Hello,

I am new to this sub forum. I am a club level rider from Orange County (Huntington Beach) that has relocated to Bellevue WA. I need some help finding a few good bike shops, routes and maybe even a club. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks.

Welcome to Seattle.

Tons of information on Seattle area biking at www.cascade.org (http://www.cascade.org). Links to racing clubs, bike shops, training rides, etc.

Lots of good routes in the ride start maps libarary at www.seattlebiketours.org (http://www.seattlebiketours.org), the site of the Seattle Bicycle Touring Club.

Eastside bike shops: Gregg's (Bellevue); Sammamish Valley Cycles (Redmond); Montlake Bike Shop (Kirkland).

Seattle bike shops: too many to name; I frequent Elliott Bay Cycles downtown.

Here's a club:
http://www.jetcityvelo.com/default.aspx

If you like long rides, check out the "permanents" route maps at the Seattle International Randoneurs website...some pretty interesting routes:

http://www.seattlerando.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=5&id=15&Itemid=29


If you don't already have a spare bike, plan on getting a 'rain bike' that you can put fenders on for the winter....

BengeBoy, Thanks. I should have added that I am not a racer. Really just like longer rides and club events that are not competitive. Also, is it possible to commute from Seattle to the East side? I am pretty much at Bellevue by the 90 and 405, but my wife likes the houses more in Seattle such as Westside or Ballard or Queen Ann. I looked for a bike lane of the 90 bridge today but did not see one at least on the East bound side.

I forgot to add...this local blog has a really good calendar of local rides in the Northwest...it's usually pretty up to date:

http://www.bikingbis.com/blog/_WebPages/washingtonridecalendar.html

This weekend you have your choice of the Camano Climb (Camano Island) and the May Day Metric in Federal Way.

As for longer rides, there are really lots of choices at the Cascade website. Also there's a bike club in Redmond...crits in Seward Park Thursday nights; Friday nights at the Velodrome in Marymoor Park (Redmond)....plenty to do!

s

Also, is it possible to commute from Seattle to the East side? I am pretty much at Bellevue by the 90 and 405, but my wife likes the houses more in Seattle such as Westside or Ballard or Queen Ann. I looked for a bike lane of the 90 bridge today but did not see one at least on the East bound side.


You bet! I ride in from the Eastside 3 to 4 days a week, and did the ride all winter. Even in the worst weather, you'll see folks out riding across the I90 bridge.

It's a little hard to see from a car, but there is actually a bike route that parallels I90 all the way in from Issaquah, so once you figure out how to get close to I90 then cycling the rest of the way in is a breeze. From Bellevue, there are a couple of entrances to the bike path right on/under I90. Then you cross the East Channel bridge and you're on Mercer Island. A series of bike paths take you across Mercer Island, then you are on the I90 bike path (it's on the North Side of I90). You can't really see it well from your car, but it takes you up to a tunnel that crosses through the hillside there (called Mt. Baker). From there, you take a series of paths down to the edge of downtown, and then it's a straight shot on downtown streets anywhere you want to go.

Just bear in mind that you *can't* take a bike across the 520 bridge from the Eastside.. If you live close to the 520, you'd have to ride down to I90 to cross, or take the bus across the bridge w/your bike.

You also mentioned "Westside;" did you mean West Seattle? You can commute into downtown from any of the neighborhoods you mentioned -- Ballard, Queen Anne, West Seattle.



Two other recommendations -- get the City of Seattle bicycle map, the Bellevue Bicycle Map and the King County Bicycle Map...all of the links to them are at the Cascade website. Good ideas on how to find commuting routes. Also, there are many, many Seattle commuting routes that folks have posted at www.bikely.com.

BengeBoy, Thanks. I should have added that I am not a racer. Really just like longer rides and club events that are not competitive. Also, is it possible to commute from Seattle to the East side? I am pretty much at Bellevue by the 90 and 405, but my wife likes the houses more in Seattle such as Westside or Ballard or Queen Ann. I looked for a bike lane of the 90 bridge today but did not see one at least on the East bound side.

Welcome! now let me give you the bad news.

Seattle roads suck, and they are not gonna get better. With gas prices rising, even though you bike
you may find that you won't for some reason in the future. Living in Ballard will be a long and painful
process just to have a house you like the look of better. Queen Anne not much better.

Now I realize the city is very quaint, with it's old houses, crumbling infrastructure, anti-business city
council, bloated budgets and continula one-party, no checks-and-balances rule, but in the end you
would be far better off with a house in Newport Hills near work than some of where you are now looking.

Certainly the best advice I could give you would be to live as close to one of the major freeway
intersections as possible so no matter where you work, if you end up driving, you will not be fighting
arterial traffic all the time.

And finally, if your wife really lies those old hoods in Seattle, be sure to check out Kirkland north of
the downtown area (like Rose Hill). Lots of 'cute' stuff there in a much better managed city.

FA,

Yeah, I looked at Queen Ann and its a no go. Very hard to get around even in a car. No parking and never even saw a two car garage. Looked on Mercer Island today too. Wow, the prices are as bad as SoCal, but the location rocks. Kickland is a good suggestion. Maybe the West side of Seattle too.

Kirkland is a good suggestion.

If you're cycling into downtown, just be aware that from Kirkland you'll have to cycle all the way down to I90 to get over the bridge. You could also follow the Burke Gilman trail from North Kirkland along the shore of Lake Washington -- I haven't compared the distance but that might be even further (but a great ride on the weekend).

If you guys like older houses, there is a small area of older homes tucked in Bellevue called Beaux Arts. Very nice.

Another area that you might check out -- perfect for a commute downtown -- is called Mt. Baker.

Welcome to Seattle! I live in Sammamish, on the plateau east of Lake Sammamish, and commute to work at Boeing Field in Seattle when the weather is nice. I park at the Bellevue Community College Park and Ride and ride the trail up I-90 to Seattle. It's a great ride in the morning and while it's not a hard ride it is a good workout.

For your housing, I would recommend that you look out on the Eastside. I simply love it! We can be downtown in about 30 minutes but we've got peace and quiet like you'll never find in town. We've still got deer and coyote, as well as the occasional bear and cougar. The riding is great out here as well with a lot of well travelled routes and not so well known gems. So, take a look at the east side of Redmond, Kirkland, Bellevue, and out to Issaquah and Sammamish. Those are some really nice areas.

Good luck,
Mike

From my experience, the best part of Bellevue to live in for generally good cycling is near the southern end, around the Lake Hills, Robinswood, and Bellevue Community College areas (just N. of I-90). Traffic is busy around that area as it is with all the eastside communities, but that area has several arterials with bike lanes and numerous quiet residential streets for low-traffic riding. As previously mentioned, there's a MUP parallel to I-90 that goes west from there across the I-90 bridge to Seattle. East of Bellevue, the MUP feeds onto Lake Sammamish Pkwy., which has bike lanes and takes you to Issaquah. From downtown Issaquah, a recently finished MUP parallels Highlands Drive on up to the Sammamish Plateau (I live there too). More rural road riding can be had north and east of Issaquah, in the Snoqualmie Valley.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/the-home-front/2008/05/29/next-housing-market-to-crash-seattle.html

Next housing market to crash? Seattle.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/the-home-front/2008/05/29/next-housing-market-to-crash-seattle.html

Next housing market to crash? Seattle.

If you're into mental torture (and you're a homeowner), you can get your daily dose of Seattle gloom-and-doom at this very interesting blog about the Seattle real estate bubble:

http://seattlebubble.com/blog/