Yes there are.

A couple of rides that will keep you on the IMWC course and can be done without dealing with the in town crowds. Load your bike into your rental car and:

1. Depart from the Waikoloa Beach resorts (personally I park behind Bike Works Beach and Sport) and head south (make a right on the Queen K at the stop light) and head south on the Queen K until you hit Kukio just prior to climbing the hill. If you make a U-turn on the Queen K and head back to the Queen's shop's that a 40 K ride and is the Lavaman Olympic length Triathlon bike course.

2. Make a left out of the resorts and ride up to Hawi. You just cut the IMWC course in half (more or less) and you're riding the 'worst' part of it.

3. Ride from the Mauna Lani resorts area. Park in the shops there, make a loop around the resorts if you like then exit onto the highway, turn left and head to Hawi. You're now on the Ironman 70.3 Hawaii bike course (eliminating the loop out of Hapuna to the Mauna Lani entrance. The Honu turn is at the U`pulo Point Airport road sign btw. A bit short of Hawi proper.

4. Ride from Hapuna Beach State Park. Go for a swim first, or afterwards.

5. Quick and easy loop: From the Shops at the Mauna Lani, make 2 -4 complete loops and then turn on to the highway heading southbound towards the Waikoloa Beach resorts, at the Waikoloa Rd stoplight (this revised intersection may be new to some folks, it's the first stop light headed south after leaving the Mauna Lani). Make a right turn and ride the loop around past the Queens shops and make a left at the Waikoloa Beach Resort Rd stoplight and head north and return to your car.

6. Hawi climb. A bunch of people will park in Kawaihae and ride the road to Hawi and back. limited parking there though. Make sure you have sufficient hydration for the full route. there's nothing between Kawaihae and Hawi and just the convenience store at the gas station in Kawaihae.

Stuff not on the IMWC course.

1. Ride the new saddle road (Daniel Inouye Rd). Extremely wide shoulders. The elevation gets quite high too. You can actually go to Hilo on this road. Be careful on some of the side roads, there are zero shoulders there -- particularly the old saddle road where people in cars fly along it. If you're not racing you can actually ride to the Mauna Kea Visitors Center which is at 9000 ft or so. In fact we have a race that does that every August, "Sea to Stars." Check out the Hawaii Cycling Club on Facebook if you're ever interested in it.

2. Ride to Honaunau from Kona. Down Alii Drive to where it turns and climbs to the Keauhou Shopping center. Keep going. Follow that around and down the hill past the Sheraton. Keep going, the road loops to the left, just after that you'll see a right run.... that's the pit. Yes that Pit. Ride down it if you like. If you've never seen it and you're in town, you should go see it. Now imagine running it, then running back the way you came. Leave the pit with a right turn onto the bypass road (Alii Dr), it's now up and down the hills and past the 'old end' of the road. Follow this around until it makes a huge steep climb to the belt highway. Short and nasty. When you're at the top there you're on the belt highway, the road off to your right heads down into Honaunau. Nice ride down, pain getting back out. :) This is part of the Ultraman World Championship bike ride in November. Feel free to shorten this however you like.

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The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. -- A fake Albert Einstein "quote"