General Cycling Discussion - Do you drive to where you are going to ride

I have found an aquaduct that is 7 miles from my house where I can ride about as far as I like without having to worry about cars. Does anyone else drive to where they ride on a daily basis?

I have a trail very near my house that I just ride to (1 mile) that is great...but its not very long and I'm beginning to itch for something longer.

I also have a buddy I ride with on the weekend and she hates riding in the same place over and over so she's always looking for new places to ride that we have to drive to.

So I guess I kinda fit into both categories.

I think that kinda defeats the purpose...though it has been done.

Sometimes, when I meet up with friends. If it is close by though, I bike there.

I ride to the ride.

Sometimes if I get bored with the roads leading out from my neighborhood, I'll load the bike in the car and head out to a new starting point. But most of the time I ride from my driveway.

If I ride, I ride. I've been known to bike 20 miles to a metric century, thereby upgrading it to imperial.

Also, I don't have a car, so I wouldn't be driving anyway.

I live in a crappy place for cycling from the house, right in front of a four-lane-each-way intersection, and that's really the only road in-out. If I do ride from the apartment, then I have to do it early, or late to avoid the mega-traffic that builds up. Yeah, I'm chicken that way.

Also, 99% of the group rides that happen round here aren't logistically possible to ride to (again, thanks to my location).

The irony of it all is I bought a road bike originally so I didn't have to drive to a ride spot (trailhead). Fun, eh?

I have found an aquaduct that is 7 miles from my house where I can ride about as far as I like without having to worry about cars. ...

You're going to ride on something like this?!?
http://www.travelinginspain.com/segovi1.jpg

COOOL!

Oh, I like to ride to the start of rides, but I'm not morally opposed to driving there if I have to for some reason.

Does anyone else drive to where they ride on a daily basis?

That's like driving to the gym.

I prefer to start my rides at the house. I take the same amount of time out of my day, but without driving I get more of it on the bike. It does not seem to make sense to me to start a bike ride with a car. There are a lot of sources for learning about sharing the road with cars. This forum is a good one.

On group outings to places like ISLANDS or far away places I have no choice.

I do see lots of cars with bike racks parked at all the parking lots on the bike path. A lot of people do it. Some of them live nearby too. I don't understand that at all, this is a pretty bike friendly place.

Depends on where I want to ride. There aren't many really good routes around here, and I need to drive in order to avoid horrendous roads/traffic about 30% of the time. Spending 45 minutes carefully negotiating war-zone looking roads and neighborhoods getting to a good ride is not really a good ride.

That's like driving to the gym.

:lol:


To PAY to use the exercise bike.

I try not to, because it does seem a little silly. If I do end up driving, its usually with a group of people all using one car, which makes it slightly less silly.

Some people are just deathly afraid of riding on anything that isn't a MUP. I've been training with a friend of mine who is into triathalons, and it is very hard to get her to ride to the place where we are going to ride, because she's frightened to death of traffic. Whenever we ride we end up doing some fitness training, but then I spend 15 or 20 minutes working on bike handling and traffic handling skills with her.

Yesterday was a bit of a victory, because I was able to convince her to ride to the park where we were going to do some hill repeats. But it took a lot of convincing. She did fine though.

I've never seen the point of stationary bikes at the gym... Let me drive to a place where I can pay to ride a bike that doesn't take me anywhere. Doesn't make sense... :(

peace,
sam

About once a week on average.

That aquaduct left me in stitches, it was too funny.

I ride to wherever I ride, because my parents never want to take me :cry:

Does anyone else drive to where they ride on a daily basis?


That's like driving to the gym.


Sometimes I do a midday ride from the office... so I have obviously driven to the office.

Mostly I do the commute thing... but meetings and after work chores can muck things up.

I actually choose where to live based on riding proximity to paths, roads, etc. I ride a few minutes to get to a 20-mile paved path through woods.

For me (new, slow rider), time is a consideration. If I only have two or three hours to ride, and the place I want to ride isn't near home, I'll drive, since I don't want to spend half (or more) of my time trying to get to my "starting point." A big part of the reason I like riding is that I can ride on lovely, tree-lined trails without motorized traffic. I'm not afraid to ride on the streets, but that kind of a ride often isn't what I'm after.

Also, I'm just not up for rides of more than about 40 miles roundtrip (yet -- maybe someday). I do ride from home when I can, though, since there are lots of low-traffic streets and bike trails nearby.

Mainly depends on where I want to ride. Most of the time, I usually just ride to where I want to get to. Of course, I'm not likely to bike 100 miles to get to where I want to ride...

I usually drive to the group ride starts because generally either, my riding time is limited, the end of the ride is at sundown and 10 miles on 60 MPH posted, driven at 80+ MPH roads at night are not going to happen, or the ride starts something like 20 - 25 Miles from my house and did I mention my time is limited...

Many of my solo rides start from my house though!!

I've only ridden in two (types of) places. My ride either starts/ends at my front door or it starts/ends 60+ miles away. There are no trails nearby (Brevard Co. FL) so I use the roadway. The West Orange bike trail is about 60+ miles away and is long enough to make loading up the bike and driving there worthwhile otherwise my doorstep is where I'm riding to.

d.tipton

Depends.
I don't have a "regular" ride, and I usually get to ride only once a week, twice on a good week. I like to try out new routes every time I go out, and that might mean driving to a good start point. If I can start from home, I will. Some of the interesting club rides might start 30 to 50 miles or more away. I don't want to throw an extra mediocre ride on top of another 50 miles of good riding. I'd rather do more of the good ride.

Since I store my bike in my car, I'm always ready to go somewhere for a ride.

That aquaduct left me in stitches, it was too funny.

:D

So, what the devil is the aqueduct you ride at, then?

Sometimes the start of where I want to ride is a good 50 miles away. It's not always feasable to ride to the start. For those time, I'll load the bike up and drive.

If the trailhead is say, fifty miles away, you don't expect me to waste my day biking to that destination do ya? :rolleyes:

There are numerous reasons to drive to a ride, and for me, they're usually safety-related, as my59vw pointed out.

I ride to, unless trail is more than a few miles away. Sometimes I drive to, then park far enough from path to have to bike to.

I don't have a car. All of my rides start and end at my doorstep.

Never. But I'm not into group rides. I'd probably fly to a biking destination, although I haven't yet.

That's like driving to the gym.

I was talking to this salesman from a LBS and I asked him what type of riding do you do? he said well i ride to the gym. And I was like Ok...

Most of the time, I start and stop from home. However, for family rides, we often load up and head to the bike trails, next town over.

jnbacon I don't know how to load a picture onto this site but a link to what it looks like is
http://califaqueduct2003.crazyguyonabike.com

I ride to the ride.

Ditto.

jnbacon I don't know how to load a picture onto this site but a link to what it looks like is
http://califaqueduct2003.crazyguyonabike.com
We call those canals 'round here. ;)

Al

Only if I want to ride out of town. Since my town is on an island, one of the two roads out is busy without a hard shoulder, and I'd never consider riding on it except early morning on a weekend. The other road has bike lanes that end 14 miles out of town, and after that it's back to same old crappy SC roads. There are places in neighboring Jasper and Colleton Counties that I drive to then ride.

Most of my rides are commutes, so no. There's a really nice trail out in Western Mass (2 hours away) that I'm going to drive my Bike to one of these days. But My friend has a summer place out there, so I'm going to do it on a weekend where she's having a party. Instead of just driving out for the party, I'll drive out a little early with my bike, ride the trail, then get back in the car and go to the party.

I don't own a car, so I would be taking public trans to the ride. I like my pathway out of the city, and my various options, so I don't even think about it.

Maybe for an awesome Century out of town I could rent a car for the day/weekend.

Depends on how far away the ride is. By myself i'll ride 10-15 so miles to get to a ride. anything farther than that eats into my time at which point driving makes more sense. If the familys' going then I'll drive as their limit is 8-10 miles total. There is a nice park 6 miles from our house for riding with a BMX track and about 10 miles of bike path, however there's no way they could ride there and back let alone go in the park.

Well i used to ride to the closest trail place (5 miles away). I would stick in a few hours there and go back. But the road on the way there sucks, i deal with it but i dont like it. Also i dont like going on the road with the knobbies I use for the trail. then one fine day in April i think on a warm weekend my mother says she wants to go somewhere outside but doesnt know where so i suggested the place where i ride, because its also a park. And now almost ev ery week my parents go and I stick the bike on the car.

I like it now because i dont wear the knobbies so fast

Nope. I don't have a car, so I have to ride my bike.

Koffee

you know, driving to your ride isnt really as weird as it sounds. it just depends on why you are riding.

If you are riding for the exericise or to save gas then yes it defeats the purpose. if you are riding because you enjoy riding, then taking your bike somewhere fun to ride makes perfect sense.

For some reason, driving back home after my bike ride didn't seem right... although I'm not sure how I could have gotten home without passing through highways.

For some reason, driving back home after my bike ride didn't seem right... although I'm not sure how I could have gotten home without passing through highways.
Thats just the thing, often times the only way you can really get to a place is by highway. I dont see myself ever riding on a highway

I have found an aquaduct that is 7 miles from my house where I can ride about as far as I like without having to worry about cars. Does anyone else drive to where they ride on a daily basis?

I ride a lot in the city, but when I use the road bike, I frequently put it on the back of the car and tote it to one of several nice locations where I can park the car and ride country roads.

I try to chart a roundabout course that will take me back to my car. That way, I don't have to look at the same scenery twice. It works out well for me. Several of my rides begin at country churches where they don't mind you leaving your bike while you're gone. I leave it at a country school-house at another.

It's a lot better than struggling to get to where you want to begin a lovely ride.

Leo