Places to ride track in Boston area?
 

Hi all-

I'm looking for an outdoor track where I can practice riding. It doesn't have to be banked or velodrome, just a place where I'm not going to be yelled at or kicked out for crashing into runners. I went over to Tufts today on a whim, but no bikes allowed on that track. I've heard that some folks used to go over to MIT and race on Thursday nights. Does that still happen? I know there are regular crits at Wells Ave in Newton, but I think that season is over and it's a tad far out for me to go to every day...I'd prefer to be able to bike there easily after work.

Also, does anyone know of any women's racing groups or riding groups that would be doing this type of riding? I'm not in school, so I don't know that I could hook up with a collegiate team.

Basically I'm looking for a place to ride on a regular basis, and some folks to do it with (of either gender).

thanks!

There's really no bike-oriented track anywhere around boston. If you want to race on a semi-official track, you've got to head up to new hampshire. Several people on the forums head up there (pixel, transplant) but i think the racing is over for the year.

People ride on the mit track, tho there's nothing organized right now. As long as it stays pretty low key, and no runners get their tail twisted about it, bikes can slide by.

re: collegiate teams- the harvard training rides are open to non-harvard folk. They're friendly, gender balanced, and contain some seriously fast riders. Road bikes generally recomended, as most of their routes go over some hills, though many of the riders ride fixies for winter training, so they're familiar with them.
Web site is harvardcycling.com

welcome to boston!
- check out the boston rides thread for more socially oriented rides.

I'm always looking for someone to do late night (I work till 10pm) laps with at the MIT track.

he means we ride to a bar and drink.

track season is over up in new hampshire unfortunately... there's a couple races this weekend though.

p.s. - don't listen to pixel. he's all show and no go. :D

you say that like its a bad thing.

never claimed to be fast, just frequently bored.

sweet. thanks for the advice. yeah, i know it's rather late in the season to be asking this stuff, but i'm just now getting around to wanting to do it. i would certainly like to know if people will be riding up in NH in the spring, or doing any casual riding at the MIT track this fall (drinking or no! :)) 10pm's a tad late for me during the week, mr. pixel, but not out of the question.

I'm going to look into the Harvard team...

where is the Boston rides thread buried? i think i was on there before but couldn't find my way back to it. Yeah, from what I can tell there are 2 crits and one alley cat this weekend. whew!

I need to come up and shred.

untrue!

sometimes we ride to places that are not bars. (and drink there).

speaking of rides, though, we should do a ride which terminates at a BBQ place again. I've never been to blue ribbon, and it smelled really good as we were going past on sunday.

i really need to join up with you all for a ride some time... i posted a while back in the boston rides thread, but never actually did anything about it (my bad)

as soon as school calms down, i'm going to get my act together - should i drop a line before i show up for a ride?

from what I understand the thursday night rides meeting by the christian science reflecting pool are a given. outside of that it seems to be touch and go, but we got a good ride going this past sunday. come race this weekend, I know a lot of us are planning to be there, check the rides thread for details.

do mean to tell me that worcester, with its $200,000 major taylor monument, hasn't got a track ??

what time do people meet for the thursday rides? i might be able to come this week...

and are you talking about the evacuate boston race? i'm thinking about it, but i've never raced before and i'm not sure my skills are up to snuff... maybe i'll just go for a laugh and to make some new friends :)

oh cool. so the christian science reflecting pool rides are still happening?

i still can't find the boston rides thread...but i will persist. :)

the thursday night rides start at ten according to the thread, I haven't been to one yet. yep, I am indeed talking about the evacuate boston race, and I'm going for pretty much the same reasons, I have absolutely no expectations of winning, just going for a good time.

I hear there is a good place in Inman, and I've heard in davis sq there is a bike friendly BBQ place that lets you store you bike indoors

HERE'S YOUR LINKAGE!

http://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=139041]

we had a fun ride sunday, but the Harvard Sq. Oktoberfest turned out to be not as great as expected although it was still fun.

um, yeah! the place in davis is redbones...classic well known bike-friendly joint. they host a lot of bike related events, including a series of tour de france breakfasts during the alpe de huez stage. i think the place in inman is called the east coast grill. sadly, neither place is very vegetarian friendly, but redbones does have some yummy sweet potatoes.

I third ending a ride with bbq.



(and beer)

You can make a pretty excellent veg. meal from just the sides at redbones.
There's a blue ribbon joint out in west newton, which means we could get a noticeable ride in beforehand (~10 miles), then a slow wobble home after.

bikes, beer, and bbq!! that's a combo you can't go wrong with

yup. worcester is the future from bladerunner.

it's true. sweet potatoes, collard greens, cornbread....mmm. it's been way too long since i've been there. oh yeah and beer. did we mention beer? they had pancakes there at the breakfast.

i'd be up for a newton ride.

So ****ing true.