My wife, 15-m.o. daughter and I are considering a move to Montclair, N.J., in Essex County. What's the riding like there? We took a drive out there this weekend and it just seemed like one suburb after another after another. Most of the through-roads (numbered highways) seem to have two lanes with a shoulder, which works for me. There also seems to be a little bit of climbing, but all those roads tend to dead end at the top of a "hill."

How far from Montclair do you have to ride to get out of the 'burbs? What is the racing scene like, the cycling club scene?

Keep in mind we now live in NYC, so I am accustomed to being surrounded by thousands of idiot drivers and pedestrians. Now it takes me 45 minutes to ride up out of Manhattan across the GWB.

We are definitely looking to get out of the city, but we want a town with a "town" there, places we can walk to for shop, eat, etc. We also liked Westfield, N.J., but that seems a little too far from NYC.

TIA.

My wife, 15-m.o. daughter and I are considering a move to Montclair, N.J., in Essex County. What's the riding like there? We took a drive out there this weekend and it just seemed like one suburb after another after another. Most of the through-roads (numbered highways) seem to have two lanes with a shoulder, which works for me. There also seems to be a little bit of climbing, but all those roads tend to dead end at the top of a "hill."

How far from Montclair do you have to ride to get out of the 'burbs? What is the racing scene like, the cycling club scene?

Keep in mind we now live in NYC, so I am accustomed to being surrounded by thousands of idiot drivers and pedestrians. Now it takes me 45 minutes to ride up out of Manhattan across the GWB.

We are definitely looking to get out of the city, but we want a town with a "town" there, places we can walk to for shop, eat, etc. We also liked Westfield, N.J., but that seems a little too far from NYC.

TIA.
I live very close to Montclair. It is known for being very popular with transplanted NYC people looking to get out of the city. You probably already know about the midtown direct from montclair to Nyc. (put you name on a list for a parking spot in the midtown direct lot, or just bike to the lot).

Regarding the riding, I generally ride from my home (just west of montclair) out west to morris county when doing a long ride. From my house it doesn't take long to be on very low traffic roads with lots of nice scenery (farms even!). From montclair you could easily plan a route that will get you off of busy streets within about 15 mins.You will become familiar with the "swamp loop" that many people in my area do. A ride of about 50 miles from montclair to the Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge. I did variations of that ride yesterday and Sunday.(Tell me when you want to try it, we can meet at my house for a ride). Otherwise during the week I do my intervals and other riding on the less busy side streets that, as you say, are prevalent.

Also, you may want to check out montclairbikery.com, The Bikery, on Valley Road is a road racing oriented shop. They sponsor MANY races in the area and put on a weekday training series during the summer. They do a lot of their interval training in Brookdale Park. They have a very strong presence in the racing community and are also known as a good shop. (Diamond Cycle on Bloomfield Ave is a mountain bike oriented shop, I've used them on occasion with good results). If you want hills, you will find many, generally short but can be very steep. One of my favorites is an abondoned NIKE missile base, about .8 of a mile of hell. Repeat as necessary.

On the non-riding front, you will find many very good restaurants in Montclair with a nice pedestrian shopping district, good mass transit options as mentioned above, an independent book store and movie theater, oh and high taxes like all of Essex County.

Any other questions or more details let me know. And if you want to do a long ride in the area, weekend mornings work for me. (maybe we can make an event out of it and invite some of the NJ regulars)

My wife, 15-m.o. daughter and I are considering a move to Montclair, N.J., in Essex County. What's the riding like there? We took a drive out there this weekend and it just seemed like one suburb after another after another. Most of the through-roads (numbered highways) seem to have two lanes with a shoulder, which works for me. There also seems to be a little bit of climbing, but all those roads tend to dead end at the top of a "hill."

How far from Montclair do you have to ride to get out of the 'burbs? What is the racing scene like, the cycling club scene?

Keep in mind we now live in NYC, so I am accustomed to being surrounded by thousands of idiot drivers and pedestrians. Now it takes me 45 minutes to ride up out of Manhattan across the GWB.

We are definitely looking to get out of the city, but we want a town with a "town" there, places we can walk to for shop, eat, etc. We also liked Westfield, N.J., but that seems a little too far from NYC.

TIA.

Check your PM's

And if you want to do a long ride in the area, weekend mornings work for me. (maybe we can make an event out of it and invite some of the NJ regulars)
Did I hear someone say NJ RBR Gathering? I'm always good for a gathering of RBRs.

biknben (greater Trenton area rider)

Did I hear someone say NJ RBR Gathering? I'm always good for a gathering of RBRs.

biknben (greater Trenton area rider)
I haven't heard from anyone else, but I'm definetly up for putting something together. Of course if we go out into Morris County, it won't be as hilly as your organized rides, just rolling terrain.

We would have to work around the cyclocross season * (and my kids soccer schedule as well), but that can be done as the races in Oct. are on saturdays. Can we get an idea of what dates may work for any possible participants? (I'll start a new thread on this, probably would get more response that way)

*NEW CYCLOCROSS SERIES IN VERONA, NJ, JUST 15 MINUTES FROM MY HOUSE!!, CHECK montclairbikery.com (I'm not affiliated with that shop or team, I just think it's great that they are organizing the series)

whatever it is, I don't recommend the Bikery. The guy that runs that shop and team is not a good person at all. You would be better off riding for any other team.

I lived in Montclair for about 2 years when I was finishing medical school (rotating at St. Joseph's hospital in Paterson). Living there didn't seem so bad at the time, but I'm sure glad to be out of there now. Currently I'm living in Los Angeles. Sure, LA has plenty of drawbacks, but the cycling sure beats northern Jersey. Being from the west coast originally, I was quickly disappointed with the riding out there; that, combined with my busy schedule, resulted in not much cycling. However, I will agree with one of the above posts--that you can get to some fairly remote roads within just a few minutes.

Lots of good restaurants in that area. Check out Mexicali Rose on, I think, Park st--just across the street from the Montclair YMCA. The food is incredible and pretty inexpensive. Because of booze licensing laws in that area, you have to bring your own, which of course is better because you can bring whatever you want and its cheaper (sorry, like the cycling, beer is better out here too!!).