[10kman]

If anyone is very familiar with the Philly area, any ideas for more riding options?

The out and back onto the Schukyll River trail is nice without the traffic, but I need some more ideas to explore.

I'm on mapquest looking around, but honestly don't know how bad traffic is, etc.

If it matters, I'm coming from Center City ish, so I'm coming out Kelly/River Drives, hopping onto Ridge, then through Manayunk usually.

Looking for 20-50 milers too from my starting point.....

Thanks a bundle,

10k

 

[propp2531]

I live in Philly and was able to find a lot of new rides and options by going to this site. Its free and people post queue sheets of rides that they do in their area. http://www.bikethisway.com/ There may be some good routes or ideas for you there. The trail can get kind of boring and crowded sometimes thats why I abandoned it a long time ago.

 

[10kman]

Awesome, thanks.....

That's just what I was looking for. The trail is kinda boring. I don't mind, i space out when I exercise usually, but still, I'd like to not have to space out.

plus like you said, it does get crowded with the fair weather exercisers floating around these days.

 

[JohnL]

I'm usually headed toward Philly, but there's lots of options.

A good bet is to visit your nearest bike shop and pick up one of the regional bike maps from the Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia. It's pretty extensive and gives you a reasonable idea of roads to avoid. The link for their website is here: http://www.bicyclecoalition.org/index.html. You can also just view the map online. It's near the bottom of the mentioned webpage. Then you can create your own routes and experiment.

Good luck finding routes. There's many options, especially once you get out of the city.

 

[10kman]

I like the Manayunk area (I like going up, and the town is cool), but you can't really get a good loop there. I just need some nice open roads with few cars, but that's hard to find around here anymore.......

 

[climbo]

group rides

join group rides that go out of Kelly Drive. There are some Sat and Sun usually starting 8am to 10am. Look out for them or ask at the LBS. Bike Therapy / Wissahickon would be a good to ask.

Many go across the river away from Manayunk, to the west and south, around Merrion Townships, towards Villanova. You can ride for miles out there with little traffic.

 

[10kman]

Climbo,

Gimme some roads to look for out that way. I'm familiar with the main layout, but don't know names off the top of my head.........

Thanks ahead of time...

 

[GreenFan]

Here's a couple of names to look for...

on this side of the river is "Waverly" going up that will bring you into Gladwyne (not much traffic, good roads) that then leads you into Bryn Mawr and Villanova. Or you could take the trail to Oaks and then venture into the Valley Forge area and make your way back towards the city on suburban roads. There are alot of options and many ways to mix those options up, depending on your fitness level you may want to tag along to one of the local race teams group rides (great way to see a lot of good training roads in a hurry). But by far my favorite roads to ride on are in LANCASTER. Having just been forced off the bike for the second time in less than a year by careless drivers (this time for alot longer than last year's broken rib) I'm starting to really question alot more of the roads that I used to think of as relatively safe.

 

[10kman]

Thanks greenfan. I went out searching yesterday and figured out that Henry Ave. is a nice road, it's busy, but has very very wide shoulders/bike lanes, so it was okay. That is another option now for loops.

I'll check out Waverly, I saw that sign and wondered where it went.

Lancaster is awesome for riding, you can ride for miles sometimes and not even see a car. my kinda day right there....

thanks again......

 

[GreenFan]

Something to consider...

probably the best tool that I ever picked up for planning a new route for a long one day ride was ADC's Metro Philadelphia road atlas. Even if you don't use it as prior planning but simply use it as a review once you get home to see where you've been it's a real asset. Any of the Barnes and Noble or Borders book stores in the area have them and they're pretty cheap considering how useful they are. Enjoy the rides

 

[JohnL]

Between ADC and the map I mentioned above (which is free) you should be good to go.

If you're near a Costco, I got mine there really cheap.

Again, good luck.