Roanoke VA riding

[cmbicycles]

Its looking like I'll be in Roanoke, VA (or NE of downtown in Laymantown specifically) in early-mid June for some work related training. I would like to bring a bike to ride in the evenings as I'm able, not sure if I should bring road or MTN bike. Any recommendations on road or trail rides, and/or where to stay (more so on the budget end of the spectrum)?

[.RJ]

There's options for everything down there - road, gravel, and mtb @ carvin's cove and jefferson national forest.

Cardinal Bicycle can help you out with routes and recommendations.

As for places to stay, Airbnb down there is pretty affordable - you may want to scope out the location ahead of time as there's some neighborhoods you'll want to avoid in town.

[RobJ]

No recent first-hand experience, but here are some resources:

https://roanokeoutside.com/land/biki...el-bike-rides/
https://graveladventurefieldguide.com/roanoke

And there is an active FB group called Roanoke Gravel

Downtown Roanoke has some good little restaurants and bars. Has that old town feel.

[Alistair]

What RJ said.

Cardinal Bicycle has routes on their home page. The Grandin location serves food and drink.

Lodging - Airbnb in downtown or Old Southwest are walkable to downtown dining/bars, rideable to Cardinal’s location in Grandin, and rideable to BRP, river trail, and Mill Mountain. Maybe Airbnb in Grandin, but I don’t remember seeing any (probably different rules than the more downtown neighborhood).

For shorter evening road rides, up/around Mill Mointain to BRP, several options from 15 miles up. Can add gravel IIRC. Evening mountain, there are a few trails on Mill Mountain, or you can to one of 2-3 parks close to town.

For longer rides, there are a ton of options on all surfaces. And several active ride groups. I’ve ridden with the road group out of Cardinal a few times. Good group, several paces.

[RWL2222]

Kerry Werner is a cx racer out of Roanoke and puts all his routes on Strava. Jeremiah Bishop put out an Impossible Route film on a ride near Roanoke. Lots of good riding—dirt and paved—nearby for you.

[mickey.d]

If you are from a community with modern mtb trails, don’t bother bringing a mountain bike to Roanoke. City Parks and Rec doesn’t allow any trail maintenance on any of the trails at Mill Mtn or The Cove, and the local IMBA club is run for the astroturfing benefit of municipalities and developers, not the cycling public. Every single day, off road cycling in Roanoke gets worse.

Expect branches in the face and buckets of loose stone in corner apexes, and trails built by the CCC, Nazi POW’s, bulldozers, pack animals and septegenarian hikers. There is great mtb riding an hour away in Blacksburg, but the Self Proclaimed “America’s East Coast Mountain Bike Capital” has less than 2.5 miles of bike specific directional trail. Charlotte, NC is more of a mtb destination than Roanoke.

The people who claim to like riding mtb around roanoke mostly ride in the national forest on mule trails- all of the backcountry will already be grown in by June- don’t bother heading into the Forest between mid April and November.

Mixed surface drop bar rides from
the city are pretty fun. The absolute garbage singletrack is slightly more interesting on 38’s- and the entire city has gravel alleways and a decent river-adjacent greenway which can be great to put together flatter multi-surface rides inside the city.

Southwest Roanoke has a few fatal
shootings a week, Southeast Roanoke has large population of unhoused veterans that have dug
into hillsides with good vantage points that are easy to defend with clubs and machetes.
Downtown restaurants are leaving at a rapid rate, due to the excessive Bussiness Improvement District fees levied and the greed of the same corporate landlords that Roanoke Alleghany Regional Commison astroturfs the basically non-existent “outdoor scene” for.
Sorry you are gonna be stuck in Roanoke!

[Old Frog]

If you have a car & can get out of town, there are some nice back roads, with little traffic in Craig County. The John''s Creek area has a very nice loop.