Urban Bike

On a rather hot January day, my bike went into the back of my TT - yes, it fits, and we drove down to one my properties in North Central Phoenix where the car was left. Instead of riding through the mountain preserve like I usually do I drove around it. The fact is that taking the same route over and over simply bores me after a while. That goes even from driving the same streets. That's usually a signal to move.

The weather was perfect and the sun blazing enough to drive people en masse to the local parks and the streets. I was surprised how busy it was.

(photo: Artur)

All downtown Phoenix parks were filled with people enjoying the city life, the weather, the dry summer grass that makes the parks look like wheat fields in the late…

Now that it's cooler riding is a blast and I should be doing more of it, but I'm not. I have to run 2 companies and another new start-up, but those are really excuses. What's on my mind is a mountain bike, something that's been eluding me for years or ever since I stopped BMX racing years ago and went to street riding. I miss being rougher with a bike on the trails and in the streets. I need to adrenaline of jumping. So soon my carbon Trek will be joined by a carbon hard-tail by Ibis cycles.

None the less I was able to knock out 57 miles while also showing 2 properties to prospective tenants and checking up on a clients vacation home in the Woodlea historic neighborhood.

One of the properties I was showing was a triplex about to be purchased by…

The trip distance both ways from my house to Downtown Scottsdale: 41 miles, with some small detours. The destination was arbitrary. I figured Cartel Coffee was going to be open so I headed toward it from the North side of Mummy Mountain then down the streets near Scottsdale Road through places like the under ground parking and interior courtyard under Camelview Plaza where I saw  at least a dozen people being pulled by their dogs.

Scottsdale on a Sunday morning is pretty empty, but not completely. When I rode by The Breakfast Club all seats were full and it looked like a bunch of people were waiting for their turn at some morning grub. It must be good. After some here and there, I decided to have a latte to go at Cartel Coffee. I like this Cartel…

Moving the series Urban Bike, over from PhoenixMarketTrends, is becoming hard work. This post was released in mid fall last year and makes me very impatient for fall in 2011. I can't wait to jump on my bike an ride over fallen leaves and listen to how they crumple under the skinny wheels.

It’s been a gruesome while since my bike saw much pavement in the last 2 months.  I guess when I think of the places I may ride to, I immediately get a tingle of boredom, but that’s more because of a lack of imagination or the forgotten realism that there are places to discover in Phoenix, that nooks and crannies lie all around and that cycling is a pleasure.

The latter is a, ‘not doubt’, it’s just the city that got me down. I’m a bit mad at Phoenix…

The fifty mile bicycle route meanders, in part, through the lush green streets of Central Phoenix, under the canopy of huge trees, expansive irrigated lots and historic homes.

The Phoenix Sonoran Bike-way is a 50 mile route stretching between Cave Creek and South Mountain with much of it going right down the center of Phoenix except for when it splits down Cave Creed Rd. or Dreamy Draw only to meet again close to Loop 101.

[ This is a repost of an urban bike excursion originally posted at Phoenix Market Trends. We'll be doing another one when the weather cools off becasue the coffee scene has changed a bit. ]

Compare downtown Phoenix to just a few years ago and the difference is almost dramatic, startling and intriguing.   Not so many years ago there was no place to go, nothing really to do and there were few people around. 

Now, while still far from urban, Central Phoenix has lots of places and reasons to be there and Coffee shops have become a staple in Midtown and Downtown Phoenix, especially independent coffee shops.  So when Arizona Coffee put a list together of the independent coffee houses I decided to visit my favorites and check out the new ones, I’ve…

Old water canals, mature citrus groves and beautiful older ranch homes and newer revival and French influenced architecture in Arcadia are just part of the attractions from a recent 32 mile urban bike ride which started at Lafayette Boulevard at 40th st. on my way to get a cup of coffee in Downtown Scottsdale.

This time the ride was oh so much more joyous because it was, at least for a while, next to a stream running along Lafayette Blvd.  

Well, not quite a stream but a small irrigation canal, part of the Arcadia Water Company, on the south side of the road.  None the less you don’t see too many such visual pleasures in Greater Phoenix.  

The other similar canal runs along the Central Corridor in Phoenix.

What is particularly nice about…