spidercyclist

Riding in Cleveland is Hell-pot holes everywhere, drivers coming too close and blaring their hornes at me. No bike trailes close to my house. People not respecting bikers and yelling obsenities at me -telling me to get on the sidewalk. Many blown tires due to road conditions-My ride is 12 miles round trip-I thought Akron was bad but Cleveland puts Akron to shame. You gotta love Cleveland! Go Browns!(losers)
From Spider,

GriddleCakes

Sounds like you could use some wider tires to help deal with those potholes. Get a 29er, mount some 2.35 inch Big Apples, and you'll barely notice the crappy pavement. As for the rest, yeah that sounds like it sucks, but at least you don't have to deal with a brutal Maryland winter.

SweetLou

I always found Cleveland to be enjoyable to ride. I rarely had any trouble. The roads are bad especially in Lakewood but most of the major roads are ok. I would only get passed closely if I was on the side of the road, taking the lane seems to have stopped that behavior.

SlimRider

I'm originally from Cleveland. As long as you're in the suburbs of Cleveland, or perhaps in the wealthier portions of Cleveland, the roads tend to be in good shape. However, since many of the industries have vacated the Cleveland area, including some of it's middle-class suburbs, the overall living conditions have suffered. That includes Cleveland's many acres of urban blight, boarded-up houses, and pot-hole ridden thoroughfares.

Of all of Cleveland's suburbs with substandard roadways, Warrensville Heights is the worst!

- Slim

alan s 

Wherever you live, you can always remind yourself that at least you don't live in Cleveland. What do you say if you live Cleveland? Cleveland is Hell.

rhammons

Cleveland roads do suck, but I haven't been berated or harassed like that - I've heard similar stories though and that sucks. The Metroparks and Towpath are fun rides, and generally close to a lot of the city (~10-15 miles from most areas at most).

chipcom 

No doubt the roads suck, but the drivers are pretty much the same as you find anywhere else, including Akron.

chefisaac

I hate new jersey.... cherry hill.... route 70. bad. not good. BAD.

canyoneagle

Is it possible that your route choice could influence your riding experience/enjoyment?
If you haven't already done so, try using maps.google.com to map your route (click the little bicycle and it will overlay recommended bicycle routes).
I personally avoid roads with heavy traffic whenever possible, and will go 1,2,3 or more miles out of my way to ride a more pleasant route. Better for me, and better for hotheaded drivers with no tolerance for cyclists.

I find I get more out of my commute when my anxiety level is lower.

Just a thought.

As for the potholes, sounds like a prime place to ride a beefy commuter.

Good luck!

RaleighSport

From what I remember of Ohio, Akron/Warren/Youngstown areas... you couldn't pay me to cycle around there.

thdave

Don't know what roads you're talking about, but in general, I disagree.

I was in downtown last night, riding around Cleveland State and Euclid and other streets. They are in pretty good shape, despite all the construction. Lots of cyclists out and about as the weather was great and the area is well lit. I live in Rocky River near the metroparks and they maintain the roads well.

I can see if you are road riding at high speeds that you'd have issues. But who does that in a city with stop lights all over the place? Get a bike with wider tires and slow down.

In my opinion, i see more cyclists now in Cleveland than anytime in the 30 years I've lived here.

EKW in DC

I thought Houston was hell...

As for bad roads, check out the Surly Moonlander. LOL

iforgotmename

I like and do ride in Cleveland often, maybe you are riding on the wrong streets. Where do you usually ride?

As far as the Browns go I have a brown bike with fenders that are striped orange, brown and white so I guess that I am biased.....

There are a lot of great rides around the city, check out Crankset Rides on Fbook and or Cleveland Critical Mass...good times.

nashcommguy

Is Cleveland Hell? No, but you can see it from there.

Btw, did you know the Indians were originally called the Spiders? I know, pretty ironic don't cha think?

Oh yeah, another thing. I grew up in Lake County and my GM lived on St Clair Ave. @ 78th St. The building's gone now, though.

Scheherezade 

When I visited downtown Cleveland, it seemed pretty fine for cycling; no one was there.

stonefree

Methinks Houston is the original hell for roads, cause everywhere else I've ever been was heaven, except Mexico. MTB urban assault vehicle is the preferred weapon, but I use both anyway.

sonatageek

This begs the question of where exactly do you live and where do you work? I know for myself, the choice of route made all the difference.

mnemia

Having ridden a bike in Cleveland a few times, I disagree. The traffic there was much less scary than many other places I've been, mainly because there's such an extensive gridded road system that spreads it out. I'd take a gridded older city for cycling any day over sprawling, ultra wide arterials like are common in the southern states.

You do have a point about the condition of the pavement, though. It IS quite bad some places there. But, as pointed out, easily solved with choice of tires and/or bike.

ShinyBiker

bike sighting in this one:

canyoneagle

OMG these are hilarious!
I love the guy's comments with the second video - "So I was really planning on buckling down and giving it my all this time, but there was a "Rock of Love" marathon on VH1 last night that I didn't want to miss, so I cranked this video out in even less time than the first one."

LOL

Seattle Forrest

Yes.

Kojak

This is the one I was looking for; Well played.

Andy_K 

Does anyone else remember back when Yakov Smirnoff used to do half his stand-up routine making fun of Cleveland? He said every country has a city they make fun of. In Russia, they make fun of Cleveland.

JoeBat3

As far as Cleveland goes, I greatly prefer the network of Metroparks in the immediate surrounding suburbs to actually riding in the city. A dedicated day of cycling can take you all throughout NE Ohio....Berea, Lakewood, Strongsville, Rocky River, North Olmstead etc. Also, check out the Canal Towpath, it runs from Cleveland then into Akron with the neat option of getting picked up by a locomotive and getting dropped back off at your starting point! I can ride 40 miles to Akron and get picked up by the train and have a nice relaxing ride back to my car. And since the weather has taken a turn for worse today(snow is expected tonight ) the roads/MUPs have been pretty empty throughout the park areas.

Commuting to school blows though. Just today a woman pulled up next to me at a red light after honking at me three times and said (completely seriously) "I really think you should ride on the other side of the road, it's much safer."

...

spidercyclist

It sounds like a lot of you don't live or know the roads of Cleveland. I was riding today and the roads are horrible, some potholes are over a foot deep. People don't respect riders in Cleveland-but as gas prices go up maybe more people will cycle -the tow path from Akron to Cleveland does rock-it is too bad there is no bike lane or bike path on my side of the city!!
Thanks-
The Spider