It's hard to find a place with:
Decent weather
Some climbing and good bike roads
Employment opportunities
Walkable
Amenities
Healthcare
and
affordable. A place like that would be popular, and tend to get expensive.
Originally Posted by
BikeArkansas
i also put to gether a "Utopia" list. Could not find it, so I am staying home in the LIttle Rock area. After research, I found every place is a trade-off, including price if the area is getting close to the correct temps. The main decision you need to make is which parts of your list you are willing to give up.
Yes.
Anything in a nice urban is getting quite expensive. People are bidding up the housing costs to get the amenities: nice parks, walkable, restaurants, etc. Country living is cheap around here, but you have to like the solitude, and all the driving required to get to anything.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Weather
I like the yearly data from weatherspark.com. For example,
Lexington KY.
Kentucky gets waves of cold air from Canada, and warm air from the Gulf of Mexico, so temperatures vary a lot day-by-day in the winter.
Lexington
See the average high and low temperature chart, with the percentile bands in lighter red to show the typical ranges of temperatures.
And the percentage of each day in different temperature ranges is helpful:
Note that light green is the 50-65F range. They start getting some warm afternoons around late February.
The average fraction of time spent in various temperature bands: frigid (below 15°F), freezing (15°F to 32°F), cold (32°F to 50°F), cool (50°F to 65°F), comfortable (65°F to 75°F), warm (75°F to 85°F), hot (85°F to 100°F) and sweltering (above 100°F).
~~~~
Lexington KY is about an hour south of me, I'm near Cincinnati. I ride every month of the year, but decent riding weather is limited from early December to late February.
Last year was often colder than usual, but there were some really nice days mixed in. My Garmin reports:
Oct 2015 460 miles
Nov 2015 220 miles
Dec 2015 240 miles
Jan 2016 140 miles (including the 30 mile New Year's day ride, at 29F. I normally wait until it's above 40F at least.)
Feb 2016 210 miles