so i've been spoiled the past 2 years living in san francisco, we've got great riding all year round, but i'm getting tired of the bay area. I'm thinking about moving to NYC in january, but i'm worried about my riding. obviously i'll be on the trainer for a couple months while its winter, but once the weather gets good, where do you train/ride in NYC? i was thinking about living in brooklyn commuting to manhattan for work. any of you do this? where do you go to ride hills/mountains? any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!

ps how in the world do i edit my title, sorry about the typos

there is a heathly race scene here. in the city the races are spread between three locations - central park (6 mile loop), prospect park (3.5 mile loop), or floyd bennet field (laps on an old airstrip). There are races pretty much every weekend and tuesday nights at floyd bennet field during the summer.

there are a few other NYC races, such as grant's tomb crit and harlem skyscraper crit. but, the bulk of the racing is in the parks.

also, lots of races are in the northeast that are not very far from NYC. New Jersey, Connecticut, upstate are easy to get to, but you'll probably need a car.

If you are hungry for hills, you might be disappointed. the best climb around here is about a 1 mile 6-7% grade. i think most racers tend to do a lot of hill repeats on smaller hills.

Oh and there is the Kissena Velodrome (http://www.kissena.info/)

Where can I see a schedule of races around the NY area, especially Floyd Bennet Field?

I'd really like to go watch a race.

VelocityNation.com (http://www.velocitynation.com/) (formerly NYvelocity.com) is an informative and amusing resource for the NYC racing scene. You can find links to clubs, teams, rides, races, etc. The link for the Floyd Bennett Field race series is at the top right of the home page.

If you are hungry for hills, you might be disappointed. the best climb around here is about a 1 mile 6-7% grade.

I guess it depends on your definition of "around here". There's nothing in a 5 mile radius of midtown Manhattan that rivals what the OP is ostensibly used to from the SF Bay area, but a quick jaunt up to the mountains in Rockland or Orange County will yield some wonderful climbing.

Here's a route profile from a ride I've done just behind Piermont, all within 20 miles of Central Park. >5,000' elevation gain over 55 miles.
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=1680682

And here's a link to the grades of some regional hills. Nothing really long, but some challenging steeps nonetheless: http://www.nycc.org/resources/re_regional_grades.html

all great information, thanks everybody! bob ross, thanks for your post. good to know there are some mountains in the area that i can hit up on the weekend.