I need a place to ride

go to the swimbikerun web page--they post all group runs and rides through the area. Also, I t hink the trek bike shop on manchester has rides. I don't know the web page, but with a little searching you can probably find it, it's a bikeing site based in MO, it gives you routes (most of them are on roads but they are designated bike routes. ALSO...i got a really good book at teh libary one time that was all about bike routes in MO. it gave the type of trail, the distance and even places to stop, i don't remember the name of it though.

in re-reading this, i realize that i don't think i was much help! sorry!

Im trying to remember a link where a bunch of roadies have saved their rides to via googlemaps, but until I do, your best bet is if you are comfortable with some traffic, to hit Clayton Rd. Once you hit wildhorse creek, you should detour from clayton, but there are tons of alternate roads, like kehrs mill, shepard, wildhorsecreek, etc that can take you out to Babler or St. Albans for some serious hills! From the city, once you get past mason/clarkson, the traffic dies down and the views get pretty good. You can always ride Clayton into STL as well, as it goes all the way down to forest park, and generally has a nice shoulder to ride on. Conway is also a nice ride, but might not be far enough West for you. From the city, I usually ride clayton and take various detours to make side loops, like geyer through kirkwood and back up ballas to clayton, or clayton to conway, to mason, to schoetller to clayton, etc. The traffic usually isnt too bad if you are somewhat comfortable and confident about handling your bike. Another option to get used to riding might be to head out to creve coure park and spend a few weekends out there getting up to speed on your bike handling before heading out into traffic.

The other option is to head just south of 44...there are a ton of roads down there that are pretty quiet and there are routes all the way out to Eureka, and again, plenty of hills, but id definitly take a map as getting confused is easy.

Another great place to go, is Columbia, IL if you dont mind driving to get there. The roads are quiet and flat, although until the corn comes up its pretty windy.

Check out stlbiking.com to find some group rides. All rides are usually open to whomever, and everyone is pretty friendly. You will probably run across a few people in the group that are there to beat everyone, and more than likely the group will split into a faster and slower group. Either way, riding with faster people is what makes you faster!

Good luck and ill let you know if I find that site of routes.

Doug

Edited by Redline1 2007-03-19 4:27 PM

check out...

http://www.2wheeltech.com/biking/gmap.php

scroll down on the left hand side and pick "Road" and "MO" (obviously).

This will take you to a new list of a bunch of rides people have mapped out....there didnt used to be so many, but theres maybe 30 now. There are maybe 4-5 classic STL rides, but most of the rest are just variations on the routes. Check out a few and get a feel for what roads are good to ride on in STL.

Doug

Wow, thanks so much. That is a huge help!