[stewie13]

Heading up to Philly this weekend to visit some friends and don't want to miss out on too much training...

I'm not sure if I'm staying either up around the Temple area or down by South st. Lets just assume I'm around Centre City to start with.

I'm looking for 3-4 hour ride. Keep in mind I don't know any of the roads so I'm pretty much just looking for a direction (i.e. head west on road XX and then turn around after 2 hours and go back). I would prefer to ride on roads and not MUTs, don't mind traffic but obviously some roads are better than others.

Thanks

 

[Soggy Feed Bag]

Heading up to Philly this weekend to visit some friends and don't want to miss out on too much training...

I'm not sure if I'm staying either up around the Temple area or down by South st. Lets just assume I'm around Centre City to start with.

I'm looking for 3-4 hour ride. Keep in mind I don't know any of the roads so I'm pretty much just looking for a direction (i.e. head west on road XX and then turn around after 2 hours and go back). I would prefer to ride on roads and not MUTs, don't mind traffic but obviously some roads are better than others.

Thanks

The trail along the river is your best bet. It starts, I believe around the Art museum. Basically, go to the boathouses and just follow the people.

It is totally flat and no cars. If the weather is good you should have no problem finding people to ride with.

 

[cwaltond]

Bumping this up

I live in Philly and I haven't found any long stretches of road with sufficient shoulders and no stoplights. Anyone know any nearby? Even a little ways outside of the city proper would be fine. I've explored about half the roads on the Philly Bike Map, but they all have lots of stoplights and car exhaust. The schuylkill river trail and Fairmount park are fun, but I'm looking for something new.

 

[siècletourist]

Philly is a big city, so if you want to go traffic free and don't want to ride on the bike path or in Fairmount park, you're going to have to go a little ways out of town. The best way I've found to learn the good bike routes around Philly is by doing group rides. Check the BCP website for more info on these.

http://www.phillybikeclub.org/current.html

Every Saturday I do the Vino Velo ride out to Ambler. There are a few lights, especially at the beginning, and not many shoulders, but the route is pretty traffic free, especially after the first ten miles or so. Here's the que sheet for that route:
http://www.quovadimus.net/bcp/myra/qcw-ambler.html

There are a bunch more cue sheets on the BCP website:
http://www.phillybikeclub.org/ridelibrary/index.php?m=

 

[cwaltond]

Bcp

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Yeah I signed up for the BCP newsletter and I am trying to get my experience/general riding competence up before I jump in on one of the roup rides. I will try following some of the cue sheets.

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BTW, I followed the Henry Ave bike path to its northwest end yesterday, then went exploring a little farther into Lafayette Hill and took a left onto an inconspicuous side street called Manor road - GORGEOUS! It felt like almost two miles of descent past fields, forests, and streams. Completely unexpected to find such a nice stretch there; only wish it was about twice as long. Only two cars the whole time (during rush hour), and no stoplights. I'm going to try climbing up it next.