What happened to AIDS/LifeCycle?
The 545-mile ride from San Francisco to LA held its final edition in June 2025. It ended because costs rose and registration fell — not because the need went away. Two successor rides launched in 2026.
For over three decades, AIDS/LifeCycle (and the California AIDS Rides before it) was the largest HIV/AIDS fundraiser of its kind in the world: seven days, 545 miles, thousands of riders, and close to $300 million raised for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
In September 2024, both organizations announced the 2025 ride would be the last. The reasons were plain: producing a seven-day moving city for thousands of people got more expensive every year, and post-pandemic registration never fully recovered. The final ride rolled out of San Francisco in June 2025.
What replaced it
Both beneficiary organizations launched their own three-day rides in 2026. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation created Cycle to Zero, riding Sonoma wine country. The Los Angeles LGBT Center created Center Ride Out, riding the coast from LA to San Diego. Shorter, cheaper to produce, easier to train for — and the money goes to the same programs.
What it means if you rode it — or wanted to
The community didn't disappear; it redistributed. Training ride groups still meet. The jerseys still show up on every climb in California. And the two new rides need riders who remember what the old one felt like.
Rides end. The reason for riding doesn't.
If you never got your AIDS/LifeCycle, don't mourn it — pick a ride from the current list and start there.
I do the miles. You decide who they’re for.
In 2027 I ride 10,000 miles, all on the bike, every one of them for queer communities. You pledge a few cents a mile and pick which org it goes to. It starts January 1.