3 circles

I currently live in Minneapolis and have spent a large majority of my time on the Greenway, which I'm tired of. --Are there any good road routes where a person can ride without all the stop and go intersections?

halfspeed

Get out of town and start climbing out of the Mississippi river valley.

3 circles

Thanks, I've never thought of doing that. Where do u usually start when you do that ride?

halfspeed

I live near Rochester, so most of the rides I'd give you would require putting your bike in a car and driving for a while. If you like flat, head West. If you like hills, head South and East. There's some beautiful climbing in the driftless region in Minnesota and Wisconsin. If you've got a cross bike, lots of people are riding gravel now. You can try something like this: https://milltowncycles.blogspot.com/2...avel-tour.html.

Also check with your LBS and local clubs. You're in Minneapolis, so you've got lots of both. Searching ridewithgps.com, mapmyride.com, strava.com and others will turn up lots of routes people have done.

3 circles

Awesome thanks. My family actually moved to Harmony, MN so I've road down there a couple of times It beautiful. You are right about the hills, there are a lot more 'Hilly" regions around there! The Lanesboro area is amazing so I'll have to check into that too.- Thanks again for the leads.

zxy007

Have you gotten a copy of "The Map". If not, stop at Freewheel on the Greenway and ask one of the employees for a copy. It cost about 12 dollars.

The Greenway is the fountainhead for several trails. It connects to the West River Parkway, which going north connects to the new Cedar trail and going south connects to many, many trails.

North of MPLS at Hinkley is a long bike trail to Deluth.

This trail is located at Faribault
https://www.trailsfromrails.com/sakat...ging_trail.htm

MPLS/MN does have many, many trails....Luce trail, Theodore Wirth, Victory Lane, Weber Parkway....can all be found via "The Map". There is a free version publish by the 3 Rivers Park org.

KoNP

you can find some other peoples rides around you on mapmyride.com

https://www.mapmyride.com/routes/?location=Minneapolis

kbro1986

MN is as flat as a pancake. I start in St. Paul and ride to Hudson and back. Gateway trail is good too. +1 to the Mississippi river valley.

3 circles

Awesome, thanks for the "tips" on trips!

halfspeed

Only if you don't know where to ride.

ErichM

I used to think this too, but looking at some of my Strava friends there are people that have it much worse than we do. I usually get 1,200-1,600 ft of climbing every ride, which isn't so shabby I guess. Some people are lucky to hit 100 ft on a ride.

I don't ride much into Minneapolis, as I live in Plymouth, but there are some pretty good roads out here. The other day I rode down into Eden Prairie and found a pretty neat road called "Ridge Rd" which takes you up into a private neighborhood of huge homes overlooking two lakes on either side of this narrow winding road. Pretty neat, had no idea it was there until I saw someone ride it on my Strava feed.

I really like heading out to Mound, St. Boni, Minnetonka, etc. A lot of roads around lake Minnetonka are really nice, and scenic too. There aren't any real climbs, but you'll accumulate elevation with all the rolling hills, and there can be a lot of them.

3 circles

Okay, so I'm just gonna ask: Do most of u have Garmins?? I do a MAJORITY of my rides solo and I'm wondering if this is an inevitable investment for mapping out new routes that would otherwise be uncharted territory to me?

ErichM

I have an Edge 500 for data about my rides, but the 500 really doesn't do mapping. You can do some level of navigation with courses, but no street labels. I usually just try to remember the roads when I look at other people's rides. If I get lost, I'll stop and look at google maps. It can be a little tough sometimes especially in wooded areas because you're on the shoulder and it's hard to see the street signs until you're right at the road. In those cases I think the Edge 800 would come in handy. They're so expensive though and for the amount I would use the mapping feature, I guess for me it isn't worth it.

I do find the heart rate data and other metrics to be pretty invaluable on the Edge 500 though. I think a Garmin computer would be a great investment if you do a lot of riding. Sites like Strava also make the Garmin pretty fun to have.

I'm at https://app.strava.com/athletes/109252 and there's also the Bike Forums Strava club at https://app.strava.com/clubs/bike-forums.

My Strava activity profile is pretty sparse the past few weeks. I've had very little time unfortunately.

Also check out these guys: https://app.strava.com/clubs/balance-cycling they're based in Uptown. I think I'll join their club next season. I don't know how close they are to you, but you might check out some of their routes for some ideas on where to go.

halfspeed

Inevitable, probably. Necessary, no. You can map routes or use routes others have mapped and print cue sheets to take with you.

bitingduck

check out the TCBC website and rides-- there are (or were, back when I lived there) frequent rides of almost all levels, and I think for most of the summer they have multiple rides almost every day.

https://www.biketcbc.org/

RollCNY

If you do it, be careful that it doesn't leach the joy out of riding with data overload. I impulse bought an Edge 500, way overpaid at an LBS I don't even like, and loved it until the novelty wore off. I use it for cadence and mileage now, after going WAY overboard on data analysis and losing lots of pleasant rides in the mean time.

swix

TCBC is an awesome source for good group riding, everyone is extremely nice. just google MN bike trails and there is plenty of info.

about the garmin question, i use an iphone with motionx GPS every once in a while. any smartphone would do.