Jeff's Fitlog

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.

-Ernest Hemingway

In my travels through the city, I have come across some good (and many not-so-good) roads to take.

The Good:
Craycroft Road is smooth, relatively clean of potholes and debris, and has a nice, wide lane. I really enjoy the ride when I'm on Craycroft and I don't have as much fatigue from road inconsistencies and bumps.

Broadway Boulevard (especially westbound past Craycroft) is slightly downhill, has huge bike lanes and is also clean. If it weren't for all the damn hills, it would be my favorite.

Golf Links Bike Trail (beginning at the southeast corner of Golf Links Park) is relatively short but isolated from traffic. Mesquite trees line the side of the trail and it provides a safe, unencumbered ride towards Alvernon.

Tanque Verde Road eastbound after the Pima/Wilmot intersection is super-clean and a 6% grade downhill break from the horrors of Pima Road. I would never ride it uphill, though.

The Crappy:
22nd Street (anywhere). It is riddled with inconsistencies, holes and crap. I get exhausted just shortly into the ride. I avoid 22nd Street whenever possible.

Alvernon is terrifying. There is no bike lane and trucks like to try to clip bikers as they drive by. Assholes.

Grant Road is almost as scary, especially considering the number of large Lincolns and Buicks with drivers who can barely see over the steering wheel. Or at all. You get my point.

Wrightstown Road has an ample bike lane, if your bike is a quarter of an inch wide. There is hardly enough room for the cars, let alone a bike AND cars. I got off that road as soon as I could.

I have a weigh-in tomorrow. After a 15-mile/day average, I've got high hopes!