andrelam

I have only ridden a short section of the canal path. This summer I plan to ride with my sister from my house in East Amherst (1 mile from the Canal) to my sisters' house in Pittsford (about 3 miles from the canal). That will be about 70 miles of the canal but will ride it in one day. The path is crushed stone. It does give a soft ride and feels a bit slippery, this is fine when going straight, but turns have to be taken with care. My friend went down when his front wheel slipped when he was not paying close attention when taking a bend. Most MUPs have a speed limit of 15 MPH so having a very fast bike is not a great advantage. Having a bike that YOU are comfortable riding on IS important. I haven't seen how soft the road bed gets after some rain. 28+ mm wide tires should be fine, but I could see 23 mm tires maybe sinking in a bit and that would not make for a fun ride.

I have been eyeing the 7 day Erie canal ride from Buffalo to Albany as well. I definitely can't do it this year, but maybe 2009. That particular trip has the ride broken down into 35 to 40 mile streaches each day. I could see them recommending a hybrid because the rides are relatively short (by long distance riding standards) and you are traveling along paths with low speeds. The slighlty wider tires of the hybrids should also deal very nicely with the gravel, but as stated in the 2008 brochure, some people bring along race bikes and it works fine.

Once the snow finally melts around here (the paths still are covered with a few inches of snow/ice) then I'll be able to regularly add 15 miles to my commute home and start working on adding some endurance to may daily rides. In the weekends I plan to start adding 30 to 60 miles rides. By the middle of Summer I hope to have no problem riding 60 miles. If the ride agrees with me enough I may to a round trip (Amherst - Pittsford) along the canal as well by the end of the Summer.

Happy riding,
André