate him on the accomplishment.)

“Now I’m wondering what I’m going to do every morning besides just commuting to work,” he said today, adding that he hopes to keep biking about 100 miles a week just to stay in shape.

In all, he pedaled 4,907 miles as he crisscrossed the city. “Granted, a good amount of these are streets that I could not avoid riding twice or multiple times,” he said in a social media post. “Also things like 1-mile long dead end streets.”

I met up with Chamberlain a few months ago while he zigzagged up and down streets in the Rosedale neighborhood, just to see what it was like. He consulted a map he’d printed out and highlighted as we began our ride. We found a wrench in the road. I watched him cut across a park. He wore regular clothes, instead of a fancy biking kit.

Chamberlain collected a few statistics along the way.

His shortest ride? Exactly 0.14 miles.

His longest ride? A whopping 52.62 miles.

Volkswagen vans counted along the way? Sixty-one.

Aaron Chamberlain biked nearly 5,000 miles on his quest to pedal every street in Austin. Pam LeBlanc photo

He also took a short video of his final ride, which he posted on Twitter. (Follow him at @elmuachuca). “OK, I’m done,” he said as he finished. “How about that. That was pretty easy, just one year and like 20 days … That was exciting. Now to get a beer I guess.”

He pedaled past fancy mansions and shabby homes. He saw an assortment of creatures, from possums and deer to skunks and fox. He averaged about 125 miles a week.

And no, he’s not completely crazy. He skipped highways, gated communities and private streets.

This map shows all the streets Chamberlain biked.

And yes, he’s scheming up a new challenge. He told me about it, but I’m sworn to secrecy. Stay tuned.

Read my original story about Chamberlain at https://www.austin360.com/news/20191025/he-wants-to-ride-his-bicycle-cyclist-is-on-quest-to-pedal-every-road-in-austin.