# Rides in Vancouver Washington



## wasfast

I'm moving to Vancouver Washington in a couple weeks and wanted to know if anyone else knows the cycling situation there. I found the Vancouver Bicycle club but the ride lengths(33 miles) and speed (14mph average) didn't seem like a good fit. 

Any help is appreciated.


----------



## bahueh

*I live just south..*



wasfast said:


> I'm moving to Vancouver Washington in a couple weeks and wanted to know if anyone else knows the cycling situation there. I found the Vancouver Bicycle club but the ride lengths(33 miles) and speed (14mph average) didn't seem like a good fit.
> 
> Any help is appreciated.


in the Portland, OR. area. lots of opporunities here, mostly if you don't mind a little climbing through the west hills, Washington Park, Skyline road out to Cornelius pass.
Vancouver Lake is supposed to be a great ride, although I've never done it personally. there is a nice, bike laned, road out of w. vancouver, past the Port of Vancouver along the Columbia river which is great. if you can cross the I-5 bridge and get on Marine drive on the oregon side, there a great ride out to Blue Lake Park in Troutdale, Or. I have heard of 100+ mile established rides up to Battleground, Wa. but don't know where they start or end. Vancouver Bike Club? are you talking about North River Racing? another bike club if not. There are a ton of established rides close by...do some research, make some contacts on www.obra.org . hell, if you're totally out of luck and need a training partner, I'll go with ya!


----------



## Cerddwyr

wasfast said:


> I'm moving to Vancouver Washington in a couple weeks and wanted to know if anyone else knows the cycling situation there. I found the Vancouver Bicycle club but the ride lengths(33 miles) and speed (14mph average) didn't seem like a good fit.
> 
> Any help is appreciated.


Check out Rubber to the Road I & II, at the LBS or at Powell's Books in Portland. Tons of great rides, many on the 'other' side of the river, or on both sides like the Bridge of the Gods Near Century.

Best,
Gordon


----------



## wasfast

I currently live in Albany and used to live in the Portland area. That's certainly a choice but was hoping for some action without having to ride/drive across the river.

The Vancouver Bicycle Club is a recreational club, not for racing. I raced many years ago but those days are over. I am looking for group rides with medium pace (18-20 mph average speed or so). I know there are plenty of riders there, just have to find out where the rides are.

Here's the link to the club:

http://www.vancouverbicycleclub.com/

I currently ride every Saturday with the Mid Valley Bicycle Club and have for the last 2 years. Even in little Corvallis, you can have 75 people show up on a nice day. 2-3 different length rides and a wide range of speed which can be rather fast when the racers come around. I figured there would be something similiar in the "big city" besides the VBC and Portland Wheelman.


----------



## semdoug

*Vancouver rides*

There are a few options without having to drive depending where you live in Vancouver. The east side is tough for riding in my opinion. Very few shoulders or bike lanes. I used to live in Hazel Dell and could ride to the north on farm roads or to the south across one of the bridges and ride the Oregon side. The ride to Vancouver lake is OK, just not very long if your riding from town. They also have a fairly new MUT that starts on 78th and heads east towards Orchards but just ends on a busy, no shoulder rode.There is a bike route map available from the bike shops in town covering both sides of the river. With that I put together quite a few decent rides.


----------



## RodeRash

I lived in the Portland area most of my life. (Now in Astoria.) Have been cycling seriously in Portland since circa 1962. 

Just a personal feeling, hunch, derived from lots of riding experience. Oregon is more bike friendly than Washington state. Seattle area has some good accommodations for cyclists, but the Vancouver area is seemingly a "freeway based commuter corridor" in and out of Portland. Most of the major routes and roadways on the Vancouver side of things appear to be 4 lane or more and look a lot like freeways. 

But more than that . . . 

Why would someone live in Vancouver when Portland Oregon is just across the river. 

Oregon offers MUCH cheaper DVM auto/truck licensing and registration. 

Oregon has no sales tax. 

More bike routes in the Portland area than in Vancouver. 

And if you're working in Vancouver, living in Portland you're going the opposite direction of the "commuter traffic." You're headed north in the morning when the rest of the traffic is southbound into Portland for jobs. Headed south in the PM when the commuters are headed north to Vancouver. 

Besides which, Oregon has a bottle deposit law, a progressive, forward thinking bill that helps keep litter off the highways. Oregon's had this law for some 40 yrs. Washington doesn't have a bottle bill, just a lot of trash, sales taxes, poor urban planning, houses along the freeways with "sound barrier" concrete walls to buffer the noise . . . 

And freeways . . . 

   


-- but then I moved to the country on the Oregon coast because even Portland was driving me around the bend.


----------

