Introductions - Intro from Missoula (Adventure Cycling's base)

I just moved to Missoula, MT about 6 weeks ago from Salt Lake City for school. I live on the opposite side of town from the university and it is just under 7 miles for me to go one way to school. About a year ago I started riding the bus to work with my bike and then riding home a couple of days a week. With school this year, I have gone by bike almost every day. When I started riding home from work I put Conti touring tires on my 98 Cannondale F1000 mountain bike to turn it into a commuter (and now have a rack and panniers: hoping that fenders will be next if I figure out how to attach them). It takes me about the same time to bike the commute as drive it. Missoula is really nice as most of the roads have wide shoulders or marked bike lanes. Where my average commute speed slows down is on the MUP where I have any number of pedestrian and other bikes to pass. There are a lot of bikers around here and the biking infrastructure is quite nice. The Adventure Cycling resource is quite nice also. Missoula is also very flat which means I am not too sweaty on the commute and the hardest parts are headwinds (which I always have as I ride home everyday). One of these days I will make it about an hour south to look at a recumbent manufacturer.

I found this forum as a I became more serious about biking. I have used my bike more in the last year, than the previous seven put together.

Kevin

Hello Kevin, there are other Bike Forums member in Missoula, a few at least :) .

You might see about posting in the regional forums, too.

I hope we'll see you posting in the Commuting forum...

Welcome to BF!

East Hill

Hey, I just started school here myself, though I'm a freshman living on campus. I agree, Missoula is a very good town to bike in, and I come from Portland, so my standards are high.

Lots of good shops too, it seems. I've been hanging around Missoula Bicycle Works annoying the guys that work there, but they indulge me :D

My only minor complaint about the infrastructure here is that the main MUP on the river is unpaved. not a big deal when it's dry, but it might be as it gets wetter. I'll see. If it's an issue there are plenty of roads running parallel to it.

Also, if you're interested in that sort of thing at all, I'd put some off road tires on your cannondale and head up to the Rattlesnake Reacreation Area, if you aven't already. It boraders the wildderness, in which bikes are not allowed, but there are something like 80 miles of trails of all levels of technicality. Best of all, it's less than 4 miles from campus!