WhyFi

Since the subject popped up in another thread, I thought that it would be interesting to hear feedback from others.

Do you consider riding on the MUP/bike path to be road cycling? Would you consider a cyclist that does all (or the vast majority) of their cycling on a MUP/bike path to be a road cyclist?

Vote and/or discuss.

rubiksoval

Are you road riding if you're riding a mtn bike on a MUP?

Or are you mtn biking??

caloso

I rode my FG on the MUP. Was I track riding?

rubiksoval

If you ride it on the dirt, will you be mtn. biking?

PepeM

If you're going 27 mph I'll say yes.

rubiksoval

Enough people started riding bikes on gravel that they created an entire new segment of cycling for it.

Maybe MUPs are next.

rms13

I don't care but I'm doing more and more MUP riding now that I live in an area with 20+ miles of great MUP and roads with 50 mph speed limits, few bike lanes and lots of aggressive distracted drivers in Dodge Hemi Chargers/Challengers and lifted pick ups.

DrIsotope

I do, but my assertion is conditional. I don't know what MUPs are like in other parts of the country/world. In SoCal, the big three are the Santa Ana, Los Angeles, and San Gabriel River Trails (SART, LART, and SGRT.) They are all Class I bikeways, that often cover vast distances with no entrance exit. In the northern 10 miles of the SART, there's only maybe 7-8 places to enter or exit the trail. Walkers/joggers are rarely encountered, and the typical speed is +17mph, many moving much quicker. The river trails here are freeways for bicycles. There are people I see on the SART that I've never seen anywhere else-- hell, I'm on the SART at least once a week, and will often just use it for a few miles as a shortcut between where I am and where I want to be.

When it comes to the splitting of hairs about whether someone who drives to the trailhead and rides up and back then drives home, is that road cycling? I kinda wanna say no... but he's on a road bike, riding on tarmac. The north trailhead is 8.5 miles from my house, and I've never driven to it. A ride to the beach for me is typically 73 miles, about 25 of that on surface streets, and 48 on the SART. I would still classify it as a "road ride," because big chunks of it are on, you know... the road. But if the guy who just does out-and-backs on the river trail isn't "road cycling," what's he doing? Trail riding has a whole different connotation.

rubiksoval

MUPping.

tagaproject6

I park on a drive way, am I really parking?

canyoneagle

Sort of

surak

I voted no. See the Hemingway quote for this forum. The first time I rode out far enough from the MUP to experience real road cycling on roads where I would've just driven over without a second thought, I felt a true sense of joy and understanding of what he meant.

Carbonfiberboy 

I count MUP miles in my weekly, but I hate 'em. It's not road cycling, no. It's riding your bike. I count the miles on my resistance rollers too, but it's not road cycling. I prefer the rollers to a MUP.

datlas 

smarkinson

Isn't that what hydrids are for? Not fast enough to use on the roads, not mountain bikey enough to use off road. Just right for MUPs.

GrainBrain

If you don't log with Strava have you even cycled? You may be sweaty and tired, but how would you know you've left the house? It could've been a fever dream.

Rootman

Sorta kinda, I say this because sometimes there ain't no way to get there from here - at least safely. Given the choice of riding on a MUP or taking a chance on a 5 lane highway with no shoulders and traffic moving at 60+ mph I'd take the MUP.

rubiksoval

Like cyclocross bikes would be for gravel?!

But that'd be a good start with maybe a few notable additions, like an air horn for all the joggers and kiddos wearing earbuds.

Seattle Forrest

I ride a mile here and a mile there on the MUPs. Sometimes they're the best way. But all ou most of your miles? No.

Velo Vol 

Nope.

Paul Barnard

I like the way you directed us to discuss, yet didn't contribute to the discussion. I don't understand why people do that, and I don't understand why they copy and paste an article or drop link as a topic for dicussion but offer no commentary of their own.

kbarch

No, because a MUP is not a road.
That's not to say that the miles which may be covered on them occasionally don't count, but if the idea and intent is to ride paths that are designed to exclude motorized traffic, then it's not road cycling. The conditions just aren't the same.

And I have to say, while in some circumstances, rides at high road cycling speeds are perfectly reasonable on some paths, it's not reasonable to claim them as road cycling any more than it is to claim trainer sessions.

rms13

I know the Velominati is strong here but what is difference between riding MUP and "roads" for most people? MUP where I live is basically a road that is closed off to motorized vehicles. It has wide two lane paved paths and rolling hills. I generally only see other cyclists and runners using it so no different then roads. I could argue that riding roads in a place like Florida isn't really "road cycling"

Shimagnolo

The newest MUP here in the Boulder area is the US36 Bike Path, which parallels US36.
It is concrete, 12 feet wide, and runs 14 miles from Westminster to Boulder.
The only difference from road riding is that it is smoother, and cagers can't reach you to kill you.

rubiksoval

Multi-use path is the difference. Narrow paths populated with runners, joggers, strollers, dogs on leads, kids with training wheels, couples holding hands, etc., etc.

And because of that, 15 mph speed limits for every one I've ever seen, which is still way too fast.