Riding in and near Atlanta GA
 

We are going to travel to Atlanta at the end of the month to take our daughter to a VolleyBall tournament. We will be staying at the Wyndham Hotel on Spring St near the Olympic Venue. Can someone point us or provide us with some information regarding bike lanes and roads with little traffic. We will asamble the tandem in the hotel room and will have to ride from there. We should have time to do several 50+ rides.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.pathfoundation.org/index.cfm

http://www.bikesbl.org/modules.php?o...download&cid=1

http://www.atlantabike.org/

Riding in that area will be challenging if you are not used to traffic and the occasional pot-hole. The ride out to Stone Mt. isn't bad, but I would not take the Path. Personally, I found the concept of the Path in ATL a bit of a mess. It is a mix of road riding (on some roads with high traffic volumes) and designated path riding.

If you have a car transport to Stone Mt. or for a really flat experince go to the Silver Commet trail.

Jay

Amen to all of that. We've ridden the Path once; that was enough. Of course, the Silver Comet has it's own hazards and challenges, particularly close-in to Atlanta. The best riding "in Atlanta" for us has been right on the public roads... the ones without bike paths or lanes. However, we're seasoned riders who are predisposed to prefer riding as part of and/or along side normal traffic. Sunday morning is actually a pretty nice time of day to ride on the streets in Atlanta; traffic volume is low and you can pretty much ride around Centenial Park, up Northside Drive, down Peachtree, and the like without fear of being flattened or side-swiped.

Hopefully some of the other Atlanta riders who spend more time riding in the city will see your subject line and jump in with some suggestions.

Be careful.

I grew up in Mexico City and rode my bike up and down town. I am very comfortable with traffic. My wife/stoker gets a little apprehensive if people honk at us or get too close with their cars. But she is fine if I we are in the tandem. We hate traffic lights and frequent stop signs. We looked at some of the rides in Tandemgeek's links (Thanks) and also liked the idea of riding to Lithonia and doing the Stone Mt. ride. In Map Quest we found a route that takes MEMORIAL DR SE / GA-154 and COVINGTON HWY / US-278 / GA-12 for most of the way. Is that a good route?
We also liked the idea of just cruising on Sunday morning in the City. We are farmers and we are used to getting up early. If we start up at first light we could have the city to ourselves…. at least for a couple of hours
Is there an easier or alternative way to get out of the city riding the bike?

Thanks

If no one else who rides in town pipes up you might try contacting these guys...
http://www.intownbicycles.com/

There are quite a few inside the loop rides and a very fast Sunday ride called the Airport Ride but they all start around the perimeter of Atlanta and run South, East, North, West or just cross back and forth on the North side near I285 and 400, a few miles away from downtown. We'll have to keep an eye on the weather for that weekend and perhaps we can see about hooking up for a ride through the burbs. There's a lot of climbing and some incredible neighborhood around Vinings, Paces Ferry, Buckhead, Chastain Park, and Brookhaven.

Keep us posted on your plans; PM Or Email if you prefer.

They're located fairly close to where you'll be staying and would probably have some suggestions. I'm one of those folks who can ride or drive somewhere once and never forgets the route, but I'll be darned if I know any of the names of the roads or could give you directions.

We live just a few miles from Centennial Park and ride past there frequently.

Unless you are very comfortable riding in urban traffic your options for riding directly from the hotel will be limited. The previously mentioned Airport Loop is your best bet for getting out of traffic quickly.

There is some excellent riding just North of downtown in the Buckhead area. The good low traffic routes are typically hilly and will require close attention to map-reading because of all the turns. But you will be hard pressed to ride much more than about 30 miles through that area before you start repeating some roads.

Some local maps, including the Airport Loop map are online at http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group...de/files/Maps/

I can provide some additional maps by email or answer any specific routing questions you may have.