maddmaxx 

Paint your wagon and the song is "They call the wind maria"

MTBLover

Count me in for Philly. Fairmount Park is only one reason, although it is huge, with lots of good riding (someof it quite challenging). Other reasons are the various trail systems that connect to it- the Schyulkill River Trail, Perkiomen Trail, Audubon Loop, etc., etc. And, there are many, many roads in surrounding areas that lend themselves well to really great rides. Our local clubs have numerous metrics, centuries, doubles, and everything in between, virtually every weekend during the season. Overall, the region is a fantastic cycling resource. (And see? No 'tude, even though I'm a Philly boy, living in the city 35 years, since college!)

Pat

Beverly

Is Cincy like Dayton in that all the steep hills end in stop signs with the intersecting road having tons of high speed traffic?

Pat

Beverly

I haven't rode too many of the Cincy hills except those on some of their rural routes northeast of downtown. I doubt I would ever ride any of their in town hills.

Many of the steep hills in the Dayton area are near the metro park dams and located in rural areas. I haven't encountered any that end at a stop sign with high speed traffic. What area are you referring to?

boston blackie

another vote for Boston

DnvrFox

Why not look at a map, like I did, and attempt to get all of the major regions in, not counting the size of the city in particular.

I.e., LA and San Diego are 100 miles apart. Why include both in your list, when one could go either way or you could meet in between??

Houston is right on the sea coast, while Dallas is more centrally located to San Antonio, Fort Worth AND Houston.

NYC is just a short hop from DC, as is Philly. Why have them on the same list?

Anyway, that was MY reasoning.


It is always so easy to snipe after someone else does something.

Do your own da** poll, if you like. I'm sorry I ever started this.

Artkansas 

That wouldn't be bad. My choices were Dallas and Nashville. Neither is particularly close nor desireable. I was thinking that Memphis would be good.

Thrifty1

Okies have a LOT of choice words/names for the wind......don't think "Maria" is used very often...

BluesDawg

Why haven't we heard from stapfam?

BSLeVan

Snipe? That's not my style. If you read my posts as a body, you'll see that I'm pretty direct. If I'm taking shots at something, I label it that way. Shame you got your fur up over my comments, because I wasn't taking shots at you. In fact, I believe I acknowleded that you indicated you couldn't include everything due to the ten item limit. In your OP, you didn't give your reasoning with any real specificity. And, in my second post I stated that I didn't see the reasoning behind the choices you made. You can read that to mean that the pattern that was easily discernable in your head was not clear to me. I simply added the dimension of population as a factor.

StanSeven

There's a big flaw in your thinking. If the point is to find areas where more people live (assuming that's a good thing, which it probably isn't), you need to look at Census data that shows the population of the metropolitan area and not the population of the city itself.

Here's the Census rankings (I love have government clients)

1 New York–Northern New Jersey–Long Island NY–NJ–PA 30,918,536
2 Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana CA 19,950,129
3 Chicago–Naperville–Joliet IL–IN–WI 10,505,748
4 Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington TX 6,003,967
5 Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington PA–NJ–DE–MD 5,826,742
6 Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown TX 5,539,949
7 Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach FL 5,463,857
8 Washington–Arlington–Alexandria DC–VA–MD–WV 5,290,400
9 Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Marietta GA 5,138,223
10 Detroit–Warren–Livonia MI 4,468,966
11 Boston–Cambridge–Quincy MA–NH 4,455,217
12 San Francisco–Oakland–Fremont CA 4,180,027
13 Phoenix–Mesa–Scottsdale AZ 4,039,182
14 Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario CA 4,026,135
15 Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue WA 3,263,497
16 Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington MN 3,175,041
17 San Diego–Carlsbad–San Marcos CA 2,941,454
18 St. Louis MO–IL 2,796,368
19 Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater FL 2,697,731
20 Baltimore–Towson MD 2,658,405
* San Juan–Caguas–Guaynabo PR 2,509,007*
21 Denver–Aurora CO 2,408,750
22 Pittsburgh PA 2,370,776
23 Portland–Vancouver–Beaverton OR–WA 2,137,565
24 Cleveland–Elyria–Mentor OH 2,114,155
25 Cincinnati–Middletown OH–KY–IN 2,104,218

DnvrFox

Then just ask me for my reasoning.

There is a tendencey when something attempts to do something positive for some other folks to then think in their minds, "Oh, I could have done that a lot better." - and then to tell all just what that "better" is. And, you know, that is likely perfectly true. However, the fact is that those people didn't attempt to do anything at all.

So, those of us trying new things, perhaps inadeptly, are always at the mercy of the 2nd guessers, who always seem to know better, but didn't do anything in the first place.

gear

Were you thirsty? If so; have a tonic.

stapfam

Can you arrange Cheap Hotels and Tarmac for the Roadies?

You get my vote though.

stapfam

Middle of summer with a temp in the 70's- no rain- cheap hotels and near an Airport.+ See my reply to crtreedude.

BSLeVan

OK, I'm going to be pretty direct then. Take a breath. You seem to be fine with people asking questions about why specific cities or locations were not included, but when I take the time to actually try and enrich the discussion you take personal offense. Well, none was intended, and if you choose to believe differently, there's not much I can do about that.

card

I find it interesting that so many voters are from around DC. Is that area a good biking region? I've only flown into DC for a brief moment and never got to look around much.

I think it would be great to start having these meets around the country. Maybe limit the number of "white bicycles." I would be willing to cross several states to attend. Maybe some place like the Katy Trail would work. About all we need is motels, camping facilities, access to food and beverage, good riding and people that know how and are willing to organize.

guybierhaus

Well I'm in the DC area, but not voting for it. You guys may be nice to chat with, but realistically I don't believe I'm gonna drive more then 8 hours to attend anything. Certainly not a bike ride. In view of the expected crowd I would prefer something like a small city/metro area. Even if I can't spell Cinncinitatti, that sounds better to me then DC, Boston, or next door: Philly. It does appear from other threads a lot of BF members are meeting at the Lancaster Covered Bridge ride on 19 August. I would think individual regional get togethers for those in or near region are the only thing that's gonna work.

Tom Bombadil

Central Wisconsin is a popular destination for cyclists. Lots of trails, lots of rural roads, lots of hills and an easy place to get to from Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago. Although I am not advocating for the selection of Madison, in part because I don't know if many forum members would want to ride limestoned bike trails. I don't think I'd want to take a nice road bike on them. And if the ride is on a road course, then that would leave me out. I'm not yet in shape to ride like many here can ride. So I'll stay silent on this issue.

As to the helmet, it is actually misplaced for the time being. I don't know where it is. My wife donated several boxes of items to Goodwill and there is a chance that the helmet was in one of them.

However I do have an Arkansas Razorback pig helmet.

cooker

At least you remembered other countries exist!


Not that I'm sniping

DnvrFox

Hey, you Canadians can do your own thing!

roccobike

Only one problem, Stapfam, how do we attach a bike rack to the back of a 777?

Ken Brown

I wouldn't want to go to any city; I prefer a small town with lots of bike paths. How about Englewood Ohio? Beverly, how many can you put up?

Seriously, Xenia Ohio is a day's drive for me, and for a lot of people. It is the confluence of various rail trails, and I expect some good road cycling as well.

tsl

Ever try herding cats?

Actually, in light of that last paragraph, you might want to try the method they're using over at bikejournal.com. That is evaluating proposals from people willing to host the event based on rides, lodging, etc., rather than just tossing around names of cities.

I suppose proximity to and quality of pie should be added to the criteria...

DnvrFox

Bike Journals has a well attended annual ride at various locations around the country.