Originally Posted by
UnfilteredDregs
The body of NYC road cyclists train there. It is considered part of the NYC cycling infrastructure, regardless of state. You want to do hill repeats, you go over to Ranger Station.
Plenty of room in CP and PP early in the morning during the week. 6am. I've safely averaged 19mph around CP on the weekend, in the afternoon. You can most easily do that in the wee hours of the morning.
It is done, people do it, and it's plenty safe.
There's a 20+ mile loop around Jamaica Bay.
There's 40+ miles straight North in the Bronx.
There's 50+ miles to Bear Mountain and back.
The largest investment in cycling infrastructure has been made in the NYC Metropolitan area (which includes Jersey...) as far as the USA goes. The 9W corridor may be the most traversed cycling corridor in the USA.
So, To say that an indoor trainer is the only way in NYC is patently untrue given the plain reality of life here.
The OP asked about NYC not NYC area. So you're wrong on that. I am not saying it isn't a viable path, but it is NOT NYC. You can jump through whatever hoops you like and parse your point by saying is is "part of NYC cycling" but the OP asked about NYC not "NYCish" or the NYC area. I am sure there are also plenty of other areas in Nuyack, Rockland, and North Jersey that you can also illegitimately call "NYC Cycling" but I answered what the OP asked, and your contradiction is patently wrong.
As for CP and PP, I was on each a several times this summer nice and early, and your statement may have been true a while back. But every time I cycle there at 6:00AM or thereabouts, I never fail to pass joggers and cyclists with ear buds in their ears oblivious to their surroundings. I had one guy at EXACTLY 6:15 AM change his line abruptly in front of me while I was doing about 17 MPH and I almost slammed right into him. So if you feel safe at 20+ MPH, that's your business. Maybe you will go your entire life and nothing will happen, but even at that time, I have had way too many close calls with ear-bud-a$$-holes to be as footloose and fancy-free with the speed in those areas.
Hopefully this will never bite you in the a$$, and I really mean that. But I won't take the chance given what I have seen and experienced in those parks even during the wee hours of the AM.
Never did the Jamaica Bay loop. Where is it? Would love to try it.
Is The Bronx even 40 miles north-south? It may be, and if it is, where is the path you speak of. Would love to check it our.
Bear Mountain is NOT part of NYC. And either is Jersey. Call it the New York Area, and you are right, but NYC has 5 boroughs and ONLY 5 boroughs. So you're wrong. Not about these being great places to cycle, but about them being NYC, and no amount of equivocation on your part will change that.