Last Best Place
 

Where is the last best place for road cycling?

Some definitions are needed:
1. "best place": Define it yourself. For me, in order of import, it would be a road with:
a. Light traffic.
b. Bike friendly traffic.
c. Decent pavement. Short and firm sections of gravel/dirt would be OK.
d. Road features; i.e., some curves and hills, not just a straight, flat line through the desert.
e. Scenery.
f. Reasonable weather.
2. "last": Since I suspect nobody will give away the secret of a place that actually exists today, for fear we will all move there and ruin it, I am naming my place from the past.

I lived in Lancaster County PA in the 1980's, in the heart of Amish country and could ride out of my garage, turn right in about 50 yards, and within a quarter mile be on a small country road lined with Amish farms. Traffic was very light, and I could often go for 15 miles and only be passed by a small handful of cars. Covered wood bridges and horse and buggy traffic were common. For more mileage than 15, I had to endure a short stretch of road for less than a mile that had normal traffic but back then, and back there, normal traffic was something I would love to find today.

If you do know a great place that exists today, I think you can be safe in revealing it. I am sure we will all promise to keep it secret.

Central Portugal. Almost all the population is on the coast. So inland there are very few people, hence no traffic. Very scenic, variety of HC climbs, rolling terrain. Good weather.

I live in my personal "last best places". Being snowbirds we winter in Southern AZ in a retirement community with 5 - 8 foot bike lanes. We summer in the Bighorn Mtn foothills where the few car/trucks on the road are super courteous. Most all the vehicles pull out fully in the oncoming lane when passing and I have had vehicles I am watching coming up behind me and there is a vehicle coming toward me slow down so as to not have both vehicles get to me at the same time. This then allows the vehicle coming up on me to be able to pass entirely in the oncoming lane, giving me 10' of clearance. I wonder if they sometimes think of a cyclist as if it were a deer that could bolt in some random direction at any moment.

Granted, my experience is limited.

But the NC/TN mountains, blue ridge parkway and Skyline drive are pretty awesome.

Are they not crowded roads?

I think that one of the personal considerations needs to be ‘what’s the general distance of most of your rides.’ If your rides are usually in the neighborhood of 10-15 miles two or three times a week…then for you, the area doesn’t need so many miles of good places to ride. But if you’re going 50-70 miles four or five times a week…then you need more roads for good places to ride.

I live in Rhode Island, on Aquidneck Island in Narragansett Bay. It’s a 15 mile x 4 mile (about 38 sq miles) island. It isn’t overly populated (yet), and has some good rural and suburban roads with very light traffic, and bike lanes. Generally my rides are in the neighborhood of 20-40 miles. If I want to go a bit farther, say 50+ miles…I can do a complete loop of the island. There are three bridges off the island. Bikes aren’t allowed on one. Another allows bikes, but without a bike lane it’s dicey. The third has a bike lane, and provides access to southeastern New England. It’s very bucolic, and there are some awesome roads to ride on out there. When I want to do a ride off-island that’s usually where I head to.

Keeping places secret can be difficult if you’re using the likes of Strava, MMR, or other fitness tracker. The neighborhood I live in was essentially a cul-de-sac until about 7-8 years ago. One of the island’s best areas to ride in was just a mile away across some farm/nursery fields. But to get there on a road bike (safely) required a ride of about 20 miles. Then, a portion of one of the fields was developed for residential use. They put in a side-street connecting my neighborhood, and the good area for riding. At the time, I wasn’t using Strava yet. And, I never saw other cyclists on my street heading over to use the new connecting street. That lasted about a year-and-a-half. I began using Strava. And me using that new street showed up on the Strava heatmap. In time I began seeing more and more cyclists on my street. I think I was the catalyst for that. One or two a week at first. But now it’s a regular bike thoroughfare. Multiple riders passing daily. It’s a good thing though. The new neighborhood on the new street is a gated community. Bikes have to go into the weeds to get around the gates. The regular passage of bikes keeps the weeds down.

Dan

Doesn't exist near me.
if going out of the way, a long weekend up in norther Michigan near Calcite is nice.

Once one gets away from the beach areas, Sussex County, DE. Most roads are in very good shape. If outside of a town/city, the traffic is light, no climbing, park areas and paths can be accessed. The wind does get to blowing pretty hard quite often, and summer temps and humidity can be extreme. Riding early morning in the summer, one can minimize the effects of those issues. Also summer early mornings, at the beach, traffic of all kinds is very light, and boardwalks are open to bikes until 10:00am. From first light to around 9:00am., beach area rides are very scenic.

There used to be a yearly bike festival in Paso Robles. My favorite area to ride. Wish I lived there.

About a 4 to 6 hour drive northeast of Los Angeles is the Eastern Sierra with climbs and scenery that would rival anywhere in the world.
I'm looking forward to my next trip.
Sample Rock Creek courtesy of PJAMM:

we have a second home in Asheville NC. I ride on the parkway fairly regularly, nd have done the full length of the BRP and Skyline Drive. The scenery, and terrain are great; the road surface very good in most places.

As for Traffic, it depends. The Asheville corridor can be busy, particularly around 5pm, with people using it commute around town. North and South of Asheville, there’s much less traffic.

it also depends on time of day, and season. Weekend afternoons during leaf season it can be quite busy.

when I did the full length of the BRP skyline drive it was late August early September, after summer vacations and before leaf season. There was very little traffic, particularly on weekdays and away from the few towns. One day I saw 3 cars before lunch.

I rode on the Parkway this morning on a less than great weather day for sightseeing, and had very little traffic.

So get out early, void the few towns, and try to ride weekdays out of peak season and you’ll see very little traffic.

And even when it’s busy, the speed limit is between 35 and 45mph, there are no commercial vehicles, and most drivers are not in a hurry to get somewhere and are respectful.

Personally, I try to stay off the section between Town Mountain, and Biltmore Forest around Asheville at peak commuting times, otherwise, I don’t find cars to be a problem.

Also if you’re traffic adverse, there are lots of options in WNC with less traffic than the BRP, they just are a bit of work to find and piece together loops.

and the riding off the BRP is often much more challenging than the Parkway itself.

Did the Everest Challnge bike race a couple of times in that area. Amazing scenery, at least what I saw for the bit of time I didn’t have my head buried suffering.

https://www.tourofcalifornia.org/200...challenge.html

Yaak River Road (NF-92) in NW Montana. Then north and east back to “civilization” at MT 37 jsouth of Eureka. Make sure you stop to see Yaak River Falls, and keep your eyes open for elk, grizzlies, black bears and lions. I’ve toured through there twice. Wonderful.

Santa Barbara was pretty sweet when I lived there (shortly). Interned during undergrad at the Materials Research Lab and lived in Goleta for 10 weeks during the summer of '09 (I think). I may have spent as much time riding all over the county as I did helping my grad student in the lab :D

South Korea

Truly?

Any details you can share?

I enjoy climbing up the UNESCO world heritage rainforest covered remnants of ancient volcanoes here on the East coast of Australia, there are some sections where the windy road through the lush foliage paired with the otherworldly sounds of the forest seems like a dream. Roads are mostly well maintained or new. Then there is the subtropical climate this is all set in. I would be an idiot to complain.

Skyline drive is a national park, have to pay to enter. No commercial traffic, no commuters. The single best road surface I've ever ridden on. The climbs are long and steady at 6-7%, the descents are smooth and fast with sweeping turns. I've only ridden in the off season, early weekday mornings - hardly any traffic. It gets very busy with leaf peepers in the fall. Most of the people going up there are sightseers, hikers, campers - no soccer moms or angry commuters. Tons of cyclists... No huge elevation gains, no real steep sections - just nice steady climbs for the average Joe.

I've only ridden the BRP once, from Marion up to Mt Mitchell. Rt 80 to the BRP, then to the Mt Mitchell access road. Again, offseason - weekday Morning. Rt 80 is an awesome road. Great surfaces, switchbacks, some 10%+ sections, great scenery - I was passed 3 times up the ascent to the BRP. The BRP road surface was rougher, but traffic was limited. Steady climbs of 8-9% with some sweeping descents. The Mt Mitchell access road only goes to the peak, so traffic is limited.

Bald Head Island south of Wilmington. Accessable only by ferry, no cars allowed on the 6 sq. mi. island with paved paths for golf carts, walkers & cyclists.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b30430d3b6.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d5d7e79dfd.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d71c08a6b8.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5fcb1598ff.jpg

For everyday group rides at home, we're lucky to have smooth country roads right next to an industrial airport complex where we park, hop on bikes and ride crossing only 1 moderatly busy road. Drivers also give us good space and wait for passing opportunities when there's an oncoming vehicle. We ride 2 abreast and because traffic is always light we don't get yelled at.....basically treated like a farm tractor.

EDIT: our group is usually 12 or less, I'm sure we'd hear some horns if we had a large group

Mallorca was pretty awesome for cycling. Seems like everywhere there catered to cyclists and the drivers were, in my experience, we friendly and thoughtful to riders. The routes were fun and of varying lengths/levels and overall I felt the island was pretty affordable. The worst part was just getting there, for me anyway.

I nominate the Cactus Forest Loop Drive at Saguaro National Park East, in Tucson, Arizona as the best ride on planet Earth. For me, it is a time capsule, almost unchanged from the early '70s.

Of course, there are a lot of rides I haven't done, and I admit to bias. But seriously, if you're cycling in Tucson, this is a must.

This video is more watchable than most, and the music ain't bad, either.