Riding distances

[pooks]

What are Dan Henrys?

And Fredwina -- I found Downtown LA by accident, and had a panic attack. I've never been SO AWARE OF SKYSCRAPERS TOWERING OVER ME. We have skyscrapers in Dallas, but I'm not aware the whole time that the earth may hiccup and bring it all down on me. LOL

Honest, I never once thought about or worried about earthquakes in CA except when I was driving in Downtown LA and trying to find my way out. Also, I suddenly felt like I was driving in a weird cave or underground parking garage or something -- and then realized there were buildings on either side of me and an elevated freeway overhead, and I remembered what happens when the earth moves and you end up the filling in a road sandwich.

When I say I practically had a panic attack, I'm not kidding. I hyperventilated until I managed to find Wilshire Blvd and head back to Beverly Hills!

Sorry. End of flashback.

[Fredwina]

What are Dan Henrys?

They are paint markers that clubs put on the roads to help you find your way at tours:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_ha-i.html
http://www.tulsabicycleclub.com/misc_dan_henry.php
I think of things that donotes how big SoCal is that you have to designate "which" downtown you're referring to i.e Downtown LA, Downtown Ontario, etc...

[pooks]

Yes, Fredwina -- Downtown Beverly Hills and (beautiful) Downtown Burbank didn't bother me a bit!

Thanks for the Dan Henry info.

[DarcyInOregon]

Pooks, I live rurally, but I still need to put my bike on the bike rack and drive to where I cycle. I live on top of a small mountain, and one would think oh wow, lots of hill training, but even though it is the 21st century my rural area has a lot of gravel roads that are very steep and the road bike can't go over such roads.

I park at a nice state park out in the valley, about a 20 minute drive for me. There are nice restroom facilities and water faucets. The rangers patrol the park so I don't have to worry about my car getting broken into while I am gone. Where I park is popular with the cyclists and when I park I can tell instantly if anyone is out cycling that day or not. This park is a popular place to start a daily ride for my category of cyclist, which is the long distance soloist fitness/fun cyclist.

There are trails inside the park, which are good for those riding hybrids and who cycle at a slower pace. However if you are on a road bike like me, you want the road, and you want the miles, therefore my daily rides are out of the park and the park is just used to unload and load and use the restroom facilities.

I used Mapquest to figure out my routes. I know my starting point, and from there I can zoom in and go in all directions, seeing where roads go, how I can make loops, and how I can make larger loops, and how I can make loops within loops.

I am like others on this thread in that I stay off of the busy roads. However there are stretches of some rural highways that don't get too much traffic, and those roads are ok to cycle. You learn these tricks by observation on your rides.

I developed routes that enable me to circle back to my car if the wind or rain gets too fierce, or if I feel fatigued. So I have routes that can expand or contract, because once I get on the saddle and get going, unless I have a serious time constraint, I might have intended to only bike 30 miles but I can veer off at certain points and actually do 40,50 or 60 miles if I am really feeling the joy.

I realize you will be an urban rider, which will be different types of rides. When I was younger I lived in San Francisco and there was a book titled something like "Bicycling the Back Streets of San Francisco." That book gave a lot of routes, and I learned how to cut through the Golden Gate Park, and go through the Presidio and get on the Golden Gate Bridge to bike over to Sausalito - all on my heavy steel road bike. I remembered I biked near where Alioto lived, the guy who eventually became a mayor, or maybe it was his son who became a major; he wasn't a mayor when I lived in SF. I biked all of the routes in the book, then took off from there, because this was back before the internet and Mapquest. It has to be the same in your city, bike routes developed for the back non-busy streets that may not be designated bike lanes, but will let you pedal for miles and miles without being on a busy boulevard. If you can find that book for your city, even if it is out-of-print, then you can start with the routes described in the book and after you learn those routes, go off and figure out some on your own by using Mapquest.

Darcy

[pooks]

Thanks, Darcy. I can definitely ride routes in my community. Getting out of the area is dicier, with busy streets and all. That's when I'll have to start driving to other areas.

You rode across the Golden Gate Bridge? Even thinking about that scares me!

[Starfish]

Pooks, when I lived in Seattle and was just starting out, I used the paved bike path for a LONG time. Then, with my then-husband's help (he was more experienced), I started venturing out into urban traffic behind him. Later, I found I could go to it alone, and I got used to truly urban riding. I don't love that, though.

Now I live in a more small town area, but the traffic is on the rise. It is a rather interesting thing because we literally only have one highway into town and one highway out of town. We are squished between mountains and salt water, on a peninsula. So, for long routes, it is either all the main highway, or climbing the foothills.

Mostly my challenge is finding a route with only as many hills as I want that day. So, some days I drive my bike out to a flatter area about 30 minutes away, and I ride in the country, although still a lot of traffic.

Other days I ride out my back door and in 5 minutes I am heading up into the national park climbing up the local mountain. That is a serious climbing day. the first 6 miles take me up 1600 feet of climbing, and it only climbs up from there.

Other days to do the longer loops there is no avoiding the 2-lane highways, complete with RVs and loaded logging trucks. I just wear my ID, use my helmet mirror, and wear bright yellow.

[Kano]

Sometimes we load 'em up and drive to somewhere we can ride, and that's fun -- we go to the "greenbelt" down by the river, and even though sometimes there's lots of foot and bike traffic, but sometimes it's just plain delightfully quiet. "out and back" on the greenbelt is a surprisingly easy 35 - 40 miles, depending on where we start. We've ridden with a group, and they usually start us out near the edge of town, and take us off into "the toolies" where we can cruise along without traffic. Varying distances, longer and longer through the summer.

Other times, we just head out from the driveway. There are lots of subdivisions around us, and we can wander through those, usually not too fast, since there are lots and lots of intersections, not much traffic, but you gotta check! It's surprising how many miles we can go wandering "the neighborhood" on the way to the grocery store that's only about 7 miles round trip by car! We're also "on the edge" of a desert and we don't have to go very far to get to mostly deserted roads -- long, low-traffic, straight roads, some hills, where we can ride like the wind! Again, it's remarkably easy to do upwards of 20 miles if we're in the mood!

Karen in Boise

[DarcyInOregon]

You rode across the Golden Gate Bridge? Even thinking about that scares me!

Pooks, there is a sidewalk and the cyclists have to walk their bikes across the long bridge on the sidewalk. At least that is how it was when I did it, back in the mid-1970s. There was a turnstile that one was supposed to insert a dime into to gain entry to the sidewalk, but I was young and never had a dime on me so I just lifted my bike over and squeezed through the turnstile without inserting a dime. It is really awesome on that bridge, even during heavy fog.

I prefer Oregon though. I haven't been back to California since the 1980s. The state is too populated today, and since I grew up there and remember California during less-congested times, when I travel, I go elsewhere.

Darcy