120 miles of mean streets
So, on a last minute whim, I went down to NYC for dinner with my dad and my London sister, and then rode Transportation Alternatives' NYC Century on Sunday.
This ride is a four borough tour, starting and ending in Central Park. It roughly circumnavigates Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. Staten Island gets left off, being logically part of New Jersey.
Thoughts:
That's a *big* ride. 5, or 8, or 10 thousand people, depending on who you believe. More people came from out of town than I would have guessed. I had lots of interesting company through the day.
I *like* driving/riding in NYC. Traffic is something like sane, and there's a flow to it that you just don't get in Boston.
NYC has a *lot* of bike paths. They're generally not in very good shape. I'm glad I put fat 28mm tires on my bike. It made the day a lot more tolerable. One of my new wheels completely shrugged off the abuse. The other was definitely potato-chippy afterwards. :/
A lot of these bike paths run through grassy verges between highway and water. There's a surprising amount of lovely green hidden in NYC.
Outer Brooklyn and Queens are very...suburban.
The resurfaced Kissena velodrome looks lovely, but is bumpier than most NYC streets. Bring a good stiff bike and wheels.
*One* hard lap around the track absolutely toasted me for the next hour or two. But that was partly due to eating too much, and getting nauseous from that.
The arrowing was awful. I, or the groups I was riding in, got seriously lost at least four times.
The Unisphere is *huge*.
Bronx is really two boroughs: the rundown, poor southern end, and the well-off, park-laced suburban enclave that is the north.
NYC has a *lot* of rail. I lost count of how many elevated subway lines I crossed, and there were probably twice as many underground lines I didn't notice. Plus LIRR, Amtrak, MetroNorth, and assorted and sundry.
I probably ran 500 stop signs in one day. This is not normally like me, but it's just impossible to stop at every red octagon when there's 50 miles of them.
There's a huge variety in NYC neighborhoods. There's not really any consistent style of building in NYC that carries over from area to area.
The Brooklyn bridge was lovely as usual. Most of the rest had narrow concrete walkways that just sucked.
The weather was Ohmygosh lovely. It couldn't have been any better. Low 70s, a nice breeze, sunny but a little hazy so it was not merciless, dry.
The parks in the outer boroughs are often beautiful: woodsy, quiet, shady, designed by Olmstead...
That was the slowest 100+ miles I've ever done. At the end of the day, I'd gone 120 miles. I'm still recovering. I was in better shape than I expected, given how few long rides I've done this year, but it was a slow, rough ride.
I'd been wanting to do one of the long organized NYC rides for many years; it finally worked out. I definitely recommend it, but only if you're comfortable with urban riding; it's *not* an easy ride. It's a wonderful way to see the outer boroughs.
This ride is a four borough tour, starting and ending in Central Park. It roughly circumnavigates Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. Staten Island gets left off, being logically part of New Jersey.
Thoughts:
That's a *big* ride. 5, or 8, or 10 thousand people, depending on who you believe. More people came from out of town than I would have guessed. I had lots of interesting company through the day.
I *like* driving/riding in NYC. Traffic is something like sane, and there's a flow to it that you just don't get in Boston.
NYC has a *lot* of bike paths. They're generally not in very good shape. I'm glad I put fat 28mm tires on my bike. It made the day a lot more tolerable. One of my new wheels completely shrugged off the abuse. The other was definitely potato-chippy afterwards. :/
A lot of these bike paths run through grassy verges between highway and water. There's a surprising amount of lovely green hidden in NYC.
Outer Brooklyn and Queens are very...suburban.
The resurfaced Kissena velodrome looks lovely, but is bumpier than most NYC streets. Bring a good stiff bike and wheels.
*One* hard lap around the track absolutely toasted me for the next hour or two. But that was partly due to eating too much, and getting nauseous from that.
The arrowing was awful. I, or the groups I was riding in, got seriously lost at least four times.
The Unisphere is *huge*.
Bronx is really two boroughs: the rundown, poor southern end, and the well-off, park-laced suburban enclave that is the north.
NYC has a *lot* of rail. I lost count of how many elevated subway lines I crossed, and there were probably twice as many underground lines I didn't notice. Plus LIRR, Amtrak, MetroNorth, and assorted and sundry.
I probably ran 500 stop signs in one day. This is not normally like me, but it's just impossible to stop at every red octagon when there's 50 miles of them.
There's a huge variety in NYC neighborhoods. There's not really any consistent style of building in NYC that carries over from area to area.
The Brooklyn bridge was lovely as usual. Most of the rest had narrow concrete walkways that just sucked.
The weather was Ohmygosh lovely. It couldn't have been any better. Low 70s, a nice breeze, sunny but a little hazy so it was not merciless, dry.
The parks in the outer boroughs are often beautiful: woodsy, quiet, shady, designed by Olmstead...
That was the slowest 100+ miles I've ever done. At the end of the day, I'd gone 120 miles. I'm still recovering. I was in better shape than I expected, given how few long rides I've done this year, but it was a slow, rough ride.
I'd been wanting to do one of the long organized NYC rides for many years; it finally worked out. I definitely recommend it, but only if you're comfortable with urban riding; it's *not* an easy ride. It's a wonderful way to see the outer boroughs.