Riders in Maricopa, AZ?
 

Any riders from Maricopa out there? Riding solo is getting old and I doubt that I will have any luck finding much of anyone down here, but figured it was worth a shot.

Hi,
If you take Cave Creek Rd on Sunday morning you will find several large group pedaling to Cave Creek. Just join them.
Good luck

uh, isn't Cave Creek about 75 miles north and east????

I've heard of a few riders out there over the years, but don't have any current info. I'm in Chandler & the closest we get is on the "round the mountain" rides, Riggs Rd / 51st ave. Your major road has been called "the highway of death" so I don't envy you

Yeah I have ridden down Riggs and around South Mountain but not down Maricopa Rd.. Although I do have a route mapped that would take me through Maricopa and back to my house for a even 100 miles ride. I live on Riggs and Lindsay.

Maybe you can find some information on group rides from local shops.

Maybe check out Tour De Fat in Tempe this coming week. I am sure there will be tons of booths there.

I'm in chandler too, i hate riding alone too. I rode the Sacaton road a few times, nice wide shoulder and is a nice ride.

i'm in mesa on southern and val vista if anyone wants to go for a ride, i'm very new but i'm in good shape so hopefully i can hang

Well all of us east siders (and anyone else that wants to) should setup a day and go for a ride on the weekend sometime. I am definately not in the best shape in the world but I think I can handle a good 30+ mile ride.

My favorite ride is coming up - El Tour de Tucson - so I'm stretching the miles a bit but not hammering.

I ran a GoogleMap just for fun, to include Higley & Warner (5 miles for Tarig) South to Riggs (pick up Imartin) then down to Highway of Death intersection of 'Round the Mountain (Stumbling can maybe park at the casino) then back out east. It's a 50-miler. Pretty much dead flat although there are a couple of freeway overpasses. Graphic attached!

Say, I think I just invented El Tour de Chandler? opinions please. This is a slap-down job, we can easily finesse it, but fine points include Warner as the eastbound (better bike lanes) and a purdy loop to Santans / Hunt Hwy (whoooee! Thank God I'm a Country Boy!). Of course we'll seek better city routing (maybe Knox) and whatever input y'all have. To shorten it would be to cut out the good stuff - Higley road is good, and Santans are beauty, and Riggs on the res is kind of nice desert, even the casino and Rawhide are touristy. - the hard part is the city riding!

Like I said, it's a slap-down job, you won't hurt my feelings

That is a good looking route, I am up for it. Who all wants to ride/ I can do this weekend if anyone is up to it. By the way what speeds do you guys keep while riding distance, I am a 15 to 20 mph guy myself.

Sure thing! Sat or Sun? Sunup's like 6:30 - earlier is better due to the city traffic thing.
Warning: a few 3-mile stretches are kind of car-ugly.

Being as how it's an intro ride, we might just call it "no-drop to the road junction." As intro rides go I'd like to set it up as friendly. If someone's dying, we might find 'em a good coffee shop and shortcut route out of there. Hills are always free-for-all because we'd hate to break a climber's spirit on a freeway overpass, ya know?

That said, 15-20 is good. I'm not inclined to be a regulator but leaving people for dead is bad form

Nope I am all for waiting for people because who knows I might be one of them. Early morning is good and I think Saturday is probably a better day for me since I go to church on Sunday. I am use to car traffic, I take University from Gilbert to McClintock 3 or 4 days a week for my bike commute to work.

I'd drive up and participate ... not familiar with the area though - where you planning to meet/where can I park a car?

ummmm, map was drawn to get a point nearest Maricopa,
and mention was made about parking at the Casino. Near Firebird Lake.

This is a natural pick-em-up and drop-em-off type ride. One assumes they'll peel off at the right point, and if you're the last one riding I guess you'd best ask the rest of us if the route was good up to that point. If the ride is easy I might do the loop twice, get in a century or whatnot, but I'm just winging it here. One of you jokers is likely to rip my legs off!

If it's more comfortable, I guess we could declare a meetin' place. Cave Creek = 500 driving miles cumulative (to ride a 50). But the initial respondents were 25 miles apart! What's better than a circle route at a time like this? We're mostly used to riding alone anyways, that's the problem and why we be gatherin' I think.

But in a roundabout way this is an intelligent point - if anyone has particular time constraints that might be a reason to make their leg point A on a map. Or, if there's a natural coffee shop within a mile or two it might be a natural meet place. I know that I'd be a bit bent if I was sittin' on the corner for an hour while someone was changing flat tires!

i gotta be honest the furthest i've ever gone is about 10 miles, not because i'm too tired to continue it's just most of my commutes are that long or less. i usually go 20-25 mph but again that's shorter distances, hopefully the slower pace will make it easier for me to hang with you guys. anyway i would definitely like to try longer rides and this sounds like a great way to start!

sundays are best for me, i will keep checking back here and you guys can call me anytime at 6239109093, name is tariq :)

I'd love to do a tour de Chandler too, but I'd definitely be in a whole different class of speed than it sounds like most of you ride. I have a slow hybrid bike with 700x45 tires and I'm more like a 14-15mph rider than 15-20mph. There's only so much you can do on a 65-70psi tire. :) Still, I've been getting up at 4am every other day for the last month and riding about 25-30 miles so if I can really get my fitness level up then I might just barely be able to hang with the back of a 15mph group. The longest ride I've done so far is 50 miles, but I'm working on pushing that too.

I guess that's the tough part about cycling versus the motorcycle guys for example - motorbikes can be anywhere from 25hp dirt bikes to 175hp crotch rockets and still hang together on a ride at legal speeds, but with cycles the difference in equipment and humanpower can mean the difference between a 4 hour or a 7 hour ride. Still, if somebody wants to draw up plans you can count me interested too. I too can only do Saturdays, but since I'm so much slower than most guys who are more fit and have faster bikes, it may be irrelevant anyway.

so is this going down..?

So is Sunday going to be a better time for everyone? Sunday will work for me and speed is no problem I don't mind going slower. Everyone that wants to ride speak up now or forever hold your peace, if we can get at least 3 or 4 people together than I will be in. And I can meet whereever, Firebird is good or point A on the map, I really don't care.

i am in, just let me know what time and about how long it will take if possible

Hopefully no later than 7am that we would begin our ride, at a slower pace a 50 miler would probably take about 4 hours. I can usually do a metric century in a little under 4 hours without much training.

I don't have much time on Sunday (going to the football game) so how about something shorter? Would a flat 30 at 7am still hold your attention?

For your viewing pleasure, I've modified the route map. I must admit, some of this I'm not personally familiar with so I'll try to scout it between now and Sunday, but I want to get something approximate on the wire so we can lock in the ride, if it works this way. It starts at Folley Park, Ray Road just east of Val Vista Rd. Val Vista becomes the southbound route, then Hunt Hwy and Alma School Road, over to Pecos Rd and back towards the start. There's a canal path right there also.

Opinions please? As before, I'm sure somebody knows some better side-streets or low-traffic alternatives, but for a simple little 7am Sunday ride this seems pretty casual.

30 miles is definitely cool with me, i don't know if jumping from 10 miles to 50 miles is best and i've got some stuff to do as well, the route looks great though, all i ever get to do is city rides

Ok I have a route that I take all of the time and is pretty safe, it is just shy of 30 miles but is completely flat and has wide lanes to ride most of the way. Let me know if anyone is up to this one instead, if not I am totally fine with Sandlizrd's route. Everyone can park at my house and we can go from there. Let me know if that is ok and I will send anyone that wants to go my address.
Here is the link http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united...r/545682475826

Any yes Sunday at 7am is good for me.

i'm down for whatever, however the reason i got into biking in the first place is that my license is suspended so i really, really try to avoid driving long distances if possible, but let me know what's going down i will try to make it happen

I've heard of worse reasons to start cycling! Hopefully you're learning to love it.

I wouldn't have you driving about over something so trivial, and the park I mentioned is only a 5-mile ride for you. I'll ride by there at 7am, all interested individuals c'mon by! I checked it out today, there's roadside parking all over the place & not much else. Will not be hard to find people there.

And if it doesn't work out for any reason, oh well, I'm already on the canal trail that leads to Salt River! I drove over Usery Pass yesterday and I think I heard some trash talkin'... must periodically kick it around, keep it honest!