Questions about Riding in and around St. Louis

[sweitee]

I'm moving to StL from Philadelphia soon and I wanted to ask if anyone has any insight on what they like about riding in St Louis. For reference, I'll be living in the city itself.

What types of riding are popular? I prefer to ride from my doorstep. I know there will be some kind of road scene and I've looked into the outdoor velodrome. Is there any mountain biking to be had a ride-able distance from the city? I know that once you get into either rural IL or MO there are plenty of gravel roads, but again can you get to any of those easily if you were to do a 50-70 mile loop starting from Forest Park?

What kind of commuter is best suited for short trips within Saint Louis itself?

Say you could have 3 bikes to cover your preferred riding in StL, what would you choose and why?

[ColonelJLloyd]

Need to disclose whether or not you're a Phillies fan.

[alexihnen]

I've been gone from St. Louis for 7 years, but rode a lot in the city while I lived there (2005-2017). The upside of STL emptying out over the past decades is that riding in the city is pretty nice, especially on weekends. The street grid allows you to skip from Forest Park to Tower Grove Park, to Carondelet and out to Jefferson Barracks pretty easily. From Forest Park, it's not easy to get out of the city. North is pretty run down and you eventually get stuck in suburbs that border the Missouri River. East isn't easy as there aren't great crossings of the Mississippi, and it's pretty industrial/boring on the easy side. Going west is eventually really nice, but it takes a while to get out there. Once out there, the Wildwood area is great, and you'll see other cyclists - at least on the weekends. The inner western suburbs aren't too bad to navigate (again, on weekends) and it's easy to put together a 20-30mi loop from Forest Park.

I didn't do much mountain biking while there. There are good trails, but you need to be 20mi west or so. There's good gravel in Missouri and Illinois too, but also farther out from the city. There are a couple of great bike shops near the city - Big Shark and Billy Goat. They will be able to point you to group rides, events, etc.

[sweitee]

Originally Posted by ColonelJLloyd

Need to disclose whether or not you're a Phillies fan.

I was born and raised a Card's fan (grew up an hour NE of StL). I appreciate the fervor of the Phillies fanbase and have really enjoyed living in Philadelphia the last couple years while they've been a great team to watch and the Cardinals have been middling.

[CDollarsign]

Adding on to Alex's reply (loved NextSTL!). Riding in the city used to be nice but not so much anymore. I feel like drivers have become really unpredictable and the roads are in terrible shape. Early mornings on the weekend are your best bet. That said ... there is a lot of great things to see and do via bicycle. There is a great coffee / bike shop called Roadcrew that would be a good place to start.

Happy to field any other questions and Welcome!

[ColonelJLloyd]

Originally Posted by sweitee

I was born and raised a Card's fan (grew up an hour NE of StL). I appreciate the fervor of the Phillies fanbase and have really enjoyed living in Philadelphia the last couple years while they've been a great team to watch and the Cardinals have been middling.

Agree. I'm a lifelong Cardinal fan and have been an Eagles fan since I started paying attention to NFL a decade ago or so.

[cmb5286]

I live across the river in Illinois, but really enjoy riding in Midtown and west of there. I try to avoid downtown because roads can be pretty chewed up and drivers tend to blow red lights frequently. Forest and Tower Grove Parks are nice to ride through this time of year.

I second CDollarsign with their Road Crew advice. Great coffee and nice/small shop for essentials.

If you want bigger/fast group rides, look to The Hub in Webster or Maplewood Cyclery.

If gravel is more your thing, Big Shark hosts rides out of their Chesterfield location - about 30 minutes from downtown.

There is also a pretty sizable paved trail system on the Illinois side called the MCT - https://www.mcttrails.org/. If you ride all the loops, you could get 160+ miles.

Happy to chat more if interested.

Chris

[Louis]

Originally Posted by cmb5286

If gravel is more your thing, Big Shark hosts rides out of their Chesterfield location - about 30 minutes from downtown.

Any idea where those rides go? The Katy Trail is the nearest gravel I can think of to that location.

[KonaSS]

Originally Posted by Louis

Any idea where those rides go? The Katy Trail is the nearest gravel I can think of to that location.

Yep, Katy and surrounding roads. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/31499803

[pwgoode]

For mountain biking options, check out the Gateway Offroad Cyclist website:

gorctrails.com

[cmb5286]

Originally Posted by Louis

Any idea where those rides go? The Katy Trail is the nearest gravel I can think of to that location.

They take the levee to the Katy, but then shoot over into Busch Wildlife.

[texbike]

I'm in STL for a few days this week for work. What a cool city! I'd love to have a bike to just ride and wander around all the different parts of town.

Texbike

[Louis]

Originally Posted by texbike

I'm in STL for a few days this week for work. What a cool city! I'd love to have a bike to just ride and wander around all the different parts of town.

Texbike

What parts have you been seeing? Many visitors don't say that.

[sweitee]

Originally Posted by CDollarsign

Adding on to Alex's reply (loved NextSTL!). Riding in the city used to be nice but not so much anymore. I feel like drivers have become really unpredictable and the roads are in terrible shape. Early mornings on the weekend are your best bet. That said ... there is a lot of great things to see and do via bicycle. There is a great coffee / bike shop called Roadcrew that would be a good place to start.

Happy to field any other questions and Welcome!

Originally Posted by cmb5286

I live across the river in Illinois, but really enjoy riding in Midtown and west of there. I try to avoid downtown because roads can be pretty chewed up and drivers tend to blow red lights frequently. Forest and Tower Grove Parks are nice to ride through this time of year.

I second CDollarsign with their Road Crew advice. Great coffee and nice/small shop for essentials.

If you want bigger/fast group rides, look to The Hub in Webster or Maplewood Cyclery.

If gravel is more your thing, Big Shark hosts rides out of their Chesterfield location - about 30 minutes from downtown.

There is also a pretty sizable paved trail system on the Illinois side called the MCT - https://www.mcttrails.org/. If you ride all the loops, you could get 160+ miles.

Happy to chat more if interested.

Chris

Thanks for this!

Road Crew is definitely on my radar! I've stayed near Tower Grove while visiting in the past and paid them a visit. I'm looking to join in on their Monday social rides once I move.

I'm definitely one to ride regardless of road quality and I know I'll spend a big portion of my time on bike initially working my way up the local wandrer.earth leaderboards.

I have family on the IL side so I'll definitely be making use of those MCT trails!

I think right now I'm trying to figure out what bike would work best for St. Louis. Here in Philadelphia I've had gravel, road, and mountain. I ended up with a road bike and a mountain bike because there are multiple trail systems within the city and though the roads are bad, the type of asphalt mix most used by the city tends to cause the road to warp and pothole rather than crack.

My experiences in St. Louis and IL in general were that the roads tend to crack (especially perpendicular to traffic flow) more so its a question of getting something that can absorb those bumps rather than choosing a smoother line. Given that, and paired with the increased proximity to gravel, I'm looking at gravel bikes again and now I'm going down a rabbit hole with geometry charts.

Is it feasible to use a cargo bike in the place of a car as a daily driver? We're looking to move around Tower Grove and that seems like it could be possible there.

[Plum Hill]

On the east side, too, but in my younger days rode all over the area.
Start with some maps:
https://www.ewgateway.org/wp-content...twork-2011.pdf

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/governmen...-louis-map.cfm
Paper maps of both available.
You can tie the River des Peres Greenway Trail with Grant’s Trail for a long loop city ride.
Nice riding out to Webster Groves and Kirkwood.
River valley hills on both sides of the rivers (Mississippi and Missouri). Hop in the car and head to Calhoun County Illinois.
There’s a trail on the Missouri side of the Mississippi that goes from downtown up to the Chain of Rocks bridge. You can access MCT trails there or, farther south, via the McKinley and Eads bridges.
You can take your bike on MetroLink to access riding in Illinois. There is a parallel trail from the Fairview Heights station to the Shiloh station. You can do some nice loops out into less populated area.

Bike Surgeon in O’Fallon, Il. does three different pace rides on Saturday morning and Tuesday evenings. They also have a small bar/sandwich area called Gears.
The Cyclery in Edwardsville does group rides.
www.stlrc does rides of all paces, from barely-keep-it-up to fast pace, and many longer distance rides on both sides of both rivers.

As mentioned, GORC is the de facto MTB group.
One city park, I believe Carondelet, has new MTB trails. Many STL county parks have MTB trails.

Racing all over the place, on and off road. Big Shark website should have up to date information on the racing scene.