WestMass

Valley Bike & Ski is awesome
Hampshire Bike Exchange is also great. Go check them both out and see which one you like better - they both have a different feel to them.
If you wind up in Holyoke at all (10-15 minutes away depending where you live in Noho), Highland Hardware & Bike is one of best shops in the area.

I'd advise against Northampton Bicycle and Competitive Edge. While I'm sure some will disagree, my experiences with this two shops have not been very good.

You'll find awesome road and mountainbiking all over the place!

UniChris

I know this is an old thread, but wondering if anyone could comment on current pavement condition and smoothness - did that project to cover the original pavement that apparently had bits of glass embedded as filler and a lot of tree root cracks go through?

Have family in Northampton and so know from walking a short stretch that a tunnel has been built under the active rail line along Woodmont road, but I've never been up there with a wheel to ride.

Starting to wonder if it's in a condition suitable for rolling right along without bouncing over a lot of bad pavement if it might have potential for trying to do a do a single-day distance PR via a serious of out-and-back legs rotating between the three trail branches that meet there - a little monotonous compared to "going somewhere" but having a base of operations just off the trail means the opportunity to stop in for a bathroom, food, water, fresh clothes, etc and to carry far less in the way of supplies and tools than I normally would need to when riding the trails north of NYC in Westchester.

autonomy

Are you asking about the Norwottuck RT? If so, until someone who's been there more recently comes along, I was on the Hadley to Amherst leg last at the end of October 2017 and don't remember it being rough. In fact, it may have been freshly paved and smooth - my profile picture is from that ride. The eastward-bound leg from Amherst might be rough.

UniChris

Thanks! Was pretty much asking about all of the Manhan, Norwottuck and Northampton since the least boring concept of the ride would be to go to the endpoint of each twice in a sort of rotating wye fashion, but I guess if one patch were bad I could prune it and use the other trails more.

brianogilvie 

After the most recent repaving of the Norwottuck Rail Trail, which also widened it from 8 to 10 feet in some areas (where terrain permitted), the local rail trails are almost all in good condition from Amherst into Northampton and Easthampton. The Northampton Bike Path has been extended northwest towards Williamsburg; it used to end just north of Florence Road in Leeds but it now continues, mostly as a fine gravel path with a bit of paving, until it reaches a switchback and descends to River Road just south of Haydenville. The Manhan trail is generally in good shape; I rode most of it earlier this spring and don't recall any serious bumps.

The only exception is the extension of the Norwottuck trail eastward from Station Road to Warren Wright Road in Belchertown. That stretch hasn't been repaved and has a lot of tree-root bumps. They've been outlined in white paint, so you can see them easily, but some of them are hard or impossible to avoid.

UniChris

Thanks! Glad to hear the majority of it sounds nice.

Apart from that descent that sounds like an access added later rather than part of the original railroad right-of way, is this mostly gentle rail-trail grades, or are there actual hills?

That sounds a lot like parts of the trails in Westchester - tolerable but does get old. Will have to see how it goes - might try that part once early in the day but skip it later on once tired.

brianogilvie 

It's all fairly gentle. The grade on the Northampton rail trail from King Street (Route 5) to Leeds ranges between flat and around 2.5%; the average is 0.9%. The grade from the Connecticut to Amherst is similar; the steepest bit is from South Maple Street in Hadley to Route 116 in Amherst, but it's still not bad. The only other climb is on the Manhan Rail Trail, up and over the bridge that crosses Route 10, since there had been a grade crossing there when it was a railroad. But again, it's memorable only because the rest of the trail is so flat!

UniChris

Thanks. Just had a look at the that bridge over route 10 on streetview - that's one nice investment in cycling infrastructure!

autonomy

Yeah, it's pretty impressive. Good thing for us cyclists. Lots of bike improvements in the state. Last time I rode the Manhan trail, they were extending it southward. The Acton section of the Bruce Freeman Trail just opened up - also has impressive infrastructure https://www.google.com/maps/@42.4989...8i6656!5m1!1e3
There's talk of extending the Minuteman Trail in the Boston area by paving over the Reformatory Branch Trail into Concord.

Have you ridden the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail in Pittsfield? It's pretty good too.

rumrunn6

we like to head "west" occasionally, so I'll be following ...

UniChris

Did ride the minuteman a few times when I lived on Boston ages ago.

But never been on any further west, apart from regularly walking a short bit of the Norwottuck with family. But planning to change that next time I'm in Northampton.

UniChris

Had a disorganized week so started the Northampton adventure by trying the train trip up with a smaller unicycle than originally planned, which pointed towards a family ride with my sister's crew rather than anything serious on my own. Worked well - littlest one on the trail-a-bike, elder on his own two wheels, sister and brother-in-law trading the single and tow bikes, and crazy uncle on the unicycle. Somehow we forgot to take pictures of the parade.

That bridge hill was useful - had to specify to my nephew that we were racing to the top of it, not up and back down the other side, as he has a freewheel and I don't.

Trail overall does seem quite nice; some roots poking through (again?) a bit south of the train station but other than that in good condition.

autonomy

Ah, that explains why you were so concerned about it being flat. Assuming you weren't pulling the trail-a-bike