Cycling in St. Louis

[saab2000]

Hi Folks,

Your unemployed pilot cyclist has been offered a in St. Louis flying those aluminum tubes around again!! :D

Well, at least I will start in St. Louis. They may well also send me to Richmond, VA. To be honest, I don't really care where I end up. Without sounding disloyal to my new employer, my real goal is to return to Switzerland ASAP!!! But my old airline, SWISS International is still very sick.... :confused:

I start training for my new company and aircraft on May 10 and I will not go without my bike. How is the riding in St. Louis? I expect it to be good. What about Richmond, VA in case I end up there?

Anyone here from either of those places? I was in St. Louis the other day at the airport and it was nice weather. I really did not see enough to figure out if it is going to be good riding, but it looked good.

[dirtdigger88]

St. Louis rocks for riding, doesn't matter road, mtb we got it here. We have some of the finest shops I have seen in the US and one hell of a racing scene. Big Shark is the local Serotta dealer, you have to stop in and see the new store, again I am not just saying this- it is one of the nicest shops I have ever seen. We have lots of races, I am leaving for one in 30 minutes. We have the Tuesday night Crit series used to hone your skills for races that count. Email me privately and I can give you more info. Come to St. Louis to check things out- I will show you around.

Jason

[Louis]

Not to take away from what DD88 wrote I do have one comment:

S2000 wrote "I was in St. Louis the other day at the airport and it was nice weather."

I've lived in St Louis for over 15 years and one thing I can tell you, the weather you saw the other day was not representative. In the Spring (late March to some time in May) and in the Fall we get some really nice weather, but the Summer is hot and humid. Not enough to keep you from riding – especially if you get up early – but if you don’t like heat and humidity that may be a concern.

I’m not so sure we are the cycling Mecca DD88 makes us out to be, but there are some pretty nice areas for road riding. There are fewer options for MTBs.

From which airport would you be flying? If it’s Lambert there won’t be any good riding areas very close, so you might have a bit of a commute by car (if you like good rides from your front door, as I do). If you are going to be based out of Spirit and like hills, there are some great areas just west and south of that. I live about a 20-minute ride from Spirit and specifically chose this part of the county for the cycling routes.

Good Luck
Louis

[Andreu]

I worked west of St Louis a good few years ago (only for a couple of weeks at a time) and saw loads of cyclists and some great looking trails. And there is some vinyard areas (I think in the north part of Missouri?) too which looked like good cycling areas. I actually bought my first pulsometer in a cycle shop in Missouri but I cannot for the life of me remember where it was!
Apologies for the vague nature of the note but it was about ten years ago and memory is a little hazy, but I am sure you will find a good scene there. And anyway the weather was always great for cycling when I was there (spring and Autumn).
Good luck
:beer: A

[dirtdigger88]

I never really said it was a cycling mecca, the race I went to today had a lot of riders in it though. Louis, do you still live in St. Louis, if you do and do not think it is a great cycling town, you don't get out enough. Sadly, no I am no longer "God of Weather" so there is nothing I can do about things being hot. I guess I have lived in the mid west my whole life, so heat and humidity don't bother me.

Jason

[dirtdigger88]

Just to show why I think this is a great place to cycle

StLBiking.com lists 19 active teams in the metro area

I think there has already been 3 or 4 races in 2004

45 Races LEFT to go with in 1 hour Drive

You can add to that number if you expand your drive to say 2 hours

Those 45 did not count the Tuesday night Crit series that has started and will continue until late September (Those are every Tuesday)

There are over 20 shops with in one hour of Downtown.

There is the River Trail north of the Arch grounds. 24 miles out and back along the Mississippi. Wanna talk about a great training road. 24 miles and you never have to stop

12 mile loop around Forest Park. Forest Park is also one of the largest city parks in the US

Katy Trail. Hundreds and hundreds of miles of rail to trail Go visit a winery and have some fun.

I can't even get into the maze of road in the city and county that you can ride road bikes on

Want MTB- Castlewood, Lone Elk Park and Berryman come to mind

There is also a Cyclo Cross race series

I could go on, but I think you get my point. If there was not a lot of cyclist, you would not have all of this. Mecca- I doubt it, but a great place to be if you like to ride

Jason

[saab2000]

...it will be fun. The heat and humidity do not bother me either. In fact I like it.

I don't know if I will ultimately be stationed there, but I will be there at least 6 weeks in May and June.

How are the winters, just in case? I would guess it must be rideable most of the winter if one is willing to install fenders and ride in the cold and wet a bit.

[Louis]

S2000 - If you like heat and humidity then St Louis in the Summer is the place for you. This afternoon my outdoor thermometer maxed out at 91 degrees. I rode and it was just fine, because the humidity is not yet up in the 90%+ range, but it will get there.

Winter’s not too bad, with the biggest hassle being messy roads. If that doesn’t bother you then you can ride through most of the winter. We don’t get too many days with highs below 20 deg F. Another problem is the short days, with little sunlight after work, but I don’t know what kind of schedule you would have.

DD88 – I hear what you’re saying. Yes, St Louis does have quite a few areas where you can ride. I used to love riding the Katy trail when I lived in St Peters (for those of you who don’t know it, it’s a cross-state converted railroad track with packed gravel). I’ve never ridden Forest Park. I now live in Wildwood, which I believe has some of the best cycling roads in this area.

My biggest issue with St Louis is that most of the people who live here and the politicians who make the decisions are fundamentally not pro-cycling or pro-environment. Unlike places like Denver, Seattle, or SoCal, where people and politicians do care about the outdoors and folks like us who use it for recreation, many people around here don’t give a rat’s a$$ about those issues.

If you read the local papers you see letters to the editor complaining about the area wasted as park space. (You could stop wasting tax-payer money on them and put houses in there…) Developers nearly always get their way and the local government does all it can the help the strip-malls (adding roads and utility hook-ups) as it cuts funding for parks.

Take care, and watch out for the local yahoos (notice, I didn’t ever bother to complain about motorists’s attitude towards cyclists…)

Louis