What is cycling like in and around Indy? Are there good country roads to ride out on? Any good places to go for 4-5 hour rides? Is it flat like Illinois? Where is the best place to live if you want to ride from home after work?
…any Indy folks on the site?
bucky,
Since nobody is responding, I’ll tell you what I know. I grew up there, and yes it is extremely flat. The best “hills” are in the southern part of the state, so living around Greenwood (Johnson County) will put you closer to getting into Morgan and Monroe Counties for some hills. The roads and traffic are bad anywhere within the I465 loop, so getting from there to the country roads is somewhat of a hassle. I would recommend living in one of the surrounding counties and commuting into Indy for work.
do you know anything about Carmel or the northern 'burbs? someone mentioned the Fishers or something like that too?
i’ve heard it is extremely commercialized everywhere…and Applebee’s is the official state restaurant?
13 years ago, when I lived there, I would have told you that the traffic and commercialism was worse the farther north you go in Indy, but anymore, it’s all bad. I can tell you the Zionsville area is nice, the schools are good (not sure if you have that concern), and you would be near Eagle Creek Park, which has some good trails and it is where ALL of the Indy triathlons are held. But that is Boone County, which is also very flat. I think that Carmel and Fishers are considered the “happening” places, but also very populated.
On a side note, I have a college buddy (and fellow triathlete) opening a bike shop in Carmel very soon, fwiw.
I live on the northside of Indy. I do most of my training around Eagle Creek which is located west of the city. Either in the park or north of the park where there are some hills. You can get to Eagle Creek from Zionsville, Brownsburg or the northside of Indy pretty quickly using a bike. (I do not ride after work anymore so I do not how bad traffic is at that time of day.)
On the east side there are some hills around Fort Ben. The Southside allows you quicker access to the hills of southern Indiana - BUT to my knowledge it is pretty flat until you get around Martinsville.
There are a couple of pretty serious training rides you could hook up with. Ask at the bike shops (like Slowtwitch contributor Chris Wiggins or at the Bikewave) for more info. I know that one is (was) an early early morning ride.
David K