Zurich

[alpinerabbit]

Duh. I always use the new post search so I did not see what forum this was in

I live smack in the middle of town.

Switzerland is an awesome country for biking - lots of mountains, also some flat riding, lovely views, great air, excellent roads. Golly they're almost covered with gold instead of macadam.
Around Zurich, your introductory tour might be the 65k loop of the lake, or would you like to extend that to a 180k with 2000m of climbing? Or do all or part of the 140k MTB trail network around Zurich they dub the many hill show? Or rather want the down hill course from the Uetliberg? Or ride the Ironman Switzerland course, or the 70.3 Switzerland course?
Going a bit further off, ride cat1 climbs belonging to the Tour de Suisse? Alpenbrevet - anything from 3 to 6 passes? Engadine (road)Bike Marathon or MTB Marathon? Round lake Constance? It's endless and I haven't done it all (specially NOT the Alpenbrevet)


(1) a) very useful but not necessary. The whole town is covered by an excellent public transport system of trams, buses and s-trains. Trams and buses run at 7min intervals in the day/rush periods.
ETH Hönggerberg, where you'll likely be, is on top of a hill, something to keep in mind when thinking about biking. ETH is served by 2 bus lines.
Lots of ETHites bike up there though.

b) see above - yes that's fine. You might want to buy a pass. No, you will buy one, it gets pricy.
c) we have lots of bike paths and drivers are very used to cyclists on those roads where there aren't.
d) yes, some paths are off road - I know of about 3 within town and one will be of interest to you, viz, to ETH Hönggerberg you can either take the rather steep road, or you can go thru the forest.
e) Sort of. I always lock the bike onto something. I never leave my valuable road bike outside, especially overnight.

(2) yes, for CHF10 a day in addition to your train ticket, you can take the bike on almost all trains to the start of your next tour.

(3) there are campgrounds but I am not a camper, don't have the equipment, I prefer to cough up the cash for a hotel (can get pricy).

(4) the unspoken question - yes, I can take you places. Road or Mtn? Are you taking your bike?


oh and ps. I'm an ETH alumni....