I agree with Michael that "It's arguably the lack of traffic, more than it is the pavement" that makes Wisconsin's rural roads such a pleasure to ride.
Northern Georgia has all paved roads too (well, probably at least an equal proportion of paved roads to dirt as Wisconsin), and while there are certainly people riding bikes on them, and even organized events there, the volume and speed of traffic from the metro Atlanta area (which some define as the 28 northern counties in the state of Georgia) certainly discourages many cyclists from riding on those roads, and probably discourages many more cyclists from making those very picturesque roads in north GA a cycling tourism destination. North GA (and southwestern NC) is a fantastic mountain bike destination, on the other hand, because, you know, no cars on the mtb trails, and not many horses. And I can say from experience that I had more fun riding the (mostly gravel) Dairy Roubaix last year than I had in multiple years riding the (paved) Horribly Hilly Hundreds. In retrospect it wasn't the gravel so much as the lack of traffic (including bicyclists - HHH accepted 1000 riders last time I looked) chuck -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Lemberger Sent: Friday, March 28, 2014 9:38 AM To: William Hauda; [email protected] Subject: Re: [Bikies] How bicyclists, not drivers, spawned first "good roads" Actually, Bill, having done a number of contemporary gravel events, I get the impression that nostalgia has almost nothing to do with it. People are riding gravel because it's there and offers a sense of adventure. Iowa might be stuck with 67K+ miles of gravel roads (I don't know whether that includes B- and C-level roads) but I guess if life gives you lemons, you can always make lemonade. <http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20140327/LIFE08/303280026/Adventure-Iowa-Bike-racers-on-gravel-face-rocky-road-and-love-it> Minnesota and Iowa's driftless gravel roads are arguably as scenic as the ones in Wisconsin. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/mababo/sets/72157634670335618/> A fat bike might be overkill, but it can be done: <http://www.flickr.com/photos/mababo/8767024753/in/set-72157633573776284> Cheers, Michael On Mar 26, 2014, at 4:21 PM, William Hauda <[email protected]> wrote: > > It's quite apparent from Wheel Fever, State Historical Society > materials and LAB archives that bicyclists paved the roads (paving was done > first with wood, i.e., Watertown Plank Road leading west out of Milwaukee. > With the rise of the Wisconsin dairy industry and the need to get perishable > milk reliably to cheese factories and consumer markets, the farmers came to > appreciate the gift of paving, and we now have all those wonderful paved town > and county roads that Robbie refers to. Even Iowa, which touts its RAGBRAI > tradition, is still stuck in the mud with lots of gravel. (Although there > recently has fairly recently emerged a "bike gravel" movement, sort of a > reminiscence, I guess, with their own events. And my Pugsley is seriously > thinking about that.) > > At 03:52 PM 3/26/2014, Michael Lemberger wrote: >> On Mar 26, 2014, at 12:58 PM, Robbie wrote: >> >> > Even the little farm roads with almost no traffic are paved. That's what >> > makes road biking so amazing here. >> >> It's arguably the lack of traffic, more than it is the pavement. Gravel can >> be most excellent, and is exactly what we'd be doing in the absence of our >> pavement. >> >> <http://gravelgrindernews.com/?post_type=tribe_events> >> >> Michael Lemberger >> Madison >> _______________________________________________ >> Bikies mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org > _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
