Road Cycling Routes in SE Wisconsin

RedRider2009 said:

Hello, Do any of you know of good places to ride in SE Wisconsin? I have been trying to find good routes that are around 50 miles, but I hate riding on narrow city streets or busy county roads. Thanks!

Well, I'm not sure where you are, but around Milwaukee, there's the Oak Leaf Trail - it's about 1/3rd bike paths, 1/3rd parkways, and 1/3rd city streets, but most of the streets aren't that busy. The northern loop is about 30 miles, I'd place the Southern at closer to 40.

The Oak Leaf also connects to the New Berlin Recreational Trail, which runs out to Waukesha to join up with the Glacial Drumlin State Trail, where you can ride all the way to Madison.

Also, if you look up either Bay View Bike Club or Cream City Cycling Club online, they do group rides every weekend.

I found one.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19703022186

New Wednesday Ride!
After numerous attempts to get a south shore training/fitness ride off the ground, it finally happened; the inaugural South Shore Cyclery Wednesday ride on June 4th, 2008. We rolled off at 5:10pm, and tested out a 42mi route into Racine County. The plan is to continue the fast training/fitness format for cyclists wishing to stretch their legs and lungs to the limit, with a group start that will allow riders of all abilities to join in initially, and ultimately find their own pace after a 2x2 warm-up roll south through Cudahy and South Milwaukee. The route and start time will initially be subject to tweaking; no earlier than 5pm, but no later than 5:30. Once established, there will be no variations so that riders wishing to jump in at various points on the route can be sure of hooking up with us. We will meet again on June 11, 2008 at 5pm, with roll-out no later than 5:10pm. The ride length will again be 42 miles, which will put us out for 2 hours more or less. The route will double back on itself just south of Caledonia town hall on Nicholson Road, so those riders wanting to join us later can hook up on the return. Let us know if the earlier or later start time works for you. In the next few days I will post a map or link to the actual route.
South Shore Cyclery is located in downtown Cudahy, at 4758 S Packard Avenue.
Hope to see you there!
[email hidden]

RedRider2009 said:

Hello, Do any of you know of good places to ride in SE Wisconsin? I have been trying to find good routes that are around 50 miles, but I hate riding on narrow city streets or busy county roads. Thanks!

Where are you? What about the frontage road along the Interstate?

I am assuming that you are from this area, so if hwy 38/31 sound familiar, I live right between them. maybe 3 miles from the frontage road, that sounds like a reasonable ride. I will give it a try.

alfeng said:

Where are you? What about the frontage road along the Interstate?

Red is from Racine...interestingly I found this little bike-trail map of Racine:

http://www.cityofracine.org/depts/public_works/media/pdf/Bicycle_Pathway_System.pdf

...but since I don't go to Racine if I can help it, I'm not sure what sort of shape their trail system is in.

I probably should have included the city eh? The bike path in Racine is pretty good actually, the root river and lake michigan paths are smooth, paved, and wide enough to allow a bit of traffic. The gravel rail trail type paths though are terrible. Some of the more general bike routes go through some terrible parts of the city that I try to avoid, I am not very fond of gun in my face followed by me watching my bike roll away.🙁 Is there a reason you avoid Racine?

RedRider2009 said:

Is there a reason you avoid Racine?

Just joking - I don't go there, well, ever, but it isn't any sort of active effort on my part to stay away, just no need for me to head that way.

RedRider2009 said:

Some of the more general bike routes go through some terrible parts of the city that I try to avoid, I am not very fond of gun in my face followed by me watching my bike roll away.🙁

I feel your pain - whenever I think about riding into downtown Milwaukee for some event that will be bringing me home after dark, I think about how dicey the most direct route from downtown-to-home might be after sundown.

It's the group of riders in a pack working together to save energy by drafting. Working together they break away from the rest of the riders

sub.workes said:

It's the group of riders in a pack working together to save energy by drafting. Working together they break away from the rest of the riders

No, I don't believe that to be the case they may actually go slower.