Places to Ride

Solon to Chagrin Falls trail connector

Phase 1 is built and open: a paved, marked path through the woods along South Chagrin Reservation. The City of Solon hosted a "Ride the Trail" community ride to show it off on Sunday, November 2, 2025, meeting at Solon City Hall. The rest of the plan (a proposed bridge over the Chagrin River linking up with the existing Metroparks network toward Chagrin Falls) is still a future phase.

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Ride the Bike With a Mayor routes yourself

These are the actual marked routes from past Bike With a Mayor rides: loops through Solon neighborhoods via Kruse Dr, Solon Rd, Aurora Rd, SOM Center Rd, Solon Blvd, and Glenallen Ave, starting and ending at the Solon Community Center. They're not closed to traffic outside the event, but they're genuinely good, rider-tested ways to see the city by bike, any day you want.

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• About 5.5-6.4 miles, roughly 75-200 ft of climbing, an easy grade the whole way
• 2023 through 2026 all start and end at the same spot, Solon Community Center

The Emerald Necklace starts here: South Chagrin Reservation

Cleveland Metroparks has been called the Emerald Necklace since the early 1900s: a ring of connected reservations circling the city, each with its own paved trail. South Chagrin Reservation is Solon's own link in that chain, sitting right on the city's edge, with just over 7 miles of paved All Purpose Trail winding past Sunset Pond, the Harper Ridge picnic area, and a loop around the Shelter House.

This is a different piece of the same park as the Solon to Chagrin Falls connector above: that's a new trail still being phased in, while this is the reservation's existing, ride-it-today network. Nearly 7,000 acres in all, with more than 30 miles of trail total if you want to explore beyond the paved loop.

• Just over 7 miles of paved, flat All Purpose Trail
• Trailhead parking at the Harper Ridge picnic area and Shelter House
• Part of Cleveland Metroparks' historic Emerald Necklace system
• Right on Solon's edge, no need to load up the bikes

The FirstEnergy power line corridor

Utility right-of-way corridors like this one are already cleared, mostly flat, and often make surprisingly good trail corridors, plenty of cities have converted them into shared-use paths. The good news here: Solon's own GIS shows FirstEnergy owns the land under this corridor outright, and FirstEnergy's own guidance lists recreational trails as an approved, safe use of right-of-way land that doesn't require written consent. No competing private landowner to convince, and the utility itself isn't the obstacle.

Mountain bike trails north of Grantwood

The city's 2022 Parks and Recreation Master Plan flagged this as worth studying: land north of Grantwood Golf Course as a possible site for singletrack, one of the few spots in Solon with enough room for it. It's an early idea, not a funded project. In the plan's own words, the city should "partner with the local mountain bike association to study this possibility."

Parkway Connector

Links two Metroparks trails that don't otherwise connect: the Hawthorne Parkway trail in northern Solon and the Solon-to-Chagrin Falls Trail down near SOM Center Road and Route 422, on residential streets built to bike boulevard standard: low speed, low volume, and comfortable to ride today, official signage or not.

Campus Connector

Runs roughly parallel to SOM Center Road past Solon's school campus, connecting northern and southern Solon on quieter residential streets. The plan puts it at 2.2 miles, about an 11-minute ride, a calmer alternative to SOM Center Road itself, which carries over 15,000 cars a day at a 35 mph speed limit, with no bike lanes.

Community Connector

Picks up near the school campus and loops east past the ponds, connecting through to the existing path on Pettibone Road, the more direct link between the community park/schools and recreation areas on the east side of the city.

Cleveland-Cliffs Bike Park

A Cleveland Metroparks build in Cuyahoga Heights, a short drive up the valley. A purpose-built bike park with five distinct zones: a beginner skills area, a pump track, a competition pump track, an intermediate jump line, and an advanced jump line. Open to riders of every skill level, from a first lap on the pump track to sending the advanced line.

• Ride at your own risk, and within your skill level
• Helmets required at all times
• Control your speed and don't stop mid-trail
• No motorized vehicles
• Conditions change, features can get slick

Ray's MTB, and the free pump track right behind it

Ray's is the original indoor mountain bike park, built in a west-side Cleveland warehouse so Ohio riders have somewhere to ride through the winter. It runs a fall-through-spring season, roughly the first weekend of October to the last weekend of April, with jump lines, technical trails, and skills areas for every level, for a day-pass fee.

Right next door at Mercedes Cotner Park, the city built a free, public, paved outdoor pump track in 2023, the first of its kind in Cleveland. It's built for all ages and abilities, including kids on balance bikes and first-timers, no pass or fee required. Easy to pair the two: warm up outside for free, then head into Ray's.

• Ray's: paid, seasonal (roughly Oct-Apr), indoor, all skill levels
• Mercedes Cotner Park pump track: free, outdoor, open year-round, all ages
• Right next to each other on Walford Ave, easy to do both in one trip

Bexley Park pump track, South Euclid

Northeast Ohio's first public outdoor pump track, built and still maintained by East Side Cycles, a local nonprofit formed to give kids on the east side somewhere to ride. It's 650 feet of paved rollers, jumps, and berms, plus a separate 300-foot paved tot trail with a tunnel and small wooden bridges for younger or newer riders. Free, outdoor, and open to the public.

• Free and open to the public, no pass required
• 650 ft asphalt pump track for intermediate and advanced riders
• Separate 300 ft tot trail for younger and newer riders
• Built and maintained by East Side Cycles

The Towpath: Cuyahoga Valley to Downtown Cleveland

A flat, wide, crushed-limestone trail running 19.5 miles through Cuyahoga Valley National Park, part of the much longer Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath that reaches Zoar to the south and keeps going well past the park to the north. It's one of the most popular multi-use trails in the state: easy grade, no cars, and real scenery the whole way.

Past the park boundary, the trail keeps going through the Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation in Valley View and Cuyahoga Heights, the same reservation that's home to Cleveland-Cliffs Bike Park above, then continues fully paved into the City of Cleveland: about 11.3 more miles through Valley View, Cuyahoga Heights, and Cleveland, with skyline and Scranton Flats views the whole way in. It currently ends near the future Canal Basin Park site in the Flats, a few blocks from downtown. Same trail the whole way, it just keeps going.

The Brecksville-area trailheads are the closest jumping-off point from Solon for the park section, a short drive west. Ten trailheads with parking run the length of the park section, so you can pick a stretch that matches how far you want to ride.

• 19.5 miles within CVNP, flat and beginner-friendly
• Another ~11.3 miles north through Valley View, Cuyahoga Heights, and Cleveland
• Crushed limestone in the park, paved once you're past it
• Wheelchair accessible throughout
• Ends near the future Canal Basin Park site in the Flats, blocks from downtown

Bedford Reservation mountain bike trails

A reservation-wide singletrack network built with Cleveland Area Mountain Bike Association (CAMBA) volunteers: 10 distinct sections, about 11 miles total, threaded together by the park's paved All Purpose Trail. Mostly smooth, rolling wooded terrain over the Tinker's Creek gorge, with beginner, intermediate, and advanced sections mixed in.

The singletrack runs one direction for mountain bikers, so it stays predictable when you cross paths with hikers going the other way. It's built to ride in pieces: park at one of the trailheads, do a loop or two, and bail out to the paved trail whenever you've had enough.

• About 11 miles of singletrack across 10 connected sections
• Beginner through advanced sections, mix and match
• One-directional for bikers, built and maintained with CAMBA
• Trailheads at Bridal Veil Falls, Dunham, Egbert, and Overlook Lane

Slow Roll Cleveland

A free, no-drop community ride through a different Cleveland neighborhood every week, about 10 miles at a social pace, open to every skill level. It is not in Solon, so plan to rack up and drive in, but it is one of the best ways to see the rest of the region by bike.

• Most Monday nights; the starting spot changes weekly
• About 10 miles, social pace, all skill levels welcome
• Free, no registration required
• Helmets strongly encouraged
• Low-speed e-bikes welcome, no gas-powered vehicles

Akron Bike Party

A monthly night ride through Akron: casual pace, bring lights and music, themes are optional. It's a bit of a haul from Solon, but worth the drive if you want the bigger bike-party energy on nights Slow Roll isn't rolling.

• Third Friday of every month, gather 7:00 PM, roll 7:30 PM
• About 7-10 miles, casual pace, night ride: bring lights
• Free, no registration
• Starting spot has moved before, confirm before you go

Cleveland Critical Mass

An unofficial, no-leader mass ride through downtown and midtown Cleveland, the classic Critical Mass format found in hundreds of cities worldwide: ride together, assert some road presence, no set route or agenda. It's been running for well over a decade.

• Last Friday of every month, gather 6:30 PM, roll 7:00 PM
• Meets at the southwest corner of Public Square, downtown Cleveland
• Free, no registration, no leaders

Cleveland Bike Party

A mobile, volunteer-organized night ride through the streets of Cleveland: 10-15 miles on a route that changes every month, all bikes welcome, music bikes encouraged. Distinct from Slow Roll Cleveland above, that one's Mondays, this one's Fridays, and it runs a little more party than parade.

• Second Friday of every month, gather 7:00 PM, roll 8:00 PM
• 10-15 miles, route changes monthly, posted in advance on Instagram
• Free, all bikes welcome
• Night ride: bring lights, a lock, layers, water, and a flat kit

Cleveland Touring Club

A road cycling club with paced group rides nearly every day of the week: Social and Social Plus for an easier pace, B and C levels for faster and longer. Routes range across Lake, Geauga, and Cuyahoga counties, including regulars through Chagrin Falls and Rocky River, close enough to Solon to be worth a look. E-bikes are permitted under the club's published policy.

• Multiple paced ride levels: Social, Social Plus, B, C
• Rides scheduled most days of the week, not just weekends
• Routes include Chagrin Falls and Rocky River, among others
• E-bikes permitted