Bikepathaletes (Denver)

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

RDV4, Where do you live in Denver? As I said the Cherry Creek path is the worst. I would rather ride on side streets. I have heard about actual fistfights happening on that part of the path. If you haven't yet you should try ridding to lookout mtn on the clear creek path. You will be surprised at how few people use it plus you can fill up your bottles at the wheatridge rec center.
Take Care

I live up in the Highlands (38th & Tennyson area). When I ride Lookout I usually take 32nd out, do my climbing loop, then the Clear Creek path back. That's on the weekends though, what I was talking about is my commute home from work. I always take the Platt trail down to Englewood, then after work I have no choice but to cross over Broadway then take Emerson up to the Cherry Creek trail. Thing is there just isn't any shopping or watering holes if I take Platt back. My girlfriend gets upset with me if I come home empty handed, knowwhatimean....

 

[richwagmn]

When I'm riding home from work on the Cherry Creek trail around 6-7pm there's a really bad mix of you name it they're all out there. Worst offenders are the roadies that don't announce that their coming up behind at 28mph, totally oblivious to the fact that their are many others on the trail that cannot react on a bike like a cat.

Though it's always nice announcing to someone with headphones blaring in their ears...

 

[knewcleardaze]

I have always been suspect about the so called bike path/jogging trail.
I took the path near me to check on a friend's house while she was out of town. Thought I'd take my trusty 70's era Schwinn Le Tour.

This is what I encountered:
I'm guessing 17-22 yr. old female with ear buds in,clueless to her surroundings, strolling in the middle of path.

40ish female walking three dogs, one on leash, other two loose. Ear buds also in place.

Mother teaching a child to ride a bike with training wheels, while her two unleashed dogs loitered on the trail.

I suppose some trail users think it is their private trail. It will be a long time before I use it again.

 

[slippyB]

I live up in the Highlands (38th & Tennyson area). When I ride Lookout I usually take 32nd out, do my climbing loop, then the Clear Creek path back. That's on the weekends though, what I was talking about is my commute home from work. I always take the Platt trail down to Englewood, then after work I have no choice but to cross over Broadway then take Emerson up to the Cherry Creek trail. Thing is there just isn't any shopping or watering holes if I take Platt back. My girlfriend gets upset with me if I come home empty handed, knowwhatimean....

Yep... Know whatcha mean but that path is the worst. You do have other options and if the path is bumming you out (and darkening your view of our lovely little cow-town) then go via platt trail or up side streets. Iride all over Denver and there are definitely alternatives... Plus you can pick your girl up some stuff & the Sunflower market...conveniently located @ 38th & Tennyson! So dude...i'm calling you out on a poor route choice that you then *****ed a pile of sand about!

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

Yep... Know whatcha mean but that path is the worst. You do have other options and if the path is bumming you out (and darkening your view of our lovely little cow-town) then go via platt trail or up side streets. Iride all over Denver and there are definitely alternatives... Plus you can pick your girl up some stuff & the Sunflower market...conveniently located @ 38th & Tennyson! So dude...i'm calling you out on a poor route choice that you then *****ed a pile of sand about!

You're right, I've gotta work on my route to avoid that POS trail, Sunflower pretty much sucks for everything but produce, $11 for a pack of bison brats, please! This town needs a Trader Joe's in the worst way.

Another thing I've been hearing, not path related, but many people have complained to me about getting beer bottles and other debris thrown at them from cars out on their road rides. The more I'm out there I totally understand why. Seems that Colorado cyclists have a King of the Road mentality and ride 2 sometimes 3 abreast on roads with no shoulders in rush hour.. Hmmm, I wonder why motorists are so pissed.

 

[kiwirider]

I live in Ottawa as well and love the bike path network. I use the paths when I am commuting, on non-training rides (i.e., shopping or meeting friends downtown), and to get to training ride locations such as the Gatineaus. I find that people are mostly good and respectful on our pathways. The inline skaters wearing earphones are the most problematic because they take up both lanes and don't hear your bell or shouting "on your left". I often train on a road parallel to one of the pathways (because I am riding faster than the 20kph speed limit on the pathway) and have been abused by car drivers telling me to ride on the pathway. That's just the way it goes and driver education may help that problem, but on the whole I find the users of our pathway system (walk, run, ride, skate) to be quite respectful.

Really?? Do you ride at commuting times? And do you ride the Ottawa River Parkway section? It would be a close call between that and the section along Colonel By down by UofO that are the worst.

As I see it, the basic problem is that while pathways are good for encouraging people who are too timid to ride on the road to bike, they become (by definition) a gathering place for people who lack good riding skills. Add to that the usual mix of inattention, ego, competitiveness, different levels of strength and all else that are distributed throughout society - and put it in a confined space - and the end result is a recipe for at least a mess, if not disaster.

I make that comment in part because you see the same problems in Ottawa on the busier sections of roadway on Bike Sundays (when various roads around town are closed off for bike, blade, running/walking use only). The same idiots are out making the same mess of things again there - like the *** who nearly knocked my mother off when he decided to pass on her right when she was riding along Colonel By on Sunday about 2 feet off the curb ...

I would much rather ride on the roads in Ottawa ... or just ride on the Quebec side of the river ...

 

[Aristarchus]

Really?? Do you ride at commuting times? And do you ride the Ottawa River Parkway section? It would be a close call between that and the section along Colonel By down by UofO that are the worst.

As I see it, the basic problem is that while pathways are good for encouraging people who are too timid to ride on the road to bike, they become (by definition) a gathering place for people who lack good riding skills. Add to that the usual mix of inattention, ego, competitiveness, different levels of strength and all else that are distributed throughout society - and put it in a confined space - and the end result is a recipe for at least a mess, if not disaster.

I make that comment in part because you see the same problems in Ottawa on the busier sections of roadway on Bike Sundays (when various roads around town are closed off for bike, blade, running/walking use only). The same idiots are out making the same mess of things again there - like the *** who nearly knocked my mother off when he decided to pass on her right when she was riding along Colonel By on Sunday about 2 feet off the curb ...

I would much rather ride on the roads in Ottawa ... or just ride on the Quebec side of the river ...

I have to concur. The paths on the Québec side can be quite free of traffic, even at times when the Ottawa paths are hopelessly congested. Exceptions do exist, like the strip that runs along the Ottawa River, by the Museum of Civilization. Don't go there during lunch hour if you want to ride "freely". That's when you'll get ugly looks from the hordes of civil servants roaming the paths, who seem offended that you rang your bell to alert them to your presence (this happens more than I'd like).

If you try to ride up the Rideau Canal pathway (or the Ottawa River one) on a nice, Saturday afternoon, you have to be prepared to ride slowly, and cautiously. You'll encounter huge packs of joggers taking up the width of the pathway, skaters galore, and yes, the occasional cyclists riding in packs across the path. I don't bother with that, anymore. Much better to ride on QE or Colonel By themselves, imo, and avoid the trouble.

 

[slippyB]

You're right, I've gotta work on my route to avoid that POS trail, Sunflower pretty much sucks for everything but produce, $11 for a pack of bison brats, please! This town needs a Trader Joe's in the worst way.

Another thing I've been hearing, not path related, but many people have complained to me about getting beer bottles and other debris thrown at them from cars out on their road rides. The more I'm out there I totally understand why. Seems that Colorado cyclists have a King of the Road mentality and ride 2 sometimes 3 abreast on roads with no shoulders in rush hour.. Hmmm, I wonder why motorists are so pissed.

I'm just giving you sh** man. don't mind me. I guess I just feel that one of the main reasons i commute/ride around town is for a less-stress mode of transport, not more. so if a certain path at a certain time of day/year is bad...avoid it. and the CC path is pretty bad especially at commute times and weekends. so i avoid it. Ride it on a brisk February afternoon...and it's all yours.

Trader Joes...they know the demand is here. They claim it's not cost effective and I don't think they like the liquor laws that don't allow grocery stores to carry wine/beer (over 3.2%). I wish for that too. Sunflower ain't Trader Joes, but it's a fair-bit more reasonable than Whole Foods.

As for the 2/3 abreast/car problems. Always a flare-up issue around here. I just wish, in general, be it bike-paths or roads, cyclists would use better judgement. Is it a CO thing? Maybe. I know riders ride 2-3 abreast in OH...b/c I was there a while back. I grew up in KY/OH, and while it was beautiful riding country...At 13/14 years old, i would get stuff chucked at me or attempts to run me off the road (while solo riding...not group. i can't say that, in my years here in CO, I've had these issues...but then I ride single file when it calls for it and try to keep drivers happy...call it self-preservation. Other cyclists, as I pointed out in an earlier post on this thread, definitely feel traffic laws are optional and are arrogant *** when they ride and as you've noticed.

Here's the thing though...as much as ***-cyclists bother me, I try to laugh it off and be a better a cyclist b/c of it. I guess I just accept that there will always be bad drivers, cyclists, joggers, etc. and this thread seems to point to the fact that it's not just Denver. Not that it makes it any better for us. But there are selfish idiots everywhere. Same sh** different day.

Have fun out there and keep the rubber side down. I'm going bike riding.

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

.... and the CC path is pretty bad especially at commute times and weekends. so i avoid it. Ride it on a brisk February afternoon...and it's all yours.

Oh for sure, the second it rains a bit or was below 40 in the mornings I could basically count on one hand the amount of people on the trails. It's silly season now, gotta route myself different ways.

 

[delbified]

i commute on shared paths in Melbourne Australia that have the same problems with dopey pedestrians and dog walkers as other parts of the world. i use a MTB to slow my speed without unduly reducing training intensity and try to slow down for pedestrians. my attitude depends on their attitude though. but golden rule is - don't do anything that could wipe someone out. i ride virtually every day on shared paths and (touch wood) have never had a near miss, but you get the odd, rare pedestrian with a nervous disposition who will crack and go nuts at you. i just put that down to statistical inevitability.

 

[Steel4Ever]

This is my local trail: Galloping Goose

And there are some REAL douchies using that thing!
To be fair, I have only ridden on it once...and it was terrifying.
I'd rather try to cycle my way through a four lane highway of drunk long-distance semi truckers in the rain at night than go on that trail again.

As RDV stated, it's a real bad mix of foot and wheel traffic. But the worst, yes, are those idiot bikers who think that the path is exclusively a bike path and give no respect to anyone else. The worst of the worst are the tubby office workers on MTBs who, after spending 8 hours sitting in a chair, feel the need to "race" each other balls-out in a desperate pursuit to feel alive.

All the while the real bike riders use the highway and roads running parallel to the path, all without incident.

 

[Wallace]

Oh for sure, the second it rains a bit or was below 40 in the mornings I could basically count on one hand the amount of people on the trails. It's silly season now, gotta route myself different ways.

Yep. In the long, rainy months in Seattle you can have long stretches of the Burke-Gilman all to yourself. Funny how you don't see the TT'er getting their commuter-trail intervals done then.

And by the way RDV4ROUBAIX--'bikepathaletes' is a great portmanteau word--congrats on the coinage.

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

Thanks Wallace, but I got that portmanteau word from somebody else, can't take the credit for that one. Funny though.

Another bikepathalete annoyance, I'm riding a steady upper teens lower twenties when I'm commuting, not fast not slow but steady, and I roll a single speed road for a commuter. If I pass someone they latch on to my rear wheel for a bit then pass me giving it there all. Didn't know this was a race but why the frack are you trying to race me?? So now 1/4 mile later when you give up I have to pass you dorks again. WTF? I'm not impressed, and if I still had a bike that held a frame pump I'd Breaking Away you D-bags!

 

[AnythingButKestrel]

RDV,

I'm with you. I'm partially guilty because I ride the trail where I live, because it's the only connector between two cities besides an interstate highway, but it's relatively low traffic.

The bike path congestion really used to frustrate me, but I think the core problem is that we simply need *MORE ISOLATED/DEDICATED BIKING ROUTES*. Every rails to trails and bike path project here has been a runaway success. If 1 or 2 percent of every road construction project had to be dedicated to bike routes, we wouldn't have a congestion problem. Bike paths are dirt cheap.

As for the dbags, I really enjoy dropping triathletes on my 20 yo, lead sled, mountain bike. You're tucked in at 16mph?! Really?!

And what's up with people not waving and saying hello or good morning on a bicycle? The runners are friendly. What up with the two wheelers? Bike happy people! It's supposed to be fun.

 

[datalore]

I spent some time in Denver on business. My experience closely mirrors that of the OP. I will never choose to visit that town on my own time.

 

[Rip:30]

I hear you. I've put in thousands of bike path miles in Boulder and Denver. It's wild prepare for the aggro bike path olympics every morning pretty much.

Here is my weapon of choice with which I defend myself in the great battle.

Yea epic fred mobile, I know. But Ive made a lot of special modifications myself.

 

[slippyB]

I spent some time in Denver on business. My experience closely mirrors that of the OP. I will never choose to visit that town on my own time.

Thank goodness. You should definitely not. It's scary town here.

 

[Deagol]

RDV,

.... Bike paths are dirt cheap.

That depends. I am involved in a project where we are just putting in sections of missing “sidewalk/bike path” and we have to buy the property rights from the owners to do so. If the land is already owned by the government, then perhaps laying a strip of asphalt may be dirt cheap (relatively speaking) but if you have to buy right-of-way from the property owners, costs add up very fast. If you use concrete instead of Asphalt, costs also go way up. We just spent a bit shy of $200 K for the property rights along (costs don’t come close to the total for this and materials and labor) for a few missing segments of path -the total length probably not much more than a mile or so.

......
And what's up with people not waving and saying hello or good morning on a bicycle? The runners are friendly. What up with the two wheelers? Bike happy people! It's supposed to be fun.

+ 1

 

[Boeing]

I had a run-in with some Fruit Boots (ie Inline Skaters). Dude went off on me and some others spinning home yelling at us that we were supposed to shout out out before we passed and we were unsafe. this while he was in complete tuck and boogie what ever they do floating over into the on coming traffic at like team usa or some Shi#, and headphones on drafting with one hand on his partners rear end.

They were chill for some time before so we caught them easy at 15mph recovery etc. But as we passed they hit the guns like short track and it was in a curvy underpass section with oncoming traffic. I told the head waxer up frontto not even try to get my wheel or I would slow and pull over.

When he got close he was yelling how unsafe we were etc. So I said dude you were drafting and accelerating in a dangerous spot and you dont need to motorpace behind us. He replied "but you have brakes we don't"

Really

as with anything on the road rationalization son turned to rage. /he got in my face and pointed to a sign that said use caution and said to read it. I was like Bro it says no skateboarding or rollerblading???


"Why DO YOU PASS WITH NO INDICATION" Dude you had your headphones on in full tuck and drifted out> NO YOU Bikers think you own the road!!!!!

bla blaH blAH bLAH BLAH

Reality is I pass those guys safely then surge because I hate it when the think they can motrorpace behind me and dude was ****ed he couldn't I guess.

I am all for the work out and the skillset for ski prep on those things but they are the most dangerous things on the path

 

[oldborn]

Sorry brother it was stronger than me, you have some strange animals in new world

[/url] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]

 

[Boeing]

Sorry brother it was stronger than me, you have some strange animals in new world

[/url] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]

actually this pic is a fair representation of most inline skaters

 

[nvpacchi]

As Spring rolls around, I felt it was necessary to bump this thread up.

Just moved to the Quad Cities area (Davenport, Moline, etc.). Both the Iowa and Illinois sides have great bike paths trailing the Mississippi River, and are valuable assets to get out to deserted training routes.

However I went on my first group ride in the area the other week. The ride started on the bike path, and immediately right from the get-go everyone starts shooting off at 35km/hr+. Keep in mind there are like 35 people in this group, and we stayed on this path for a good 5 to 6 miles.

The incredibly poor class of the group (especially its leaders) of ramping up the speed on a congested community path left such a bad taste in my mouth, especially when there is a perfectly acceptable road directly parallel to the path for a large group to make its presence known to drivers.

I think its safe to say I will not be joining their Wednesday night escapades any more.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

In Washington, DC, they ticket the morons who come flying down the running/biking paths.

 

[Hugh Januss]

In Washington, DC, they ticket the morons who come flying down the running/biking paths.

Yes, that's only so the government can raise more money to hire more corrupt employees. Just ask Socal.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Went for a lunch run on the trail near my office, it is the Terry Hershey trail.
http://www.terryhersheypark.org/index.php

I see all types of things while running but I saw something that I had to “google” when I got back to the office. It was what is called an eliptigo. It was like an elliptical trainer on a stand up bicycle. I have to say it was in my opinion the single most stupidest looking thing since I first saw a recumbent. On my ranking system it is 2nd but a very close race with number 1 stupidest gimmicks ever. #1 is the recumbent and #2 being this eliptigo. Also …..I am not sure how I missed this new FAD but what is up with the F-ing Time Trial skull protectors? I see more and more of them and not just on the Tri / aero bar set ups. Some are guys just in a non full tuck. I have no clue what is going on but it some goofy looking ****. Sorry if I hurt someone’s feelings with the graphic opinion’s.

Trail use and cycling and running manners, I have a few takes on it. I run nearly every day at lunch or early mornings. I run into the same pack of MS150’rs ridding in the same 3 pack. They ride 2 and 3 abreast, like they want me to jump off the trail. It is almost an everyday occurrence. I have said look out a few times but try not be confrontational. I just do not want to cause any stir but would like to find out where they are taking out from and have a chat.