I don't live there but have vacationed there a number of times over the years as my wife is from there. Been a few years since I've ridden around there. From what I recall, like my experience with most of the West, not a whole lot of options but not bad what is there. My favorite route was to go out 130 west up past Centennial (?) up to the top of the pass in the Snowey mountains and back. I think that's about a 70 mile ride or so.

There was a paved road (Roger Canyon road?) out of town that went up to the dump, maybe 5 or 6 miles, then I think it became dirt. Could be paved further now, probably been close to decade since I rode it.

I've never ridden out 230 but I think there might be a paved road off of that which brings you back to 130, making a loop before you get up in the mountains.

I've driven back east on I-80 (not sure if it's legal to ride on it or not) and parked at the top and ridden Happy Jack road down past Curt Gowdy into Cheyenne and back.

According to Wikipedia, Wyoming has an exception to the normal rule of no bikes on the interstate: https://en.wikipedia.org/...d_access_on_freeways

Climbing it probably wouldn't be so bad as the semis are forced to go pretty slow by the steepness. Coming back down into town might be pretty harrowing if the wind is blowing like it does around there. It's pretty wide open, I'd think you could probably match the speed of the semis or nearly so, but probably a hell of a buffeting if one came by you.

I haven't ridden in Laramie, but WY itself is full of gravel roads. Paved roads are harder to find. Get a good map of the national forests in the area, like Medicine Bow, and you should have hundreds of miles of gravel roads to explore.

Yes there a bunch of dirt/gravel roads up in the Medicine Bow forest in the Snoweys west of town. Probably about a 20 - 30 minute drive to get to the closest ones.

tons of good riding: 130, 230, up I-80 (huge shoulder fine for going up and down, never felt unsafe), Happy Jack, 287 with tons of dirt roads branching off that are really amazing - can take Sand Creek road then branch back towards 287, cross over to Stevenson road, jump up to Vedauwoo from 287 on great dirt roads, head throw Vedauwoo to Happy Jack (never had and issue on 25 tires on these dirt roads, but wider would be good), head up to 34, Roger's Canyon is great and the dirt road dumps you out on 211/Horse Creek which is great. The climb up and over and back over Snowy Range is a world class climb, head down from Saratoga toward Steamboat Springs, head north on the weekend to Buffalo and the Bighorns for epic riding. And, the mtb'ing is amazing: Happy Jack, Curt Gowdy, Sheep Mtn, and the canyons up Pilot Mtn area right from town. Get out early to avoid the wind or time it so you have a tail wind on the way back - can easily bike to the top of Snowy Range in ~3 hours and then catch the monstrous 10am tailwind back into town for a ride total of ~4.5 hours.

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

Sorry to rehash an old thread but I'm running into an internal dilemma regarding the bike stable. With the cycling around Laramie, would it be advantageous to have a gravel bike or a hardtail? I'm set with my road bike but am thinking of selling my aluminum Kona Jake for something with wider tire clearance (the Jake is max 35 front). Looking at something like a niner RLT 1 star or Diamondback Haanjo Comp. As far as a hardtail, something within the same 1,000 price range. Would it be better to have a gravel bike with 40+ clearance that can go on light singletrack or a mountain bike that is less suited for gravel grinding?

Tough call. If me, I wouldn't need something with more than 35 tire clearance for the dirt roads around Laramie but having that bike with 35 clearance for dirt roads would be great... I'd be ok on 28-30, personally. But, when the road has sand pits and washboard, 35 would be great. For the canyons outside of Laramie, Sheep mountain and Medicine Bow, Happy Jack and the trails closer to Cheyenne off of Happy Jack road, I'd have a dedicated mountain bike.

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

Hmm, ok. When you say dirt roads, are you talking forest service, 4x4 type roads or the rural roads around town? Basically what I am envisioning is leaving my door on the bike, getting in a good 5 or 6 hours of riding on dirt/gravel/forest service road and occasionally hitting singletrack. I'm just trying to figure out if there is a bike that would be able to accomplish all of these at once for the area or not since I haven't lived there.

You have all of the above, but to get out of town, you'll. E connecting paved with dirt and the dirt roads are driveable by a car, though things get hairy in places. Maybe jump on google map street view and check things out?

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

So here's a route via google that's easy to do from town and has plenty of hard packed dirt roads. I use to do this on 23cc tires and 28's would have been better. 30's would have been more than enough. Google doesn't allow for the cycling routes to go down I-80, but that's the one change I'd make to the route. The road it has you going down that is parallel to I-80, well, I've run up it and it's pretty rough and disappears at times. Other than than, all of the roads I have in that route are actual roads. You'll learn that pretty quick: roads on google that look worth checking out, once you get out there aren't really roads and turn into goat paths. For example, when Sand Creek turns to Sportsman Lake road, there's not really any other option. Also, the prairie immediately East of Laramie - there are good trails, but nothing I'd opt to ride on anything other than a mtb and the "roads" such as Pilot Road and Horse Creek Trail (before it merges with Roger's Canyon) can be challenging to follow. I reserve those roads for running and stick to more established tracks.

Also, you can drag the little google man to get street view on many of these roads: route here

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

Awesome, thanks for the beta, I really appreciate it. I talked to a couple of the shops (allterainsports and pedal house, both very friendly on the phone) and got some good information as well. I think I'll stick with the bikes I have and look to add a cheap hardtail later in the summer. It sounds like some of the guys/girls up there prefer a plus mtb so they can squeeze out more riding during the transition months when snow is still around.