hyperloop

Hi all,

First time poster here, nice to meet you all
Recently I started biking to work daily in Waterloo, Ontario but will be moving to Port Moody BC next year. I have never biked in Vancouver let alone biking in Tri-city (Coquitlam/Port Moody/Port Coquitlam) area...
Anyone has any suggestion around Tri-city area? (For road bike)


Any help would be appricated

lhbernhardt

Tri Clities is pretty much crap for reasonable cycling. Their city councils are totally out to lunch wrt cycling. They've got the craziest bike "facilities" in the Lower Mainland. Examples:

- the way they route the bikes along the paths to the north side of the new Pitt River Bridge on the Tri Cities side.
- the fact that, westbound (coming from Pitt Meadows) on the Pitt River Bridge, they prohibit bikes from going over the overpass to get to Kingsway (it even has a marked shoulder! go figure...)
- again, off the Pitt River Bridge westbound, they've just paved a new section that comes off the sidewalk, but it routes you only onto the Lougheed, which is marked with the "no bikes" sign at that point, although there is a fairly broad shoulder!

Coquitlam, to be fair, has just painted a bike lane on the Lougheed between Blue Mountain and North Road. And you can get into a bit of country riding if you follow Pipeline Road to the end, or take Victoria drive out into the Minikada Park area, but that's about it for facilities. They have bike trails along the dikes, but they are unpaved and full of walkers.

For most cyclists in Vancouver & Burnaby, Tri Cities is just a stupid section to get thru as quickly and safely as possible in order to cross the Pitt River Bridge and get into Pitt Meadows/Maple Ridge, and then across the new Golden Ears Bridge to the Fort Langley area, which is MUCH nicer for cycling. We used to cross at the Patullo Bridge, then work our way along Industrial, up to 108th, then on the frontage roads of Hwy 1 to get to the Fraser Valley roads, but now everybody goes thru Pitt Meadows and the Golden Ears Bridge.

Tri Cities reminds me of Mississauga, a vast wasteland whose sole purpose is to give commuters somewhere to drive across on their way to Toronto. I find the whole notion of having three separate towns with three different mayors and city councils to be extremely wasteful, as well. Useless AND inefficient! I think this is why the place is so lousy for cycling. Maybe if it were just one municipality, they might be able to get their act together and put together a useful coordinated cycling plan. They need to combine Tri Cities with Anmore and Belcarra, too, while they're at it!

Luis

jdon

Great and accurate summary. I lived in Heritage Mountain and Anmore which was great climbing but the number of blind hills, blind corners lack of shoulders and driver skills made it a user beware area. Once you get out to Pitt Meadows/ Maple Ridge things get pretty good. At least a little more like Waterloo.

hyperloop

Thanks for the reply Luis and jdon
I spend some time looking at the map, and found that there is a "Shoreline trail" nearby , then I can continue on Clarke St and go to "Trans Canada Trail" (Assuming it's bike friendly) then continue up SFU mountain (Not sure about the trail condition there, and if my body can handle it)
Have any of you tried this path?
link: https://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...nsCanada-trail

Dave Mayer

The Tri Cities is cycling paradise. Luis, it is not all about cycling advocacy. Following are some ride recommendations that are even better than the summit music of Strauss's Alpine Symphony.

To the rides. All of these will require you to put 28mm cross-tires on your road bike in order to naviage some excellent packed gravel roads and river dikes. The dikes along the Pitt River, Coquitlam River and Fraser River feature some of the best winter riding in our frozen homeland. Here are some mission objectives for you:

• Sasamat Lake. Excellent beach in the summer.
• Trails on both the east and west sides of the Coquitlam River. These go on for miles.
• Hyde Creek trails in PoCo.
• Colony Farm in PoCo. Then follow the Fraser River along Argue St.
• Buntzen Lake. The ride to the lake is paved. Your first view of the lake itself will suck the wind out of you. North of this - the gravel section is challenging , but the ride along the lake shore is stellar.
• Minekhada Lodge. Ride to the lodge, it should be open for snacks on Sunday afternoons. Walk your bike to the lake. Double back and take Oliver Road as far east as you can go. Ignore/bypass any road barriers. You will hit the Pitt River. If the view there doesn't floor you, nothing will. Continue south from there along the dikes.

Good luck.

jdon

I have not ridden the trail portion. I usually take Clarke Road to Gaglardi way and up Burnaby Mtn. or all the way along the Barnett to Duthie and up. Both good rides. DM;s routes are good as well but I would plan a cross bike or MTB. By road riding, I assumed you meant roads.

hyperloop

Thanks Dave~ I will keep those routes in mind and give them a try ~

Thanks jdon~
To be honest I'm deciding on what bike to get when I'm back to BC (Currently riding a cheapo walmart raleight full suspension bike with drop bars and slick tires ), so I'm not bounded to road riding My ultimate goal is to ride up to SFU from Port Moody for daily commute, so if a cyclocross bike is more suited then I'm fine with that.

Dave Mayer

Port Moody up to SFU daily? Then you'll be in world-class shape within a year.

As far as a bike choice, you should know that mountain biking in the Lower Mainland (including the trails down the south side of SFU) are as challenging as anywhere in the world. The riding is consistently steep, rocky and rooty. Plus it is usually wet and slippery. If you hope to survive this, you'll need full-on downhill gear, which includes long-travel front and rear suspension, 3" tubeless tires, a full face helmet and armor. This 45-pound bike is going to cost north of $5 g's. Then you'll need to develop the skills to survive with a couple years of scary practice.

Of course this kind of rig will be a hopeless boat anchor on pavement. In the Lower Mainland, there is no do-it-all bike.

So a 'cross bike or a lightweight hybrid is recommended.

hyperloop

Haha, I've read there are two professor who are biking up SFU daily for ~10 years (One bike up from hasting, one bike up from port moody), that's the main reason I want to commute daily as they motivates me showing it's possible (Here are the links if you are interested : https://people.math.sfu.ca/~goddyn/Rec/ivoryTower.html https://www.sfu.ca/biology/faculty/ha...commuting.html )

As for bike choice, currently eyeing on either Norco Threshold A3 , or Trek Crossrip. (Also looking at Norco City glide 8IGH, and Trek Soho (Chain version), but I don't think they are up to the task...)

lhbernhardt

Between 1974 and 1978, while I was an undergrad at SFU, I rode there on a daily basis, usually up Gaglardi (the longer but shallower route). In the winter, I'd be riding up in a fixed gear (42x16) as part of my winter training (I was also racing bikes at that time). The one time it snowed enough that I thought I'd take the bus instead, the buses were not running because there was too much snow. One night when I was at SFU late, there was a foot of fresh snow on Gaglardi, and I half-slid the fixed gear down the hill, rear wheel locked up for much of it.

So the bike doesn't really matter; you can ride anything up that hill. I think riding up to SFU is way more popular now than it was in the 70's. In those days, I didn't see anybody else riding up.

Luis

hyperloop

Thanks Luis for sharing the experience, another inspiration on my book
It's true that any bike is capable to go up the hill, now just deciding whether disc brakes are needed, especially on light rain weather..but it's probably too early to say since I'm not even physically in BC yet.
Can't wait to be back and give it a try.

jdon

We were on opposite climbs! Back in the 70's, I was living by Curtis and Duthie so took the straight run up Curtis instead. Worked at the Owl and Oarsman.

NaBlade

My co-worker's brother, who's in his mid-50s, commutes up/down SFU on a daily basis. Obviously, he's in great shape. He completed the Whistler Gran Fondo in around 3:45.
So yeah, OP, you'll be in terrific shape in no time!

lhbernhardt

Oh man, Curtis was a way tougher climb than Gaglardi. Not as long, but way steeper. Curtis just goes straight up the hill, while Gaglardi at least kind of winds up. I went up Curtis a few times just for variety, or for a strength workout, but usually I'd blast down that hill if I needed to get to Vancouver. When they had the Canadian National Road Championships in Burnaby, the course went up Curtis about 14 times. Jocelyn Lovell won that race!

And the Owl and Oarsman is now Horizons. And that's a tough climb too! Halfway up Curtis, then you turn left and go up an even stiffer climb! And at least the same elevation as the stoplights! Yeah, that would be pretty tough.

Luis

redbike72

I live in Poco and I usually skip across to Pitt Meadows. I head south after crossing the Pitt River Bridge, head over to the airport then cross the Golden Ears Bridge. From there it's a short flat ride to Forth Langley or a slightly hillier longer ride to Surrey and all points south. You can usually find enough quiet back roads to make for an 80 or 90 km ride without too much planning.

lhbernhardt

A nice way to do this is to cross the Pitt River Br on the sidewalk bike route, then as you descend off the bridge, watch for the path coming from the left. Take a left turn onto this path, and it will take you back under the bridge. The paving ends, and you're on gravel until you get to the railroad tracks. The path gets paved again as you go underneath the railroad bridge and back up a very short but kinda steep rise. The path then turns to gravel, and you follow it about 100 meters. You're on the dike, but you'll see a path (just after the sketchy little bridge over the creek - do NOT go over this bridge!) that will take you down to Ford Road. Turn right when you get to the roadway, and this will take you to the airport. When you get to the stop sign, turn right. The way to the GE Bridge will be pretty evident from here. It's usually a quiet road, but lately it's been getting more traffic, especially at rush hour, as drivers try to avoid the backups on the Lougheed. Also, there's lots of new house construction going on near the airport, & they're putting in a new industrial park, so you can expect this route to get much busier. Lots of racers & triathletes train on this road.

One advantage of this route is that you never get stopped by the frequent trains!

Luis

redbike72

The racers have the area well sorted. Providing you can ride with them, they will show you the more interesting (challenging) roads.

hyperloop

Quick update, finally took a lock around port moody, seems like added quiet a lot of bike lane/repainted them, and extended the bicycle trail on david st to quiet far. Im very surprised that it changed that much since last year.
Time to get my bike ready and try it out

lhbernhardt

Yes, I noticed that in Coquitlam they punched Shaughnessy up to meet David. Haven't tried taking David all the way to Port Moody, though. Pipeline Rd to where the pavement ends is a nice ride. Looks like they paved it up to a gate of some company. I often ride up Guildford, then up Pipeline, then back to David and over to Shaughnessy. Or you can take David east up the long climb, then down Coast Meridian to Victoria, and do the Victoria/Cedar loop near Minnekhada.

Luis

hyperloop

I biked the other day from top of port moody to barnet, then to coquitlam center and back home via david (I have to walk my way up david half way, my body couldnt handle it .

But overall I must say Port Moody is more 'commute friendly' than i initially thought, and I started to see much more cyclist on the road (even on rainy days) compare to what I've seen a year ago.

I will try out pipeline soon (And see how far before I gave up)