shona

The main reason my husband and I want to spend about a week in Eugene, Oregon in August is to road cycle the beautiful countryside. We also want to enjoy the happenings in Eugene. We will bring our bikes. We will either stay in a hotel or rent something through VRBO. We want to be able to ride from where we are staying and get in some 40-60 mile rides. In what part of town/area/neighborhood should we stay to accomplish our goals? We don't know Eugene - never been there. Thanks everyone.

Slackerprince

Long Tom probably has the best advice for you.
I'm very familiar with the area having been to Dead Shows at Autzen and to Further Fest at Veneta.
Also, some swimming in the McKenzie, but it's cold with a rapid flow.
Cool vibe down there. Granola/hippy situation with lots of cool people and great forests closeby.
I lived in Portland and visited many times, and it's a great place to spend the summer, but don't forget about the GREAT Indian Summer season there. Makes the cold and rainy fall and winter tolerable.
Enjoy.

S

Long Tom

Yeah... PM me if you want some great rural routes around here, Shona. I live out west of town and am quite familiar with that part of the area. In general, I'd say think west and southwest of Eug for pastoral rides with some hills (or LOTS of hills, if you want that, I can hook you up!)... heading east out of Eug is up into the Cascades, and I'm not real familiar with that, at least on a bike.

Where to stay.... hmmm... are you thinking hotel, B&B, or...? Well, regardless, the general lay of the land is that the downtown and university areas, as well as Whitacre, are the scenic areas with lots of great old homes, big trees, etc. It's quite flat also. West Eugene is an example of urban sprawl and isn't very pleasant. North Eugene ranges from fairly generic to pretty ratty. So if you want to be staying in "Eugene", then a hotel on Franklin near the U of O, or in the downtown area puts your right in the middle of the good stuff.

Now from THERE, you've got a bit of a ride to get out to the neat rural rides, say 5-12 miles before you are really there. If you want your base to be in the rural areas, look for a B&B or something out south/southwest and west of town. Try the wineries... or something in the Veneta area.

I have some really neat specific routes I can pass along, depending on what you are after. A priority for me is rural roads that don't have a lot of traffic, or if they DO, they have a big shoulder. I bet you'd love the ride I did Satuday... look at leaving from Monroe, riding up and over the Alsea Falls road to the town of Alsea, then back. Right at 50 miles and just gorgeous stuff.

BCarFree is in this area and seems very knowledgeable about rides in the area- maybe he'll chime in.

dtrain

Shifty is a great resource as well.

Machka 

There's a thread in Touring about that part of the world.

https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/94...-np-route.html

B. Carfree

She put a thread up in PNW that I responded to. Like you Long Tom, I ride mostly west of Eugene. I'm a lifelong Coast Range addict, first in CA and now in OR, so that's where I mostly roll.

That said, considering her parameters (prefers to ride out the door without driving, 40-60 mile rides, something pleasant and pretty but with a Texan's thick-skinned tolerance of those few jerks we share our roads with), maybe Shona would enjoy taking the morning LTD bus to McKenzie Bridge, riding over McKenzie Pass (hwy 242) to Sisters and then returning to McKenzie Bridge to catch the bus back to Eugene in the late afternoon. It's a pretty ride, traffic is low and there's plenty of places to refuel in Sisters. She can also explore the Aufderheide and check out the hot springs up there.

Your Alsea ride should definitely be on her list. It's a pity all the really awesome stuff is just a bit out of range for someone who wants to keep the rides under 100 km. I guess she may just have to drive to a few rides while she's here, at least if she wants to have the most fun.

In the PNW thread, Shona mentioned being a slow rider with a faster riding partner (husband). I wonder if Co-Motion would rent/loan out a tandem to prospective customers so she could see how much more fun it is for mismatched riding partners to ride twogether. If not, maybe I can do something with my spare tandem for them, if she's interested. A word of warning to her husband: Before my wife and I started riding tandems, when we rode together she got worn out and I didn't get a workout. Once we got a tandem, I was the one who found the bottom of my energy well on a regular basis.

Now, where's Shifty? I know he'll have several high quality recommendations.

shona

First of all, NO TANDEMS! I do appreciate your generous offer to loan us your spare, however. My husband would love you for recommending a tandem. We borrowed one for a while and I hated it. I felt like I was riding a stationary bike (I was on the back).
We are not married to the idea of staying in Eugene. We want to have access to decent restaurants but if there is somewhere else you recommend we stay for good riding please let me know. Otherwise, from what I am hearing from all of you, the good riding is a few miles out of town so we would probably need to drive west with our bikes to begin our rides.