drmweaver2

Recently the temperaure reminds me of the movie title Cool Running - for Louisiana at least. 9am and it's still not 60 degrees F out on the MRT near New Orleans. How are you guys handling it clothing wise? :wink:

Ansir

Recently moved here from PA and its feels warm to me yet! Where is the good riding in NOLA, these roads down here are small and horribly maintained!

drmweaver2

If you want hills in the GNO area, you need to go north of the Lake.
If you want totally unobstructed, low traffic riding? - go to the river/Lake levees. Or, old Hwy 51 on the west side of Lake Ponchatrain - runs alongside an elevated Interstate (only issue here is it's 11 miles west of Kenner!). Another place is the Lakeshore levee east of Lakefront Airport. North of the Lake there is the Tammany Trace - in my mind, an 8 out of 10 bikepath.

Recommendation - join/contact Crescent City Cyclists for more detailed/better info. They have a website.

Poor road conditions? I find them no worse than Western Pa - between Ellwood City and Pittsburgh. Then again, bad is bad no matter where you are.

orcanova

OP, I haven't even used my arm warmers or leg warmers yet. Best solution now is a thin baselayer under the jersey, and maybe a pair of armwarmers to peel off. Target has some thin sleevleess baselayers from someone likle Russell that cost about $10.00, that are just as good as the Craft version.

Ansir, I just moved back home to NOLA from Norther Va. The riding is nothing like VA or PA, in that no rolling hills (ala N. MD or S. PA farmland) and also limited routes compared to there. Even outside NOLA, the road networks are not nearly as robust, mostly only one route to get from one town to another, thus sometimes traffic or no shoulder. However, here are some routes:

1. Lakefront and laps around City Park (Marconi and Wisner Blvds.)
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/52651358
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/54769448

2. Mississippi River Levee, you can start from Audubon Park, or many people start from Jefferson playground on River Road, for some reason most popular evening is Wednesday from Jefferson Playground. (Note: the route is on the top of the levee, not on River Road as the Garmin route indicates. It looks like a mapping error.)
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/54051466

3. Drive to Bayou Sauvage on Hwy 90, park and ride over the Rigolettes and out towards Mississippi.
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/53612189

4. Mandeville on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain has relatively flat but nice country roads
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/48075099

5. There is supposed to be a route closed to cars on Saturday (?) on teh West Bank, starting on Gen. DeGaulle Blvd., going over the Intracoastal Bridge, then out along the River Road by English Turn golf course and A.C.R.E.S., and someone told me they get a 40 mile loop in. Don't know the exact route, or when its closed to traffic, but found these on Garmin website:
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/40077630
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/35050906

6. Haven't ridden it yet, but St. Francisville, just North of Baton Rouge, is supposed to have some pretty rides with rolling hills. There's a century there, and some B&B's.
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/26404100

7. I drove out to Cocodrie, and the road leading out there looked inviting for road cycling, very pretty. The ride to Cocodrie is very pretty from Cocodrie as a starting point, heading towards Houma, then turn around where it gets busy. I want to do that soon. It is essentially Rte. 56 and Rte. 57, from Cocodrie through Dulac. Keep an eye out for alligators, and eat lunch at Schmoopy's.

https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...daddr=Dulac+LA


I found this other ride on the Garmin website, not the same location, but a bit east of that, but don't know the route. Its near, but different than the one I am referring to. (Looks like this person left their Garmin on in the car, so it seems its the Southern portion, not the Northern part. Click on the "player" tab and run the player and you can see where the bike starts and you can see the car ride portion based on the current speed at the bottom.)
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/17013899

Ansir

Orcanova, thanks for all the great links I am excited to ride flat out a little more, the city really inhibits my riding alot. I am chef so I work at night so I ride in the day and the traffic is decent compared to the evenings.

Its nice to know some routes though, I almost got on the highway today because I was just wondering and NOLA has alot of missing signs. If you ever want to ride I would be excited to ride with a more seasoned rider I am trying hard to embrace road biking but its an expensive hobby!

orcanova

You're welcome. A lot of the roads here you can't ride a road bike on because of the potholes as you mentioned. Its been like that since I was a kid...I think its the weather and the historically corrupt city government. I am considering a cyclo-cross bike down the road for that, and a mountain bike could be useful to, to add variety. think I am going to start running again because I don't want to get burned out on a limited number of routes, so a second sport may help. And I know what you mean about the road signs...half of them are missing, and that has always been that way here too.

revchuck 

Actually, on Wednesday evenings during the summer and a little on each end, there's a Crescent City Cyclists group ride on the levee that starts at the Rivershack (a nice little bar with tables outside, NOLA on tap, great burgers, and lots of parking) about a quarter mile toward Audubon Park from the playground. It starts at 5:45 PM and does a ~25 mile out-and-back at about a 19 mph average speed, returning about the time happy hour starts - to allay any concerns, we usually have ONE beer before leaving, and they also have pretty good iced tea. We sit at the outside tables because we're all dripping with sweat at the end. Great way to get in a vigorous ride and hang out with fellow cyclists. The official ride is over for this year due to the decreasing daylight, but it's something to think about for next spring!

Google "Crescent City Cyclists" (touring club) and "New Orleans Bike Club" (racing club) and you'll find maps on each website.

FunkyStickman

Last week it was 45F when I left for work at 6:00 AM, I still am not wearing long pants yet. I wear two athletic shirts (one long-sleeve), a wool cap under my helmet, gloves, and a windbreaker jacket. If it gets below 45 I'll wear thermal long underwear pants, 2 pairs of socks, and something to cover my face.

orcanova

Ahh, that's good to know.