Help a Roadie - I moved from Fredericton, NB to New Westminster and I'm overwhelmed!

[DVN]

Hi all,

Last week I made the move from Fredericton to New Westminster for my wife's kick-ass job. The problem is, I feel completely overwhelmed here. It's not the traffic - I'm fine with biking in the streets, but I feel like I have no way of getting out of the city to find some 'open' road. I guess I just feel kind of 'trapped' by all the traffic and sprawl. I'm used to Fredericton where I could bike for 5 minutes and be completely out of town. I hadn't realized what a country bumpkin I had become in my 4 years in NB!

Would anyone be able to recommend a couple of good road-bike routes that head out of New Westminster?

[Cipo]

I guess I just feel kind of 'trapped' by all the traffic and sprawl.

Welcome to the Lower Mainland

One option is to head east, through Coquitlam/Port Coquitlam (if you're not averse to climbing, I'd head up and over Burnaby Mountain, then along the Barnet), over the Pitt River Bridge, then turn left to hit the country roads that will take you to Pitt Polder, or further afield to Golden Ears Provincial Park. Or turn right onto Ford Drive, past the Pitt Meadows Airport, then jog through a residential neighbourhood to eventually get to the Golden Ears Bridge, which will take you to the countryside on the other side of the Fraser River, Langley, Abbotsford. The ride out to Fort Langley is particularly nice (120 kms round trip from New West), and it's a good turnaround point with plenty of lunch options and a good bike shop to tempt your wallet.

Southwest over the Queensborough Bridge to get into Richmond/Delta/Tswassen is also an option, especially on the weekends when the business parks and industrial areas you'll have to traverse tend to be pretty quite, but I'm not too familiar with that area.

PM me if you want specifics; I just got a Garmin so I can now easily create a google map and I'm riding out to a family bbq in Abbotsford, via Fort Langley, on Sunday.

[spinninwheels]

If you like climbing, you could always jump on the skytrain (provided it's not during rush hour) and take it downtown (Burrard Station). Take West Georgia over the Lion's Gate, get yourself onto Marine Drive and ride to Horseshoe Bay.

Or, you could climb Taylor Way up to the Upper Levels Highway and then ride to HB that way. If you're really into climbing, you'll turn off at the Cypress exit

[DVN]

Awesome, thanks for the routes guys - I made it down to La Bicicletta today and a helpful chap there gave me some suggestions too!

[wunderkind]

Now that you mention it, New West really doesn't have any good roadie routes at all.
Cipo listed out some gread roadie routes where you can use the 53t and get some speed. Getting to Pitt Meadows is tough due to the crazy Port Mann Bridge upgrade. So cycling through it can sap all your enthusiasm away.

But once there, there are some real nice roadie routes in Pitt Meadows with great vistas. No wonder there are so many roadies there on the weekends. The ride from there to Ft. Langley is awesome. Fast loops with some ups and downs. Stopping at Ft. Langley is wonderful to fuel up.

I would also recommend somehow getting to UBC loop. It's pretty cool. I think Delta/Surrey offers some nice routes too. But haven't been there.

New West is a PITA because you can have some real extreme elevation change and heavy traffic. Road surface aren't the greatest too. I just rode from there into Vancouver this morning. If u're not in a rush you should try the Central Valley Greenway that starts from New West and meaders through to Burnaby and into Science World in Vancouver. Not a real roadie route. More for leisure slowish ride through MUPs.

[Just_Ryan]

Another thing that has worked for me is waking up before every one else. I don't really do this anymore, but you can get in a pretty good ride before 9am on a weekend, especially in the summer, without seeing too many vehicles. If you don't mind climbing, I really like a ride to the north shore and up Seymour or Cypress, or just the Seymour conservation reserve trail up to the dam, for less climbing.

[lhbernhardt]

The quietest roads are to the east - the Fraser Valley around Fort Langley and parts around Mission. I would go down 1st to the Patullo Bridge, over the bridge, then a hard right, go under the bridge and get on Industrial Road/116th Ave. Just stay on this road as it becomes King Road, goes up the steep hill and down by the elementary school, then go up the long climb of Surrey Road, past the garbage dump. Just follow the main road (the center stripe), you'll eventually get to 108th Ave. at the mall. From here you can turn left and get to 152nd St., make another left, go over the freeway, then take the exit to some quieter roads thru a residential area. By successive jogs, you'll figure out how to eventually get on 96th Ave., then there are some back roads that are too complicated to explain here, but you can eventually get out to Allard Crescent and into Fort Langley, from which you can do a number of nice routes. Before Ft. Langley, 201st. St. northbound will get you to the Golden Ears Bridge into Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows/Haney. If you want to do a really nice long ride, you can go out to Mission on one side of the river, cross the Mission Bridge to Abbotsford, and then come back on the south side. If you can find somebody or some club familiar with the roads, that would be invaluable. The BC Randonneurs use a lot of the quieter roads on their rides. This is how I find the best routes - I live in Burnaby, buit I'm in Victoria for a few months, and just riding with the local clubs on their regular club rides I now know Saanich and the Westshore areas like the back of my hand. It won't take you long, just ride. The worst that can happen is you'll inadvertently get thrown out onto some really busy road (Brunette?), so you just have to turn around, but that's easier on a bike than in a car.

Luis

[NaBlade]

Bumping an old thread here. Thought I'd mention that from New West, you could cross Queensborough bridge and head down into Boyd St towards River Rd where it will give you two options for relatively 'nice' city road riding: a Richmond loop, or a UBC loop via the Canada Line bridge. Not quite open road but better than city riding where you have to stop at every light.

[trustnoone]

Jealous. You've moved to my old stomping grounds.

[jdon]

Jealous. You've moved to my old stomping grounds.

Yep. Mine too! Mind you, I am literally 5 minutes in the mean streets of Burlington then non-stop country roads.

[Heatherbikes]

I live on the sunshine coast where one should be able to ride, but the highway is not exactly a fine example of the 'open road'. In fact, it's pretty darn scary, so when I ride into Gibsons from Robert's Creek, I take these little side roads just to have a bit of a ride and always see road riders going up and down these roads simply because the highway is just not safe. In the summer it gets a bit busy with road cyclists, but it's scary, the shoulder is a mess, I don't recommend taking the lane which I see cyclists do. I find that I am able to bike faster and with some power in Vancouver than here. I know the bike routes very well from living in Van and most drivers are aware of bikes unlike in rural areas. I find I have to keep slowing down on the highway and stopping due to erratic cars, dirt, gravel, muck on the shoulder, pulling over because of logging trucks etc so I don't usually ride hard even though I bike daily.
I recently went to Bowen Island and I recommend going on a nice winter day when it is quiet. The speed limit is 40, traffic is light and polite, the hills are immense and everything is sooo pretty and cute! Nothing very far, so you could do the entire island in a day I think. Not to mention some awesome food and drink to be had!
Riding out to UBC along the ocean is a great ride, the transcanada trail/bike route through west van to horseshoe bay is intense

[DVN]

Since this thread has been bumped recently, I figured I'd pop in and give a quick update on some of the rides I've discovered (thanks to the help of many of you here!). Hopefully it's helpful to people down the road...

Surrey River Rd.
For a short-ish tempo ride I like to cross the Pattullo bridge, cross back under it and head down Surrey River rd. out towards Twassenn (sp?), I then get onto 68th and loop back up to River rd. and back to the bridge then home. I don't mind this ride, but there are a TON of semi-trucks on River Rd., so it can be a little unnerving at times when the road narrows.

SFU
For shorter harder rides I like to go up to the Lougheed Hwy and then turn up Gagliardi Way and then head up to SFU and do repeats of the climb.

UBC
Probably my favourite ride - it's just gorgeous out there, and there's lots of other cyclists around usually. I pretty much just head out Marine Dr. the whole way there, go through the endowment lands, and the park, then turn around and head home. I'm sure there are smarter ways to get to UBC from New West, I just haven't really explored any alternatives yet.

Richmond/Iona Beach
Cross over the Queensborough bridge, down River Rd. and head through Richmond, out to behind the airport and then down to Iona Beech. It's a nice Saturday morning ride!

Now the trick for me is to find a good club or team to ride or race with. There are lots in Vancouver proper, but their rides start so far away I'm not sure how to deal with that. I found a nice cycling club in New West, and while the people are super awesome and nice, the rides are more focused on gentle , relaxes bike-path style stuff - which is great, but not exactly what I'm looking for.

[Cipo]

I pretty much just head out Marine Dr. the whole way there, go through the endowment lands, and the park, then turn around and head home. I'm sure there are smarter ways to get to UBC from New West, I just haven't really explored any alternatives yet.

Dude, Marine Dr./Way the whole way out? That's suicide!

Head up into Burnaby (up 6th St., left at Edmonds, right at the Eastburn Community Centre, jog through a couple of back streets to get to Imperial. Once you're on Imperial, that will become 49th when you cross Boundary, and that will take you all the way to Southwest Marine Dr., bear right to get to UBC). If you want to combine that with your Richmond route, you can double back along Southwest Marine, then along 70th, cross Marine, hang a right and you get to the Canada Line Bridge. This is just what I did on Saturday.

[GWR]

Now the trick for me is to find a good club or team to ride or race with. There are lots in Vancouver proper, but their rides start so far away I'm not sure how to deal with that. I found a nice cycling club in New West, and while the people are super awesome and nice, the rides are more focused on gentle , relaxes bike-path style stuff - which is great, but not exactly what I'm looking for.

I've had the same problem, being based in New West (and had thought about trying to start a club out here). A couple of established options, though, are:
http://vancouvervelovets.org/index.html - they're pretty active and ride from Richmond;
http://www.coastalraceclub.com/events.html - they have a good race program and their Thursday night crit series is well run, fun, and (relatively) easy to ride to.

As for rides, I mostly ride into Delta (River Road), to SFU and or Port Moody (further out to Belcarra is nice), or head over the second narrows bridge to Deep Cover or Seymour. There are some okay loops through Surrey and Burnaby, but they make for better winter rides.

[Spinning]

Hi folks,

Reading through this thread there seems to be at least two riders based in New Westminster. I recently arrived here from Asia and am also looking for rides with a club or individuals with AM rides being the preference.

If you are still in the area then Pls contact me if your up for a ride at whatever pace you wish.

Regards - Dylan

[GWR]

I'm planning to start a ride group for Sunday mornings leaving from River Market in New West for a 2-3 hour, 25-30 kph moderate pace, covering some of the routes mentioned here or others that are popular.

Any interest from New West roadies lurking on here?

Go here for more: http://le-grimpeur.net/blog/frf

Guy