Hey!
So today I found out that I will be headed to Paramus, NJ tomorrow for 2 nights. I am going to bring my bike, any good riding down there?? Can anyone point me in the direction of some good group rides or at least good loops? anything between 30-50miles would be great. Thanks!

Two simple, nice rides I do in the area:

North on Kinderkemack, east (right) on Old Hook>Closter Dock, north on either Piermont Rd or 9w to Piermont, Nyack or further if you're up for it. For simplicity, come back the way you went.

Another is north on N.Fairview>Pascack, west (left) on Oradel Ave>E.Ridgewood Ave>W.Ridgewood Ave, north (right) on N. Maple>Sheridan>W. Saddle River Rd. up to NY border then head a few blocks east and come back to Ridgewood Ave on beautiful E. Saddle River Rd.

On the above, you'll pass a duck pond park along Oradell/Ridgewood Ave. That is the north end of a scenic 6 mile multi-use path that's worth checking out, esp. on a weekday when its less crowded.

Hey!
So today I found out that I will be headed to Paramus, NJ tomorrow for 2 nights. I am going to bring my bike, any good riding down there?? Can anyone point me in the direction of some good group rides or at least good loops? anything between 30-50miles would be great. Thanks!

Hopefully others who know more about the area will chime in (EDIT: appears someone did as I was typing). My driving experience there doesn't bode well for you - it's NJ's mall center (something like 4 malls in 1 square mile), which means LOTS of shopping crazed drunkedness on the roads.

You can study this map for possible routes:

http://www.njbikemap.com/njmap/link_maps/north_jersey.htm

Head north or northwest.

Or, I found this Club calendar online. Never been on any rides with them, but they look well established. You'll be in Bergen County, so any of those rides indicating Bergen might work. Paramus is near Upper Saddle River and Ridgewood. I suppose you could email one of the group leaders to find a good match for you, since it appears not all rides have specific location details.

http://www.btcnj.com/adminridescalendar.asp?RideDate=7/8/2008&Category=#0

thanks for the suggestion guys!

Yeah I have just been googling bike shops and calling around. So far only found a few 20mile group rides at a semi slow pace. Those websites helped and I shot that club and email. If all else fails I will just do the above mentioned ride.

I cant thank you all enough!

Just avoid Rt17 and RT4 and you should be fine

A good loop would be up kinderkamack, go east after the ny border and pick up western highway or sickletown and then strawtown road after the NY border, Then go west on south mountain road for a while, turning onto central highway (33) to do the little tor climb if you want, then going south on haverstraw->spookrock->cherry lane->west saddle river road back into paramus. I left out a few turns here, but you can loop up cue sheet in the nycc.org library. Just remember that starting in paramus you'll be cutting out 15 miles each way to and fro nyc. Another fun option would be to ride into nyc over the George washington bridge and take the west side bike path all the way down. Will be more crowded but a fun thing to do if you've never done it.

Yeah, stay off 17..:-) However, Campmor is on 17north just north of Ridgewood Avenue...

Jay

I grew up in Fair Lawn, the next town over. If you're into shortcuts and paths and parking lots, here's an 8.5-mile loop you can combine with the Rochelle Park/Saddle Brook bike path, starting at the Saddle river Road trailhead around the corner from where I grew up. I rode a lo of these streets growing up.

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Fair-lawn-loop

The bike path goes all the way from near Rochelle Park to the Riddgewood duck pond.

FYI, Some of these shortcuts and paths are from memory, and decades ago.

Does Westwood Cycles still do group rides?