With quiet back roads and rugged mountain trails on its doorstep, as well as a welcoming community of riders, Harrisonburg is rolling.
In the Sunday morning quiet, my long-time cycling friend and I pedaled down an unmarked ribbon of asphalt, winding around curves and cresting short hills, threading our way through fields and past farms. All-too-accustomed to navigating suburban traffic, we savored the unfamiliar pleasure of a road free from whizzing cars and lane-hogging commercial vehicles. Then, in the distance, we saw a horse-drawn buggy approaching, with a clop of hooves and a rumble of wooden wheels. Passing, we exchanged waves with the family packed into the small carriage—only to find ourselves soon enough overtaking another one. Before long, there were more, converging from all directions, gleaming chestnut horses at a smart trot. Clearly, we’d bicycled into the church-going hour in this Shenandoah Valley Mennonite community, but it felt as though we had ridden into a time warp and lost a century when we’d taken the last turn.
Little more than an hour later we were a few miles north in a thoroughly modern Harrisonburg replete with microbreweries, yoga studios and other signifiers of 21st-century zeitgeist, waiting for a text-message notification that our breakfast table was ready at a popular local diner, the Little Grill Collective.
It is this juxtaposition of past and present, the immediate proximity of rural tranquility and modern convenience, that helps explain why Harrisonburg is becoming a quiet mecca for on- and off-road cycling. Surrounded by undeveloped farmlands traversed by miles of lightly traveled roads, with the George Washington National Forest and the Shenandoah National Park each close by, but bisected by I-81, Harrisonburg offers an easily accessible hub for biking adventurers.
More than that, however, it is the center of a strong cycling community that has coalesced around a dedicated effort to sustain—and grow—a bike-forward, healthy Harrisonburg for everyone; not just hard-core two-wheelers but also leisure riders, families, schoolchildren, commuters, students and anyone else who might like to ride.
In Harrisonburg, you can head out and hammer a hundred-miler along interconnected rural roads in the surrounding countryside, or simply take an easy roll with the kids on the paved, mile-long, mixed-use Bluestone Trail in the heart of town.
“We are trying to grow not only the number of people who come here, but even more importantly, increase the number of people who live here who ride bikes,” says Kyle Lawrence, president of the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC). “We believe that the bicycle is a powerful tool to build a better community, so that means any type of bicycle riding is really encouraged and really great.”
Bridgewater Christmas Ride.
Photo by Sandra Parks
Riding for All
SVBC puts that philosophy into practice in advocacy and action; the organization has worked closely with the city and surrounding Rockingham County to develop biking plans and create bike paths and designated roadway bicycle lanes. SVBC also conducts clinics and a range of events and rides, and maintains a website with a ride calendar, route maps, and other resources—all to get more people bicycling at every level. Thanks in no small part to SVBC’s work, Harrisonburg has been designated a bronze-level bicycle-friendly community by the League of American Bicyclists.
“We have a very inclusive and unified bicycle community,” says Lawrence. “Unity gives us a much louder voice and also creates a much more pleasant and inviting social space for bicycles.”
Jana Walters, who teaches in the kinesiology department at James Madison University, was a relative late-comer to that community; she bought her first bike at 35. “I thought I could probably ride a bike to work and that would be fun,” she says. But she soon became an enthusiast, and now, at 38, she’s an advocate specifically for getting more women on bicycles.
There’s a gender gap at every level of the sport, and the gap widens with age. As a volunteer “ambassador” for the women-specific bicycling brand Liv, Walters works to close that gap, leading “non-intimidating, non-competitive, novice-friendly” group rides for women throughout the roughly February-to-October riding season. She also hosts clinics in basic riding and bike-maintenance skills. “I get to do things like teach people how to use brakes, when to shift, what to wear, how to ride on the road,” she says.
Her work is supported by—and the rides leave from—Mole Hill Bikes in Dayton, just a few minutes south of Harrisonburg, which carries the Liv brand. “We focus a lot on family fitness and recreational cycling,” says 18-year-old Jordan Knicely, who literally grew up in the shop. His father opened Mole Hill in 1986, and moved it in 1992 to its present location, attached to the Knicely family home.
SVBC Ice Cream Ride.
Photo by Sandra Parks
A Big Slice of Cycling Paradise
Step outside Mole Hill and you’ll see why this area is so inviting for riding. Across the street is farmland. Hills roll away towards mountains both to the east and west. A two-lane road stretches invitingly into the distance.
According to Kyle Lawrence, there are more than 1,000 miles of paved roads in Rockingham County alone—many of them sparsely traveled. “We have roads it feels like to every little family farm—a spider web of road-riding opportunities,” says Lawrence. And local drivers, accustomed to encountering farm vehicles, horse-drawn buggies, and families traveling by bicycle, are also respectful of slower-moving traffic—a rare luxury for on-road cyclists.
It’s also beautiful countryside to ride through, constantly changing with the seasons and with every hill crested or new turn taken. And if the on-road riding is idyllic, it’s matched and possibly even surpassed by the off-road opportunities.
“Harrisonburg is uniquely positioned with one of the largest concentrations of public land around it east of the Mississippi,” explains Lawrence, which is one reason why National Geographic last year named Harrisonburg one of the 20 best mountain biking towns in the U.S. (putting it in the same league as cities like Sun Valley, Idaho). Another reason: The SVBC has been instrumental in helping to fund, build and maintain miles of trails on the public lands of the nearby George Washington National Forest, as well as on the Western Slope of Massanutten Resort and in Hillandale Park in Harrisonburg itself.
Nearby you can also find Stokesville Campground, southwest of town and bordering the National Forest, which has been developed by Chris Scott, a JMU graduate and a one-man force behind mountain biking in the area. In addition to hosting the SVBC’s annual Shenandoah Mountain Bike Festival, the site offers camping, a swimming hole (day passes available), an adjacent group lodge, an observatory maintained by local volunteer group the Shenandoah Valley Stargazers, and the main attraction—three miles of riding trails on the property, with a fourth under construction, and, notes Scott, 30,000 roadless acres of the National Forest “right behind the campground.”
Sue George, a former member of the U.S. National Cycling Team who owns and teaches at Shenandoah Yoga downtown (and is author of the guidebook Road Cycling in Central Virginia) says she settled in Harrisonburg in no small part for the abundant opportunities to ride both on and off the road. “It can be rare to find a place to live that has great road riding and mountain biking,” she says.
Add to that easy accessibility from the heart of an increasingly dynamic downtown Harrisonburg, and you have the perfect recipe for a rider-friendly community. “We have a small town, restaurants, culture, live music, and you can leave town on your bicycle and be in farmland on quiet back roads or on trails—go on a huge ride or a short ride from town and end up back in a great downtown,” says Lawrence. “That is kind of the magic of it.”
Riding the Renaissance
In 2000, however, when Thomas Jenkins and business partner Tim Richardson opened Shenandoah Bicycle Company on Main Street, that “great downtown” wasn’t so much in evidence. Today, the area is a bustle of shops and restaurants, coffee houses and craft breweries, with new construction signaling continued growth. But back then, it was a decidedly different and moribund downtown of empty storefronts and an uncertain future.
“If it wasn’t at the lowest point, it was pretty close to the bottom,” says Jenkins. They liked the area nevertheless. “We thought it had potential.”
Jenkins credits the local cycling community not only for supporting their decision to locate downtown, but also for providing the shop’s initial customer base. “A big component of what makes the bike-riding scene here special is the bike community,” says Jenkins. “Whether you are a first-time rider or an avid cyclist, people are really supporting each other.”
Today, in a revitalized downtown, Shenandoah Bicycle Company is busy throughout the year. “Our clientele is everyone from first-time riders to enthusiasts to professional athletes,” says Jenkins, and he’s seeing a growing number of riders coming from out of town as well, signs that this little town is getting a big reputation in the cycling world.
“It’s a beautiful valley with mountains around,” says Jenkins of the attractions of local cycling. “And I am a firm believer that most people enjoy riding a bike.”
The annual Harris Roubaix ride, spring 2016.
Photo by Sandra Parks
Rocktown Cycling Resources
Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition
SVBC fosters initiatives and hosts events, including regular group rides, to make cycling more friendly and inclusive for the entire community. SVBC also helps run the Bicycles for Refugees program, which provides bikes, helmets, and safe-ride training to refugee families. SVBCoalition.org
Stokesville Campground
The campground backs up to the George Washington National Forest and is quickly becoming an offroad cycling mecca. There are a number of trails on the property that connect to the many additional trails in the forest, which are maintained by the local biking community. The campground also includes some cabins, the adjacent Stokesville Lodge and a swimming hole. StokesvilleCampground.com
Shenandoah Bicycle Company
To be more welcoming to all riders—owner Thomas Jenkins acknowledges that bike shops can be intimidating places—the shop recently added a juice/smoothies/healthy bowls café called Pulp, which also serves local beers on tap. ShenandoahBicycle.com
Mole Hill Bikes
Located just off I-81 and named for a now-extinct volcano and local landmark, the shop runs various bike events and group rides throughout the year. In particular, the shop organizes a couple of regular women’s rides during cycling season, and carries Liv brand women-specific bikes. MoleHillBikes.com
This article originally appeared in our April 2018 issue.
