I did a search but didn't seem to find much on how easy it is to get to good road riding from Seattle. I'd be looking to go to grad school at U. Washington so I'd like to live within a few miles of there and still be able to go out for nice road rides. Based on a recent visit there the city seems to just go on forever in most directions, which doesn't offer much in terms of nice riding. It really seems like a tease considering how close the state park and the Cascades are. Can anyone offer any advice?

Please define 'road riding' and 'nice'.


You can get around Seattle on a bike. Not all roads are bike-friendly.For example, I dislike riding Stewart west towards the water in downtown, not so bike-friendly, but can do it if I need to. And, some people wouldn't consider hills as 'nice'--there are some hills in Seattle.

Agreed; you need to be a little more clear on exactly what your expectations are. If you're looking for long stretches of uninterrupted flat, smooth roads with bike lanes, you're pretty much out of luck, in my experience. OTOH, there are some nice long loops around the area that go by some very beautiful scenery. The catch is that they're a bit out of town (for example the Daffodil loop).

In your blog you descibe yourself as "Cycling obsessed engineering student, looking for long distances and high mountains" and you're worried about finding "nice" riding in the Seattle area? The foothills of the Cascades are just to the east of Seattle and although they are not the Rockies, you should be able to in get all the climbing you could want. Check out the Cascade Bicycle club at www.cascade.org (http://www.cascade.org) and join their training rides or the Seattle International Randonneurs at www.seattlerandonneur.org/ (http://www.seattlerandonneur.org/).

You can still do some decent riding through Seattle, although you have to battle stoplights.

One ride to definitely try out is the "Lake Washington Loop," a very popular route that takes you around the big lake east of Seatown. http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=8828

This route takes you over the Burke-Gilman trail, and through some scenic parts south of Bellevue.

Going further east, you can definitely get into the foothills and tackle the local big climb, Cougar Mountain (2.5 miles & 1,400 feet of gain!) http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=5174

And if you want to do a really big route that takes you as far east as Fall City & Carnation, check this one out: http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=4254 covers all of the big eastside climbs, and does the lake loop too. about 111 miles in total.

So there's lots of good riding around here, and I-90 can get you to the eastside pretty quickly. Bellevue/Kirkland aren't really scenic at all, but further east you can find farms & cows and all that good stuff.

I cannot believe that nobody's mentioned the beautiful Mercer Island loop. 30 miles round trip from the U district. Check out the Cascade Bicycle Club (http://www.cascade.org/Home/). They have a bunch of rides around Seattle.

If you are into racing, there is a weekly crit at Seward Park during the spring and summer months. I raced my first races there.

UW also has a bike racing team that you can join, or at least go out on training rides with.

Summary: Seattle has some wonderful road riding (I lived there for two years while going to grad school at UW). Check with the Cascade bicycle club for rides, and you can go out exploring on your own too. There are lots of road bicyclists around too, and the bike shops are numerous, especially in the U-district.

Sorry for not being specific, by nice road riding I just mean relatively scenic open roads (few lights/stop signs) with moderate to low traffic. I also should have said I don't plan on keeping a car, so I'm wondering how easy it is to get out to area's.

Mattm, thanks for the routes, it looks like the good riding is east. I guess it's plausible to live in the opposite side of lake Washington and be closer to that area. It doesn't look like Evergreen Point Bridge has a bike-way on it, so I could end up taking a bus to school and back.

You do NOT want to live and work on opposite side of the lake, especially if your crossing option is the 520 (Evergreen) bridge. There's no bike crossing for the 520 except via the bus, and traffic on the 520 bridge is insane.

You're better off living near campus and riding up northeast for a long ride, starting on the B-G Trail and jumping off around Bothell. Or riding south to cross at I-90 and picking up any of the ride routes around Issaquah.

There is lots of open road riding available once you get away from the ring of suburbs around Lake Washington, but unfortunately, most of the state highways in King County are busy with traffic even in rural areas. There's quiet riding to be had on secondary roads away from the metro area, but they take a bit of work to discover. One near Issaquah (where I live) is the West Snoqualmie Valley road, which runs between SR 203 and the town of Carnation. It's a lovely rural road that's popular with cyclists, and somehow hasn't been discovered by masses of commuters.

Access to more rural areas east of Seattle is fairly easy along the I-90 corridor, which is my commute ride.

while you could live on the eastside, i don't think you should, especially if you want a decent night-life. if you like music shows, live in seattle. like to drink? live in seattle. enjoy art? guess where.

there's no reason not to live here unless you can't afford it in my opinion. and the great thing is that the eastside is only 10 or so miles away by bike (via i-90), so it's not like you're giving up on good riding.

i don't own a car either, and i think you'll find it pretty easy to get around using the bus/bike combination.

and sorry for not mentioning Mercer Island, as brian pointed out! it's another "classic" ride around there that you'll love. http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=3439 not very long, but extremely scenic.

also if you're into long distance (150+ miles) rides with lots of climbing, check out the redmond cycling club's site. they hold some annual rides like the Ride Around Mt Rainier In A Day (RAMROD (http://www.redmondcyclingclub.org/RAMROD/index.html)), and the CANNONBALL (http://www.redmondcyclingclub.org/Cannonball/index.html) (Seattle to Spokane in a day!).

oh and one more link: http://seattlecriticalmass.org (for when you get sick of dodging traffic and want to stick it to drivers for a few hours!)

You do NOT want to live and work on opposite side of the lake, especially if your crossing option is the 520 (Evergreen) bridge. There's no bike crossing for the 520 except via the bus, and traffic on the 520 bridge is insane.

You're better off living near campus and riding up northeast for a long ride, starting on the B-G Trail and jumping off around Bothell. Or riding south to cross at I-90 and picking up any of the ride routes around Issaquah.

+ 10^10

This is my favorite library of rides in the Seattle area. There are lots of good rides here; click through to their map/routes library. Once you get a feel for the area you'll see that you can combine many of these rides to make loops of any length you want.

www.seattlebiketours.org


If you live anywhere close to the University, you'll be close-ish to downtown. From there you can also hop a ferry over to Bainbridge Island, and take off into the Kitsap Peninsula...or take the ferry over to Bremerton, and do loops over there.

Another option is to ride to Lake Washington, get to the Southern Edge, take the Cedar River trail out toward Maple Valley...from there you can head North to Issaquah then back toward the U....or continue south to some very nice rural riding in the Black Diamond area.

there isn't good road riding around seattle?

What? I'm sorry, that's crazy talk!

The Hood Canal loop. the Port Townsend pizza run. Pie Ride to Snohomish. Edmonds Ferry to Bainbridge Ferry crank. Lake Washington loop. Mercer Island. Edmonds express. West Seattle loop. The Seward Park out and back. The Issaquah Connection. The Magnolia ally-oops. Cougar Mountain/May Valley wanders.

Don't worry, there's plenty!

Port Townsend pizza run?!!!!

That place in downtown Port Townsend, slices out front, seating upstairs?

Lots of good advice. Really great weekend rides through Cascade -
http://cascade.org/EandR/Activities_Calendar.cfm?query=cascadefreedailyride
I recommend the Sunday HPC rides which go 50-60 miles generally southeast to Cougar and Tiger Mountains or the Goosebumps ride on Sunday (70 last Sunday) which all go east to really great areas like you want (we went to Monroe and went around Lake Roesiger). Pace is "strenuous".
You go east via the Burke-Gilman Trail (which cuts thru the UW) or via I-90 cross Mercer Island. Just remember - BRING YOUR FENDERS and FLAPS.

Port Townsend pizza run?!!!!

That place in downtown Port Townsend, slices out front, seating upstairs?


yep. mmmm.

Port Townsend pizza run, just over 100 miles RT from the downtown Seattle ferry terminal. Great day ride. Fantastic scenery.