Wondering about those of you who live in Metro Boston and where you ride. I live in Kenmore square and enjoy riding going out through Harvard Sq. Brattle St. and eventually Trapelo Rd. to Walden Pond. But alot of the ride is through Cambridge and Belmont. I haven't found a fast way out of town quite yet. Where do you all like to ride and how do you get out of the city fastest? Also, between 5 and 6 I see a virtual parade of cyclists going out Beacon St. Some of these are commuters but some of they clearly are not. I rode out that way on my fix the other day and thought the roads were actually kind of nice but didn't get much further than the Wellesley. Is there something out that way I'm missing? Thanks in advance for all your help.

Pat

Instead of continuing on Trapelo Rd., when you get to Belmont just past the Belmont Wheelworks, make a right to Mill Street, and then veer left to Concord Ave. You can take that all to the Concord township where there are many route options. It sounds like you're new, in that case I highly recommend the Eastern Mass bike map from Rubel.

So you are correct that most of the time is spent getting past Cambridge and Belmont, but once you get to Concord center there are plenty of options. The Wellesley area is also nice once you get past the Wellesley campus.

If you live in Boston, you have to be willing to invest the time to just ride past the metropolitan mess and get to the country roads. The South Shore, near Hingham and the Wompatuck (sp?) State Park is also really nice, but it's quite some ways away and you have to ride past some really nasty parts.

Thanks alot for the tips. I did ride back from Concord once on Concord Ave with CRW once and enjoyed that. I'll take that route tomorrow. I'm sure your right about Hingham the surrouding area. I used to go to Hingham on a fairly regular basis and always thought that it'd be a great place to ride. Can't wait to go tomorrow...

im here in braintree, riding from boston to hingham isnt too bad if you know were to go,
if you go down through southie to dorchester to milton to braintree to weymouth to hingham its a nice ride, its about 35 or 40 mi one way if you know where your going.

if you live in kenmore square, you can even just go straight out west on beacon ave all the way to Rt. 16, and follow it all the way to Wellesley/Natick. you should go when there is little traffic either very early or early in the weekends, but it's a nice ride that i've done many times.

Wondering about those of you who live in Metro Boston and where you ride. I live in Kenmore square and enjoy riding going out through Harvard Sq. Brattle St. and eventually Trapelo Rd. to Walden Pond. But alot of the ride is through Cambridge and Belmont. I haven't found a fast way out of town quite yet. Where do you all like to ride and how do you get out of the city fastest? Also, between 5 and 6 I see a virtual parade of cyclists going out Beacon St. Some of these are commuters but some of they clearly are not. I rode out that way on my fix the other day and thought the roads were actually kind of nice but didn't get much further than the Wellesley. Is there something out that way I'm missing? Thanks in advance for all your help.

Pat

I would also recommend poking around on the "rides/cues" section of the Charles River Wheelman website. There are lots of alternatives on their site for different rides. Make sure you bring the cue sheet though and don't depend on the blazes or route markers as I have found them somewhat suspect at best.

http://crw.org/CueSheets/index.htm

Wondering about those of you who live in Metro Boston and where you ride. I live in Kenmore square and enjoy riding going out through Harvard Sq. Brattle St. and eventually Trapelo Rd. to Walden Pond. But alot of the ride is through Cambridge and Belmont. I haven't found a fast way out of town quite yet. Where do you all like to ride and how do you get out of the city fastest? Also, between 5 and 6 I see a virtual parade of cyclists going out Beacon St. Some of these are commuters but some of they clearly are not. I rode out that way on my fix the other day and thought the roads were actually kind of nice but didn't get much further than the Wellesley. Is there something out that way I'm missing? Thanks in advance for all your help.

Pat

Hi Pat!

I was too in the same situation as you are right now. I used to bike in and around the Boston area for a few years. Then migrated to the Minuteman bike path for convenience and the absence of busses :D. The thing was I got bored.

There’s this club in Arlington, the Arlington Bicycle Club (ABC). They’re based in the bike shop Quad Cycles (Mass Ave) in Arlington Heights. They have rides during Saturday and Sunday morning starting from Arlington, through Lexington, Bedford, Carlisle, Concorde and back. I started riding with them a little over a month ago. My weekends were never the same. Anyway, you can get a map of their cleverly designed route in Quad cycles if you’re interested in riding the hills at your own leisure. Actually, you can download the map from Quad’s website..

http://www.quadcycles.com/events/fitnessride.htm

Feel free to join in the fun if you have nothing scheduled for 9:30 am on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays. Also, these folks are few of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet.

Joe

Actually, you can download the map from Quad�s website..

http://www.quadcycles.com/events/fitnessride.htm


I have three or four rides that I like and the north-ish one looks to be about the same as your map.

I also have a southwest one that more or less follows the Bike Not Bombs 100k ride. I start at the north end of Jamaica Pond ... uh... what street is that ... Perkins? You can get their follwoing the bike path along the Muddy River that starts across the street from the old Sears building where REI is. This route goes through Dover, Sherbourne, Natick, Medfield, and Noanet.

The north shore is easy to get to, but since there's no way to cross the Mystic River, I take the Orange Line subway to either Wellington or Malden Center and go from there. From their, you can get to Lynn, Salem, and the rest of Cape Ann pretty easily.

Southeast is pretty easy, but the first part is some nasty traffic. Follow the Outriders Boston to P-town arrows. That will get you out of town, then you can decide whether to go to Blue Hills, Wompatuck, Miles Standish, or somewhere else. You can also get to Blue Hills pretty easy by going more westerly near Jamaica Pond then through Hyde Park and Roslindale.

Don't forget you can also cut of a big chunk of boring time by using the subway and commuter rail. I like to take the train to Fitchburg or South Acton then head for Mt. Wachusett. That cuts off all the repetative Minuteman Trail stuff. The south end of the Red Line is nearly at Blue Hills, so you can do the whole south shore pretty easily plus you cut out all the really bad traffic.

You can use the cue sheets from MIT cycling:

http://www.mitcycling.org/

I use them and they're quite good.

Enjoy,
Julius

I agree with ad hoc about the commuter rail - for years I was without a car, and managed to have some pretty fantastic and amazing rides - up into NH and Maine from the Haverhill and Newburyport stops on the commuter rail. Also, Fitchburg has some great hills and on that same line are Concord, South Acton, Littleton - great cycling towns, all. By now I think I've used every line of the commuter rail for some ride or another, and it really frees you up from Trapelo/Concord Ave/ same old same old :)

MassBike is having a bike festival (also commuter rail accessible) on 8/28 in Concord, and you can pick up some great routes there. (www.massbike.org)

Have fun!

MassBike is having a bike festival (also commuter rail accessible) on 8/28 in Concord, and you can pick up some great routes there. (www.massbike.org)

Have fun!

MassBike scheduled their thing for the same time as the Blazing Saddles Century which I though was a pretty not nice thing for them to do.

http://astseals.com/nsc/century.htm

I already sort of committed to BSC before the MassBike thing was announced.

Hi -

I've been biking for 2 years and have learned to love everything outside (and even in) between 90 and 93. I know 117, 225, 110, 13/12, and even 70 all very well. So many amazing options. The easiest for me is to jump on Trapelo (I use it as a training ride every week anyhow) and I never get bored with it. You have two options from there - Concord (62/225) or Stow (117/85/62). I usually take the 85 route for Sterling (Wachussett) reservoir rides and the Concord ride for longer (90-100 mile) rides up to NH border. Even going out to Concord center and taking Carlisle/225 then coming all the way back onto 225/2A is a great loop (especially if you take the Park Ave hill !!!) From Boston center, that's a good 50 mile ride. Another enjoyable ride is around the Totten Pond area - simply take Trapelo just past 95 and at the pond make a left. Come back onto Winter St and follow that to 20 and back into town. I recommend you do this one early, as everyone knows the 20 traffic can be scary around noon time through Waltham.

Cheers -
Jerome

Hi ad hoc, sorry about that! We tried to look at the calendar and avoid other clubs' centuries and other big rides; unfortunately we missed that one. It's regrettable but I guess it's always better to have more rides to choose them than too few :)
Enjoy the century, I hear it's a good one - but if you wake up and decide your legs aren't in a century mood and you'd like some Redbones BBQ, then come on over to the Bike Fest!

The Needham, Dover, Medfield, Sherborn area is awesome, once you get out there. A good starting point is Nahanton Park where the Charles River Wheelmen's fitness rides begin (upside down white T arrow). You can follow these arrows for 19, 26 or 42 additional miles. To get to Nahanton Park from the city, you can go out Beacon St to Chestnut Hill and turn left on Hammond (a narrow road until it crosses route 9) or Hammond Parkway (a busy, fast car road). Both end up in a rotary that you will then take Newton St out of the rotary. This turns into Brookline street and is arrowed with "BNB" arrows that will lead you the rest of the way...to a right on Dedham st, I think and quick left onto Nahanton St which goes down to the park and becomes Kendrick as you go into Needham.

Another way out there is to go to Jamaica Pond/Perkins St and take Perkins up the hill as it becomes Goodard Ave and goes past Larz Anderson Park. Then, right turn on Newton and you hit that same rotary as in the above directions.

A fun way back into the city from Wellesley is Comm Ave--from Wellesley/Weston Road, you pick up 30 East and go down a great down hill before crossing 128 into Newton. Then, you can pick up Washington St to Watertown and follow the Charles River all the way in to Mem Drive. There are patches of urban adventure, but Washington Street was just repaved a couple weeks ago vastly improving that part of the ride. Don't take Comm Ave out though. I did that last weekend and it sucks. Beacon St is far better.

If you are an early bird, go out to the JCC near Nahanton Park and ride with the crackodawn ride - http://www.crackodawn.com/