Originally Posted by buzzman

I ride those roads pretty often and the route choices you linked seem viable. At 5:30 am those roads are pretty empty, as you get closer to the city the traffic will increase but it almost makes it easier because they'll slow down to your speed and less for much of the time. With regards the closing of the Nonantum run of the bike path into Boston simply cross over the river at Watertown Square and ride the bike laned street (Charles River Road) that runs parallel to the river and cross back over at N. Beacon, should you choose that route.

My recommendation would be to get off Rte. 117 as soon as you can before 7:00- 7:30 am as it starts to crowd with the coffee sipping, texting, cell phone using commuters. The road gets bumpy and potholed as you roll towards Drumlin Farm so if there's traffic you have less negotiating room. If you take a right on Tower Road (South), just past Drumlin, it becomes Concord Rd. Follow that all the way down to Weston, left on Boston Post Rd briefly then right on School Street, it becomes Newton Street and feeds out onto Rte. 130 that runs parallel to the Pike and leads to a major junction of 128 and 90. It will be jammed with traffic but it's doable on a bike. If you look on the map you can then snake your way to Commonwealth Avenue in Newton and follow that to Boston College, cut right around the Chestnut Hill Reservoir and onto Beacon for a bit through Coolidge Corner and a right onto Washington and snake your way over Longwood Medical.

Hopefully, my revisions transferred to this link. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...&z=13&lci=bike


(Google seemed to add some "phantom miles" to my route change because I kept dragging it onto Comm. Ave so it probably appears to back track)

For hard copy maps: The Rubel Eastern Massachusetts Bike Map would cover this route quite nicely.

BTW, didn't I run into you on the D2R2 a few years back?