Best Suburbs for Cyclists (Denver, Lakewood: transporting, HOA, house)

[furiousjoe]

Good morning,

I would like the group’s opinion on what are some better suburbs that offer easy access and safe roads | paths for cyclists. As an avid cyclist, during the work week I would like to find a single family home where I could ride my bike from the house; either strait on the road, gravel, or light single track. As my wife as started to enjoy cycling, she is not as comfortable ridding on busy roads with a small shoulder during the work. Although we have the means transporting or bikes it’s always nice to be able to leave from your house during the work week to squeeze in some exercise.

We are family with Denver and looked at Cherry Creek but not so sure that’s the correct side of the interstate to be on. I do understand my question correlates to budget but at this point just looking for some general ideas.


Thanks to all that read and provide any advice.

[Augie Daugie]

I think you would want to be on the west side. I have some friends who are avid cyclists that love living over in the Green Mountain area of Lakewood, which offers nice access for road cycling and mountain biking. Same goes for the Golden area. The NW burbs also have some nice trails around Superior, Louisville, Lafayette and Broomfield.

[pikabike]

I chose the Green Mountain area of Lakewood/Golden and then downtown Golden for that reason, long ago before they shot up in price. Southwestern unincorporated Jeffco was also excellent, but the higher foothills (not suburbs) are probably too mountainous for your wife’s tastes. The area near Chatfield SP would fit, though.

It depends on what you can afford and what your other wants are. Some places that would be great turn people off because they do not have sharply defined downtowns and are too suburban. They are crossing off some very good possibilities...the same places that have walkable school routes and are “safe” and have well-tended bike paths tend to be suburbs. So you are wise to specify suburbs. However, IF your definition of suburbs demands natural forests of evergreens all around based on living in another state/ecosystem, you will not get that in Denver suburbs!!!!

[Mike from back east]

If you haven't done so yet, please use our excellent search tool to find a ton of prior threads that already exist in this forum on bikes, bicycling, bicycles, cycles, cycling, cyclists in the Denver area. In my 12 years on here I do recall quite a few threads. Use the advanced search, filter on thread titles and threads.

[BarryK123]

Originally Posted by Augie Daugie

I think you would want to be on the west side. I have some friends who are avid cyclists that love living over in the Green Mountain area of Lakewood, which offers nice access for road cycling and mountain biking. Same goes for the Golden area. The NW burbs also have some nice trails around Superior, Louisville, Lafayette and Broomfield.

This is where I do most of my cycling.

[COcheesehead]

South suburbs. Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree. Its a biker's paradise.

There are bike lanes on most of the major roads. There is easy access to the paved C470 Trail which will take you to Parker and eventually Cherry Creek State Park and the Cherry Creek trail into downtown or almost all the way to Castlewood Canyon SP if you head south from Parker.

The other direction takes to Chatfield, with easy connections to Deer Creek Canyon and the western foothills, Waterton Canyon or north to Red Rocks, Bear Creek SP, Golden and Lookout Mountain. You can also access the Platte River trail easily and that takes you into downtown as well.

The C470 trail also crosses the High Line Canal which is paved in parts and pea gravel in others. That meanders for almost 40 miles through town.

If you head south, you can bike into Castle Pines, again almost all of it in a bike lane.

For MTB there is a whole series of trails in Highlands Ranch and Douglas County Open space. You can access these off Monarch Rd or Grigs. There are private single track trails for Highlands Ranch HOA members in Back Country.

https://www.douglas.co.us/documents/...ycling-map.pdf

[pikabike]

In case you don’t already know, watch out for goatheads in some places. Highline Canal is weird in that parts of it are literally infested with them while others have none. Generally they are not a problem above about 6500’, but many popular riding areas are rife with them. BEWARE! Slime and tire shields only do so much to prevent flats. They even exist in cracks on paved paths.

[Mike from back east]

Whatsa goathead?

Pray they aren't related to the Wild Colorado Jackalopes.

Thanks...

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Whatsa goathead?

Pray they aren't related to the Wild Colorado Jackalopes.

Thanks...

Goatheads

Watch the picture scroll.

Evil effing thorny burs.

[pikabike]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Whatsa goathead?

Pray they aren't related to the Wild Colorado Jackalopes.

Thanks...

A.k.a. puncturevine, or scientifically Tribulus terrestris, they are a creeping invasive plant that grows spines. The spines “ripen” to become tapered and hard brown spikes. The tapering is one of its most evil traits.

Rode in some mud and think those brown dots are just bits of mud? Take another look. Pull one away and wait for the telltale HISSSSSSS. I never knew they existed till I moved to the Denver area. First outing on dirt earned me literally more than 30 goatheads embedded in my tires. I removed and threw away the tubes, only to begin the long process of using tweezers to remove the nearly microscopic spike tips stuck in the tires.

I did try the Tuffy liners; one huge goathead actually punctured the tire and the liner and the tube! Others jammed themselves between the edges of the liners and the tire sidewalls. Bad stuff.

The problem mostly solved itself, because I much preferred riding more primitive trails in higher-altitude places anyway. But whenever I got an itch to ride dirt paths lower down, I had to think if they were among my list of bad goathead venues.