lkngro

I'm going to be living in Greenville, NC for the summer (research internship at East Carolina University), and I was wondering if anyone here is from the area and can speak on the quality of riding down there/can suggest any good routes. I'm currently living in central PA, so I'm used to rural mountain rides.

Thanks!

RNAV

Well, it's pretty darn flat so that may be a bit of a shock. The town itself is relatively small, and there's a LOT of farmland surrounding the city. So you can very easily get to some rural country roads in short order. It's been a while since I've been down there, so I can't really speak to preferred routes.

People there are really nice, so you shouldn't have any issues. Also, if you swing by UBE off Cotanche St., you can pick up an ECU cycling jersey -- you'll be golden on the roads then!

GO PIRATES!!!

rm -rf

The Strava Heat Map is useful for finding cycling roads in an unfamiliar area. It's made from a year of uploaded strava rides. Dark red are the most popular roads, blue somewhat less commonly ridden. I'd avoid very faint blue roads, they can be annoying to ride or busy. (Or maybe just out of the way!)

Here's the Greenville NC area. As you pan and zoom, the URL changes, so you can bookmark/favorite that view.

And the new Strava Route Builder works very well. It uses the heat map data to pick reasonably good roads. It won't take the obvious direct highway route, but will detour to get popular bike roads. (In some areas, gravel roads or trails are popular, so it can sometimes route off road.) You'll need a free Strava login to use it.

For example, I clicked in the center of Greenville to start, then clicked in Washington NC, then in Leggetts Crossroads to make a different return route. Then one more click back at Greenville. (Or drag a route over to a different road.)

Here's the experimental route link. Heh, 525 feet in 56 miles. That'll be different than you are used to!

topflightpro

It's pretty flat and rural. You should have plenty of roads to ride on. It can get a bit windy, but nothing too bad. That said, not all rural drivers in that area are as friendly to bicyclists. There is a shop right there in Uptown Greenville - The Bicycle Post, I think - and they should be able to point you to good routes.

Also, you're not too far from rides and races in Raleigh, and if you're willing to drive a few hours, you can get up to the mountains in Western North Carolina and Southern Virginia.

rmfnla

Be sure to visit Sliding Rock...

scplus5

If you want to ride a little farther east, I'm about 45 minutes from there.

PeregrineA1 

Stop in at the Bicycle Post. Nice shop and very supportive of local rides. They are/were a sponsor of the regional MTB race series. I believe they also do some shop road rides.

If you MTB there is a nice course just out of town. It may look flat, but it will kick your butt. Raced it (and won...age group) two seasons when I lived in NC.

Good riding.