so is anyone gonna do it? i see it costs like 50 bucks. so what's to keep ya from just ridin' anyway? the streets are public right? why not just bandit the thing? i don't wanna pay 50 bucks when i don't care about the vest or refreshments and all.

i did that ride in 2000. i don't know if its changed but it sucked hard. 40,000 people on bikes was like rush hour in china. it was so crowded that you couldn't ride. we walked our bikes from wtc to central park before we could ride!

It's a bit of a nightmare. Most of the people who do the ride don't ride very often, and have no idea how to ride in a huge group, so there are tons of accidents. Though it is kind of cool to ride over the verrazano.

And there's nothing to stop you from just jumping in and riding without paying. Not that I saw at least.

thanks for the info rod! i'm out! or sure as hell ain't gonna pay!

Did it last year, Too crowded and not worth the $$, If you want to ride this route just do it Sunday morning at like 6am, the second half was pretty lame and the roads sucked. You also really can't go the speed you want. If you sneek in and goof around could be fun.

I rode last year (in the rain) and we walked more than we rode (from WTC to the 50s!). Brunop, the only thing that's preventing you from jumping in is when they check for your vest when the ride goes from city streets onto the highway. If you don't have a vest you're not allowed to ride on the BQE.

never again!
if the start is like rush hour in china, the wait for the ferry back to manhattan is like the world's longest soviet breadline. there are very few parts of the route that are exciting to look at if you've done any riding in the city at all and the prolonged exposure to tens of thousands of not-so-fit asses in spandex is a little scarring, too.

ny century ride later in the summer is the way to go.

You will most likely be stopped from crossing the bridges if your vest isn't showing.

I have done it every year for the last couple years. It's like $40 once a year, which is totally not a big deal and you get to ride with thousands of other people on places you never will otherwise.

If you do go, it is stop and start until the teens, with another hold up for a few blocks before the park. I guess this is to space out the ride a bit. After that it tends to be pretty much non-stop, with one or two occasional traffic stops. Your best bet is to get near the front of the pack at the beginning and keep up a good pace once it is not so congested.

The worst part of last year was waiting for the Ferry. Something went wrong and they didn't have as many special boats as they needed. Or something.

Also if you want to ***** about an organized ride, I went on last years inaugural Tour de Brooklyn.

It was only from the park to Coney Island and back, which is like 10+ miles or so and kind of silly but I wanted to support it since it was new.

You basically just road down Ocean Pkwy.. The problem was, was that the route wasn't blocked off ahead of time so the police were stopping traffic a few blocks ahead of the ride and then leapfrogging back to the front after the ride passed them. What you basically got was a police pace car keeping the ride at about 10mph and tightly packed. I saw a lot of inexperienced riders bumping tires and falling.

Then at the halfway/refreshment point, we were held for longer than a half hour for no discernable reason.

I was thinking about doing the ride. I've never done it before, but I figure the best strategy is to show up early and get up near the front ahead of all the slackers. Is that the best strategy?

I've done it a few times and will be doing it this year, hopefully on a fresh conversion I'm building up. It's a mess at the begining but nothings stopping you from jumping in around Central Park or so where it frees up.

My wife enjoys it and we've got some friends who aren't big bike people who want to do it and it's a good time all in all, though left to my own devices, I probalby wouldn't do it again.

Anyone doing the Montauk Century a few weeks later? Did the 100 mile version a few years back on my fixed gear but wil be doing the 66 mile this time.

I found that jumping into the ride at CP instead of from the start is the way to go. Basically, 45 min to an hr. after the official start, be at CP when people should just be arriving, then blend in and ride the rest of the ride. You'll be at the head of the ride so you won't get stuck behind the mass of people riding slow. When you loop through Harlem and the Bronx and get back on the FDR south, try to get ahead of as many people as you can cuz traffic bottlenecks at the QB Bridge. Skip the first rest stop and you can make decent time for the rest of the ride.

You bunch of old ladies! If you can't work your way thru the bike traffic during the tour, guess what! you are one of those Sunday riders you are complaining about. Except for bottle necks at the lesser bridges, I've never had any problems with the bike traffic.

As for places you get to bike, when was the last time you got to ride ON the BQE, ON the Belt Pkway, OVER the Verrazano and parts of the Bx. When was the last time the roads were closed for you thru the buros? Yeah it is pricey, and yeah you can crash the party, but WTF? better yet stay home!

Pn-riding the 5 buro tour since 1991-C

2 or 3 people dies during it last year. Last year i skipped it but did it the 3 years before.

hopping in at central park is a must. it's a really fun ride from that point on.
like poopncow said, you get to ride on the BQE and the over the Verazanno with no cars.
I'm registering and getting a vest, but i've never actually seen anybody get pulled aside for not having one.

i would highly reccommend jumpin in a few miles after it starts, its very annoying trying to get going for the first part.

Im gunna do both the 5 boro tour and montauk century, ive never done either, so i wanna try it out.

For those questioning whether they want to go officially or not, on the brochure for the bike boro, i believe it said something ike anyone without a vest can't go over the verrazano and therefore can't go to the finish line party.

Is it too goody-goody of me to say that it ain't right to do this ride without paying? I mean, it's not like you're stealing from GE or Starbucks or something - it's Transportation Alternatives, and they do good stuff.

On the other hand, I've done the ride and it is annoyingly crowded. Even working your way to the front can be perilous, because slow, inexperienced riders get skittish when you go by them quickly. (I caused some lady to fall over this way, which made me feel terrible until I stopped to help her and she was really obnoxious, at which point I stopped feeling so bad.)

worst ride ever

actually it's the New York DOT that puts the 5 boro on. Transalt does the NY Century, for what it's worth.

i agree with all that's been said about the traffic jams which are incredibly lame, but i'll add that its a great ride if you're trying to get some non-biker friends and family more interested in cycling. If you're looking to convince a girlfriend/buddy/whatever to ride with you more often or at all, when they see they've done the 'whole tour' (just 42miles, but it feels like half that 'cause of the relaxed pace) they'll feel like bada$$es and likely beg you to go ride with them again the next weekend. I've done it with a vest the past 2 years, going again this year. And if you're running an ego deficit after paying for a vest (pretend you had a sidewall blow out, then ate a cheese pizza - that's about how much $ you'd be out), i bet you could have a blast smoking literally hundreds of sagging cyclists on the final expressway leg with your FG, you studs.

Hmm. That lessens my bad feelings about freeloading, although the DOT is hardly a corporate villain from whom one has a duty to steal. I guess something about doing a paid ride for free seems a little bit, well, not nice.

I don't mind supporting this. I will be there