The Bicycle Site Blog

As I ride in rural and country like settings in Vermont, NY State, Cape Cod, Connecticut and other areas in reasonable driving distance, I wonder what the residents of this area think about riding on Long Island, NY.

What it really is like?

First of all, much of Long Island is built up, flat and has too much traffic. We do not ride in these places.

Northern Nassau County and Gold Coast Area

	Susan I took a ride today, and I took some photos. We park one block south of very busy Jericho Turnpike in Westbury NY. As soon as we cross the road, however, for all our senses know, we are in the country on Hitchcock Lane.Its only a mile long, but there is a school and horse farm on the left and “eat your heart out” estates on the right. What a great way to start a ride. A parallel road, Post Road has a similar look
	After we cross the Long Island Expressway overpass, we enter State University of NY, Westbury Campus. The first mile is Empire College surrounded by a horse farm and wide open fields. That is followed by the four mile loop around and exit from the school, that is on the left. So, in traffic filled Nassau County, NY… just East of NYC, the first five miles or so of our ride is pretty much country like roads. .
	The remainder of the ride does include some main roads, but no busy busy roads. We ride through areas with estates that border on or have their own little forests, horse farms, lakes and ponds.Even the roads through towns are not overly busy and often have wide shoulders. Sagamore Hill, Teddy Roosevelt’s house is a favorite rest stop, if one is willing to climb the roadway uphill.
	There are also lots of roads with water views.All in all, this area of Long Island is pretty riding and far cry from the southern part of Nassau County just a few miles away. Click here to see all 11 photos of this ride.

Eastern Suffolk County

There are still open and rural areas out here.

There is North Street that runs for seven miles through the Pine Barrens, a forever wild protected area.

There are miles of shore line roads with picturesque houses.

If you want, we can even give you a 55 mile route with over 4,000 feet of climbing.

There are no large hills on Long Island, but neither is it as flat as some people think.

Out here there are roads that go for miles without a stop light or stop sign.

If you want something different from country riding, Long Island has great areas to explore.

Ride sheets are available on this site, key words “long island (click)”

Glenn

What is the problem with the words “on your left“  or,  if you must “on your right“?

Group riders often warn everyone of “debris”, “car back/up/right/left”, “slowing” and “stopping”.

But  getting a rider or group of riders know you are passing seems as hard as getting a man saying “I love you” to a woman.

In all fairness, after being a bit of a bully in my riding group, a number of people do use these expressions, sometimes.

I am not referring to a wide pass, where the person being passed could not possible drift into you.  Often, however, riders pass each other within an arms length.  What is so hard about saying “on your left” or even just “left’?

I am a fairly attentive rider, but even I sometimes go into a zen zone.  When I hear “on your left”, however, I know not to drift or to pass the person I am behind, at that point.

My riding buddies are nice people.  Some are even personal, non biking friends.  Getting that expression out, however, is sometimes futile.

Glenn

Susan and I are definitely seasonal riders.  Temperatures under 40 degrees send us to the gym.  That’s spin class, weight training, precor, yoga and pilates.  Not the same as riding, but keeps us from falling back too far.

Also, we need to take a break.  Since we regularly ride two to four times a week in season, but October or November it is becoming ’same old same old’.  By March I am raring to get back on the bike and Susan is ready to get back on the bike (there is a definite difference between raring and ready).

This March, the weather was pretty bad on Long Island, NY.  We got in a total of three short rides of 20-25 miles each.

We decided to head south to Virginia in early April, to site see and ride.  We saw all the sites, but the weather was as bad or worse than N.Y.

Our smart move was to head back home one Tuesday.  Wednesday was very nice and Thursday was spectacular.  We finally got to take two real rides (30-40 miles each) and start to get our bodies back into cycling mode.

We rode slower than we normally do, but we also had time to view the scenery.

We are both looking forward to nicer weather and a late start season.

Glenn A.

When my wife decided to her first century, I agreed to ride along with her, of course. With us, one other rider from our club came along as well.

It was supposed to be flat . . . we thought . . . there are no hills in that part of Long Island, NY.

Ha!

Ah the first 25 miles were a breeze and a joy.

After the next 35 along with wind and hills, my wife was ready to call it day. Bill and I encouraged her to go on.

It went like this:

…more hills, tears and near tears, but stubborn determination

…Bill and I took turns keeping her company, because the pace was slooow

…finally, about mile 85 back to the flats, with the end in sight

…at the last rest stop, at mile 92 we were told that the actual ride was 105 miles, but the short cut was a smidgen under 100. We took the shortcut and came in at 99.7 miles.

…the solution was to ride down the road til the odometer hit 100, which we did.

That was my second century and my wife’s first.

At that point we decided that a metric century was plenty of bike ride.
We have not done more than 72 miles in a single day since.

My first century happened about six years ago. It was a MS ride that had me going the full range of feelings and emotions. There were three of us and sometimes four in our group.

At first we were tricked, most unfairly, because we had a 15 mph wind at our back. And, of course, we were all full of whatever we get full of when first starting a ride like this.

We got ours, however, at the turn around point…riding along the beach, with the wind now up to 20 mph in our face. Along one really bad seven mile stretch I quickly discovered the value of pace lining, when the biggest rider pulled to the front. Most unkindly, however, everyone else  “forgot?” to pull until we got off the beach.

About mile 75 I decided to bonk. Well, I did really decide to bonk . . . I just did. Got on my bike…got off my bike…sat down…drank two quarts of water over the next half hour…and took a swallow every five minutes after that.

I survived the ride with a sore butt.

That night I decided to give up cycling.

The next morning I was ready for my next century.

Feel free to share your first century experience.

I’ve seen it happen over and over. Serious cyclists think of a 15% uphill grade as a fun challenge. New cyclists think of a 4% grade as hell.

If you want to introduce your significant other  (s.o.) to the joys of cycling, consider the following thoughts:

1. You ride at their pace, not yours. Nor do you ride at what you think their pace should be.
   Fortunately, my wife and started riding about the same time. I still had to follow this rule, but I was not much faster anyway. What a nice way to do this.
2. You start with a short ride (be it 2 miles or 15 miles) that leaves “s.o.” comfortable and wanting to do this again.
3. You never push, you only suggest, and not too often.
   What you say/What you mean
   We’ll take as many breaks as you need/but if too frequent we’ll just slow down
   
   No difficult hills today/There certainly will be hills (the operative word being “difficult”), if you expect to get stronger, but we’ll take them at your pace.  If “s.o.” needs to walk, that is okay…just keep coming back to this hill…because one day they won’t need to walk and that will buoy spirits.
   
   We will stick to low traffic roads/You will stick to low traffic roads

   We will stop for a break as long as you want/After 20 minutes suggest that “s.o.” muscles will tighten up unless you ride, but start slowly.

   You get the idea - but feel free to add to this.
   
   

Your significant other will decide whether they cycling or not.

Some us wussy types, like my wife and me (yes, me is grammatically correct), take a break from riding in the colder months.

Needless to add — but I will, since this is my blog — we still need to keep our aging bodies in shape so, come spring we are not starting all over again.

While we do stretching and/or yoga four to six mornings all year, when not riding we add the following regimen:

• 30 minutes on a precor, twice a week, for cardio, quads, etc. — followed by abs, upper body and more lower body. Each session lasts about one hour.
• 1 hour yoga class each week
• 1 hour pilates class each week
• 1 hour spin class each week - more cardio than precor, but less strengthening than precor and gym machines

By the time spring comes, I am sick of the gym and have a great urge to get back on the bicycle.

Who else takes time off in cold weather? What do you do?

The thermometer is 88 degrees (no not celsius). I’m freezing. I guess there a just days like this.

The paceline is all weird too. The leader is cruising at 22 mph, but the last guy (# 10) is is only going at 17 mph.

I am pedaling uphill and downhill simultaneously.

I turn to my wife, who also rides, and say “What is going on?”

She smiles sweetly, knowingly and tenderly — hollers out to the whole group — “Mechanical!.”

Everyone stops and looks at her, waiting for an explanation.

“Hubby is low on fluids . . . you guys go ahead and we will meet you at the rest stop, maybe.”

Thirty minutes and two quarts later, I am no longer freezing. I am riding level. Life is right again.
How I hate to bonk.

Okay, okay, I know may of you have climbed hills 10 miles or more in the course of your riding adventures. Feel free to add your comments, if you wish.

Back to Hadley, Ma (see 11 mile paceline). On another ride we did an unusual 10 mile climb. The weather was mild. The climb was not steep. We were surrounded by forest and rural development. If there were six cars on the road, that was a lot.

Better to go down that hill? Not as it turned out. The climb was followed by six miles of downhill on a steeper grade and a busier (but not too busy) road.

At which moment we happened upon a country deli baking homemade muffins. We sat outdoors, at their picnic table enjoying the scenery.

After one more short climb, the remaining 27 miles of the ride was downhill or flat with the with the wind at our back.

What way to ride.

Glenn

No, No, the paceline itself was not 11 miles long.  Let’s see at 10′ per bicycle, thats 6,292 cyclists!

Rather,  this was the first time I rode with about seven other riders…north on route 47 in Hadley, Ma, for 11 miles, no stops, lights or rests.

It was simultaneously exciting (first time), tiring (had to concentrate), beautiful (great scenery) and boring (enough already).  Yes, I’d do it again.  For our group, maintaining that kind to cohesiveness is a rare treat.

On Long Island, where we normally ride, we are lucky to keep a paceline together for more than two or three miles because: we hit a hill, the leader picks up the pace and have the group goes after him/her or we hit a stop light.

Anyway, back to the 11 miler.

There was a 7-12 mph headwind and a slight uphill pitch (less than 1%) to the road.  As defacto leader it was my task to keep the powerful and weaker riders together for about 45 minutes.  In our group, some of the people could have done the entire run at 15-20 mph, while the weakest rider was ‘hanging on’ in the back at 13-16 mph.

When in front it was easy to set the pace.  From the middle or back a reminder to keep the pace steady, called up by each rider usually worked.

Even at this pace, it was evident that the stronger riders were getting tired as the pulls went from 2 minutes down to 30 seconds.

It was a wonderful start to a really nice ride.

Glenn