qmsdc15

1) Asphalt

2) Dirt

AdelaaR

I went for asphalt since I ride roads for about two thirds of the time, but a bit of offroad riding is allways fun too.

qmsdc15

I should have made a third choice for you, cobblestones.

no1mad 

I opted for asphalt, as most of my miles are on a paved MUP.

qmsdc15

I voted for dirt.

I'd rather find this guy in my way


than these guys

no1mad 

I'd take my chances with a head-on with another cyclist over running across these guys in the woods.

xoxoxoxoLive

But I am starting to like Road riding more and more.... Richard

Buzzbait

I prefer riding hard packed carriage trails and decently well kept skidder trails in the Adirondack mountains. But that is all hardtail mountain bike riding. My hybrid Sirrus Sport, which gets about 90% of my ride time, is strictly for asphalt. My local farm roads are in often in pretty lousy condition, but they are asphalt.

khutch

Don't know which way to vote. I do prefer to ride on the local and regional bike trails instead of roads. They aren't dirt though and they are often asphalt....

Ken

Norel

..

qmsdc15

Gray areas, I'd call dirt roads where cars are allowed to travel "off-road/dirt". Paved bike trails I'd put in the "on-road/paved" category. I know this makes no sense. I should have worded the thread title better.

nomad, I'm more worried about Lyme disease than oncoming bikers, but the deer scampered off. The vans, taxis, buses and cars were still there after I yielded to the salmon.

That is a beautiful painting. Is it your work?

acidrock23

I think I like the crushed limestone trails? There's a 5.5 mile loop about a couple paved, street miles from my house (https://www.dupageforest.com/Conserva...k_Prairie.html).

The crowd is pretty friendly and you can just ride laps if you want or hop back on the road and go to one of the other trails that aren't more than another mile or two away. I love to go early in the morning and hit a couple of trails and enjoy the streets before the cars come out. There are a couple of stretches of asphalt trails that are nice but the dirt/ wooded trails are shorter, narrower, more crowded w/ hikers and have a ton of gnarly roots, etc. I know that half the fun for people who like that but I like to cruise along as fast as I can and enjoy the buzz? I guess I'll pick 'asphalt' as between asphalt and dirt, I will risk traffic, etc. They are building a bridge over the river that will hook up w/ the neighboring town and expand the trail farther. I'm still not too familiar w/ there as the streets that way are a bit too crazy to bother with. Once the bridge and added trails are open, I am thinking it will be a blast?

Chilidawg

Ever had one of those deer jump in front of you on a ride? It's happened to me before..... I've also seen red fox, and sandhill cranes, hawks, bunnies, etc. Have yet to see a wolf, but bears are a possibility in these parts. Note that this is on asphalt and gravel roads, both part of my favorite loops. I sometimes with I had my old steel-framed road bike back, but it was a challenge on gravel.

Cheers!!

acidrock23

We did run into a group of 4 deer once, I am not sure who was more startled, us or them!! I've seen some egret/ heron type of birds and lots of other bunny type of creatures. No foxes. I did see a pretty large coyote by our house once but was driving instead of biking. MrsAcidRock's uncle hunted bears, deer, unk what else in the UP. I would not want to run into one of those on a bike either, I'd think "do I vaguely recall grizzly bears run as fast as horses? But how fast to horses run? 16.8 AVG speed seems pretty speedy while I was doing it but I bet horses are faster. So is that bear faster than I am....?"

khutch

From Wikipedia (so you know it has to be true) "In spite of their massive size, these bears can run at speeds of up to 55 kilometres per hour (34 mph). However, they are slower running downhill than uphill because of the large hump of muscle over the shoulders." Most of us could not literally outrun them on a bike except on a downgrade. However you stand a much better chance on a bike than on foot since all you really need to do is convince the bear that further pursuit is not worth the effort. Almost anyone can double their running speed by riding a bike and that might be enough. In some cases....

I'd be less concerned about wolves, I don't think they typically bother humans. Bears will and brown/grizzly/polar bears are particularly likely to. In spite of that I don't think that bear attacks are common though they are very likely to be fatal when they occur. The biggest predators by me are black bears and coyotes. Black bears are fairly human shy as long as you don't mess with their young and I don't believe song dogs will bother an adult human at all. They have taught my dogs to howl at emergency sirens though!

The OP has defined bike trail riding as asphalt, so that is how I voted even though they are as often crushed limestone or decomposed granite in the rural regions near me. Certainly in the immediate Chicago area they are mostly asphalt.

Ken

smurfy

I used to enjoy riding off-road (I guess what you would call "mountain biking") but sadly I had to give it up due to age (I just don't have the balance and coordination I used to have) and having terrible knee problems. From now on I'll just have to stick to the road.

irclean

Looks like a Robert Bateman print to me.

AdelaaR

I vote strongly against cobblestones!
But my motto in life is:
"why make it easy if you can make it difficult?"
... and so I end up on cobblestones

qmsdc15

Find something hardm make it harder. then make it look easy. I Saw on an inspirational poster from K2 Telemark

posted from the other side of the digital divide. See y'all when I get back!

qmsdc15

Period after Telemark followed by capital P. My internet is broken. Posted from ther darkside.