Good Roads Around The Cities?

[Sgt_H]

Being unemployed I often have a few hours to take the bike out when the weather cooperates. The problem is I don't really know any of the good roads around here and I usually end up just tooling around. Which is fun in itself because I'm happy just about any time I get to ride, but I'm looking for something more challenging so I can build up my riding skills. And my skills definately need building.

I had a pretty good ride today on S Robert Trail from Eagan to Rosemont. There are a couple miles of good turns that can be taken at speed, depending on traffic. I had started practicing using the pegs to shift left and right in the saddle, without upsetting the front, and I tried that out today. It worked pretty well but I noticed that coming out of the turn I tended to put more weight on the handle bars and was getting some head shake. Also, I notice that when I do shift over, my outboard knee wants to stick out and my inboard knee wants to tuck in. Shouldn't that be the other way around? I think I might not be shifting far enough, but I'm not going fast enough to rate full knee dragging leans though either. Do I just need to force the inboard knee out until I get comfortable with it?

I only had one oh sh*t moment when I was taking a left and some traffic came the other way. For a second I thought that they were going wide and I caught a glimpse of the guard rail and construction barrels on my right and thought oh crap. I forced myself to keep the lean and look through the turn though and it was fine. I just got puckerd up for a second.

Anyway, that's the kind of thing I'm looking for. Something that's up to an hour or so out and the same back. Bonus if there's a place to have a sammich and a coke at the turn around.

Thanks,

Mike

[Desmo Elmer]

Hey Mike,
This thread has some info about a few out my way, but the real deal is there aren't many good roads within an hour of the Metro. You pretty much have to get almost all the way to Red Wing and then to the S and E into WI for relatively unpopulated roads with good curves.

My suggestion is always... go to Borders get a DeLormes Gazeteer of MN (and WI)... look for the squiggliest lines you can find and check them out. They're easy to spot because there aren't many...

IIRC you're in Oakdale so you might be in 1 hr. striking distance of O in WI. It goes south off 10E of Prescott all the way to 35 on the river. Another close good road in MN is 7 south off 61 through Welch.

[Sgt_H]

Thanks for the link. That's kind of depressing, I think I've already found the better roads in my area. One of these days I'm going to have to budget enough time to head over to Wisconsin and check out the Prescott/old 35 area.

Thanks for the help,

Mike

[Desmo Elmer]

Consider yourself lucky to be on that side of the city. We Northwesterners have a 45min. slabride just to get through the metro.

You might find this interesting: http://www.mn-hsta.org/The_Pace.htm

[bluemoco]

Originally Posted by Desmo Elmer

Consider yourself lucky to be on that side of the city. We Northwesterners have a 45min. slabride just to get through the metro.

>

Shhhh. Don't tell anybody how good it is to live over here. There'll be a stampede... ;D [laugh]

[Sgt_H]

Originally Posted by bluemoco

>

Shhhh. Don't tell anybody how good it is to live over here. There'll be a stampede... ;D [laugh]

I know. It's awful. I mean look how far we have to go just to get to Italian Night and First Thursday for crying out loud! It's like living in a black hole or something! >




Well, I tried to make it sound bad anyway [laugh]