Tandem Cycling - Road Cycling In/Near Scottsdale

We're planning to spend 2-4 weeks in the Old Scottsdale Area (Arizona) to break up the long, cycling free weather in Chicago this Winter. Thinking of doing this in late February-early March. We would like to stay in a vacation rental property located on or near some good cycling roads or paved trails so we don't have to drive to a ride start each day.
My questions are;
Can anyone recommend an area or identifiable neighborhood for us to look for rental property?
Does anyone have cue sheets/maps with some good rides in the area?

Thanks

Hi

I asked the same question in September and didn't get too much in the way of replies. We DID go though and I have a couple of things for you. Mapmyride has several rides . Scottsdale has a lot of bike lanes and they will mostly work out well for you (We rode on Indian School without incident). Also there is a really nice bike path . You'll see it as a green area on the map (, even though there is no indication of a bike trail on the map, it is pretty good (ride out Indian School to Hayden and you will run right into it.). A few ******* racer wannabes, but generally pretty good. You could do a long out and back or out and find your way back from the map. We were only there 3 days, so didn't explore much.

Frank and Terry

I have a phone # that's a couple years old that may help:
AZ Bicycle club, 602-996-4984.
Or cazbike.com for Coalition of Az Bicyclists.
Also check out GABA/?Phoenix (Greater Az Bicycling Ass'n Phx.)
The Phoenix metro area is relatively flat except for South Mountain area.
Bring extra water bottles and lotsa sunscreen!
We do not live in that area but 100+ miles further south.

Can't halp much with the Scottsdale area specifically as we do most of our riding each January on the west side of Phoenix and out by Avondale and Goodyear. But in general, we have found a lot of well marked bike lanes in nearly all off the newer areas in and around Phoenix.
I also know that the Maracopa county area has a pretty detailed long term plan to connenct many existing bike paths/lanes with many of the city/county parks and rec areas ultimately making one major cycling loop around the entire Phoenix area... not that that will help you now.
However.....we did have a street level bike map (Bike Ways) from the Maracopa Area of Governmants that did have all the various kinds of bike lanes marked which we found quite useful...I'm sure it included the Scottsdale area as well...hope it helps. Have fun.
http://www.mag.maricopa.gov/detail.cms?item=4643

Bill J.

If your plans aren't set in stone, go to Tucson. You can go anywhere in Tucson by bike. The riding is fantastic. I grew up there. . In my opinion, it is a much nicer place to be than the Phoenix area.

Places of interest: Mt. Lemon, Sabino Canyon, Desert Museum, Saguaro Nat'l monument east, Old Tucson, Close to Tombstone, Nogales Mexico. That's just the few I can think of right now.


Good luck!

Rick

In Scottsdale, N Hayden Rd. has the bicycle path. Scottsdale Road is really busy with traffic and you ride mainly with traffic. You can ride Paradise Valley which takes you around Phoenix Mountains. Ride out to Cave Creek is a must. Jump on E Shea Blvd and head east. Stay away from riding in downtown Phoenix, not too biker friendly.
Have fun we sure enjoyed biking in Scottsdale.
Nancy

You can always check out the rides that have been uploaded at sites such as Garmin Connect (http://connect.garmin.com/explore#activityType=road_biking&eventType=all&activitySummarySumDistance-unit=mile&activitySummarySumDuration-unit=hour&activitySummaryGainElevation-unit=foot&location=Scottsdale%2C%20AZ%2C%20USA&sortField=relevance&currentPage=1), which are specific for location.

These have the advantages of actually having been done, and you can figure how long it will take based on their average speed.

I rode in Scottsdale earlier this month. Awesome ride. I rode part of the Tour de Scottsdale route.

You might want to post your inquiry in the Regional section under Southwest as well. You might get more feedback.