How far do you drive to your starting point?
#77
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Driving to a bike ride is like trying to lose weight by eating the kids meal at McDonald's: Will it work? Yes, but it's still a dumb idea. When you want to ride, ride; otherwise just stay home. Unless you are attending an organized ride at a distant location that starts at dawn, there is no excuse.
Yan's comment is indeed silly.
I also enjoy driving to various locations to cycle from there.
This past weekend, for example, Rowan and I drove to a small town in northern Tasmania where we stayed for the weekend. We spent both Saturday and Sunday cycling in flat terrain (rather than our usual hilly terrain) on our tandem. We're more comfortable riding flat terrain on our tandem.
The weather was gorgeous -- sunny with highs of about 25C ... as compared with where we live which was cloudy all weekend and reached a high of 15C.
And we enjoyed being able to ride our tandem ... for the first time in about 15 months!!

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Last edited by Machka; 12-02-14 at 02:26 AM.
#78
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I drive (or take the chartered bus) to Cycle Oregon. Some years another occasion happens that I drive to. Last year I rode 15 miles to a century. 135 mile day. Days I don't drive are better days.
Ben
Ben
#79
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I generally don't drive to go for a road biking trip. Everything starts and ends from my door.
Mountain biking is another problem altogether. I'm not riding 30 miles on roads with my mountain bike just to ride another 30 miles on the trail, then 30 miles back home...
Mountain biking is another problem altogether. I'm not riding 30 miles on roads with my mountain bike just to ride another 30 miles on the trail, then 30 miles back home...
#80
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Rides or races? Rides- the garage, Races- sometimes 5 hours or more of driving. There's one annual race in Nevada that's a two day drive.
#81
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The whole reason I started long distance riding was to explore new areas without spending money on gas. Now I am running out of new places to explore. I can do 100 mile round trips, but after the 70 mile mark the joy of riding quickly diminishes. Some days I want to ride to a new place, but I don't want to spend 8+ hours on a bike to get there so I will drive there. As of now my limit is about 100 miles round trip to drive, but there would have to be something special about the location for me to justify the cost. If I had the money to spare I would drive and ride all the time.
Just to humor zephyr_gnome, takes me 33 steps from the basement to the edge of my driveway and then I'm off.
Just to humor zephyr_gnome, takes me 33 steps from the basement to the edge of my driveway and then I'm off.
#82
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The only rides that don't start from home are mountain bike trail rides since none of the trails are close (one 20km and the other 80km away). Now and then I ride to the one 20 km away (gravel roads the entire way), but it limits my time on the trail plus the bike is heavier / less fun with water and food for the trails + return trip.
I ride 17km to the starting point of my 200 and 300km brevets and another 6km home from the end point. If the start and end point was in the same place I might consider driving now and then.
A lot of the group rides I go on are quite slow, so I use the ride to and from them as a chance to pick up the pace.
I ride 17km to the starting point of my 200 and 300km brevets and another 6km home from the end point. If the start and end point was in the same place I might consider driving now and then.
A lot of the group rides I go on are quite slow, so I use the ride to and from them as a chance to pick up the pace.
#83
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Any organized ride within a 20 mile start of my house, I ride to.
Anything farther than that, I have 2 options:
1. Ride the day before
2. Drive
Last year I did a 70 mile ride to get to a 100 mile (bailed out of the 125 mile route) ride the next day. It didn't go well, but it was related to nutrition in the days leading up to my ride.
I've not come up with a ride I want to do enough to drive 100's of miles to get to the start. I almost did it at the BicycleMan ride this year, but decided the associated costs weren't worth it.. plus the fact that I'd just gotten a new recumbent I was getting comfortable with. I may make the 300 mile drive next year. But that's not about the ride, but about participating in an event with a bunch of recumbents.
Anything farther than that, I have 2 options:
1. Ride the day before
2. Drive
Last year I did a 70 mile ride to get to a 100 mile (bailed out of the 125 mile route) ride the next day. It didn't go well, but it was related to nutrition in the days leading up to my ride.
I've not come up with a ride I want to do enough to drive 100's of miles to get to the start. I almost did it at the BicycleMan ride this year, but decided the associated costs weren't worth it.. plus the fact that I'd just gotten a new recumbent I was getting comfortable with. I may make the 300 mile drive next year. But that's not about the ride, but about participating in an event with a bunch of recumbents.
#84
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I spend a lot of my time looking at maps. They are wonderful ways of exploring your area. Unless you live in a place where the road network isn't very dense, a map is your key to an interesting ride. My first trip to France was instructive.The network of secondary roads there was so dense that you could spend weeks riding from the same place without repeating rides.Bt that isn't always the point. At home, we now the roads. We know which roads are good for riding. We know where there is less traffic, we know where there are fewer potholes. The point is: get to know the roads where you live,you can have so much more fun cycling if you know what to expect from experience on the roads around you
#85
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I almost never drive to a ride. Luckily I have tons of tons of bike trials and paths within minutes from the house. The last ride I did several other riders drove from as far as an hour away just to ride the paths I have outside my door.
Wow I really need to get out and ride more!
Wow I really need to get out and ride more!
#86
Bike rider
I bike from my place 1.3 miles to the head of the guadalupe trail then take it 25-33 mile loop, or ride to my parents house that is 50 mile loop.
#87
Philosopher of Bicycling
Biking in any direction from my house is 5 miles of suicide, so my training rides begin with a 15 mile drive into the country where I park and pedal the lesser trafficked roads in this county and those north and east. To make it worthwhile, my training rides are getting longer and longer, 40 miles or more these days.
#88
a77impala
Unless I am going to a group meet up I ride from the house, which is daily. Meet ups once or twice a week, one of which I ride to start point.
#89
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I either drive 15-20 minutes to one sport and then ride 35 miles or not drive and ride a few miles to the 202 parkway trail and do the 8 mile trail up and back and then ride home from there. The latter ends up being about a 20-25 mile trek.
#90
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One of my club's starting points is about 5 miles from my house. Abut half my rides start there, and I ride there when I can. Riding home is a pleasant cool-down. For club rides that start farther afield, I tend to drive. While I like to bike, it's social as well as a workout, and it's not my entire life. Driving to and from a ride makes time for chores and doing things with my wife.
#91
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Due to a frightening two-lane stretch of the Trans Canada Highway, a military base, a nuclear waste dump, and a provincial park, my town is isolated from all but one 50 km out-and-back road ride. I dislike driving to go riding, however, so have started doing 'gravel road' riding, although most of that is actually snowmobile trails. A few times per summer I drive 30 minutes each way to do a group mtb ride two towns over, and I occaisionally use trips to the city as an opportunity to put in some road miles. But most of my riding is 'gravel road' riding on my touring bike, or mtb rides on the xc ski trails.
#92
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25 miles to the Silver Comet Trail yesterday, which was the first time I have driven to any ride other than a Tour de Cure a couple of years ago. It seemed like too much in my opinion, but not unreasonably so.
I live next to 8 miles of Greenway though so I can get out and ride with no traffic any time. I'd probably drive 8-10 miles to ride here otherwise, or more than that to get out of town..
I live next to 8 miles of Greenway though so I can get out and ride with no traffic any time. I'd probably drive 8-10 miles to ride here otherwise, or more than that to get out of town..
#93
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I just saddle up and ride right from my curb. Our area is a treat of scenery, hills and lakes many which have influenced the building of our roads many decades ago. Excellent riding surfaces on most routes.