Bike Forums - View Single Post - Are roads and weather generally bike-friendly around Albany/Troy, NY?

01-23-11, 01:23 PM

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danacf

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Location: Albany, NY

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Although I know people who commute to the cities on their bicycles, I prefer the peace and tranquility of the country roads on the outskirts. Once you get 5 to 10 miles from the downtown areas of Albany, Schenectady and Troy, the cycling is superb. This area has an excellent network of town and county roads that are in excellent condition with little traffic. I do most of my riding in the area south,west and north of the "top" of Krumkill" area, and the riding is as good as you will find anywhere. Rensselaer County is a great area too. Be prepared to do some climbing. While it's not a mountainous area, there are lots of rolling hills, some quite steep. The Helderbergs and Rensselaer Plateau rise to almost 2000 feet in the west and east respectively, but it's great riding. A little lesson on route markings: US 4 is part of the old federal highway marking system, which were largely replaced by the interstate road system. However, they still carry quite a lot of traffic and in my opinion are no fun to ride on. Routes 66, 150, 43 (in the circles) are state roads. They're quite busy too, especially during morning and evening rush hour, but aren't bad once you get out of the congestion. 74 is a county road. The county roads seem to be marked better in Yahoo maps. Town roads aren't numbered. Stick to the county and town roads where possible.
The Mohawk Hudson Cycling Club is the local touring bicycle club (http://webmhcc.org/rn/index.php). Click on Cue Sheets in the Modules section
Public transportation is run by the Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA). Their website is http://www.cdta.org/. I've seen some of their buses with front bike racks.

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