Hello,
I’ll be moving to Atlanta by the end of January and I’m looking for a few friends. I’m laying off triathlons for the immediate future (I’m not a great swimmer and I decided that I’m not interested in getting better), but I’d love to take the bike and/or run legs for any relay teams. I averaged 24 mph at Eagleman on the bike and I can run a 17 minute 5K. I promise not to slow the team down! Again, I look forward to meeting you!
Welcome to Atlanta. what part of Atlanta are you moving to. I am in North Gwinnett County and there is a large group of us that cycle weekly
Not sure yet. I’ll be working in Midtown so I’m thinking Midtown/Buckhead area. Any suggestions?
The best riding inside of 285 is around Chastain Park and into Sandy Springs and Vinings. Check out sadlebred for cue sheets and ride details. www.sadlebred.com
If you need a guide when you get in town, feel free to hit me up. I can show you most of the good routes.
To back up what Jamie Wilson said, the Chastain area is great and so is Sandy Springs. I live up in Sandy Springs and it’s got a really great mix of rolling hills, turns and Columns Drive (actually in Marietta but in essence in Sandy Springs).
Columns is the Alii Drive of the area. Almost everyone who is on it is doing top speed to impress everyone else. 
It’s a really good area for riding repeats, it’s 2.5 miles long, pretty flat and has a seperated area for riding (though runners still have right of way).
Also it’s great for running as it connects directly with the Sope Creek trails which provide a few miles of hard pack and many miles of trail running. It’s phenomenal for doing long runs and for doing medium runs with hill repeats in between each loop. You can make a 3.2 miles loop, a 2.1 mile loop, or one that I think is about a mile and on each one there are multiple trials that branch off and almost all go straight up.
Welcome to the Atl!
Thanks to everyone for your responses. I’m looking forward to meeting all of you.
The best riding inside of 285 is around Chastain Park and into Sandy Springs and Vinings. Check out sadlebred for cue sheets and ride details. www.sadlebred.com
If you need a guide when you get in town, feel free to hit me up. I can show you most of the good routes.
There’s great riding on the East side of town, too. Lots of group rides head to Stone Mountain Park (when time changes fwd in spring). With your speed- you should check out the following rides when you get here (consider bringing a road bike for your first several rides)-
Tucker Ride- starts 10:00AM on winter time- and 9:00AM when clock moves forward in Spring. Ride is 42 miles from Tucker High School. Ride there to add more distance.
Airport Ride- only goes during winter time- Sunday at 10:00 AM- with 42 and 62 mile options (ride from where you live to add more). Starts in downtown Atlanta.
details of both rides on www.sadlebred.com Feel free to PM me- I’ve been doing these rides for years and years. http://www.sadlebred.com/atlroadrides.html
Here are some links you might enjoy. If you work in Midtown, you can live anywhere close to the Marta line and get to work rather easily. This may open more affordable housing; I’m ot sure how things are in the city although I imagine there may be good deals on condos. Driving in Atlanta though is tough. I live 26 miles from Midtown and it could often take 1 1/2 hours to get to work. I now work within 4 miles of home in Alpharetta.
http://www.roswellbicycles.com/
http://www.all3sports.com/index.php
http://www.buckheadchurch.org/
Not to hijack this thread, but did any of you who responded here do that century ride back at the start of the season down near Calloway Gardens in the ice and snow?
.
Why? Kidding.
Didn’t read the other posts, but here are some highlights if you live in the Decatur / Midtown areas…
2 Stone Mountain. Most of the park is closed to cars and it is truly beautiful. Great place for training shorter loops on the bike.
Dynamo. I know you don’t want to become a faster swimmer, but this is just a great workout with great folks from former Olympians to the cupcake and sausage set.
ATS. Tony Myers’ spin sessions in Buckhead. Tony is insane and he will get your butt (literally) into shape.
Piedmont Park. Another great running area smack dab in the middle of the city.
Brick Store Pub. About a jillion Belgian beers in the upstairs Belgian Beer Bar. Downstairs is pretty cool too.
lulu
Don’t forget the Pizza ride on Thursdays.
Trail running at Kennesaw is pretty damn good too.
Beehunter did that ride (wheels of fire). He showed me a picture of his bike at a rest stop and it was covered with ice.
Here are some links you might enjoy. If you work in Midtown, you can live anywhere close to the Marta line and get to work rather easily. This may open more affordable housing; I’m ot sure how things are in the city although I imagine there may be good deals on condos. Driving in Atlanta though is tough. I live 26 miles from Midtown and it could often take 1 1/2 hours to get to work. I now work within 4 miles of home in Alpharetta.
http://www.roswellbicycles.com/
http://www.all3sports.com/index.php
http://www.buckheadchurch.org/
http://www.thesportfactory.com/site/index.shtml
http://www.athletictrainingservices.com/
you definitely want to take into consideration where you will work and live and then the areas that might be close by for training. The city is ruled by cars (unless you are a rare person that can use the mass transit train system- MARTA) and is NOT very easy to get around during rush hour- and many group rides/runs start around 6:30 pm and then move to 6:00pm or earlier (this is all after the time changes in the spring). People have been giving great training ideas/links/locations- and luckily there are many- as the city has a great cycling and triathlon community- but there are - so far mentioned- locations East, North, Northwest, and within Atlanta- and ultimately- where you work/live will determine what is possible for you to get to (during the work week) versus weekend.
Don’t be a suburban commuter. The city is an awesome place to live. I live right downtown and the “airport” ride mentioned leaves from my neighborhood. It is a good course to ride with or without a group. I’m not a big fan of riding in the city but there are good places to get training ride in. I ride the “Silk Sheets” (good rolling hills) area on the weekends or the silver comet trail (very flat but really nice and no cars). There are a few tri clubs in the area too but I haven’t worked out with one. Get back in the pool though because there are a lot of good tri’s in the area.
I need to bookmark this thread because I am the only member of my immediate family that doesn’t live in the ATL, and the lack of bike friendliness and climate are the two biggest barriers to me relocating. I didn’t know about any of these rides or parts of town so keep the suggestions coming.
When I pointed out the bike lanes in a place I used to live, my brother-in-law, who has done IM Florida twice, said “We have bike lanes here, too, you know. We just have to share them with cars.”
Don’t be a suburban commuter. The city is an awesome place to live. I live right downtown and the “airport” ride mentioned leaves from my neighborhood. It is a good course to ride with or without a group. I’m not a big fan of riding in the city but there are good places to get training ride in. I ride the “Silk Sheets” (good rolling hills) area on the weekends or the silver comet trail (very flat but really nice and no cars). There are a few tri clubs in the area too but I haven’t worked out with one. Get back in the pool though because there are a lot of good tri’s in the area.
I cannot stress this enough. If you are going to work in Midtown, then you really need to be inside of 285. There are really good surface street access routes into Midtown from areas with a wide variety of price points.
Let me also jump in on what M. and W. discussed- live near your job. Atlanta traffic is horrible! It is one of the big problems with the city. I ended up buying a condo on Columns for the cycling, running and the river, and it gives me a 30 minute commute. If you are going to work in Midtown, there are many places to live there. If you are young and like to party, East Atlanta is good. There are reasonable prices just north west of Atlanta- with lots of college students. Castleberry Hill, the start of the infamous Airport Ride, has some very cool lofts. There are weekly rides all over the damn place- check out Sadlebred.com. Running is great here- I always like running the many trails along the Chattahoochee or at Kennesaw Mountain.
There is a glut of condos in the city, if that is your choice of abode. It is a buyers market and you can get great deals. You can also rent condos pretty cheap, if you want to rent until you figure out where you want to buy. So many flippers are stuck holding condo they cannot afford to sell, and you can get really good deals!
Oh, and we have a velodrome!