Cycling Clubs & Groups: Cycling in Greater Boston area

nycbiker,

I've never ridden into Boston, nor do I know the raods from the North, I'm afraid. One nice place to ride in Boston in along the river. On the Boston side is the Esplanade. On the Cambridge side, I think they shut down Memorial Drive (Mem Drive) in the summer on Sundays for bikes, joggers, and skaters). Good luck.

I live in boston and work in the Westford area - typically i ride up there on week days and in boston on the weekends.  I'm not a phenomenal rider, but I have been steadily improving over the last few weeks.

john

One other thing, you might want to check out the Minuteman Road Club and the Charles River Wheelmen.

I live in Dorchester and like to ride to Cambridge to work if the weather is nice. boston is a tough city to ride in, Boston drivers are only looking out for themselves and are oblivious to the bikers or anything else going on (I am guilty being a Boston driver :)  The best thing to do is try to ride as fast as traffic and make sure you have thick skin and not afraid to use hand gestures... NYCbiker have you already visited, I use to date a guy in Wakefiled and would make this ride all the time, I could deffinitly make a sugestion for the best route to take, where are you staying?

My longer rides I agree with relaxedguy I use to live in nbpt so I find myself heading north and recently just started exploring the Bluehills and southshore rides.  if anyone has any suggestions for rides going south let me know...

We're just quiet and reserved, much like Sox fans. That's all.

I've been living up in the Salem area for two years now and biking in the area pretty much since the day I moved in. Last year I stuck mostly to roads north of here, in the Beverly-Danvers-Gloucester area, with the occasional run out to Haverhill or Lowell. This year I've been tending more southerly, my regular ride being out to Wakefield and back via Salem St. Tried that route today, intending to continue on via MA-28 and whatever other roads struck my fancy out to the Esplanade, but I discovered very quickly how displeased my body was with this sudden heat... Went through 48oz of water in the first hour and still felt slightly dehydrated.

Having lived previousy in Somerville, I find I actually miss riding in Boston to some degree. Sure, it's nice and all around here with the fast roads and lack of stop lights every fifty feet and room to breathe, but there's just something about riding in Boston that appeals to me.

If there are any lurkers from the area on here, don't be shy! It gets boring riding alone all the time.

I just found this site.   I rode into Cambridge today from Melrose MA (errands).     Usually I ride up Haverhill Street into North Reading - or out west to Lexington/Concord.      Don't really care, love to ride - city, rural, or woods, it's all joyful.       I ride solo 90% of the time, and would also love to meet other riders.     If you're north of Boston, the North Shore Cyclists have great rides.     The Charles RIver Wheelmen is a great bicycling organization too.     

I live on the southern tip of Boston in Hyde Park, near the Blue Hills.  Very Good riding in the Blue Hills.  Here is a general tip for finding rides that has worked for me.  Go to the map, or google earth and look for green space like state parks, forests etc. They are usually situated in areas that have more 'space' around them.  In particular, Wampatuck is a nice ride but getting to it involves some traffic and 'B' grade road conditions. Borderland State Park is a good ride to get there, they have a frisbee golf course, but sorry to say no interior roads for riding. The Gilbert state forest on the otherhand does have a bunch of roads inside the park.  Medfield, Foxborough area has some nice ridding. 

The big trick to me is finding good ways to cross 128.  Rt.138 is doable but I avoid it. Rt 28 is better.  Highland ave in Needham should be avoided. 1A in Dedham works.

There are tons of great rides in the Boston area.  I live in Brookline and ride south, west and north.  The best way to learn about good routes in the area is to join the Charles River Wheelman.  (crw.org).  They do great rides all over, mostly outside of Boston.  The fitness rides to Dover are quite challenging with some riders averaging well over 20.  Other rides are as casual as you want to make them as they are always arrowed.

City rides are more challenging because of traffic or pedestrians.  That said it is an amazingly beautiful city.  The key to doing the waterfront is to go counter clockwise.  That way you do right turns rather than left turns.  If you want a challenging city ride, try my "Hill, Sea, and City" 45-50 mile ride.  You will do some very challenging hills at first (Larz Andersen, Peter, Bussey, and Blue Hills observation and camp hills).  The latter two are very steep.  The ride takes you down to Wollaston beach in Quincy (eat a lobster roll at Tony's), South Boston, Waterfront and the North End (Gelato!).  Onward up Beacon Hill, to the Charles.  A very memorable ride on sunny day.  Here is the link to the ride:

 http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ma/brookline/149124380133812750