[JandersUF]

Hey guys,
I've just moved to Boston (brookline, south of boylston) and am looking for some ride suggestions. The only things I've found online are the charles river MUT and the Minutemen MUT, both of which i plan on checking out this weekend. But I'd love it if any locals have good routes to share, especially anything that originates in the Brookline area and heads out of town. I was living in Gainesville, FL and had gotten very used to riding on desolate county roads surrounded by horse farms! Anyway, thanks for your help!!

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[KevinF]

The largest local club is CRW (Charles River Wheelmen). They have an on-line listing of their routes at: http://www.crw.org/CueSheets/index.htm. Most of their rides start right near Rt. 128 / I-95 somewhere.

There is a surprising amount of quieter-then-you'd-think riding between I-95 and I-495. You won't find "desolate country roads" until you're west of Worcester, but there's some really nice riding around here.

[derath]

The largest local club is CRW (Charles River Wheelmen). They have an on-line listing of their routes at: http://www.crw.org/CueSheets/index.htm. Most of their rides start right near Rt. 128 / I-95 somewhere.

There is a surprising amount of quieter-then-you'd-think riding between I-95 and I-495. You won't find "desolate country roads" until you're west of Worcester, but there's some really nice riding around here.

I did one of the CRW routes while visiting boston. It was an awesome ride. I highly recommend it. Here was my data so you can see

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/1161768

-D

[beat.tk]

Brookline.
Well, my routes are out of Cambridge and head basically WNW to the zone between 95 and 495.
I love it there. Especially around the Minuteman National Park and the state parks.
From Brookline though... I guess I would check out routes on bikely.com, here's a search of "brookline"
http://www.bikely.com/listpaths/srchkey/brookline/country/254/region/143

This ride out to Dover looks good
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Brookline-to-Dover-and-back

As far as the minuteman and charles river trails, they suck on weekends. You can definitely use them as a slow route out of town, but yr not gonna get any sort of workout, with all of the foot traffic, unless you go really early. The minuteman trail is 10.5 miles from Alewife T station to Bedford, and there's a LBS right at the trail head in Bedford where you can purchase pocket rides for the area. Actually, you can go to any LBS probably and get some pocket rides.

http://www.bikemaps.com/pktmaps.htm

You can also bike out to Cape Cod, here are some maps
http://massbike.org/bikeways/ccbw/
or
http://www.crw.org/claire.htm

I don't do group rides, but besides Charles River Wheelmen or whatever, I know there's a Landry's Bikeshop on Comm Ave that does weekly rides. I have no idea what they're like.
http://www.landrys.com/events/default.aspx

Oh, one other thing, last summer I did 50-60 mile afternoon rides every Friday. It rained at some point... every single week. Usually fast rain showers. A bunch of them were lightning storms too, and once this bolt of lightning crashed down--it was so close to me, it felt like it struck in my back pocket. I guess I'm saying, if this summer is like last summer, beware of electrical storms. on Fridays apparently.

Also, don't get doored.

That is all I have to say.

[spokenword]

Hey guys,
I've just moved to Boston (brookline, south of boylston) and am looking for some ride suggestions. The only things I've found online are the charles river MUT and the Minutemen MUT, both of which i plan on checking out this weekend. But I'd love it if any locals have good routes to share, especially anything that originates in the Brookline area and heads out of town. I was living in Gainesville, FL and had gotten very used to riding on desolate county roads surrounded by horse farms! Anyway, thanks for your help!! I would definitely recommend getting a copy of the Rubel Bike Maps for Eastern and Central Mass. you'll get a lot of good ideas for routes from those two.

Also, as far as general rules of thumb -- always expect roads and traffic to be fairly stop-and-go until you get to Rt. 128. From Brookline, the fastest way to get to a quiet suburb is to head south and west to Dover. Heading directly west to Newton and Wellesley will still be pretty traffic-y until you get to Natick and Framingham. Heading north west to Waltham will also be kind of busy, but once you get out to Wayland, Lincoln and Sudbury, you'll find some gorgeous territory to ride through.

You could also feasibly head south through Jamaica Plain and Roxbury to the Blue Hills, but the neighborhoods are somewhat dilapidated and shabby. Once you get past the Blue Hills and start heading to places like Sharon, the terrain improves, but it's not quite as gorgeous as the western 'burbs.

Another option, if you're willing to take the train, is to pick up the commuter rail from Back Bay station and head west to, say, Framingham and start from there.

[JandersUF]

wow, what a help! thanks a lot guys!

[eippo1]

+1 for CRW and their really well organized rides. I plan on being on one this weekend.

[ldesfor1@ithaca]

+1 to CRW's website and ride calendar.

I will do the group ride thing if that is your bag of rice:
Tuesday nights leaving from Beacon St. Tavern (1032 Beacon st.) there are 2 groups that ride. Fast group is 34ish miles at 19.5-21 mph. Slower group is 28 miles at 16.5-18 mph, i think.

A faster ride still is "Streets road ride" leaving from Washington Sq. 40miles @ 21+ MPH. thursday at 6:15 sharp.

CRW has other rides posted of the group variety.

I live right outside of Washington Sq. and there are the only local rides for me, minus the Saturday CRW fitness ride.

-Leo