Road Cycling - Any Roadies in Columbia, SC?

I'm moving to Columbia, SC on the 16th. Is anyone from that area??

Google search on "bicycle clubs, Columbia, South Carolina" or similar popped up a variety of clubs in SC, in Columbia: www.carolinacyclers.org
Steve

I just moved from there..Coolest shop in town is Outspokin..Second coolest, Harrels (this shop is by the state forrest, which has cool trails)..Third coolest, Cycle Center. If you're looking for racing, Cycle Center is the place, Team Earth Fare(hippie grocery store) is based there. Outspokin has a team, but not as big..There is also the new Hincapie team from Greenville, George Hincapie's hometown.

Check out www.sccycling.com there are usually rides posted there.

Outspokin has long rides on Sunday, Cycle Center on Saturday.

Oh yeah, best coffe shop, Cool Beans on college street.

I think you'll like Columbia, it's an awesome town.


Out of curiosity, why are you moving there?

i'm actually working at outspokin. :) i'm moving for the gf, racing and school...

You already got a job at Outspokin?? Thats sweet!!

Have you been there? (to outspokin)

I passed through Columbia a few months ago and stopped at Outspokin, very cool shop.

SC is kind of a good state for racing...Becuase it's small, it doesn't take very long to get to other states.

NC has quite a few races, as does Georgia, and Florida..And if you feel like winging 9 hours, you can go to Tupelo MS and ride in the King(Elvis) festival race.

Just bought a bike from Outspokin about 2 months ago. They are all really nice & really helpful. I live in Columbia & have just started riding a couple of months ago. Just bought my clipless pedals & shoes yesterday. Already have landed on my butt out in the cul de sac. LOL I can get the right shoe out of the clip fine but the left one is giving me trouble.

Anyway, Columbia is a great place to live. I've lived here all my life. The Carolina Cyclers is what I recommend. I know they do a Friday Night Beer ride to Ft. Jackson that looks like a lot of fun. It's a lot of rolling hills & I haven't been brave enough to sign up to go along yet.

Hope you like it here. Are you going to Carolina? I graduated from there in 2001. We have a lot of fun here during football season.

Ft . Jackson is an awesome place to ride...Make sure you bring some sort of ID with you though, or they won't let you on (it doesn't have to be military).

Columbia...ya gotta love that place. I moved there in high school and left right after college (USC). I never actually biked in Columbia as I had just gotten my drivers license and got rid of the bike before I moved down there. I used to visit the bike shops, but never did more than window shop. I lived only a couple of miles from Fort Jackson and knew people who cycled there, but heck, I had a car. Now that I think about it, I recall a lack of driver awareness...maybe that is why I never biked...oh, ya, and I had this thing about not wanting to get mugged. Other than that, Columbia is a pretty good town. My folks still live there, so I try to get down there every so often.

I had this thing about not wanting to get mugged.

LOL! I've lived here all my life and have never been mugged! In fact, I don't know anyone who has been mugged here. My sister is a city police officer and, of course, like any other city, there is crime -- but I doubt Columbia is a high crime city.

Fort Jackson is about as safe as it gets. I ride there on weekend mornings -- hardly any traffic either, early on the weekends.

I do agree that most Columbia roads aren't the greatest place to ride a bike. We have some bike lanes, but very few & they're always messy with road trash, etc. I suppose being around cars is about the same as anywhere else.

Originally posted by hibiscus09
I had this thing about not wanting to get mugged.

LOL! I've lived here all my life and have never been mugged! In fact, I don't know anyone who has been mugged here. My sister is a city police officer and, of course, like any other city, there is crime -- but I doubt Columbia is a high crime city.


Maybe not high crime, but compared to Iowa...then again my brother did get mugged here last year.

When I first moved to Columbia a couple of kids from my high school were shot at Columbia mall (drug related). That left me a little uneasy as a 16 year-old fresh from the Midwest. Then, the one semester I lived on campus...
--a guy in my dorm was robbed at gun point just outside the front doors of the dorm.
--my best friend was mugged as he went for an evening stroll trough campus.
--I ran from a pontential mugging (a guy ask me for directions while his friend stepped right behind me...I felt very uneasy.)

Not a bad town...just a few elements that I like to avoid. Fort Jackson is a safe place. I used to spend a lot of time there as a friend of mine lived on the fort. I recall once getting pulled over by the MP's for driving down a road that was off limits. They really should have put the off limits sign at the beginning of the road not at the end of it. Oh, well.

Okay -- I can see why Columbia Mall (now Columbia Place) might make someone think that about Columbia. It's the roughest mall here -- they keep trying to make it more safe but I don't like to go there myself.

Where'd you go to highschool? My daughter graduated from Richland Northeast.

hibiscus09 if you plan on stopping by let me know :)

I stop by there whenever I need bike stuff. :) I'll be by again soon as I'm having more narrow handlebars put on my bike -- just waiting for them to come in. How long have you been there? We've probably already met. :)