Is the RTP Area Bike Friendly (Raleigh, Durham: chapel, house, YMCA)

[spidron]

Hello everyone,
My family is planning to relocate. We're in the middle of several scouting missions.

In our trips there, I saw most of the back roads were a little narrow. Are these bike-friendly?

Was wondering if there is an area around Raleigh that is similar to Hunterdon county NJ. I'd like an area where I can make a good quick safe scenic 15 miles in the morning right off my garage.

Also, for those who mountain bike, and used to do the same here in NJ), which State Parks are similar to Lewis Morris, Allaire, Allamuchy? Nothing too technical, just nice flowing and climbing singletrack.

Your input much appreciated.

[Dire Wolf]

The area is not terribly bike friendly to road bikes. Areas that were excellent to ride 5 years ago are now being heavily developed (such as the west Cary towards Jordan Lake). That said, there are still a lot of riders in the area and group rides are a big thing.

I recently bought a cheap mountain bike because the traffic on the roads was just too much for my taste. I just ride for fun and don't do anything at all technical. Greenways and the like are fine for me. My two favorite places to ride are probably the American Tobacco Trail and Umstead Park. The ATT is nearly all connected and runs from near Apex and Jordan Lake all the way to Durham when 2 bridges get done. Umstead has Cary Greenway on one side and Raleigh Greenway on the other (to the Art Museum and Merideth College) and it all combines to around 14 miles one-way. There is also a long greenway that follows Crabtree Creek. And all this Greenway keeps getting connected.

Check out the Get Out, Get Fit blog at the News and Observer website. He has a couple of greenway maps and always has new info on cycling and greenways.

For more trail type riding, Lake Crabtree Park and Harris Lake both have some good trail systems. There are some other options around , too. trianglemtb is a local group worth looking into. There used to be tons of "unofficial" places to mountain bike, but these continue to disappear.

[J_Lurk]

There was a recent discussion of bikes on this thread: http://www.city-data.com/forum/ralei...cary-good.html

As I posted in that thread, I agree with Dire Wolf that road biking in this area can be a little hard. Many people do group rides for safety more than other reasons; my sister road bikes a lot but strongly prefers a group. Because we have small children we stick to trails.

The best places for road biking are probably the state-sanctioned ones you can find through this link: NCDOT Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation (click "maps" at the top). You can probably find a house not too far from some of these trails.

The Triangle MTB group has a lot of information on local mountain biking here: TriangleMTB.com, your source for mountain biking in Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill

You can find group rides through local bike shops like Spin Cycle and Cycling Spoken Here in Cary. I know some weekend rides go out from the A.E.Finley YMCA in North Raleigh too.

Here's the link to "Get Out Get Fit" that Dire Wolf mentioned too: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/joemiller/ (broken link) . I just recently discovered it and it is a great resource.