That would be enough to circle Manhattan with werewolf dick about three times and still have two miles of it left over
Finished my first century in the mountains with 6000 ft of climb yesterday! Next I'll be looking to do Copper Triangle or Triple Bypass :)
According to virtually every calorie counter I've seen on the Internet/in apps, you burn roughly 30-50 calories per mile on a bike depending on your weight and how fast you are going. I put in my stats (145lbs, 5'10) for 7 miles in 25 minutes and it says 298 calories: http://www.mapmyride.com/improve/calorie_calculator/
I highly doubt every single calculator is wrong on this one.
If your town is bike friendly, then I definitely think it's worth it. With just a little juggling of schedules, two people should be able to share one car easily. Biking to work saves money on gas and car repairs, in addition to being good for you. Some panniers will help you carry things (like lunch or a change of clothes for those hot summer months), and a bike trailer can let you bring home groceries pretty easily.
Some questions to ask yourself:
I need to think a bit more about specific goals, and some of them will be dependent on where I end up landing a job, but here's what I've been thinking about lately:
Here's the route: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/662422650
The destination was posted before the ride. If you couldn't handle going north, you only have yourself to blame. Elevation gain of less than 500 feet and you're complaining? You live in Austin. There are hills. If you want a flat mile-long ride because you can't handle a hangover (or a bike, apparently), move to Florida.
Aurora is quickly becoming a walker's paradise. There are 97 parks, 5,000 acres of open space, 6,704 different bike trails that lead all the way up to Golden, and the paths get plowed and fixed more often than the streets. It took 3 attempts to destroy and remake the Powerline trail (that was a loud and shitty summer), and the Cherry Creek spillway and other spots are getting some much needed maintenance.
It's definitely got shit bus lines everywhere, they never plow side streets, and the traffic is really bad right now because of the light rail construction. Sable, Abilene and Centertech are all completely destroyed ATM, and Alameda around the Aurora mall is a disaster.
The recent completion of construction on I-225 (especially since the speed limit got upped to 65) should make travel a bit better. If anything, the issue is with I-25 going into downtown, that stupid bottleneck on I-225/I-25, or the mousetrap at I-25 & I-70 fucking things up. If I-25 is in bad shape, then you're out of luck unless you want to catch the light rail from 9-Mile. It's easy to get out of Aurora, it's just not easy to get into Denver.
Maybe things will improve a bit in 2016.
Someone is trying to organize a Critical Mass-style group ride during the Pope visit. It looks like she wants to spend part of it on 676.
EDIT: formatting
One of the heavily flooded areas, as mentioned, is the park at the end of West Oakland. To get around that specific part, I would recommend this detour.
I found the elevation chart for her 70.3 here:
http://www.mapmyride.com/us/tempe-junction-az/soma-bike-course-route-1105765
Ironman took over this race. As per an article I read, they are sticking with this course, at least for the first year rather than switch to the course they use for the fill IM. Seems to be a lot of ups and downs
I've been to the New Orleans Critical Mass rides as well, and I got the feeling that the other participants just didn't think I was hipster enough for it. They did obey all the laws and didn't start any road rage incidents.
New Orleans Social Ride, on the other hand, is great. Looks like some of us (or just me if any more people bail out) are going over to Abita Brew Pub shortly to go ride on the St. Tammany Trace.
>So why am I in ketosis, even though I might “perform” better at some things if I ate carbohydrates? Because I’m a 39-year-old wannabe athlete whose athletic performance is irrelevant. Not a single person cares how fast I swim or ride my bike beyond myself. I have no sponsors. I will never earn a paycheck for how fast I can flip tires or climb Mount Palomar. I am more than willing to give up some athletic performance (e.g., sprint speed, peak power) in exchange for other athletic benefits (e.g., greater aerobic capacity and metabolic flexibility), especially when the real gain is greater health and a reduction in my risk for all diseases associated with metabolic syndrome (heart disease, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and others).
2011 CruX S-Works Pro. Everything factory except the wheels: Velocity Dyad 40-spoke rims, Shimano Deore hubs, Armadillo All-Condition Elite tires.
Panniers: Arkel 45s. Trunk bag: Arkel Tailrider. (both new. never even had panniers before.)
Full kit: http://lighterpack.com/r/9pplzm
Mini tour (as just completed): http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/787356759
A 250 pound person biking 20 miles over the course of 2 hours burns 1300 calories
http://www.mapmyride.com/improve/calorie_calculator/
Base metabolic rate is around 1800 for an active teenage person, depending on a lot of factors of course.
So if you do nothing but bike 20 miles and sit on the couch, you might burn 3100 calories. That's far from a cartoonish amount of food.
Just some back of the napkin math to show the scope we're looking at here
If you want to do see this section, what you have to do is go west from VF past the Pawlings Road Trail Head (1), then down a paved switchback and turn right (2). Go two miles and you'll find yourself at what appears to be the end of the trail at the Phoenixville Dog Park, but if you watch the signs you'll see that the SRT actually continues as a dirt path that goes left across the grass. This dirt path goes another 2 miles, becomes paved, passes under Route 29 and continues on for another mile to end at "Lock 60" which is the canal lock in one of the pictures. For now the lock is a dead end, but news stories indicate they plan to link the trail (somehow) to the next section which runs towards Pottstown.
(1) If you go up into the parking lot and follow the sidewalk north you're on the Audabon Loop. http://www.mapmyride.com/us/audubon-pa/audubon-trail-loop-route-83358201 - It's a very pretty park with a twisty 10% downgrade (watch for bird watchers!) and one short scary section where you end up riding the wrong way on the shoulder of Egypt Road for about 25 yards before you enter Lower Perkiomen Valley Park and connect with the PVT. (The shoulder used to have poles and markings separating it from the main road but it looks like they removed them when they last paved.)
(2) If you follow the main trail left you actually leave the SRT and you're going north on the Perkiomen Valley Trail. This is also a very pretty ride, much of it is at the edge of a ridge overlooking Perkiomen Creek. If you follow that, you end up in Collegeville then, eventually, Green Lane. http://www.montcopa.org/perkiomentrail
Edit: Just in case it isn't clear from the pictures - don't ride this section on a road bike. There's tree routes, mud and the occasionally fallen tree along the whole length.
Depends on your route - Jollyville Rd has bike lanes up and down but there is not much of a east/west route other than duval. Breaker has a bike lane too.
Getting to the Domain is a bit trickier but doable - check this route out.
Welcome to the community. You'll soon find yourself mostly stress free and saving a heap of money a week.
I've drawn out one possible route on Map My Run/Cycle.
You could take large shortcuts though - either through the Valley/New Farm, taking commercial road rather than skyring terrace. There is probably another even safer option - by riding along the river at New Farm rather than taking lower Bowen Terrace. Recommend having a go on this route on a Sunday morning and see how you go.
I'd be taking the footpath from Hawthorne until you get to Mowbray park until you get more confident.
Recommend also asking in Brisbane Cyclist. Very active forum with lots of helpful people.
Wow, if you don't live in Portland you must be American right? You are aware that other countries exist right? Didn't my use of metric give that away? What I consider to be a big city, by the way, is London. 8.5 million+. Albeit it does have a population density 10 times where I live though.
>I avoid the Sunset Highway like the plague because of traffic tie ups.
Oh, so the same traffic tie ups that limit me in my car in my non-US city exist in your city too. Interesting, what if that was your only route to where you wanted to go though? You'd be stuck in a car right? Or you hop on a bike and zip right through, this is what I mean by city traffic.
I just had a look at this person's ride, it's a 4% grade if we're talking about the same route, that's not the worst thing ever I have climbs like that on my commutes, they're painful but I've beaten the bus I could catch but lost to driving only because there was no traffic on that particular route when I usually drive it (middle of the day) but the odd occasion I've had to drive in rush hour I was crawling up the hill at the same speed as I would climb it on my bike, only to get stuck further on anyway.
The canyon lakes system is the best place inside town to ride without a threat of traffic. You have to cross a couple of roads but other than that you are on park roads with little traffic. http://www.mapmyride.com/us/lubbock-tx/canyon-lake-bike-trail-route-2887239
I'm confused. Did this happen on the National Instruments campus or at the Domain?
Edit: Here OP, use this bypass instead. Gotta get off your bike for about 30 seconds to cross the train tracks but otherwise it shouldn't add too much more time or distance to your commute.
http://www.mapmyride.com/us/lynwood-il/chicago-to-three-floyds-to-flossmoor-met-route-43821454
Here is the route we always follow. It's pretty easy, mostly paved trail and very little street riding. There's also the small 10 mile piece from Munster to Flossmoor I told you about above. There is a brewery at the metra station called Flossmoor Station. A great place to have another pitcher or 3 before heading home. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions. I've done this ride more than a handful of times.
Paris Mnt, either side (past Furman for back or 'CVS' for front) are nice climbs, fairly quick so you can do repeats. My favorite ride is 'the bakery ride' - usually riders leaving N. Gvl College on weekend mornings that you could join for the way. Decent climbs, passing through the Greenville watershed which is quite scenic.
The Lake Washington Loop is a really beautiful ride with some decent hills. It's only 60 miles IIRC, but lots of trail miles as you use part of the Burke Gilman and Lake Sammamish trails -- you could stretch that out by hopping on the 520 trail and heading east to Marymoor Park instead of sticking to the lake route, from there head north on the eat side of Lake Sammamish trail which turns into the Burke again that heads back into town.
http://www.mapmyride.com/us/seattle-wa/lake-washington-loop-route-129382623
Here's the route the West Commuters group takes to Oak Park.
I always see them hanging out at Fulton and Green in the evenings, when it's probably more important to stick together. Seems they leave every half hour or so, depending on the day. Check out their Yahoo group here.
There's no direct path from CA to livi that I know of where you don't have to cross the highway. You can take the bridge from college ave to busch (it runs along route 18). Then you can cut through busch and take the bike/walk path the runs along avenue E. I was bored so I mapped it out for you: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/531303230
Hi fellow bicyclist! I ride to a from work(on the strip) once in a while and can tell you that it isn't THAT bad of ride although you have to be very alert and our bike system here is non-existent. I would highly suggest you make your way out to the "red rock loop". However, like everyone else said. It's hot!! Ride earlier or later. 6am-9am or 6pm-8pm. Its still hot but without the sun its not as oppressive.
Hopefully you can see this MapMyRide workout of my buddies. I have yet to complete the loop cause im a lazy bastardo, but you may like it. See here
If it don't work, let me know Ill get you another.
It's only a 25 mile ride from your start, but going to the back of the Hollywood sign and then to the Griffith Observatory is a pretty great ride for out-of-towners. Make your friends back home jealous. There is climbing, no spiders (maybe). Link to route starting near you.
EDIT: If you want a longer ride with more climbing, Mt. Wilson is an iconic ride around these parts. Route here.
EDIT 2: fixed link
I'm not too into club riding, so I can't help you there. But, there are a lot of great routes around here for road biking if you don't mind hills. This is a basic route I like that is pretty low traffic and/or has good shoulders.
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/20085164
You can build a lot of variations on this route. In my opinion, the best riding is in the northwest portion of the city and the suburbs around it.
That's me in the picture. The event that day was the Orange County Gran Fondo, with several routes spanning from like 10 miles to a century. I did the century route in about 7 hours, starting from 7 am to 2 pm. The OC gran fondo was my second century completed, and had a TON of climbing.
Here's the route I took: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/53050720/
DC Bike List compiles group rides every week.
Hains Point is a good option on weekend mornings as it's mostly runners and other cyclists, but I'd avoid it until cherry blossom madness calms down in a week or two.
The Arlington Loop is just about 17 miles, entirely on trails with only a handful of street crossings.
edit: formatting
I was looking for something new to do last week so I made a route that passes about twenty post offices that all have location signs on them and then went and rode it yesterday and took pictures at most of them. the route is here:
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1659798005
my last twenty miles is significantly different than this because my GPS got all wacky in west mifflin towards the end so i found a couple more that were on the route manually and then just went home. i ended up getting pictures of myself in front of 17 of them. i also know for a fact that i biked past wilkinsburg and braddock's post offices but was too lazy to go back and get pictures. all i had was the route loaded into my GPS but no locations of the actual post offices, so there were some times i forgot to be looking for stops.
Did a brutal out and back climb called Kennedy Trail. This is one of the premiere climbs here in the South Bay, CA and a pretty fast, chunky downhill on the way back. As fellow redditor u/drewts86 said, This climb will kick your ass. I only do this ride if I'm in the mood for a bit of cardio torture.
It's a great ride. Although the pavement is rougher and bumpier than roadways...sometimes fatigues my hands from vibrations.
http://www.nycbikemaps.com/maps/north-and-south-county-trailways-bike-map/
http://www.mapmyride.com/us/brewster-ny/brewster-to-the-bronx-to-yonkers-via-put-route-85693239
You can also make a pit stop at Captain Lawrence Brewery, http://beertography.squarespace.com/home/2012/5/15/biking-from-nyc-to-captain-lawrence-and-so-can-you.html
No, you can probably do it if you're in good shape and a decent cyclist. However you're going to take a bit longer and will probably take some breaks on the way up.
Highest continuous elevation I've done was 2115m, over a distance of quite a bunch of kilometres. But I think the last 1,5km elevation was over the last half of the trip. I really don't remember the exact numbers. Anyway, I did that with about 15kg of stuff strapped on my bike (much like the cyclist you see at the very end of this video) and I was not in particulary great shape or anything, took a while but I'd say most normal persons could do it with enough time.
edit: I found an elevation profile of roughly what I cycled that day. It's only 1400m elevation over 35km of road, so I guess it doesn't really compare to the Trollstigen road ;)
http://www.mapmyride.com/ch/thusis-gr/spl-gen-pass-route-25445130
It's called Hawk Hill. It's about a 25mi round trip from SF. There's not much on the way once you've crossed the bridge, but Sausalito is an easy side trip. Total elevation gain looks to be about 1100'.
Here is one that has been on my list for a while:
http://www.mapmyride.com/us/estes-park-co/tour-de-rmnp-route-106496981
First overnight in RMNP, second somewhere near Frasier/WP. Ends up being about 70 miles days I think. Up and over Trail Ridge road (Old Fall River road if you want dirt) and Berthoud Pass. I think you still need to walk your bike through Blackhawk. I tried to avoid narrow shoulders/high traffic where possible, but I am not too sure about that state of Hwy 40 as I haven't been that way in a while. Also, you can cut some distance/climbing if you start/end in Nederland and just take the peak-to-peak to Estes.
Increasing the intensity and distance may help, although there's only so much you can do physique-wise because of everyone's different genetic predispositions. Cycling still is one of the the best activities besides running or swimming cardiovascular-wise.
When you ride/exercise and not notice any results, you've probably reached a performance plateau because your body is used to the efforts you make (congratulations you're healthy!), so you have to push even harder than you normally do to make your legs and lungs even stronger.
Pro cyclists (and rich old guys) use expensive cycling equipment like power meters to measure their efforts in terms of how much force they exert on pedals (measured in watts) to determine exactly how many calories they burn, but regular people like to use cyclocomputers to measure speed and heart rate monitors to measure gasp heart rate. Heart rate monitors are useful because they are easy to measure your efforts, and if you use them correctly, as you get stronger you will be able to go faster for a given heart rate.
So the tl;dr is find a way to push yourself to make harder efforts to make you stronger. It can be with cool gadgets and/or finding new places to ride with websites like strava or mapmyride.
Check out Map My Ride.
Search for Washington, DC as your location. You can choose the length, as well as the type (Run, Ride, etc.). There are comments on some and you can sort by various factors.
Not sure what distances you're used to but the 3 ferry loop is always a favourite. It takes some planning with the ferry schedules and you'll want to leave pretty early from downtown to make it to Ganges for brunch. Here's the basic route http://www.mapmyride.com/ca/victoria-british-columbia/3-ferries-ride-route-8290590
Time of Day / Day of week will be a major factor in how enjoyable this will be, rush hour weekdays will be hellish, with agressive filtering required to make modest progress.
Having a spiderman like sense of impeding danger also a must as the mix of taxis, oblvious pedestrians staring at their phones, and helemet balancing deliveroo scooter drivers will add a certain extra spicyness to the bobmbay mix that is london street traffic.
Speaking of filtering, you've gotta be down to filter even with the added weight of a passenger on the back. All said london traffic is quite cognisant of motorbikes and will often let you through or move over 0.5 cm if they can. But they expect you to then make use of the gap, as will fellow riders trying desperately to get home/to work, who feel like doing a death star trench run between cars/lorries at excessive speed every morning is pretty much the bare minimum skill level acceptable to join the filtering crowd and not just cower in traffic like a cager.
Start exercising your left hand grip now as you will frequently be on and off the clutch in stop start traffic.
On the plus side you can use most but not all bus lanes which certainly helps both get you moving on busy roads and provide healthy padding for the fatality statistics every time someone takes a hard left into a side road without indicating or checking mirrors.
All that said, I hope you have a wonderful time. Here is a pretty shitty but adequate route i'd take early on a saturday morning, like 7am ish that will take you round london hitting most of the main sights along the way, finishing in borough market for a well earned breakfast
Hey good thread.
1) That is a good idea, BUT... if you have time though and are willing to go through Dubizzle you can get your hands on some good deals for new bikes. I bought a foldable mountain bike (albeit 3 years ago) for about 500 AED new and it still goes well ( I ride around Warqaa/Mirdif)
2) Unless you're taking your biking to the "next level" and try and get top speed etc, general sports clothing is more than enough. I personally have broken my wrist about 15 years ago and wear a wrist brace for the only reason that I am paranoid. I would recommend depending on distance you get a water bottle (most basic bikes come with a hold for them) or a camel bak, but again, if its just a casual stroll you are taking you should be ok.
3) I personally have not been to Al Qudra but I have friends of all levels go down there (BUT... they're all +21) But a quick look has given me this link http://www.mapmyride.com/ae/dubai-dubai/ which could help and I believe its being maintained by bike riders.
Worst case you can go down to any bike shop (If you do decathalon in MCC go up to the bike shop next to Nike and ask there) most of the staff are pretty friendly and full of information on local tracks.
Main thing is you're getting out with your kid and riding! Enjoy the good weather!
There's the Dover Community Trail, part of a growing network of rail trails in northern New England. Not sure if it's a thing elsewhere. This site also has a few.
Did an out and back on the John Nicholas Trail in Sanborn Park, Santa Cruz Mountains, CA. Was the first true ride on my new Trek Remedy 7 27.5, it's night and day compared to my old 26" hardtail
http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/1430677335
Trail is a tough 3 mile climb to the top, my cardio needs some work for sure! I had to stop quite a bit on the way up. At least a tough climb turns into an awesome descent. What took an hour to climb took 15 minutes to go down. The trail well groomed with purpose built berms, switchbacks and small jumps. It really is one of my favorite trails within 30 minutes of my house.
This trail was purpose built by mountain bikers, for mountain bikers (though hikers are present and welcome). this park previously was off limits to bikes, so having this trail is great.
Lots of biking in the Phoenix area. I tend to ride from where I'm at rather than drive then ride then drive. With that in mind, and leaning towards the longer distances, circle South Mountain http://www.mapmyride.com/us/guadalupe-az/around-south-mountain-40th-amp-pecos-route-1181991, circle McDowell Mountains http://www.mapmyride.com/us/fountain-hills-az/mcdowell-mountain-loop-route-6148531, behind the White Tanks http://www.mapmyride.com/us/buckeye-az/sun-valley-parkway-ride-route-28174190. Of those only the McDowell Mt loop will have any significant elevation gain (just under 2000'). Check in where you rent the bike from to see if they have some rides planned, both Landis and Global shops have organized rides frequently.
I've done this ride a couple of times as a two-day double century.
Here's my route for Day 1: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/417963214
Day 2: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/417967186
Where you camp will depend on your final route and how many miles you'd like to ride per day, but I like Samuel P. Taylor and the Petaluma KOA for camping in Marin/Sonoma. The KOA is kinda corny, but it's close to the Lagunitas Brewery and has a hot tub.
The Bay Trail along the Peninsula is great, but last time I biked it the wind was brutal when I was heading north in the afternoon. Camping options are limited - you'd have to head into the hills to find a spot.
Sites like Strava (or mapmyride) would be a great resource if you just want to ride on your own.
There's also group rides from some of the bike shops and coffee shops. Team Caffeine from Tazzo in Highland park, and Pittsburgh masters velo club come to mind.
There's also this book by local fast dude and Slavic expert, Oscar Swan: http://www.amazon.com/Bike-rides-out-Pittsburgh-bicycle/dp/B0006P74JE The book is getting a little old, but is a great foundation and still a good resource. For example, if you live in the city then getting out of it is the first step to a nice ride. That hasn't really changed, and this book has everything broken down by the best ways to get out of the city. FYI you can find this in a pdf, but you should buy it because Oscar is the man.
Tons of riding at Ohiopyle; that's where all the great climbs are. Check out the Mt Davis Road Race map: http://www.mapmyride.com/us/meyersdale-pa/mt-davis-challenge-route-63516782
ANF is also fun: http://www.mapmyride.com/us/warren-pa/kinzua-classic-bike-race-route-21187404
If you want to drive to a place to ride, then i would suggest heading up to North Park. Riding the loop around the lake, and doing the climbs on the side roads. You can also start some great rides from there.
Hey, I actually do a very similar commute (Home in Fairmount to Office in Bryn Mawr). Haverford ave isn't bad to ride on through west philly. It has a bike lane or sharrows pretty much the entire way to/from city ave!
Here's the route that I used to take. Lemme know if that helps or if you have any questions about roads in the area!
Also, don't wear any t-shirts with the confederate flag on them.
What area of town will you be living in?
There are some great trails for running. This a 6 mile loop along the river. Generally not very stabby.
Walnut Creek is good for the Iron Horse Regional Trail which is a suburban bike path that goes all the way out to Dublin/Pleasanton but Lafayette and Orinda are better for road riding in regional parks. The Three Bears Loop starts and ends at Orinda and is one of my favorite rides in the Bay Area.
Just follow the PCH. There's bike paths for pretty much all of it. You can go: the 101 -> Torrey Pines -> UCSD Campus -> Gilman -> Rose Canyon bike path -> Mission Bay -> back on PCH and you'll end up at the train station in downtown San Diego.
Can't remember the exact distance, but it's probably 30-35 miles one way, mostly flat except for Torrey. It's a lot of people's main weekend ride so you'd have lots of company.
Alternatively, you could take PCH south a bit from Oceanside and turn east to do something like Elfin Forest, SDBC, or Del Dios. A bit more miles and climbing, but way more scenic.
Check out the Tour Das Hugel route. It is designed to hit every major hill in the Austin area. Not recommending to just go ride the whole thing but you can find some good hills on there .
The closest to what you're referring to that I'm thinking of would be the ACA's ride maps, which you sort of mentioned but maybe you hadn't run into this list?
That said, mapmyride may also be good -- Strava records where people actually rode, but mapmyride (and the ACA) list rides that people thought were good enough to write down.
But mapmyride's search doesn't seem very useful if you don't have a name to look for, and there's no indication of how good this ride was or anything like that.
This page for Austin may solve the "no search term" issue, but the quality seems very low, because there's no real way of marking a ride as "this is where we went yesterday and it sucked!" vs. "this is the ride everybody should do" -- or if there is, nobody uses it. They seem to have "points" but it's not clear what they mean or if anybody uses them.
Do you have a bike computer? MapMyRide allows you to search routes and dump them on your garmin or whatever.
Also, the Cascade Meetup calendar is a great way to find group rides that fit your distance/pace.
My favorite ride is El Prieto by Jet Propulsion laboratory http://www.mapmyride.com/us/la-canada-flintridge-ca/el-prieto-jpl-pasadena-route-59509782
Long fire Rd going up with a big gain in elevation. The fire road is fine gravel with some loose sand. No tree cover on the fire rd so it's good to do it in the morning before it gets hot. The downhill is awesome. The top is a quick fire rd decent into a awesome single track forest that cuts across a stream. Fast technical and very fun. Good with a 5 inch travel full suspension.
Or you can do a day trip out to snow summit resort in Big Bear. Two hour car ride. Fast high speed lift access. Easy to rent bikes. Riding for all levels. Downhill fun and no climbing. You need a DH bike to have true fun.
And as far as renting bike goes. Check out Specialized shops that offer Test Bikes and you can try something in their lineup.
Good suggestions, though I think Wynnum and back is probably intermediate and riverloop beginner mainly due to more vehicles on the road on that route.
Another great ride for beginners is the Kedron Brook Bikeway - which is mostly offroads and on dedicated bikepaths and nearly all flat. If you want to go a bit further, the ride through the Boondall Wetlands is fun and easy.
Without a doubt my favourite ride in Brisbane is the Brookfield Three Fingers - which you can see on this public bike route. Little car traffic, some great riding through farmlands, a bit of hills, flats and some great fresh air!!
Cooth-tha is hard enough but doable. If you want to go a notch further, Nebo and Mt Glorious can be conquered.
There are a few groups like Brisbane Bike Riders which are very supportive of new bike riders. Also - I spy a social reddit based group in the sidebar!
Enjoy your cycling. My life has certainly improved since I took it up!
My other favorite climbing centuries - both cover tons of beautiful terrain and are well supported:
Blue Ridge Extreme Unfortunately seems defunct now
Here is a little hill very close to home that I ride frequently:
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/507183830
I struggle in spots to stay above 2 mph! My speedometer won't read below that. I'm guessing my real balance trouble starts around 1.7 mph.
does depend on the hill! This is one of my standard local hills:
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/507183830
not very long, but on those 17% stretches... my Cateye Micro Wireless speedometer won't read below 2 mph and sometimes it does stop reading! 3 mph is just too fast for that hill!
Here's a map of the greenway system in Charlotte. As you can see, there's quite a lot planned, but at the moment there really aren't any long continuous sections like you're looking for. If you're looking at riding on the roads, you can plan routes using this map, or by looking at routes others have taken here.
Hey! I'm subletting my room form May-August. It's west/northish end (I don't even know, but it's close to the forum, right off Windsor St which has a bike lane). 2 friendly roommates who are also very into hiking. One cat.
Anyway, there is tons of hiking in and around the city. Point Pleasant Park is good for a chill walk, Long Lake is a short (but tough) bike ride out of the city and you can find an awesome swim spot and bunch of trails around there. My favorite bike ride is the Purcell's Cove/Herring Cove loop (link) which has a lot of great spots to enjoy the view. Crystal Crescent is also bikeable and has a nice long hiking trail, but doing both in one day would be tough. Duncan's Cove is also an awesome hike. Limitless options!
Howdy neighbor!
That's a good ride. You should be proud of attempting something that seems insane on the face of it. :)
My buddy and I rode from our neck of the woods to Discovery Green and back on Xmas day. link
I used a combination of google maps, strava heat map, and personal experience to plan the route, and it turned out to be far less insane than it sounded. :)
Having a ride partner certainly helped - as did the empty roads on Xmas morning - but the best thing was how much use we got out of the bayou trail system and bike lanes. Really, the only place we had tense interactions with traffic was along Clay road from about halfway between Eldridge to Hwy 6. We took the lane, but a few drivers didn't have very much respect for that and buzzed us at high speed.
Still, for a city with a reputation like ours seems to have, what we did should have seemed impossible. Fortunately, not only is it possible - it's only going to get better as advocacy groups like Bike Houston get involved in city planning.
It was difficult because this was the first time either of us had ridden for longer than a day, so there were kinks and aches that maybe more seasoned or experienced riders don't have, or are better prepared to deal with. There was also a typhoon that rolled up the west side of the peninsula, so we were subjected to some pretty serious wind and rain for 2 days of the trip. We only had 5 days to get to Busan, but we were convinced we could make it.
I didn't track it personally, but I found this that mirrors our route almost exactly.
there are a ton of rides in all directions. you can even hop on bart and go to Orinda/Lafayette and get in some great rides. Marin is still my favorite. Here is how I search for popular rides. http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/ You can search/filter for starting point, distance, etc. i also use http://www.strava.com/routes and http://ridewithgps.com/find
Looks like a lot of people here use the Strava app. I myself just started using that after trying out Mapmyride app. Both seems to work pretty well as a GPS tracker and will keep a log of avg MP/H, distance and other stats. If you want to get a little more pricy, you could look into getting one of the garmin GPS tools also
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/436980678
Some landmarks:
Most of the route is the northern suburbs, though.
There's always Apple's Find My Friends app which allows your people to see your current location in real time. Doesn't make a route line with distance information. You could use a second app, for example Cyclemeter or Map My Ride to create the map with distances at the end of the day's ride.
Here's one I did a couple of years back. I remember it being not too bad of a route.
I should have a couple of others in my records somewhere. I'll post 'em if I can dig them up.
http://app.strava.com/rides/12868523 This one is a ride I did out to San Marcos. It's actually pretty well travelled by cyclists on Saturday and Sunday mornings so it's pretty safe to ride out solo. Most of my south routes are based on this one so you could always ride out to where you're comfortable, and turn around or go exploring.
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/fullscreen/17531436/ This one has Stratford which is an awesome hill to try and climb first thing. It also cuts around the Barton Hills area which has some climbs on it. It crosses itself several times so there are definitely some loops you can cut out.
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/fullscreen/43070122/ Here's one more that's similar to the second except it's not as heavy on the souther hills. These three should get you a good idea of what roads are good down in the south. Happy cycling!
edit: I saw in other comments that you are starting from Oltorf and Parker. If you head south on Parker, you can cross over on Woodward to stay south which turns into Lightsey. Cross over South first to Cardinal and that'll dump you on pretty much all of my routes.
I'm going tonight. Meets at Festival Beach at 7pm and the ride starts at 8pm (sometimes 8:15). It's a lot of fun, and there's all kinds of people there so I would recommend it. It'll probably still be 100+ degrees out so bring lots of water.
Festival Beach: http://tinyurl.com/48yq5zu Route: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/fullscreen/43525834/
Wow, that's quite the weekend. I did this ride on Saturday with one friend. 102 miles (165km), 4370ft (1330m) total climb, 10h total time, 8:45 clocked on the cycle computer, top speed 44 mph (70km/hr) on a road bike. And yeah, a lot of sleep that night. And a lot of food on Sunday.
It was a pretty awesome route and a gorgeous morning, however it started raining pretty hard at about mile 65 and held on till mile 90. I was not prepared for the rain and it kinda stopped being fun. Bummer too because I've wanted to bike through the area where it was raining for a long time and I really didn't get to enjoy it.
I would use http://www.mapmyride.com/my_home/. It gives you elevations and options to view rides in the area. It also allows you to do a 3d fly over of your ride using Google earth. Its a great way of logging how many miles a week you ride and what your best times are while doing you favorite ride.
enjoy
I suppose this is most interesting to know for bodybuilders more so than laymen like myself and Peter:
>So why am I in ketosis, even though I might “perform” better at some things if I ate carbohydrates? Because I’m a 39-year-old wannabe athlete whose athletic performance is irrelevant. Not a single person cares how fast I swim or ride my bike beyond myself. I have no sponsors. I will never earn a paycheck for how fast I can flip tires or climb Mount Palomar. I am more than willing to give up some athletic performance (e.g., sprint speed, peak power) in exchange for other athletic benefits (e.g., greater aerobic capacity and metabolic flexibility), especially when the real gain is greater health and a reduction in my risk for all diseases associated with metabolic syndrome (heart disease, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and others).
I had to modify my normal 35-mile workout route to accommodate the Joe Michaels bike path closure. While it takes quite a few more turns (versus the straight shot that is Bell Boulevard), my route does stay completely off Bell, with a lot less car traffic to deal with. :-)
Yeah there is. Groesbeek is very nice (although you'll have to climb a few hills on your bike), Beek-ubbergen is also beautifull. You can cycle through the forests around Nijmegen, you can also go to Goesbeek through the forests. Perhaps go cycling through the Betuwe, or around the Waal. There are actually a number of cycling routes around Nijmegen: http://www.mapmyride.com/nl/nijmegen-gelderland/
Yep, this is approximately this loop. http://www.mapmyride.com/ca/calgary-alberta/bow-fish-creek-glenmore-reservoir-loop-6-route-20396174
Getting onto and off of the loop usually brings me up to around 65k, I also don't go through downtown, I just follow the bike path up the Elbow river until Inglewood ish.
It might be too far out of your way, but McKenzie Pass Scenic Bikeway is a great ride. Unfortunately, you've missed the brief point when it's open only to bikes, but it's still really scenic. It's really cool seeing the difference in trees, plants, etc. from the west to the east side of the pass and the lava flow and "observatory" at the top is definitely worth stopping for.
There are plenty of other good rides in this part of Oregon. I'm doing a triathlon in Sunriver again this weekend and the ride up and over Mt. Bachelor is gorgeous.
Not sure about rentals, but there are a number of cycling routes traced on mapmyride: mapmyride link
You could try calling the Cleve's sporting goods store there to see if they rent, but I doubt they do. Maybe someone at Cleve's has a connection, though. Phone number is +1 250 782 5066.
Caveat: I haven't been to Dawson Creek in ~30 years; hopefully someone with more recent ties will get back to you. :)
This would be cool. Arlington, VA has the Arlington loop trail. It pretty much rocks (minus the douches who speed through using it as a cycle race track). http://www.mapmyride.com/us/seven-corners-va/arlington-loop-route-1102505 , http://www.bikearlington.com/pages/maps-rides/
Check out Skyline Drive in Front Royal. A little farther out than 30 minutes but you can get some incredible views and a near constant 15 mile descent if you drive into the park and run out. Might need someone to drive you back in.
http://www.mapmyride.com/us/front-royal-va/skyline-drive-route-1687466
No unfortunately, I used to ride a lot but for work I've slowed down because I travel ... but back when I did, I would use google maps and lay out a potential trail that way before my roommate and I rode it.
The trail i'm talking about goes through the boyd conservation area, there are some really nice gravel and single track trails, and even some wooden plank raised areas. They take some navigating and you might need to stop to check your phone's GPS once in a while because there are no signs, but it's all there and it all connects :)
Here's a link to an old ride I did that showed the route we took, Kleinburg was a small portion but it was so rewarding. http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/435185176
Get familiar with the greenway system and how to connect them. Here is my go to ride. I live in Bearden so I start at Earth Fare, but you could start downtown and do the same run. http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1252783444
If you're looking for a long flat 40-50+ mile ride I usually head out to oak ridge. It starts out with a marked bikeroute, then a bike lanes, and then there is a HUUGE shoulder on the highway once you get out of town. You'll see alot of riders out there if you go. http://mapmyrun.com/workout/747269847
Like I said I live in Bearden and ride downtown alot. PM if you wanna meet up for a ride some time.
There's a couple different options for Wachusett, but the last few miles of this one are the best I've done, especially compared to other routes that go up mountain road.
> It's all just wishful thinking.
He has no sense for the magnitude of the task or his abilities, even after 15 months of this.
I investigated what it would take for a 6 ft. 480 lb. man to ride 30 miles at his average pace of 6 mph. (using http://www.mapmyride.com/improve/calorie_calculator/)
and the answer is 6460 calories.
This is in the range of Iron Man or Tour de France type of calorie expenditure. To think that he could come anywhere close to this seems ludicrous.
Am I a hater for pointing this out? What should one expect of a morbidly obese smoker with an enlarged heart when he claims the ability to match the energy expenditure of elite athletes? I don't like to poop on people's dreams, but he should not even try 30 miles a day unless he's determined to visit more emergency rooms.
My go to beach is the one at Beaver Island State Park. Not as crowded/polluted as Woodlawn and it's an overall nice park. It's a nice destination for biking if you take the Riverwalk to Grand Island (and if you bike you avoid paying for parking!).
Went and rode the Saratoga Gap/Long Ridge loop for the first time yesterday.
http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/1662001376
This ride tested me as it was quite a bit more technical than I expected. Took a pedal to the shin early on bailing off my ride, at least I stayed on my feet. We hit this sweet downhill about 2.5mi in, was fun....until we realized we made a wrong turn and the trail dead ended at a "no bikes" sign. Guess who had to climb all the way back out? This guy. Met some cool guys out there that got us back on track to the right trail.
LPT, use that expensive big screened phone with built in GPS when you're not sure whether to go right or left.
I'd do the ride again, without the wrong turn. Pushed me in all the right ways to improve. I never wanted a dropper post more than yesterday, so many up and down areas of this ride.
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/777925111
I think I could have saved myself some miles had I known, but at the time it was chaotic. The road support vehicle was just telling us to go straight back, and I was pissed that my timing and pace was blown.
Interurban up north is pretty flat and really popular with cyclists in the metro. You can park at the back of the lot for the Embassy Suites Airport and ride up Congress Ave to Heady Ave, which turns into Interurban. It's long, straight, and mostly flat.
http://www.mapmyride.com/us/parkville-mo/interurban-road-start-at-embassy-suites-route-265044085
That route is 40 miles (out & back) with a total elevation gain of 900ft. If you turn around at the 10 mile point instead of the 20 mile point, the total elevation gain will be about 400ft. Not sure what "long distance" means for you.
There's also a group that rides every Saturday morning from Life Time Fitness in Lenexa. You don't have to be a gym member. There are 2 groups actually - a faster group (17-18mph) and a slower group (15-16mph) and they ride 20-30 miles every Saturday morning. It's a little hilly, but not like Johnson drive or anything. Total elevation gain with the slower group when I go tends to be around 1100ft.
Here you go, it is an out and back so you can just turn around whenever you want. There is parking at Salisbury Beach or you can take commuter rail to Newburyport station and ride from there to Salisbury. This is a beautiful ride along the coast, highly recommend it.
275 x 2 bench PR after 225 miles of cycling the weekend before.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFViX1mu1ys/
http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/1463110969
http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/1464456991
Although I am still both fat and weak, both are improving
If they're doing the "Mellow's to Nelo's shop ride" that can get you there and back (but the Northbound route isn't anything I would consider commuting on). http://www.mapmyride.com/us/austin-tx/mellows-nelos-loop-route-270134255 The reason that they don't use Shoal creek the whole way down is because the trail isn't complete the whole way, and you have to take sidewalks on Lamar. Regardless, that's what I would do if I were you and commuting though. I do it all the time, and it's very safe.
Here you go: http://www.mapmyride.com/us/weehawken-nj/the-ride-to-montauk-06-19-2011-route-38064920
Start early. We were wheels rolling at 4am in Central Park, which got us into Babylon before 8am. It's nice to have the city at your back before it wakes up. The route after Babylon was fast riding. It is mostly on streets with four-way stops instead of lights.
Hmm we ended up riding the "Artist's Palette" loop a couple times, which is one way traffic (light in the winter). It has one steep ascent of around 1000 feet, one moderate ascent, and some really cool descents through rock formations on the way down. I bet there are some other good climbs in that region but it was our first visit to the area.
It was similar to this ride if you are looking for a specific profile. http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/380764686
On the other side of the Sierra mountains, there are some good climbs in the Oakland Hills and Wine Country which might be do-able in the winter, but that puts you about 3 hours away from skiiing areas at Tahoe. Might be worth checking out. Good luck!
That's totally doable for me! I did the Clermont, FL 70.3 and it looks like it has just over 2000ft climbing, so it's comparable. I highly recommend that, btw, if you feel like traveling for an early spring race.
I scoot over at 21st St. There are only 2 stop signs for the 10 blocks I ride it. 3 railroad crossings though.
This is my general route outbound, but changes a bit depending on traffic and weather. It's better for busy times; later in the evenings when there are few cars, I tend to just stick to Smallman.
>Notes:
>When you turn under 31st St. Bridge, the rail crossing is rough and ices over quickly in cold weather — slow down.
>Spruce Way often ponds after rain.
>I tend to ride Smallman when I'm heading into Lawrenceville; this stretch of road is rough.
>33rd St. up to Liberty typically requires a switchback or two to make it up the steep grade. Watch out for cars veering off Liberty at speed. Because this is the route I ride when there's a lot of traffic, I'll stick to the sidewalk at 33rd x Liberty up to the Heron intersection, catch my breath, and cross on the green.
why not do malin head to mizen head instead, cycle part of the wild atlantic way, take the bus between parts.
http://www.mapmyride.com/mg/antsiranana-diana/mizen-head-to-malin-head-route-2954321
Heyyyy, I've been waiting years for this question! I've been a road cyclist and mechanic in West Austin for 7 years now, and I've been riding on them since I was 11.
Capital of Texas Highway, also known as 360. It's pretty much safe to ride from end to end. South of Bee Caves Road is flatter, the north end goes down to the river and back up, and is very hilly. In fact, it has my three favorite hills in town. Coming south from the bridge, you get a steep, tough hill, then a slow, shallow hill and finally 'The Killer'-the hill up to Bee Caves Road.
Bee Caves Road. It's safe to ride that from 360 to 71 in Bee Caves. It's a pretty nice road, I've been riding it for years without incident.
RM 620. Goes through Lakeway. It's okay to ride now, but probably in 2 months it won't be. Very traffic heavy and busy. Be very careful.
MoPAC and 45 near the Veloway. You can start at the Veloway, take MoPac and 45 all the way to the end, and come back. It's a great TT route, and they actually used to run TTs out there. Low traffic, but narrow shoulder at some spots.
The Dam Loop. Any serious cyclist in Austin should know this route like the back of their hand.
ROADS TO STAY OFF
SH 71. Just don't.
Bee Caves Road from 360 to MoPac. Very busy, zero shoulder. DO. NOT. RIDE. THIS.
Southwest Parkway
These are just off the top of my head. I'll add more as I remember them
Here's the simple route I take approximately once per week throughout the warmer months. I've taken friends on this route on their first real road ride greater than 10 miles and I've never had a complaint about safety or exposure. Enjoy!