# Memphis clubs, rides, areas, etc.



## B-Fun (Nov 15, 2005)

Moving to Memphis at the middle of august, wife has already moved to start her job. beings that i have only driven through memphis one time, i was just curious about the cycling scene there. i'm currently on a team here in new mexico and was definitely wanting to get on a competitive team in memphis. hoping somone on this board with have some information that would help get me in contact with just such a team. i searched the web and found that memphis did have a couple of clubs, but wanted some insight from my fellow rbr people. anyone race for or against memphis clubs? 

also, which would be the best area to live for a cyclist in the city? my wife's work is in the southeast portion of the city. is this a good area for cycling, and to buy a home? we'll be getting a realtor and looking at lots of houses, but just hoping for a little direction from people who think like me. 

any other comments or experiences are welcomed! thanks all!! :thumbsup:


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## wfrogge (Mar 5, 2007)

I race but dont currently belong to a club here. Memphis Velo and Memphis Motowerks are the two top clubs in the area for road racing. Both require an invite and with Motowerks it requires (from what I understand) tryout style training rides to see what type of person/rider you are (and CAT 3 or above only).

Rides:

Tuesday after noon ride from RBs Cyclery (north east side of Memphis). We roll out at 6 and go 37 miles. Pace is fast with race like attacks the whole night. Aside from the guys that train solo the fastest riders in the area train on this ride. Plenty of 1,2,3, and 4 riders with many top tri guys and gals.

Another Tuesday ride leaves from Bike World in Collerville. From what I understand its a little slower with not that many attacks.

Thursday we do a similar ride of 37 miles but leave from the Bartlett Performing Arts Center. Not as many fast guys but enough so the pace is about the same. This ride usually breaks out into B and C groups by attrition due to the speed. This ride leaves at 5:45

Saturday mornings.... several rides around town for the racers but I hook up with the 7:00 AM RBs Cyclery ride. We do 70+ miles and have been doing around 19+ every ride (with one stop). They have an 8 AM ride that does 40-60 miles at a controlled pace no higher than 18MPH. Go faster and get yelled at 

Sundays I do my own thing riding 60+ miles working on whatever needs work or just relaxing. 



To be honest there isnt a good place to live in Memphis proper and be a cyclist. Hit up some of the surounding areas and you can get some nice rual roads that arent traveled much. Good thing about this city is its small so with a 5 minute car ride you will be out in the country. I myself live in Oakland and thats about 30 miles east of the city. Avoid Cordova at all cost due to the housing bubble being busted there (lots of foreclosures and crime is high) even though the houses are nice.


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## lemonlime (Sep 24, 2003)

wfrogge covered the bases pretty well. I race for Memphis Velo and it, like Motorwerks, was a semi-tryout to get on the team, although it had more to do with character than bike strength. Motorwerks is an actual race team with no lower category than a III, while MV has morphed into more of a bike club with a smallish contingent of racers, mostly fives and fours with a handful of threes and several masters.

I like it here well enough, though I'm glad I won't be here forever. I live in east/NE Memphis (Cordova) and it takes me about ten minutes of pedaling before I'm out on lightly traveled roads. Any place you live other than the downtown area and you won't be *too* far from the country. Even then you won't be all that far, but you'll have to traverse some sketchy neighborhoods to get to the goods.


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## wfrogge (Mar 5, 2007)

Good links:

http://www.rbscyclery.com/

http://www.memphisvelo.com/

http://www.mmwcycling.com/


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## hfc (Jan 24, 2003)

Ditto on others about the cycling clubs. MMW is the powerhouse team here and a couple of their guys do a Sunday AM ride that inflicts some serious pain, even more than Lemonlime can induce.

I am not a fan of suburban lifestyle and live in Midtown Memphis. There's plenty of good riding on the country roads around here, within a 20 minute drive of midtown. I have a nice route from my house that gets me safely into the country and to the only small hills here within an hour.

If you're living in the Memphis city limits I would recommend East Memphis (more affluent, less crime, more strip malls and traffic), Midtown (more crime, more diverse, more liberal). Central Gardens is the area of nice old homes in Midtown. There are also some newer condo type/loft developments downtown as well as newer homes on Mud Island downtown.

The best local bike shops IMO:

Outdoors Inc
RB's cyclery
Bikes Plus (don't know much about them but they sponsor some cross races and gave me a nice shirt, so score points for them)

PM me if you want any more info. Good luck with the move!


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## B-Fun (Nov 15, 2005)

*thanks a bunch...*

thanks for the info that you all have provided thus far. i just started training and racing seriously starting this january, after doing a couple of little races last year. does anyone know how you would go about getting an "invite" to try out for the mmw club? do you show up to their ride and then hope your strong enough, or does someone have to give you the invite to even show up? it sounds as though they are a competitive team and that is really what i am looking for.

it's good to hear that the country roads aren't that far away. i think we're going to look for a place on the outskirts of the eastern part of the city, that way i can get on those roads quickly. thanks a bunch on the ride info. once i get out there i will definitely be hitting those up. i'm sure the times might change by the middle of august though.

just another question...how is the racing scene out there. if i recall correctly, the area around memphis consists of rolling terrain, whereas the eastern part of tennessee is where you start getting into the mountainous areas. i'm a bigger guy at 6'2" and 185, so rollers work a lot better for me than mountains  thanks again!


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## hfc (Jan 24, 2003)

B-Fun said:


> just another question...how is the racing scene out there. if i recall correctly, the area around memphis consists of rolling terrain, whereas the eastern part of tennessee is where you start getting into the mountainous areas. i'm a bigger guy at 6'2" and 185, so rollers work a lot better for me than mountains  thanks again!


This area is essentially flat. The biggest hill I know of here takes about 5 minutes to get up. If you're new to racing and not a kick butt prodigy I would suggest the MemphisVelo team, lemonlime will know more about getting on board with them. I ride with a lot of the guys and there is a solid core of pretty serious racers and everyone is pretty cool. I don't know any of the MMW people personally but they are serious racers and I would guess you need some serious chops ( 2 or their guys towed us at 29 mph for 3-4 miles for example) to get on with them. 

There are very few local races but Nashville, about 3 hrs way, has pretty regular racing.


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## lemonlime (Sep 24, 2003)

Just contact MMW through their website if that's what you're after.

Normally, though, if you start showing up on local group rides and kick all our asses, I guarantee you that MMW will knock on your door. My impression of them is that their guys are very friendly, but they're the area's top dogs and have the swagger to match. Afterall, their guy has won Rouge-Roubaix two years running, they have the US Masters Crit champ (or did), they have the World Masters TT champ, etc. They do lots of traveling, Tour of Virginia, Mt Hood Classic...

If you're ready to jump right in and kick ass, by all means get with them. It sounds, though, like you're a little bit from that level, given that you just began seriously racing this year. Then again, RBR hero Argentius went from 5 to 2 in a little more than a season, so it is possible.

//still trying to find hfc's five minute climb...


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## hfc (Jan 24, 2003)

I'm slow.


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## B-Fun (Nov 15, 2005)

i think that my best bet will be to just "get in where i fit in." by the sounds of it, i don't think that i would go wrong with either of the ones you've mentioned. i actually spent some time about a week ago checking out the two different sites and looking at the teams. it seems they are both well organized with good support which is great. i've had some success in the races i've done thus far, but obviously way too soon to tell if i'd have the legs to hang with the big boys, which i know both teams have.

i can say that i'm looking forward to getting out there and hitting up some of these rides...
btw- what kind of turnout do you all usually get at the aforementioned rides. our wednesday "heater" fast paced ride usually draws about 20. saturday morning rides about the same.

talk to you all soon...

b-fun


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## wfrogge (Mar 5, 2007)

No matter where you go in the country lower CAT cyclist ability levels vary. So this means most clubs dont really train together much (too fast for some, too slow for others). Once you are a stronger CAT 3/2 the gap closes enough where training together works well. 

MemphisVelo caters to the first and MMW to the later although Velo has some strong 3s that have won a few races this year already. Its unfortunate but you really dont have a choice around here other than joining up with Velo or riding solo (till you hit CAT 3 and if MMW will accept you). We used to have 4 strong clubs in the area and I kind of wish it would go back to that but oh well.

Like I said I race but am not a member of any club although im friends with members of both teams. Used to race 10 years ago with the big boys but after comming back and trying two CAT 1,2,3 races (and getting blown away) ive downgraded to a 4. Didnt know if I was totaly commited to racing again so ive not bothered asking to join a club yet. Now that im sticking around who knows. When you move down shoot me a PM and ill give you any information you need about the area rides. We have some very fast CAT 5 and 4 guys around the area so it makes training fun.


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## B-Fun (Nov 15, 2005)

i appreciate it wfrogge...i'll be sure to hit you guys up once i move out there. i'll probably end up being there at the beginning of july as well to visit the wifey, might try to sneak in a ride or two while i'm there. thanks again for the help...


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## bos615 (Jan 22, 2004)

wfrogge said:


> Another Tuesday ride leaves from Bike World in Collerville. From what I understand its a little slower with not that many attacks.
> 
> .


The Bike World ride now has an A, B, and C ride on Tues evenings and it's a better organized than last year. Last year it was just one ride and we waited for the slower folks. Now there is a C ride which leaves after everyone else and stays pretty much together. The A and B ride take off together at 6 pm. There are usually early attacks to get the A and B folks seperated. The B ride has a sweeper also to make sure noone gets ditched. The A ride averages around 21 - 22 over 30 or so miles and it's every man/woman for themself (in regards to getting back that is).

www.bikeworldtn.com


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## B-Fun (Nov 15, 2005)

*change of plans...*

well, turns out i will be moving to memphis on tuesday, will be in on wednesday night. wife and i got an apartment instead of a house, very southern part of cordova almost into germantown. 

just wanted to see if all the ride times and places were the same.

thanks a bunch


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## handsomerob (Oct 5, 2005)

B-Fun said:


> well, turns out i will be moving to memphis on tuesday, will be in on wednesday night. wife and i got an apartment instead of a house, very southern part of cordova almost into germantown.
> 
> just wanted to see if all the ride times and places were the same.
> 
> thanks a bunch


There are a ton of rides that start pretty close to where you are going to be living. To help recommend the best rides for you, what is your usual distance and pace?

I think most of the "A" rides are going to be 30-60 miles at 21mph+. The "B" rides this late in the season are 17-19mph and the "C" rides vary widely based on the slowest guy to show up.


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## B-Fun (Nov 15, 2005)

on my saturday group rides we've been doing about 70-80 miles and my cyclometer says we average about 19, but this includes stopping at stop signs, etc. most of the time the pace is in about the 20-24 range. based on this i would think i'd probably like to try out the A ride and see how hard she goes and reevaluate after that. i'm definitely not afraid of getting dropped, so if i can't hang on that's fine...i'll find a way home.

what's the times/places looking like for the A group rides?

thanks


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