Originally Posted by
mulveyr
I live very close to the Erie Canal path in Rochester; the canal is the typical way for bike tourists to ride from Buffalo/Niagara Falls to Albany.
Are you planning on riding the canal route? If so, being about three-quarters stone dust, either touring bikes or hybrids are highly recommended. People ride it with 28mm or smaller tires, but in my experience they generally don't enjoy it as much. :-)
The usual riding time for Buffalo to Albany is five days or so, and then presuming that you go from there to NY City figure in another three. There's really no possible way you can rent bikes for less than the airline fees for that length of time, plus you would need to deal with getting the bikes back to the starting point somehow.
As was mentioned above, Spinlister is a possibility, but not for 30 cyclists leaving from the same place. :-)
I rode the Erie Canal on a carbon bike with 25mm tires. I've only done it that one time so I don't know what it would be like on wider tires, but it was a lot of fun on 25mm and if the tow path gets boring you can always get onto NY state bike route 5 which is mostly on Rt 31 and follows the canal path. Also you can camp for free at many of the locks on the canal.