riding into June and the beginning of summer

[north woods gal]

Sounds like a workout, but also a good day's work. Fortunately, I have several choices as to loops on local roads. One is mostly flat, but the others are rolling hills with a few flat stretches. I ride compact double chainrings on all my bikes, but I usually don't have to drop to the small ring except on the steepest hills, but those hills do bottom me out.

Iowa is a lovely state with nice folks. The northeast is actually quite hilly as is the country adjacent to some of he rivers. Having lived in neighboring Nebraska much of my life, oh yeah, wind is a big factor. I'm sure you'll love it, though.

[rebeccaC]

Spent sat. night in los olivos and rode yesterday and today. figueroa mountain road yesterday and today just wandering (the joy of randomness) for 6 hours on the side roads in the santa ynez valley. It was HOT with both rides ending in the high 90’s but mornings were in the low 70’s. I planned this trip a while ago so hot yoga the last couple of weeks helped prepare me for the heat predicted.
For quiet roads the s.y. valley is an excellent place to ride in…one of my favorites, especially figueroa mt.
I saw just a few cars and probably 15+ bicyclists….. and the windblown oak trees are a beautiful feature in the valley floor landscape. Lots of places for water, my favorite being a small isolated chapel on foxen canyon rd. for shade to stretch, relax and eat in and a bottle filling refrigerated cooling water fountain for bicyclists. A good weekend of riding……

[emily_in_nc]

Iowa is a lovely state with nice folks. The northeast is actually quite hilly as is the country adjacent to some of he rivers. Having lived in neighboring Nebraska much of my life, oh yeah, wind is a big factor. I'm sure you'll love it, though.

We are here, and it is HILLY. I was shocked! I guess I do recall reading reports of RAGBRAI that Iowa isn't flat, but I had temporary amnesia. We are going for our first ride today, so we'll see how it goes. The state park we're staying in, Prairie Rose, is quite hilly, as were the roads to get here. So, it's probably a good thing that I did that tough ride in Missouri a couple days ago.

It sounds like you are a lot stronger than me on hills -- but then again, I suppose most cyclists are. I've been riding since 2003 and have never been good on climbs, though the more I ride 'em, the better I get, of course.

I think I'll ride my Bike Friday today today for the gears!

[north woods gal]

Emily, yes, it is reassuring to tackle hills knowing you have a lot of bottom gears available. I don't consider myself to be the strongest rider, but I don't avoid hills, either. It's all in the gearing and matching it up with what you can handle as far as strength. I can get by with doubles in this country, rather than having to go with triple road bikes. Even on my double road bikes, though, there are differences as to their gearing.

My Domane is a 700x25 wheeled bike with standard 50/34 compact on the front and 12/30 on the back. On a good day, it is just low enough for me on our worst hills, but if I'm tired or have to deal with a strong headwind, it's a bit iffy.

My Salsa Warbird is a 700x35 bike with more of a cyclocross double. It has a 46/34 front and in the back, I changed the cassette to a 12-32. I still bottom out on our worst hills, but it's a little better. The 700x35 tires, though, make it a much more versatile bike. It's a very good gravel bike when the gravel isn't too deep or soft.

My Salsa Fargo is my go to bike for exploring. It's still a drop bar bike that runs well on pavement, but it's actually a 29er in wheel size with its big 2.2" tires. It has the lowest gearing of the three with a 42/28 up front and an 11-36 on the back. I suspect it will handle any road in our state, though if I was headed to the rockies I might try something even lower geared.

[azfiddle]

I just read through about 3 pages of ride posts. Sounds like some fun and interesting rides have been happening while I was away.

My husband and I just got back from our three week driving vacation, which took us from SE Arizona through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Utah. We took the bikes, but didn't ride everyday. During the three weeks we had rides in Silver City NM, Albuquerque NM, outside of Colorado Springs on the road to Cripple Creek, above Boulder Colorado (near Jamestown / Ward / Raymond), Billings Montana, Grand Teton NP and Bryce NP. A little over 200 miles on the bikes, plus about 40 miles of walking and hiking. I will post a few pictures after I upload them to Flickr.

We're glad to be back but today all I could manage after returning to the heat and higher humidity (now that the summer monsoon season is here) was about 13 miles, mostly on the bike path. Of course, if I was a little less lazy and got out the door at 6 am instead of 7:30, I might have gotten more miles in.

[emily_in_nc]

azfiddle, that sounds like a great trip. We have ridden in Albuquerque (twice) and Billings and hiked in Bryce NP, of the places you visited. The other places you went are still on our bucket lists!

Had a good ride today. We took the Bike Fridays and rode from the campground to the closest town. It was rolling hills but not as steep as those we suffered through in our last spot (Weston, MO). I love my Bike Friday because of the smaller tires, all the gears are easier than they would be on a larger-wheeled bike. So I was able to stay in my middle chainring for the entire ride. On this bike with 20" wheels, my 42-tooth middle chainring, coupled with 11-32 (or 34, I can never remember) in the back, gives me a tons of range. I did shift into the large front ring (52t) on occasion but mostly I was in the middle and did not have to utilize the super low 30t granny. The worst hills were actually in the campground!

Wow, though, there aren't a lot of paved roads in this part of Iowa! DH had drawn a great map of all the backroads we might try to get to the closest town, Harlan. Every single one of them ended up being gravel, and since we'd just cleaned and detailed the Fridays, we were NOT gonna take them! So, we ended up on the highway (not an interstate, of course), and the rumble strips were just awful. There was a wide unpaved shoulder, then a skinny paved one with just enough room for the rumble strips and about 6" for us to ride in. I guess the good thing was it does help your handling skills to try to stick to a 6" width of pavement!

I will say, drivers are so incredibly courteous here, same in Missouri. Whenever they could, they would give us the entire lane, or as much of it as they could. If someone was coming the other way, they'd often hold up until after the other driver passed to let us through. Very unexpected and nice! You don't get that down south much.

Ended up with 25 miles and a few nice groceries to bring home from town. We got sprinkled on a few times, but the temp in the 70s was most unexpected and appreciated!

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[north woods gal]

Emily, I should have mentioned the gravel roads. Yes, the farm states from Iowa on west - Nebraska, the Dakotas, Kansas and so on tend to have mostly gravel rural roads. You typically have to go to roads labeled as highways to find paved.

Our state of Wisconsin has mostly paved rural roads, though. Did 63 miles of gorgeous north woods lake country on those paved rural roads, today. Not unusual to go half an hour or more without seeing a car. Just you, your bike, forests and lakes and wildlife. Super day for biking, too. High of 73, all sunshine and no wind. Doesn't get any better for road biking. Come on up for a visit.

[emily_in_nc]

We actually lived in Wisconsin for a time, NWG! But not nearly as far north, down near Richland Center. Lovely roads indeed. We also lived in Kansas but in the KC metro, so plenty of roads (and bike paths) there.

We've visited most of the states you mention but did more paved and unpaved bike paths there, not so much on the roads. This includes our trip to Iowa, Nebraska, and the Dakotas in 2014. We're heading that way again so good thing we have our mountain bikes with us.

Wisconsin is not on the agenda this year but definitely in the future. My DH has cousins there, and we love the state.