Northeast - NY Century

What was the mileage for the 75 mile route? I know my computer isn't accurate, and it read 84 miles.

Avatar, I added up the miles to about 90 at the end of my ride (I inadvertantly reset the comp at a rest stop as I was picking up the bike). But as I said, I had lots of blown turns, backtracking and maybe even a shortcut or two veering off the route. I'd guess the actual mileage of the 75 was about 80.

Some car drivers probably think they should give a warning - a horn honk - when passing as good etiquette but I know cars will be passing from behind and I really hate this. I feel the same about the verbal warning in this context. My common sense view is that riders should be acutely aware there are riders behind them (like many hundreds of riders). It should be obvious that some people may be faster and will be passing. It should not be necessary to say something and it can be annoying or startling. The problem is that probably the rider that wants the vocal warning is right in the middle, making passing hard.

I am sure some of the over-intense riders are out of line or unnecessarily inconsiderate in passing but then again, some of the mellow riders are out of line and inconsiderate too in blocking.

Some car drivers probably think they should give a warning - a horn honk - when passing as good etiquette but I know cars will be passing from behind and I really hate this. I feel the same about the verbal warning in this context. My common sense view is that riders should be acutely aware there are riders behind them (like many hundreds of riders). It should be obvious that some people may be faster and will be passing. It should not be necessary to say something and it can be annoying or startling. The problem is that probably the rider that wants the vocal warning is right in the middle, making passing hard.


Why should the burden be placed on the person being passed? Shouldn't we all share the burden? I agree that all riders should try to be as aware as possible. But what's the harm in just saying "On the left"? You don't have to shout it. Just let someone know so that in case there's a bump or pot hole in front of them, then don't swerve into you. In the end, safety should come first.

At the very least, riders should only pass on the left. Passing on the right should really be avoided if possible. I get it; people want to go fast and sometimes there are slow riders in the way. But this isn't a race and slow cyclists should be allowed to go slow without the danger of someone clipping them. Not all the riders out there were as experienced and I feel like all the spandex warriors passing without warning make it that much harder for newbies to get involved in cycling in the first place. We already have cars to deal with. Why add to it?

Please note I say this as an experienced cyclist. It's just one of my peeves.

When we were near Vanderbilt there was one black Lexus SUV weaving in and out of traffic and the bicyclists - came close to hitting me and a few others. I jotted the license plate down, will pass it on and see what happens.

Too many close calls with people who have no idea how to ride near/around other cyclists.

1. Someone in front of me drops something and slams on the brakes and comes to a full stop; barely got around this moron. If it were a car behind him, or someone with poor bike handling skills, that guy gets creamed.

2. A few of us are cruising in Brooklyn before the Canarsie rest stop. A guy just about pulls in front of me (and almost into me); I hit the brakes and barely avoid a 20+mph crash.

3. All the clowns wearing headphones. On a ride where you are surrounded by dozens of cyclists??? I chewed out one guy wearing headphones who was clearly a liability to himself and everyone around him.

I'm not saying that inexperienced cyclists shouldn't do this ride, just that their presence makes the ride more risky than I'd like (as evidenced by my experience and those of most of the others who've posted ride reports). Next year, I'll ride up to Bear Mtn instead, with people who understand how to ride in a group.

As seen at Broadway and Houston around 8:30 am.

Yeah, there's a few riders who forget there's people behind them and just stop abruptly, swerve all over the place and race past w/ hardly any clearance or warning. My closest call was w/ a cyclist that swerved into my path after hitting a pothole. I swerved to avoid her, but she managed to be more of a threat than the cab that cut me off, forcing me to turn w/ it. But I can't get annoyed w/ them. More people on bikes is a good thing and if you know how to ride in groups like that, you know not to hammer past them unless you have plenty of space.

I feel like I avoided all the inexperienced people by riding the 100. At least in the group where I was everyone was well behaved. Once past a certain point there were very few people passing or being passed, until the Triborough. And then again in the Bronx there were even fewer.

serpico07/jyossarian: ditto ditto ditto

also, i'm restating my request for a photo of that route map. did anyone take a pic? i wish i'd had a camera. hopefully someone from transalt posts it on their web site or something.

I feel like I avoided all the inexperienced people by riding the 100. At least in the group where I was everyone was well behaved. Once past a certain point there were very few people passing or being passed, until the Triborough. And then again in the Bronx there were even fewer.
I started at 6am. I can't even imagine what a zoo the later start rides must have been.

serpico07/jyossarian: ditto ditto ditto

also, i'm restating my request for a photo of that route map. did anyone take a pic? i wish i'd had a camera. hopefully someone from transalt posts it on their web site or something.

Does this (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/kml/episode.kml?episodePkValues=3908445) help? It was recorded by my 305.

That is so freakin' cool - I didn't know it could map that!

Does this (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/kml/episode.kml?episodePkValues=3908445) help? It was recorded by my 305.

AWESOME

Does this (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/kml/episode.kml?episodePkValues=3908445) help? It was recorded by my 305.

Question - I just tried that out with other links that were from motionbased.com and it didn't work. Did you have to do something like export it to get it in Google maps or am I dumb?

Scratch that - I used your URL and just changed the values. So hot.

Where the heck were all you BF people? I wore my BF jersey and not a peep from anyone recognizing me.

Anyhow... a ride report. I rolled down from the GWB (live in its shadow) w/ my neighbor. We met my riding friend on the way and weaved all the way through the crowd to the very front of the starting line. What was it with all the gaps? Not that I'm complaining!

So, we started at the very front of the first group. My neighbor, new to this sort of thing was dropped pretty quickly. The marshalls leading it were some crazy mofos, almost eating it twice blowing red lights. I learned to not trust them at lights. At one point the lead group was down to 5-7 riders because of the way these guys were flying through town. Several almost crashes happened too b/c a couple of guys (yes, more than one) apparently didn't know how to secure bottles in bottle cages, including the one who slammed the brakes on after dropping a bottle... right in front of me. Genius.

Anyhow, it was fun riding at the front and all but my friend and I had ridden a very hard 100+ miles the day before so backed it off to enjoy the rest of the ride when we hit the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. Conveniently, shortly after that we met a guy who had just finished Paris-Brest-Paris and rode with him the rest of the way. In a word, this guy, at 62 or any other age for that matter, was a bad a55 on the bike and an awesome guy all around. Pleasure to ride with him.

At the Canarsie Pier stop we saw a young lady on a roadie getting bandaged. Our PBP pal said he saw her go down in some sand. She was in good spirits, but that would not last long: being pretty fast, she rode more or less with us through Forest Park, where she went down again because of a patch of sand (!!!), despite the fact that PBP guy and I had called it out up the road a couple of bike lengths. This time she was a little @#$%ed up, so the three of us and a guy we think was riding with her stopped to take care of her bleeding knee. A park ranger, a call to 911 about did it, as did PBP guy's expert field dressing of the wound. Incredibly, when it was clear that she was in better hands than ours, the crasher had recovered to the point that she wanted to keep riding. Dunno if she did or not.

The rest of the ride went without incident. My left foot was in terrible pain from constant hot spots, but that's cycling, I guess, when you do back-to-back big rides. We did see my neighbor at the Prospect Park stop and then again at Alley Pond Park, the latter clearly b/c of the big delay with the girl who crashed. I haven't heard from him but he looked terrific at Alley Pond so I don't doubt that he finished.

I ate about 200 Krispy Kreme donuts on this ride. My annual dosage, I guess. That being said, KKs and the potato chips they had were awesome. :D I ate way too much at the stops and had to re-start a little slowly each time because of it. I'm used to eating on the bike, I guess, but this time brought only emergency supplies.

I was surprised by the route changes, and a bit bummed that we didn't ride through Brooklyn Heights and Carrol Gardens. It's pretty clear, IMO, that the route was changed to avoid the climb up to Prospect Park, as the climb out of Alley Pond Park was also removed (as were the climbs from the Bronx a while back I hear). Bah! I also agree, BTW, the marks on the road this year were lousy. We didn't rack up a lot of "bonus miles" but we did miss a bunch of turns. I wish I could tell you at what time we finished, but I don't remember, though it was probably around 2:30.

Where the heck were all you BF people? I wore my BF jersey and not a peep from anyone recognizing me.

Anyhow... a ride report. I rolled down from the GWB (live in its shadow) w/ my neighbor.

Hey, too bad I didn't know when/where you were leaving from. I live just a bit north of you, across the Broadway Bridge. I ended up riding down solo, but it would have been cool to link up beforehand.

Hey, too bad I didn't know when/where you were leaving from. I live just a bit north of you, across the Broadway Bridge. I ended up riding down solo, but it would have been cool to link up beforehand.

Yeah, I posted my plans kinda late. <sigh> Maybe we (BF, that is) can give it another shot at the Tour de Bronx. I met jyossarian there last year. I recognized his bike first, which we both found amusing, IIRC.

cc_rider: what was so fun at Van Courtland?
The people at the table were clapping and cheering every time another bike rode up.
Since the crowd was less than the other rest stops, it was more relaxed and friendly.
And passers-by and people from the golf course were stopping in to talk.

What was the mileage for the 75 mile route? I know my computer isn't accurate, and it read 84 miles.
I had 84 total miles on my computer. Backing out the ride from and to my car, it was around 79 miles.

I hadn't been to Coney Island in many years. After the ride I was told by my parents that Astoland is being torn down to make room for housing. If I had know that I would have stopped to take pictures.

Only saw one accident, but the young woman seemed to be alright. Someone ahead of me hit a pothole and almost went down, but her camera bounced out of her bag and I almost ran over it.

If you spotted a guy in a blue cookie monster shirt, that was probably me.

hmm.. I wonder if I rode with any of you guys alone the way. I rode a black, taped up single speed with a trunk and colorful reflective tapes. I was in a "It's Earth day, ride a bike" T-shirt. I started about 20 minutes late and finished around 2:30ish. Here's my full stat (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3908445).

I don't understand all the complaints about the road markings. I think the only reason people were confused is that they expected turns that weren't there because of the route changes. I mostly followed the markings and didn't have any trouble at all, even in the Bronx when I was tired.

I guess if you're bombing along at 20+ you could miss them, but you'd miss it no matter what at that speed.

There were quite a few where if you were in one lane and cars were in the other they would cover it up. Also some were quite small (6" or so). On large intersections it wouldn't be too much to mark a 'turn around' marking if you happened to miss it.

The only problem I had with the markers was that disappeared when I used my green flip-up sunglasses.
The only turn I missed in the Bronx (Tiffany St I think) because the church on the corner had closed the road for a festival, and the marker was probably under the ice-cream truck.

Only saw one accident, but the young woman seemed to be alright. Someone ahead of me hit a pothole and almost went down, but her camera bounced out of her bag and I almost ran over it.
Was this on the way to Astoria Park? That might've been the woman that almost clipped me after hitting the pothole and swerving left into me. Then again, I'm sure lots of people had things bouncing off their bikes. I saw a couple roadies checking out their wheels after the short cobblestone section a couple turns after Jackson Ave. in Queens.

I met jyossarian there last year. I recognized his bike first, which we both found amusing, IIRC.
Yeah, you saw my IRO and asked if I was jyo. I was near the start of the 100, hanging around the volunteers table so I probably "saw" you as in, I saw a big group of cyclists and discerned none of them.

I was surprised by the route changes, and a bit bummed that we didn't ride through Brooklyn Heights and Carrol Gardens. It's pretty clear, IMO, that the route was changed to avoid the climb up to Prospect Park, as the climb out of Alley Pond Park was also removed (as were the climbs from the Bronx a while back I hear). Bah! I also agree, BTW, the marks on the road this year were lousy. We didn't rack up a lot of "bonus miles" but we did miss a bunch of turns. I wish I could tell you at what time we finished, but I don't remember, though it was probably around 2:30.

I was also surprised at the route changes. I did the ride 2 years ago on a fixed gear which was a huge mistake. As I remember, there were several climbs in Queens and Bronx which were near fatal to me being a stupid brakeless fixed gear rider. There were less climbs this ride which is not exactly a bad thing. I can't complain against the markings on the road since I will admit to not looking for them all the time yet I wish there was a "google maps" type map available you could check from time to time. Otherwise, no complaints and overall a fun time with excellent weather. I always enjoy seeing large groups of people cycling in this city which is very rare.

So what are all of you riding next? Tour de Bronx seems to have been mentioned. MS Ride? Escape New York Century?

Was this on the way to Astoria Park? That might've been the woman that almost clipped me after hitting the pothole and swerving left into me....
Was someone else. This happened in Brooklyn, on Carleton, near Atlantic.


Riding back to Manhattan from the Bronx I almost didn't need the cue sheet. Just follow the trail of discarded bottles and co2 cartridges.

Thought I posted this, but I actually closed the window. Still tired a bit from yesterday ;)

Anyhow, I rode the century, and it was my first. Had a blast! Rode alone, but met lots of people along the way. Unfortunately I turned towards Central Park (and the finish line) with the 75ers, before I realized that I wasn't going the 100 route. Saw several people coming back toward me from Lenox Ave, complaining that they made a wrong turn also. I tagged along with them until we got back on track.

I think the Bronx part was hard, but I enjoyed the camaraderie there.

I think the Bronx part was hard, but I enjoyed the camaraderie there.

That was one of the things I loved about it last year. When I had my asthma attack and had to walk up a bunch of hills almost everyone passing would shout out things like, "You can do it" and "Keep going!"

Meh... missed this one due to a complete lack of sleep the day before and wasn't pre-regged, so decided to go out to sea instead. Still, on the way to the marina, I took Emmons through the shore parkway bike path, drafting some roadies from the ride that said they had started at 6:30. At least got to ride a couple miles worth of the century.


So if you got passed by a dude on a hybrid with loaded panniers, sweating his ass off in a brown t-shirt on that stretch...:rolleyes:

So if you got passed by a dude on a hybrid with loaded panniers, sweating his ass off in a brown t-shirt on that stretch...:rolleyes:


C'mon man! Who did you pass riding that rig? A couple of old ladies on 3 speeds? :D

i missed it also. absolutely had to get some sleep after working 70 hours the week before. in the afternoon i took a spin up to nyack and back and paid a steep price: 2 flats on 9w and no glue in my patch kit. all on my brand new tire too. that's now 4 flats on 9w in about a month for me. i should have just did the century and used the support crew.

How did you get back if you couldn't glue them?

I used about 5 patches on one guy's because he kept putting it on upside while insisting he knew how to do it. Nice guy, I think just a little flustered and tired and embarrassed.

How did you get back if you couldn't glue them?



i walked for a while until some guys stopped and i bought a tube from them. then i used the dollar bill trick to keep the tire damage from blowing the tube again.

I'm gonna go into business riding up and down 9W selling tubes and patches!!! Think preglued patches Tim.

Regarding the century, I'll add two things:

1. Paint markings
Since I was unable to ride and marshal as planned, I volunteered to paint the markings on the street. This girl with me (also a volunteer) had no idea what she was doing since she doesn't ride and has never done an organized ride. I assume some of the other volunteers have simlar backgrounds and experience, hence the markings where a parked car could block it.

I guarantee you no one missed a marking where I sprayed, since I did it as I would like to see it as a rider.
Big C's, very big, at least a foot wide. I marked every 2-3 blocks (the recommendation was every 5-10). I marked where no cars could block the marks, no buses could be block them, and on tricky intersections, many extra marks were put down. I'm pretty sure Helen Keller could have followed my marks.

So, since volunteers who may or may not ride are doing this, why don't we, as riders, volunteer to do this and do it right???

2. Route
Next year I will pre-ride the route as a marshal (assuming I can keep away from out of control cars between now and then) and will track it with my 305. Then I can post the route and you don't have to worry about the markings. At least that is the plan.

So what are all of you riding next? Tour de Bronx seems to have been mentioned. MS Ride? Escape New York Century?

9/16 - Golden Apple in Westchester?

http://www.westchestercycleclub.org/goldenapple.php

So what are all of you riding next? Tour de Bronx seems to have been mentioned. MS Ride? Escape New York Century?

I'm planning on doing the Tour de Bronx, maybe Escape New York and definitely the NYC MS Bike Tour.

I'm doing a charity ride upstate on Sept 23rd, otherwise I'd do the Twin Lights Ride in Jersey.

Tour de Bronx and ANYTHING else that comes up that is on Saturday or Sunday!

The Queens part was killer. Alley Pond Park hill was a massacre for me, but then again, I suck at climbs at the moment.