I'm thinking a dozen people at most, maybe in November when there aren't any good rides to sign up for.

Leaving from someplace in NYC, returning to someplace in NYC.

Maybe we could end up at Dinosaur, at 125th and the greenway.

I go about 15 mph. Anybody interested?

Decrease to 12-14 mph and I'm...





all in!

Awesome, I'm in.

Early in the month I hope. The longer you wait, the earlier darkness falls. I work weekends, but have mondays and tuesdays off. What about an election day ride? I'm with stevesurfs pace.

Yah, right! 15 mph is what we passed on our way to 17-18 mph til we got to the end.

Since most of us have the cue sheets, and Matty and Air have the GPS data, there's nothing to stop us from re-doing the Montauk ride during the warm months (now to Oct.)

i'm in hoboken.. and would be in for the ride.

Cool. I'll post again with some preliminary details for everybody to argue about.

Seriously?

Even so, 100 miles / 6.5 rolling hours = about 15 mph.

I'm in for self-supported rides as long as I'm free for whatever dates are planned. I like jyossarian's idea to use the cue sheets to do the Montauk ride on our own, since I didn't get to do the ride this year because they never got my bike to me until the end of the day.

So do I, but separate from this one. This one, I don't want to have to deal with getting my bike out to Long Island. I want to start riding someplace in NYC, go a hundred miles, get high-fives all around back in NYC, and ride to my apartment.

No muss, no fuss, no bus.

In.

a few of the guys head up to bear mtn on a fairly regular basis in the 'Piermont/Nyack/Bear Mountain Weekend Rides' thread. which, depending on where you start, is right around a century. it might be cool to do a different route though. those out and back rides (on the same road) can be depressing.

I recently did a loaded overnight camping trip to Bear Mountain and there are some killer hills along the way. Generally, I like climbing, and I'm sure it would be different without carrying all my camp gear, but I'm not sure I can handle a century with hills like that.

Agreed. Montauk should be a separate ride.
If you want to do a self-supported century, why not do last year's NYC Century Ride? It hits all the boroughs except Staten Island and never leaves the city limits. It's easy to buy food along the way so you can pack light. I have the cue sheet and I bet some of the route markers are still on the street.

I remember reading about the BFers here re-riding the NYC Century route a few years ago just by following the street markings. It's a good idea and there's plenty of places to stop and eat.

Can anybody but dendawg make it on a Monday or Tuesday? My preference is for a Saturday, so I can recover Sunday, but if you've all got unconventional work hours...

This sounds good to me for several reasons: No killer hills, start and end near a subway, food stores everywhere.

Or how about this:

We all meet at the last stop on the train, say 179 st. in Queens. Ride east for 50 miles, turn around,and take a different route back to end up at the Far Rockaway subway stop on the A train. That takes care of the transportation, and lets you ride through Nassau and part of western Suffolk, getting us out of the city for awhile.

Hi All,

A couple of thoughts:

1) I'm all for a self-supported century, but I'd like the freedom to go at my own pace rather than have to maintain a paceline. I ride a folding bicycle, not a racing bicycle, and probably average in the 10-11 mph category. I wouldn't want to hold anyone back, and I wouldn't want to be exhausting myself to keep up with the fast ones.

2) Being one of the 66-mile Montauk folks who was screwed out of riding, I'd be all for doing a repeat on our own, though I'd prefer to do it in autumn with cooler weather and fall foliage (say, October).

3) I also like the simplicity of starting and ending a ride in NYC (and not have to deal with being separated from my bicycle). My only concern about duplicating the NYC Century route (which, in fact, I've already signed up for) is I wouldn't want to compete with and take away business from Transportation Alternatives. T.A. works very hard to make NYC a more bicycle-friendly place and they, more than any other organization, deserve our support as urban cyclists.

Hey Urbanis,

I plan on riding TA's NYC Century this year as well. I don't think doing the ride on my own is stepping on their toes. TA will still get my money and I'll still do their ride.

It might be nice to do it on a weekday if possible. If we do it this summer, I'm free on Thursdays or Fridays, as well as any weekday during the first 2 weeks of August. Once we get to fall I'm only free Fridays and weekends.

I'm theoretically available for any day of the week, just need to know at least a month in advance.

I'd love to ride out to Montauk (especially since I missed out this year), but the logistics of bikes on buses and trains does seem too fussy for a low key event.

So - it seems there are a few different centuries we could do and depending on who wants to do what we can organize a few of them.

1) NYC Type Century. Doesn't have to follow the same route as the TA Century or it can. I'll be marshaling the 100 mile route so I wouldn't mind having a go at it before hand It's also my third attempt (first was a bodily breakdown, the second mechanical breakdown) so it'll be a charm .
Advantages - always near transportation
Disadvantage - it's all in NYC which for some is probably meh. We could also come up with our own route and go for it.

2) Leave NYC and come back all by bike. Options there are upstate (so Bear Mountain), Long Island (out to Huntington and back is about 100 miles, or could take the subway out to the end and then reach a bit further), CT (there's a popular route towards New Haven I believe), or NJ (not familiar with too much but I'm sure there's someplace nice to ride a century - maybe down to Asbury Park and back).
Advantages - get out of the city, see some stuff we don't get to see.
Disadvantages - spotty transportation if the **** hits the fan, LI has a lot of traffic, Bear Mountain is really hilly and would take a lot of training (on my part anyway) to make it, I'd have to do some research for CT and NJ loops.

3) Leave the city for the century, come back via transportation. Options could be a redo of Montauk, North Fork, from NYC to Philly (something on my todo list), really far upstate, to New Haven.
Advantages - Yay, really out of the city!
Disadvantages - Transportation. If the group's any larger than four we'll have issues getting back to the city via train. To Philly would actually be the best option since we could put the bikes on the Chinatown bus and be back pretty quickly.

Im... in .. but i dont need distractions of some hot ladies in spandex....
by taking the wrong turn...
ayaih...

We're talking November. The spandex will be fleece.

Air, I'd just as soon do some sort of loop out of the city and back. Doing a century in NYC proper is sort of like taking a vacation on your couch and watching Hogan's Heroes for a week. So I'm thinking of either striking out into Long Island, or zipping up past Nyack, or...?

By then I think I'd be in good enough shape to make it to Bear Mountain. I hope! There's a cool loop I saw that goes up the west side of the Hudson and comes down the east side but it's a bit more challenging.

I wouldn't mind doing a few before then either.