ollyisk

theoretically i'll be moving to kansas city in about two weeks, three at the latest. i was just wondering how the city is for biking, will people run me over? are there any bike shops i should check out? i've heard that there's a KC critical mass, how often is that? when's the next one? also, i've heard that certain parts of downtown are pretty sketchy (as in crack heads abroad), what areas should i watch out for?

thanks greatly

crushkilldstroy

haha funny. i just moved out of kansas city last week. it's an easy town to ride in, as long as you don't mind a hill or two. check out acme bicycle company at 18th and locust (maybe 19th, you'll find it.) while you're at it, check out grinder's across the street. killer sandwiches and great pizza by the slice. move to midtown, not downtown. get a place west of broadway, but make sure to stay on the missouri side. do not by any means move east of troost. you will die. kc critical mass only really happens while the art institute is in session, and i mostly avoided it because i've never really liked the idea of it anyways. be nice to the crackheads and enjoy your cheap rent.

SugarPILL

I live there (here) now...

Its not so bad for biking, most of the people around support the scene. Especially in the last 3 years i have been here. (moved from Brooklyn) Not many people yell a cyclists here (except during crit mass), seems like a good thing, more curiousity on why anyone would do it when you could be driving your SUV with the air all the way up.
There are a few hills around, but definitely routes to avoid the very steep ones. Riding down town is a blast, lots of alleys, not a whole lot of traffic. Alley cat races are pretty fun here, the crit mass is the last Friday of each month meeting at a local markets parking lot, last one looked to have around 90 people. I wasn't much for the mass rides because I thought they were doing the oposite of what the intentions were, but lately they are trying to follow as many rules as possible with a group of its size can.. so it seems it might be getting better.
There is alot of good food here... Grinders unfortunately isn't one of the places I would recommend, when it opened it had fantastic food, the original cook I believe left, and it fell from grace... fast. it also smells like a toilet in there. (sorry crushkilldstry) I do wish they would clean up a bit, my shop is a block away and it could be a quick lunch spot... On the other hand I think the food here is quite good, better than most places i have been.
As for East of Troost... yeah, you probably don't want to wander over that direction. Parts of it remind me a bit of East St. Louis, or Bed-Sty ( If you know what that means)
For some strange reason there does seem to be a fair share of crack heads about.. i used to live in the gallery area called the "the crossroads" about 8 yrs ago and had to step over crack heads to get in my building, but since the down town revitalization has helped a little bit, but there is a mission down the street that attracts them so what can you do?

I can tell you more if you want to message me, i don't want to bore everyone else.

but it is nice here, the art here rivals some pretty major places i have lived..


oh tea, ACME bicycles= good peoples


so we'll see ya in 2 weeks...

sprintcarblue

I was in Kansas City earlier this summer on my bmx bike. It was an easy to navigate city for sure (in the downtown). Traffic wasn't bad at all. There were some sketchy homeless/crackheads but they seemed friendly enough as far as homeless crackhead crazy people go.

rob3rto

You'll be fine. It's safer in the metro area as far as riding goes than in the southern suburbs. I rode about two blocks on a street down there once and got honked at more than my whole life combined. The locals hang out here a lot: https://www.bikeliker.com/ and are very friendly. I'm just down the road, so if you end up in Lawrence some time drop me a line and we'll get some beer.

You have more to look forward to than to worry about.

ollyisk

thanks for all the information guys, i really appreciate it.

i'm sort of looking forward to getting there.

i know this is a long shot, but do any of you know of any short-term, fully furnished apartments in the mid-town area? also, i assume that acme bicycles place is near downtown since it's on a numbered street, is this correct? i guess i could stop being lazy and look it up on google.

ersatz radio

Are you one of the Sunflower guys?

rob3rto

Nope.