Doing laps around town…
Feb 26th, 2010 by Leo
One practice I recommend to riders in need of seat time is to put together a quick route around their neighborhood. It could be anywhere from 2 miles to 20 miles and take 30-60 minutes (around NY). Mix in some local roads and some highway or parkway. Stopping and starting is fine, just make sure you have a good number of turns that you don’t have to stop for…
This way, even if you don’t have the time to go anywhere far, you can get out for an hour and do a quick lap or two. In the process you can learn where all the driveways are, blind intersections and traffic dangers. You can also get to know where the manhole covers are around turns, where salt or gravel tends to collect, and ways to deal with them. I like to make sure my route takes me by a parking lot where I can do some figure-8’s (and on some bikes drag the pegs).
No, it’s not the same as a day at the track, or a ride up to Bear Mountain or anywhere interesting – but it also doesn’t take as much time… And at the same time keeps some of your skills up while giving you opportunities to work on new ones.
So QUESTION: Do you have a route? How many miles is it? What’s it like? And what kinds of things do you work on when you’re on it?
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I’ve started looping around Manhattan, down the West Side Highway and up FDR, then briefly onto 95 south before getting back on 9A south and back home to Harlem. Having read this blog, I might tack on some riding up and down Riverside Drive, with a stop in the Fairway parking lot to practice some figure 8s.
The ride’s not bad. It’s about 20 miles or so, and it takes less than an hour. You get to practice starting and stopping, and of course you get some highway miles in, too. I’ve been doing it at night. The traffic is better, and the view is nicer. You get to see the city all lit up, and something about that just makes me feel alright. Seeing the Brooklyn bridge at night just makes you feel good about New York.
Probably the worst part of the ride is that junction between FDR and 95, where the surface completely goes to pot. I swear the road looks like it’s been hit by a meteor shower. There are crater-sized potholes all over the road, and there’s no way to ride around them. I might try to avoid it in the future by going across the Third Avenue bridge, up 87, then back down 9A.
Sans highway, the best Brooklyn Roads to drive are 4th Avenue, Ocean Parkway/Coney Island Avenue, Shore Road and Kent Avenue. You can take one to the other. In Queens I do Vernon Blvd along the water and then Astoria Blvd which moves at about 60mph while still not being a highway. Queens Boulevard is the same way.