beatlebee 

I was riding up Oracle on the NW side of Tucson on Saturday.

edit: Tucson FTW BTW

hamster

Ha ha. I moved out here because it was relatively cheap compared to the rest of the city. (As in, large house on 1 acre for the price of an attached condo closer to the coast.)

The only downside (I mentioned this before) is that the local cycling community is nonexistent. The few cyclists one sees around are almost invariably from out of town. Ironic, I know.

c0urt

not where ever you need to ride with a handgun in your jeresy pocket

Machka 

Tucson has an ocean?

Phoenix (or Glendale) seemed very clean, neat, tidy, and well laid out.

Machka 

Anywhere near the Saguaro National Park? Rowan and I drove through that area and saw several cyclists.

beatlebee 

Nope, but on any given weekend there are thousands of cyclists out riding. It is mecca. (shhhhh)

Gordy748

On what alternate world was that?

I'll vote for Seattle, specifically Redmond. Here there's a velodrome, lots of CX and road paths, and tarmacked hills a-plenty. All within 30 minutes of my house. And the rain is great because it keeps the lesser willed folk off my roads.

pepox369

Where in holland are u? It's nice to hear a fellow BF member that lives here..

Number400

South Central Pennsylvania makes some pretty strong riders.

- We have lots of rollers, not many huge climbs but they can be found.

- Good racing heritage. Velodrome.

- If you can deal with the seasons, then you can ride all year unless big snow. They do use "cinders" on the road though and that sucks.

- The average automobile and truck driver is polite and bicycles are not automatically hated.

Weatherwise, I think Chattanooga would be really nice year round but in my experience riding there, the drivers had no idea what to do with a cyclist on the road.

Cactuskid

YOu all need to discover the "eastside" of Phoenix valley, more bike lanes, some hills on the outskirts, lot of clubs to ride with, bikelanes on Quality tar mean great riding...Tuscon overrated, flat INducing crappy roads in need of new tar, other than Tour de tucson, I do not see much riding there, well ok I want to do MT Lemon someday

beatlebee 

@cactuskid: you dig on Tucson and you haven’t ridden Lemmon???
How about the Shootout? 50 year trail? Fantasy Island? Rt. 77?
Madera Canyon? etc, etc. etc.
Claiming over-rated without real knowledge is well, the definition of ignorance.

Machka 

It's in a grid system ... very easy to get around.

Drew Eckhardt 

I tried both Seattle and the East Side (of Lake Washington; meaning Redmond, Kirkland, and less noted places. Bad weather can mean it takes a few hours to get across the lake, it's not nice when people are commuting, and the two need to be viewed as geographically distinct areas).

No state income tax and low property taxes were nice, the live music was good in Seattle, the restaurants were decent, it was impossible to get speeding tickets because traffic did not move fast enough, although otherwise both were rotten.

There were a couple of nice months in the summer but otherwise it was generally grey and often raining. While thermometer readings were reasonable in the winter, it was a humid cold which felt 10-20 degrees cooler than in Colorado.

People were understandably meaner than other places with similar population densities but better weather.

Colorado has better traffic and weather even around Boulder.

Riding at night in places with dry Mediterranean climates yields even lower traffic without leaving you soaked from rain or sweat inside clothes which keep the rain out.

The Lake Washington area is nice for people coming from the North East who are used to humid overcast weather and are happier when the precipitation is neither snow nor freezing rain. Immigrants from the rest of the country often leave (I know a moving company owner that does very well moving people in then out again). Natives just don't know any better - I liked Missouri (officially the Show Me State, although after the fact I'd say "Not as bad as Kansas" is more fitting) fine until I moved elsewhere and realized it was a good place to be from (although I don't think it was as bad as Washington State).

I cut my compensation package over $50K annually moving from Seattle to Silicon Valley. Housing costs are can be twice as high here for the same property/time to work (I bought myself a nice double wide trailer instead). My marginal income tax rate is 9.3% not 0%. It was COMPLETELY and ENTIRELY worthwhile.

If you're willing to live in a cesspool for lower costs go someplace really inexpensive like the Midwest where the weather isn't so wet and people are friendlier.

Drew Eckhardt 

When I lived in Boulder, Colorado I had plains and mountains (2000 feet up over five miles of road) within 3 _miles_ of my house. With no stop signs or traffic lights for east (plains) / west (mountains) travel (the Boulder Creek path goes under roads).

30 minutes to get someplace fun and an hour round trip is pretty bad.

danielrbaer

I think Northwestern S.C. (Greenville) and Southeastern T.N. (chattanooga) are really nice parts of the country for cycling. They have a nice variety of terrain with the benefit of pretty mild winters.

Fox Farm

Yes, a bit south of Florence would be great. Even into Umbria.

caloso

Si!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castiglion_Fiorentino

hdeyong

I live in Ontario for a couple of months during the summer, but have long since spent my last winter there. The rest of the year, I live in south-eastern France. Biking is year-round, there are major league hills, very good roads that aren't too busy, and the cars you share them with are driven by people who are used to, and have respect for, bicyclists. A lot of them probably ride themselves, it's extremely popular. There aren't any actual bike trails, but there are fire roads cut through the forests, which the public are encouraged to use for hiking or biking. The closest fair sized town is about 25 km away, Italy is about 100 km, Spain about 220, Switzerland about 200. There are daily ferries going to Corsica, which is popular for cycling. Good food and wine, and an incredible medical system. It's not cheap, but nothing like NYC, SF, Vancouver, etc.

cactuss

I agree with the hills, gotta have hills, gentle, or moderate, but don't care for hills that I have to stand on my pedals to conquer! Low traffic is a must too. Wide bike lanes on most city streets and country roads too.

HBxRider

My road bike is a Marin. The company is based in Marin county, near San Francisco. Looks like a great place to ride. Someday i'd love to cycle in Holland. Eventually ill get to check out Portland, and Japan. But where I live (orange county, ca) is pretty good.

Spiduhman

Not here!

...ah-hahahahaha

smoke

denver

Seattle Forrest

Redmond isn't part of Seattle.

MNX1024

If it's not already mentioned, I'd say Fort Lee, New Jersey. You're literally a bridge away from NYC and you can literally start riding from home. Most popular(local) cycling route is also literally next door and a huge cycling community is there too. Only con is that there's no extremely steep hills(>13%) in the vicinity, but they're steep and long enough to be challenging. There are hills with portions that have > 13% grade, but it's short.

ct-vt-trekker

I just found this thread. One thing nobody mentions much is how tax friendly each state is for retirement. California is mentioned more than any other state but it can't be cost effective for retirement can it? My wife and I are looking for a retirement area with very rural roads with little to no traffic, country living but within 1-2 hours of a city/hospital, and a somewhat tax friendly state that isn't in the south. We've traveled extensively and ridden our bikes in well over 20 states and most Canadian provinces. Our shortlist right now is Pennsylvania(our current favorite state for cycling) and New Hampshire (coastal region). Most western or southwestern states in rural areas we've ridden just don't have the number of cycling routes we're used to. Currently in south central CT where we live we can ride out our door and pick dozens of different routes mostly on town roads with very little traffic. I rode at lunchtime the other day , 24 miles and only 19 cars passed me on the ride, most of them in the first mile. I can't imagine moving to an area that has just a few different routes due to the lack of roads. Any other areas meet these criteria? We've ridden a bunch in Colorado but the mountain areas only have a few state roads, we' got to get Boulder for a week or so with our bikes.