I live near Carmax on Glenwood. I'm looking for some road bike routes to ride. I've heard the driver's down here think we're on the road for target practice.

Gil

Rijn,

You any relation to that Rembrandt fella?

I dont know of any routes in your immediate area of Raleigh. You might check out bikely.com or mapmyride.com.

I'm in the Cary area, a little south of you. There is a regular Sat. morning ride out of the Salt Box Village (Kildaire Farm Road) that you would probably enjoy. You can find details on this website under Slow Spokes. There's also a regular Sat and Sun morning ride out of Brueggers Bagels in west Cary. That info is not on this page, but I'll be glad to give you details. Both of these rides are smaller groups (6 to 15 this time of year) with mixed speeds and distance.

Perry

My commute is at least 12mi into Raleigh, but the first/last 1/2mi between the Carmax and my house is the most obnoxiously threatening of all (although not the most challenging). Mostly, it gets better from there. Make your intentions clear, and act on them; don't worry so much whether they like you, as whether you have made them think twice before sharing the lane with you (our biggest distraction is that we naturally don't like being not liked).

Going South, Ebenezer Church Road is a nice windey which borders north side of Umpstead Park, with some climbing, for a short one.

If you want to explore RTP, getting over to TW Alexander Raceway only starts off a bit challenging: take 70 over to Lumley if you're thick-skinned like me, or take Ebenezer to Lumley if you feel safer riding with all the quarry trucks. After Briar Creek Parkway, it's decent riding on weekends.

You can also cut through there to get to Angier Avenue, if you want an excursion into downtown Durham (~15mi to). A bit more traffic though.

To your North, up Leesville, unfortunately is your route toward longer rides North of Durham.

I like the ride up to Blue Jay Point county park (~10mi to there, Norwood mostly). If you want to avoid most traffic of this crazy area, a good way to start is up Country: Glendower, and a boardwalk crossing the north end of Lake Lynn, will get you to Ray Road. To me, that's a much preferable path to Norwood. The county park is off Six Forks road, just after crossing the first bridge over Falls Lake. And Pleasant Union Ch. Rd. is a nice triangle back to Norwood.

Honestly, it isn't until you cross north of Falls Lake that you get away from the lot of idiots. After this point, the ride up Bike Route 1 to the Virginia border (or Kerr Lake) is heavenly--friendly rural people.

Concerning group rides, I believe some higher-level NCBC riders used to start at St. Francis of Assisi church/school, just North of you (go up Ebenezer or Pinecrest to Leesville Rd., on left just after crossing 540; ncbikeclub.org). Not sure what's happening now.

I cycled in NYC. I'm pretty vocal about my location on the road if people get to close and it takes a bit to get me rattled. Nothing like riding on south from Central Park to the East Village with taxi's. My gutt tells me the taxi's will be better road companions then the drivers in Raleigh.

Is there a good route to downtown from Carmax? I'd like to do at least a 15 mile ride. I prefer to do 30ish miles per ride.

I would join a bike club, but I'm completely out of shape. 5-6 months of sitting on my ass. I'm dying (figurative term) to go for a ride.

Gil

you could go straight across Glenwood on Ebenezer Church rd and follow that all the way to Duraleigh. Turn right, follow that to Blue Ridge Rd (Duraleigh turns in to Blue Ridge by Rex Hospital) and you can take that to Western Blvd, turn left, and you can take that as a straight shot in to the south side of downtown.

I don't know where you are heading down town, but I would avoid Hillsborough St since it is all torn up with construction.

They still ran the Krispy Kreme Challenge on Hillsborough last week, even with the construction. It was an adventure dealing with pavement, lack of pavement, and orange barrels all along the way.

110% on the money. at least in NYC there is some underlying expectation that a cyclist is sharing the road with you. it generally comes as a surprise to folks around here that a. you are 'crazy' enough to be on the road and b. that you are actually going 'fast'. obviously 'fast' is a relative term but i have had many many people on the road misjudge my speed and do something stupid. again, at least in NYC you can be confident that you are very likely to out pace traffic in most situations.


cant be of much assistance on the raleigh-centric routes since i am a durham / CH rider, but do be safe out there!

I'm always up for riding in a new area. I wouldn't mind taking a spin around DH and CH.

watch this space, and the group ride spaces under "Slow Spokes" and "Team CBC".

as soon as it warms up there will be plenty of rides.. leaving either Blue Jay Point (north Raleigh) or out of various spots in Cary/Apex/Holly Springs. Unfortunatley from where you are you will have to fight traffic.. tho if you go up to the shopping center at Leesville and Strickland, you can head out Leesville (north- crossing 540) and get a nice ride in between 540 and 98.

There's a few of us riders up here in N Raleigh that just talked today about trying to plan some shorter rides during the week. If we do, we'll post them under this section of the forum.

Gil:

You're in a great spot for riding a really safe and somewhat challenging 25 miler.

From Carmax head down Ebenezer Church toward Umstead
Left onto Ebenezer Chruch (nice wide shoulders & limited traffic)
Right onto Blue Ridge (watch traffic for about 1/4 mile)
Right onto Edwards Mill (bike lane)
Right onto Reedy Creek (limited traffic)
Left onto Trenton
Continue straight onto Trinity
Right onto Brandwine (really hilly residential street)
Brandywine becomes Electra
Right onto Reedy Creek
U-Turn at Harrison Ave
Return to Carmax

This is about 25 miles from Carmax. If you want to add more miles:
At Edwards Mill & Reedy Creek, take a LEFT onto Reedy Creek toward the Art Museum.
Continue onto greenway @ Art Museum
Follow greenway to Meredith College.
At end of greenway take a left onto Faircloth
Left onto Wade (STAY RIGHT!!)
Right onto Ridge
Ride to end of Ridge and U-Turn
Return home.

This should get you close to 35 safe miles.

I will think about a route downtown and get back with you unless someone pipes in on that.