lem0ndrider

I will be doing a MS 165 this September 15-16 and while where I live is mostly hills, I would like to find some nice long flats to ride. I live in Thomasville, NC and don't mind traveling for a 30-60 miler. I looked at Creeper Trail and The New River Trail but I ride 700c 23 and I am not sure is my tires could handle it?

Any suggestions would be appreciated as I know the hills help me but I am a bit tired of them

jdon

Move to Utah.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonneville_Salt_Flats

Machka 

Go to Manitoba. Every ride could be a long flat ride. I highly recommend Winnipeg to Portage La Prairie and back on the back road ... 100 miles of flatness.

waynesworld

Three words: O HI O Well, central Ohio anyway.

jdon

Yeah but it's.... Manitoba!

botto 

what does one have to do with the other?

aztimm

Tons of flat riding here in the Phoenix area.

SCochiller

[Admin edit: removed immature remark].

lem0ndrider

I'm training for the MS ride as I haven't rode for about 3 years. The hills wipe me out and even though I know they will build my strength and cardio, I would just like to get in the drops and tick along at a good speed. As far as traveling......thanks everyone but I was thinking VA, Sc as far as traveling.

2manybikes

Just a suggestion, if you know where the MS ride is going to be, ride there.

2manybikes

So that's how you did all those miles.

Velo Vol 

Don't know where the closest place is to you, but from driving I know that I-40 is flat as can be once you get east of Raleigh.

cvall91

South Florida is full of long and flat rides . They're all flat for however long you are willing to ride for.

bobthib

+1

Look over my rides. Most of the elevation changes are do to shifts in the barometric pressure, not the terrain. Except for my summer visits to NY and MN, most all my rides are in So. Fla like cvall91. [TABLE="class: user_summary, width: 1364"]
[TR="class: data"]
[TD]08/12/12 - 08/18/12[/TD]
[TD]203.1 mi[/TD]
[TD]2591 ft[/TD]
[TD]11:52:08[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: data alt"]
[TD="bgcolor: #EEEEEE"]08/05/12 - 08/11/12[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #EEEEEE"]182.0 mi[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #EEEEEE"]1705 ft[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #EEEEEE"]11:11:37[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: data"]
[TD]07/29/12 - 08/04/12[/TD]
[TD]158.3 mi[/TD]
[TD]1821 ft[/TD]
[TD]9:27:53[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: data alt"]
[TD="bgcolor: #EEEEEE"]07/22/12 - 07/28/12[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #EEEEEE"]166.5 mi[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #EEEEEE"]1829 ft[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: #EEEEEE"]10:06:20[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


Over 710 mi there was 7,948 ft of climb for an average grade of 0.2% Most of that is bridges.

Machka 

Not as easy as you might think.

With flatness comes wind ... and no coasting down hills. When you ride a long flat ride, you pedal most of the time. Very little rest.

grimwig

i wouldn't think the hills are too bad in thomasville ... but do you have any friends/family in greenville, nc? if yes go spend a weekend with them.

grimwig

agree. there's still that not so small matter of friction to deal with :-)

rebel1916

Really? Just cause flat rides are tougher than staying on the couch doesn't mean they are tough on average. You know this, but you are being contrary.

lem0ndrider

Thanks everyone

Machka 

I'm not being contrary ... I'm being very realistic.

Flat rides are not necessarily as easy as you might imagine. Sure, there is that one day in summer where you actually get a tailwind both ways, but otherwise, you're fighting some sort of headwind, and pedalling, most of the time.

The easiest and fastest terrain are short rollers ... the kind where you can coast down one side fast enough to get 3/4 of the way up the next. A couple good pedals and you're over the top and coasting down the other side again.

muu

it's still a good change of pace. Just hope that you don't end up with tailwind going both directions.

80vette

A highway overpass is a climb.

DaveWC

Usually, on longer rides, the wind changes so it's in your face both ways. Or you have a wicked crosswind that hurts you the entire time. There literally is no rest on a flat route. My cadence drops when I hit an intersection (one on a 100 km out & back) or railroad tracks (two on the same stretch) and then it's only for seconds.

Wesley36

Just to back up Machka, flat rides are NOT necessarily easy. Flat, in my experience, usually also means windy. And unlike hills, where there is a start and an end, and a sense of accomplishment when you crest the hill, the wind in your face means sitting and pushing with no relief, sometimes for hour after painful hour. Far more grueling and demoralizing than hills. YMMV.

PS For solid evidence, here are two 200km brevets in the Ottawa area that I have done this season. The hilly one has, literally, over 10 times more elevation gain. My time (and speed) was significantly faster over the course of the hilly 200k than the flat (and windy) one. And subjectively, the flat one was very difficult, pushing into the wind for hours at a time and getting blown all over the road. There was also a fair bit of wind during the hilly brevet, but the hills and tree cover did a great deal to mitigate the effects of the wind.

https://www.randonneursontario.ca/rou...kville_200.gpx
- 200m elevation gain over 200+km

https://www.randonneursontario.ca/rou...efield_200.gpx
- 2800 elevation gain over 200+km

Machka 

Yep. I can't count the number of times I headed out for a ride into a wind, thinking that I'd have a nice tailwind all the way home ... only to have the wind change to that wicked crosswind for a while, and then around so that I had a headwind all the way back home. Plodding along at 14 km/h all the way.