Family friendly area where I can go cycling from my house - need help! (Fort Collins: houses)

[J1mmyleg]

Considering a relocation to the Ft Collins area from Las Vegas. We have 2 kids - ages 9 and 7. Looking for family friendly neighborhoods w/ homes in the 3000sq/ft size. My wife and I are both avid cyclists and enjoy participating in triathlons. We want to make sure the areas we consider are good for both running (5-10 miles) and cycling (30-50 miles) right from our home w/out the need to drive our bikes somewhere in order to avoid endless stoplights and traffic. Would love to hear any recommendations you can provide. Thanks!

[sunsprit]

I'm not sure what your criteria is for "heavy traffic" ... but, in my experience ...

With the exception of the main thoroughfares of core Fort Collins such as College Ave ...

all of FCollins is readily accessible and suitable for your bicycle riding and running.

My personal choices for housing would be the areas to the West or North sides of town ... perhaps along the lakes. But you've made no mention of price range, so it's difficult to focus what area might be in your budget.

[J1mmyleg]

As it relates to cycling, heavy traffic to me means having to worry about getting run over constantly. I would prefer to be able to go out, ride for 30 miles and only have a few stoplights to contend with - usually that puts me at the edge of town where I have access to frontage roads or rolling hills around base of mountains. No fun to go riding if I have to stop every half mile at a light. Price range would be 350-400k.

[davemess10]

Riding accessibility in the Fort is pretty amazing. Usually you'll hit a light or two getting out of town, but then you should be able to ride for hours without any other interruptions. Every major street has a bike lane (except for the few you can't ride on (College)), and the town is not that big, so it's pretty easy to get out. And once you're out there are endless backroads and climbs to explore. I am kind of missing FoCo now with writing all this (I'm back in a bigger city now).

The running is pretty good too, with a good system of trails running throughout town. I would probably look to the North side of town for access. The Poudre trail is right there for running, and you have really easy access to all the riding routes up north, as well as Rist Canyon (my personal favorite climb). The trails around the resevoir are really nice for mountain biking and running as well. When I lived in Old town, I would literally hit 3 stop signs until I got out of town.

Really though, you can't go wrong in the Fort, maybe if you live in SE side of town near all the new cookie cutter houses, where you would have a bit more lights and traffic to deal with.

[feanix]

I can't think of any area in Fort Collins outside of College Avenue where you would go wrong. We're on the West side and love it here! The only downfall we've found so far is if you are driving anywhere we tend to have a longer commute in comparison to other parts of Fort Collins. But, for biking my husband and I ride our bikes daily and we don't we feel unsafe at all!

[AllisonKlein]

It depends on your price range but there are many great neighborhoods with many kids and great community feel. Just depends what type of home you are looking for.
Good luck in your search,
Allison Klein

[Mike Weber]

The whole town is easily accessible by bike, but for the most efficient access to rides, here is some basic data:

Your best bets for road rides are south-west of town or north-east and north-west of town.

There are several good loops that start by heading south on Taft Hill Road to Loveland and then west into the foothills, returning by one of a couple of different roads through Masonville. Subdivisions that have easy access to this area include Taft Canyon, Registry Ridge, Quail Hollow, Clarendon Hills, etc.

To the north -west, Rist Canyon is a popular training route for hills, and there are several reasonably flat loops on county roads from the north edge of town all the way to the Owl Canyon Road. The easiest access for these big loops is via Overland Trail, which sees quite a bit of cyclist traffic. Nearby subdivisions would be the Ponds, Poudre Overlook, Old Town, Fairbrooke, etc

If you end up on the north-east side of town, you can access many of the northern loops and to the north-east, there are lots of rolling county roads with very little traffic. They are a mix of gravel and paved roads. It is easy to string together a ride from 25 miles all the way to a century. Country Club, Old Town North, Richard's Lake, Hearthfire, and Clydesdale Park are all near this side of town.

As mentioned above, the most difficult part of town to get to some nice long rides would be the south-east part of town, where most of the newer development is located.

The area has a fantastic bike culture and cycling community. Welcome!

[Mike Weber]

Here is a ride I squeezed in between appointments yesterday:
Untitled by sgltrak at Garmin Connect - Details

This ride was 29 miles, had about 1300' climbing, and I only encountered 4 traffic signals on the whole loop.

This same ride and same number of traffic signals could easily be done from The Ponds subdivision, Taft Canyon, Quail Hollow, Poudre Overlook. One more traffic signal and you could ride from the Gates and the Overlook and some other neighborhoods along west Harmony Road.