ConGrUenCy

Hi, I'm a student from India and will be going to grad school at Georgia Tech this fall. I was wondering how the cycling scene is in Atlanta. Also, how far are the mountains (I love climbing and mountains) from GA Tech? Is cycling safe as a form of commuting? I've heard Atlanta is awfully cycling unfriendly, is it true? Looking forward to coming here and I'm looking for ward to your replies.

RonH

Welcome. I moved from Atlanta about 1.5 years ago to get away from the traffic.
The mountains are over an hour from GT but their are nice hills and climbs all around the metro area.
For commuting help visit the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition. Great folks.
If you need a good bike shop, go to Intown Bicycles. They're not far from you.

ConGrUenCy

Thanks for your help, the ABC link seems interesting.

Athens80

Check out the Southern Bicycle League and the Path Foundation. Southeastern Cycling also has a group ride list.

If you must have low density, wide-open roads to enjoy cycling, riding inside the City of Atlanta will be a challenge.

If you are willing to ride with cars a fair bit and to plan your routes to avoid the least suitable roads, you'll be fine inside Atlanta and neighboring cities such as Decatur. Use mapping sites like Google maps (turn Bike Paths on) and RideWithGPS.com to see routes which cyclists have identified. Zoom in on the Strava Heatmap to see where Strava cyclists actually ride. The active route you see heading west into Alabama is the Silver Comet trail; you can read more about that at the Path Foundation.

From the Tech campus you can connect to the Silver Comet, but from there it's easier to head on the Path to Stone Mountain. Or read the online maps or join a group ride to learn alternate routes out there.

Atlanta is moderately hilly; not much flat, but lots of alternating up and down. For a day trip to longer climbs, head a little ways up to north Georgia and ride the terrain that was part of the Tour de Georgia, which was a 2.HC UCI stage race until it closed during the Great Recession. The hills of the Six Gap Century are probably the best known.

theblackbullet

not sure if you might ever be interested in racing, but I ride with a lot of the tech club cycling team, and they are a great group of guys.

https://www.facebook.com/gtcycling

the best mountains are about an hour and a half north of the city. search for the 6 gap and 3 gap routes

BikePackin

With regard to your love of climbing/mountains, you might well enjoy touring the Blue Ridge Parkway from Cherokee NC to/from Asheville NC [or, maybe even beyond, up to Front Royal VA if you have enough time (the Blue Ridge Parkway + the Skyline Drive)].
This route is non-commercial traffic with CONSTANT hills and scenery, including approximately 26 tunnels (no lights in tunnels - suggest adding a strobe to your bicycle for safety sake).
My estimate is that it'll take you about 3.5 - 4.0 hours at the speed limit to get to Cherokee NC from downtown Atlanta...of course Mapquest may estimate more accurately :- ).
If you like off road.... of course. grab a Delorme Map at REI and you will find innumberable miles of hilly forest service roads latticed throughout n. GA.
- Wishing you great riding.

johnread

Atlanta is actually an excellent place for riding - commuting or recreational especially. Our network of dedicated bike paths will be ideal for you since you are a student at Georgia Tech. As others has noted, take a look at the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition and the PATH Foundation websites for more details about great routes. Also be sure to look at Google Maps with the Bicycle Path feature turned on and you will see plenty of great routes.

erock139

Atlanta has plenty of riding opps. Nothing better than bombing down Peachtree (towards Buckhead) next to the cars doing 30!

At any rate, I did my undergrad at Tech and was one of the original guys on the team. Try joining up with them. There's also plenty of riding if you can find a way out of Atlanta. I know because we had to sponsor a few races, and I there are roads out somewhere not too far away.

Also, there's what's called the airport ride, leaving out of downtown atlanta and out towards the airport and back, maybe 50 or so miles total. Not a bad ride and a good way to find new areas.

again, start with the Tech team, visit a few shops and you'll be riding in no time.
ahh i miss the big atl.

ConGrUenCy

Thanks a lot for all the info! Really looking forward to going to Atlanta. I leave in a month!

thiocyclist

Let us know how it goes! I'll be curious since I am also moving to Atlanta (from Colorado) and am going to try to commute from my new digs to Emory each day.

Juan Foote

Look up The Mobile Social on Facebook. They do a monthly ride out of Woodruff Park on the second Friday of every month (6:30pm). It's really chill, follows traffic law, slow paced and lots of other college aged folks make that ride with an eat and greet at the end. Check into the Beltline, MARTA is very bike friendly as well. Hope you enjoy your stay.