NYC dwellers: it's a beautiful weekday, you call in sick. Where do you ride?
 

At any time of day Mon-Fri there's much more traffic on the roads compared to the weekend. Laps in the park are nice to start the day, but say you want to do a 50-75 mi road ride during the week — do you have any go-to destinations? Or weekday/-end, is it all the same to you?

Ride 9W to Bear Mountain.

I'm new to the hobby and looking for some good rides around 20 miles in Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. Any ideas?

@Jellyjam: try this, roughly: Park at Flushing Meadow Park, bike east past Queens Botanical Garden, then northeast through the neighborhoods to Throgs Neck Bridge. Take the bike path southeast (possibly visiting Fort Totten) along the Cross Island to Alley Pond Park. Take Vanderbilt Parkway Bike path till crosses the L.I.E.. Go through Kissena Park back towards Flushing Meadow. Lots of alternative street routes so you can avoid most of the traffic, and it's probably around 22-25 miles.

Check out Papa Tom's http://nyrides.freehosting.net - some of this is described there.

Thank you so much @csi56
I will try it out this weekend or next. Also going to look into that site. :-)

You could ride the greenways around Manhattan or follow north to Westchester.

The Queens streets are much nicer on weekday afternoons than on weekends. I think that a weekday afternoon is the best time to ride in Queens.

You don't say where you are starting from; but let's assume a start near Flushing Meadow Park. Take College Point Blvd. a few blocks south to Booth Memorial Ave. Then turn left, and take Booth Memorial eastbount. And just keep going. Once you cross Utopia Pkwy., bear left at the fork in the road; this gets you onto 58th Ave., which is a great bike street.

That avenue going east will eventually intersect with Underhill Ave., where you can turn right and get on the bike lane for just a short stretch. In a few yards, you'll find the entrance to the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway. There are no cars on there; it's called that because it was built by a member of the Vanderbilt family in order to race cars. In fact, it was the first paved road in the United States. Now it's a bike/pedestrian path.

You can follow that path until near its end, just before it enters Alley Pond Park. I recommend jumping off it at Cloverdale Ave., and taking Cloverdale north. Skirt the park by following the streets: turn left at 76th Ave.; turn right at Springfield Blvd.; turn right at 73rd Ave. Then you hit Cloverdale Ave. again; turn left to go north, and begin following the "Bike Route" signs. This winding route, all on nice streets, will get you up to Northern Blvd.

You can turn right on Northern (not a good bike street at all; but you're on it for only a block or two) and go east to the beginning of the Cross Island Blvd. bike path. That path goes all the way up to near Fort Totten. When the path ends, you come out on a street called Totten Ave. Turn right on that street, and see on your left the entry to another bike bath that takes you under the Throgs Neck Bridge, and finally dumps you out on Utopia Pkwy.

Take that street south to 35th Ave., and turn right to go west. Go all the way to Parsons Blvd., and turn left to take that south a few blocks to Sanford Ave., where you'll turn right. This will take you all the way back to Flushing Meadow Park.

That whole ride is a bit less than 20 miles.

River road to 9W to Nyack

Go to Grand Central station and pay the $5.00 (if it's still that) for the lifetime bicycle permit. Then hop on a Metro North Train to anywhere north of White Plains. There are infinite combinations of great rides in Northern Westchester, and you don't have to plan carefully or have a set turnaround since you can hop back on the train wherever you feel like it.

You can skip the train and start from the city (we used to start at Fordham and Grand Concourse), but that means that the first and last quarters of the ride won't be anything like the middle.

I live north of the city, and ride from my house heading north. Depending on whim I'll keep riding north toward Brewster, then turn around and head back, or make a right turn someplace and head to the Connecticut shore, or drift left toward the Hudson river. When I've had it I'll head to the nearest station and take the train home. It's a great way to ride, never getting home and wishing you'd stayed out longer, or crapping out and facing another 20 miles on rubber legs to get home.

Another plus, is that almost none of the ride is on the same few "gateway" routes I use to get in or out of the city.

One other great 75 mile or so ride is to head northwest across NJ from the GW bridge. There are a variety or nice routes that bring you out toward Greenwood Lake, or North Milford, or over Skyline Drive, and so on. You'll need to bring a map and explore because it's across the grain and requires navigation. But it's much nicer, and has far less traffic than heading up 9w for the 17th time.

BTW- we're fortunate in the NY area that NYC is actually a relatively compact city, and opens up to decent riding coun try retty close in. But lay out a map and draw a 25 mile radius circle around times square. Within that circle riding is mediocre at best, but beyond that and extending to 100+ miles is some excellent riding. So that argues for either riding one way, or doing back to back rides and spending the night away. There are countless great rides possible with a cheap overnight 75-100 miles out. Or learn where there's bus or train service (check bike rules) and ride out all day, have a nice country dinner, and take the last train home.

I live on the UWS. Other than rush hours and the vicinity of the hospital at 169th St and Ft Washington I have the option to ride up Riverside in light traffic or take the greenway to the GWB, cross over to NJ and head to Piermont or Nyack. Piermont is around 45 miles RT. If I continue to the Runcible Spoon in Nyack that makes it around 50. If I take river road through the park instead of 9w all the way that adds a mile or two.