Road Bike Denver to Co Springs..what roads are good? (Colorado Springs: good hotel, shopping mall)

[bikerpppp]

I want to ride my road bike down to Colorado Springs, stay the night and return the next day. I can't find good advice which way to go. Maybe even a good hotel to bike to as well? I have been told Highway 105?

[BillRadio]

No, highway 105 is too narrow. If you have the courage, you are permitted to use the shoulder of I-25 but they whiz by at over 80 mph. My favorite route is down Parker road, route 83. It's wide enough and traffic really thins out from Franktown southward.

[bikerpppp]

Thanks, I try 83 not 105.

cheers-

[bikerpppp]

Great, I have had some time to research this route. Folks can take the C-470 trail to Parker. State HWY 83 has great shoulders to ride. From Englewood to Colorado Springs its 64.77 miles using this route. Theres a service station in Franktown tostop and get food or h2o. I quess a guy could do this in one day. I'll let this thread know how it is when I get done with the ride. I'm staying the night. Then coming back the next day. There are super cheap hotels in COSprings. Most likely we will do a second ride to the garden of the gods and around the down town area. There are tons of bike paths to ride on. Cheers-

[bikerpppp]

Wow............DON"T RIDE THIS ROAD.....unless you are a well seasoned rider. 72 miles from Englewood Colorado to north Colorado springs. Good bike trails (cherry creek south) south toward Franktown. However, 5 miles before franktown....no shoulder. No shoulder until 13 miles later....and this is only 24 inches wide..... all the way to Co Springs. We stayed at the HOward Johnson Inn. This was good because you had lots of food options, REI, shopping malls etc...... 5.5 hours down....4 hours back. 3180 climbing, 2180 going down. It was faster going back. We had great weather good views. I won't do this until they put in wider shoulders.. Cheers-

[bikiegirl]

Almost ten years later, and this is the most recent discussion I can find about riding from Denver to Colorado Springs. Makes me nervous, yet I want to do this ride, and all the routing apps have me cut over to 105 a little south of Castle Rock, after the frontage road ends. Looks like you are saying 83 is a bad idea, despite the suggestion of others, so I plan to follow the routing apps. I may split the trip into 2 days, so I can be fresh and cleaned up for a family event the next evening. Perhaps it will also be good to do the "bad" part of the route early on day 2.
Has anyone done this ride (Denver to Colorado Springs) more recently?
Thanks for any tips.

[TCHP]

There is still not much selection for this. It is still limited to I-25, 83, and 105. You could consider 67 into Woodland Park, but I don't know that I'd recommend 24 from Woodland Park to Colo Spgs. Its steep, narrow, curvy, and fast. I've seen many cars hogging shoulders on blind corners and wouldn't trust them to see a bike.

If you don't mind zig zagging down a variety of county roads, you can avoid the highways but this could easily triple your mileage.

[DrDog]

And drivers have only gotten worse and more distracted. Scary stuff.

[Phil P]

There's a lot of great street biking east of I 25 between CO Springs and Denver. There's some really cool drives in Nothern Black Forest out by Kiowa. Bicycling, not so much. There's not the bike lane for it. They'd be great routes if you could feel safer while doing it.

[Thoreau424]

Originally Posted by DrDog

And drivers have only gotten worse and more distracted. Scary stuff.

I agree with this. And highways and bikes do not make a good combination.