ryder10

Hey roadies, I'm working on a research project that analyzes the road riding culture of different regions in the US and need your help! I'd like to know specific 'cyclist cities' in the US. Keep in mind I'm not really interested in commuter/MTB, but rather Road Cycling.

If you live in California, where I know there are a ton of road riders, which cities and communities do you see having a ton of road riders?

I've heard New York is quite popular too, could anyone give me specific cities so I could do further research?

And of course, the rest of the US... ie: I know Minneapolis, Portland and Seattle are all known to be some of the most 'cyclist friendly cities' in the US, but are they road cyclist friendly as well?

Any input much appreciated!

TrojanHorse

Look into Irvine and Long Beach in CA.

Plenty of racing teams winter in San Luis Obispo and the surrounding areas.

I have no idea about northern California.

dstrong 

Austin. Generally considered cycling friendly but we lost one this past weekend to an 85 y.o. driver who wandered onto the shoulder.

DeadheadSF

Lots and lots of roadies in the South Bay. I live in Sunnyvale, and pretty much everywhere within the neighboring cities here, road cycling is very popular - lots of bike-friendly roads and plenty of hills for those who can handle them (unlike me). Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Mountain View, etc... all the way up the peninsula.

johnny99

All cities in California have lots of road bicyclists. However, the culture is a lot different from city to city. You really need to visit the individual cities to appreciate the differences.

And while there are obvious differences between road cyclists and mountain bikers, trying to exclude commuters from road cyclists doesn't make much sense. They both bicycle on the roads, right? Or are you talking about racers only?

bitingduck

There are even many different subgroups of road cyclists in any particular city. LA has race-oriented groups, short and long distance recreational groups, and night riders (the MR riders aren't all fixie riding hipsters-- a lot of them wear lycra and have shifters). And probably more. And as you say, excluding commuters doesn't make a lot of sense-- I ride on the roads for a lot of different reasons, including commuting.

calamarichris

Portland and San Luis Obispo are two of my favorite bikin' towns. And both are full of enthusiasts, and are generally more accepting of cyclists.
Portland's infrastructure was established before the advent of the automobile. And it turns out a horse-n-buggy-centric infrastructure also works out pretty well for the bicycle.

LA on the other hand makes me feel like a naked infantryman in the middle of a tank battle. San Diego area isn't as bad as LA, but we're still very much a automobile-centered society.


Interesting phenomenon though that the more persecuted or neglected a group feels, the more likely they are to band together. Seems like there is a pretty tight comradery in NYC, LA and other places where car is king.

ravenmore

Colorado has a lot of cycling friendly towns. I was blown away at the cycling friendly infrastructure in Ft. Collins.

Hiro11

There's a ton of road cyclists here in the Chicago burbs. It's pretty far from "road cycling friendly" though. I'm always surprised that there are so many cyclists in a place that isn't really geared towards cycling. At all.

Seattle Forrest

You're asking at least two questions: where do a lot of people ride bikes, and which places are friendly toward people on bikes?

If I was doing a research project to answer the first question (what cities are unusually popular or well represented for cycling), I would write a 'bot to scrape Garmin Connect, Strava, MapMyRide, and sites like that. Instead of doing a poll, where only people on this site will answer , and out of everyone who reads the road forum, only the ones who feel like talking about their communities, I'd want all the data, and let the computer sort it out.

That won't tell you much about the culture part of the question. But it'd be a really interesting map.

nickp08

a lot of people ride in NYC, but not as "roadies" as you're defining it. in this city, biking is just a super practical way to get around since so few people own cars. so while i ride for pleasure and fitness primarily, since selling my car cycling is a pretty practical thing for me as well... i ride to the gym, the supermarket, etc. i find this is the case for most people... the proportion of team-jersey clad people riding $5k+ bikes is pretty small (except on the west side highway or at big events like the 5 borough bike tour), but the number of people riding is huge.

as much as i love my bike, i've been tossing around the idea of buying a singlespeed as my daily ride since the city is pretty flat and it would cost significantly less than my road bike, which would make me feel less guilty when trashing it in the city streets (and should it ever get stolen), not to mention how much easier it would be to maintain.

AlphaDogg

Denver, CO's not bad. There are bike-specific and MUP's all over, wide shoulders (most of the time), but you'll seldom see a bike lane. Boulder is fantastic in the aspect that it has countless bike specific paths and bike lanes. It also helps that Boulder is full of hippies and hipsters.

ryder10

Care to elaborate? Which cities do you think most road cyclists are located? It'd be better if you could tell me which cities they live in, although most roadies probably don't ride in their hometowns. Still, would be good info!

Dan333SP

There are lots of transplanted road riders from Latin America living in Miami, and they congregate every weekend morning on Key Biscayne. Probably ~500 road riders at a time doing laps of the Key on a nice Sunday, because it's the only safe place in the whole city to ride. I don't know how that compares to other cities, but it seemed like a lot while I lived there.

thenomad

Seriously?

DeadheadSF

I lived in Elmhurst for a while - a quiet town, but the most bike-friendly thing in that whole area is the Illinois Prairie Path (and that crushed limestone is not very friendly to gears, chains, etc...)

Seattle Forrest

Fresno. They live in Fresno.

dalava

So when is the paper due? And how many credits?

caloso

Sactown represent!

I still don't understand the rest of the question, though. Almost every roadie I know also commutes, runs errands, or owns a MTB or CX bike. This is a 7 days a week bike riding town.

rearviewbeer

From Portland to Eugene, there seems to be a pretty big cycling community across all types. Road cycling seems pretty big here as well, we even have "share the road" plates here in OR (I am guilty of having one of these as well), and I see "share the road" signs on may of the more rural roads that I ride on out west of Portland. For the city of Portland, I am not as aware of the road cycling, but the commuting thing is HUGE!

I have a house outside of Eugene as well, and when the sun is out, there are road cyclists out everywhere, like rats sometimes. Not a huge overall population down there, but seems to be a high percentage of road cyclists.

beeballman

Clermont Florida / West of Orlando. You can always find road cyclists and Tri-Athletes all over the road every weekend. Some Tri -Training centers in the area as well.

fstshrk

Stanford, Palo Alto, Portola Valley, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Los Altos, Sunnyvale and San Jose all have tons of roadies.

Carbon Unit

I am a board member for the Bicycle Club of Irvine (California). Our club has 500 members and the Orange County Wheelmen (also in Irvine) is approximately the same size. Every Saturday there is at least 100 BCI riders leaving Deerfield Park for a ride. There is also the Orange County Rebel Riders and dozens of bike shops that have their own organized rides. On any Saturday or Sunday, you will see hundreds of cyclist riding in Irvine and the surrounding area.

bsektzer

Danville and Walnut Creek too. Mount Diablo is a roadie magnet...