2008 Stories + Reports on USA -- Bike Roberts

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Ken Roberts - - Bicycling

what's here

riding between NYC + GWB and Newark (08sept)
visiting NYC + Hudson Valley from Europe (08aug)
Vernon NJ climbs - Breakneck tougher than Fiddlers? (08july)

earlier in the year

riding between GWB and Newark

2008 September posted to bikeforums.net

quote from mcgreivey:

Rt. 46 would be a little difficult, but doable. From the GWB to the Rt. 46 Hackensack River bridege, I think I'd recommend using side streets to avoid the Rt. 46 Overpeck Creek bridge: steets through Ft. Lee and Ridgefield --> Edgewater Rd --> Hendricks Causeway --> Edgewater Ave --> Bergen Tpk --> Main St. instead of Rt. 46.

I rode the Rt 46 bridge over the Hackensack River multiple times in the past few days, and tried several different routes for reaching it from the GWB and Fort Lee . . .

map of my riding between GWB + Newark

I found mcgreivey's idea of using Bergen Turnpike to reach the Rt 46 bridge made it pretty comfortable for me. The bridge itself had 6-foot-wide sidewalks (rough and dirty, but bikable for me). The roundabout / traffic circle on Rt 46 at the west end of the bridge I handled just by riding around it like I was a car. Then riding to Newark by way of Wallington seemed straightforward.
(for me the tricky part is navigating through the city of Newark)

quote from mcgreivey:

Ft. Lee Rd is the easiest, and safe--but by now, you must be 20 miles north of Newark.

I've skated across that one at least once. I think the traffic-handling is arguably trickier than the Rt 46 bridge the way I've done that (more times), because of the entrance-exit ramps for the NJ Turnpike. For me the main problem with the Fort Lee Rd strategy is not the distance from Newark but the complexity of finding a route between it and Wallington.

visiting NYC + Hudson Valley from Europe

2008 August

Sharon and I have done road bicycling in a variety of places in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and other countries in western Europe. So I got thinking about what's special about road bicycling around the New York City region for people visiting from those countries (perhaps lured by the cheap dollar).

Compared to Europe: What makes bicycling in this region different (in a good way) from western Europe? Here's my try . . .

New York City has some bicycling which is way better than any large European city -- especially (a) big interesting asphalt loops in city parks; (b) bike paths alongside the water in Manhattan and Brooklyn, way more km than any European city; (c) bicycle tours using trains and ferry boats.
Barns and farm animals in Columbia county and northern Dutchess county. Barns in the Hudson valley are different from Europe, and there's more variety of horses and cows out alongside the quiet roads.
more individualistic building architectures in many villages.
Hudson River is wider than European rivers, so you can ride a bicycle across longer bridges.
Connecticut shore has some delightful gentle seaside riding. (most of the great seaside riding on the Mediterranean is hilly -- though I guess we don't know riding by the North Sea very well)

Compared to the rest of North America:

New York City.
lots of quiet roads with good surfaces
lots of wide roads
roads and streets have lots of curves and unpredictable connections (unlike many places in USA where the roads follow a grid pattern) -- so they're more interesting to explore.
farms in most of North America are much bigger than farms in the Hudson Valley, so often you can't see buildings and animals well from the road.
way bigger public transportation system of trains + ferries + buses.
lots of little villages out in farm country (especially on the east side of the River) have more and better food options than farm country villages in the rest of North America, because: there's lots of customers with money, and graduates of the Culinary Institute of America who discover the Hudson valley as students, and decide to stick around after they graduate.
New York City.

[ more to be added ]

Vernon NJ climbs -- Breakneck tougher than Fiddlers?

2008 July

I got to try some climbs I'd heard about around Vernon, way north in New Jersey, near New York state. Overall some pretty riding, and one of them turned out to be maybe the toughest paved-road climb in NJ state.

I started riding near rt 644 Vernon Crossing, then south on Sand Hill Rd, and west up the Drew Mountain Rd climb, varied steepness, pretty, with interesting curves. Back down to its bottom, then rt 517 south and up Lake Pochung Rd -- starts pretty steep, then a couple of ups and downs to the top. Down the other side with some views to the west. Then climbed up most of the west side. Then rt 565 north and rt 667 Lake Wallkill Rd north (lots of pretty views and pleasant riding). Climb up west side of Glenwood Mountain Rd (sustained steep at first), then interesting + steep descending east side, then decided to climb up the east side of Glenwook Mountain Rd (interesting with curves). Then climb a little south on rt 565, then a little more on Lounsberry Hollow Rd, then south and east down Lounsberry Hollow, south on rt 517 and back to Vernon Crossing Rd.

Started the tough climb of the day first by first climbing east on rt 644 Vernon Crossing, then on rt 94 South, then climb rt 515 south, then a left turn in the midst of a steep section onto Breakneck Rd. First it was less steep, but then steep and steeper, then a another section even steeper. Coarse-stone pavement surface made it tougher. It was a hot day, not much shade, I started to worry I'd get too much sweat in my eyes. More car traffic than I wanted. The steepest section was so sustained I was afraid I wouldn't be strong enough to finish it, afraid that I'd fall over onto the road. Then the climb went around a sharp curve to the right, so I was thinking I wouldn't want to fall over where cars couldn't see me as they came around that curve. Fortunately I was able to keep pedaling all the way to the top, so I didn't have to find out about the alternatives. Looking back there was a sign at the top warning that it had a 25% grade.

Overall felt at least as tough as Fiddlers Elbow Rd, but perhaps that's because it was a hot day with little shade. I've never tried Fiddlers on such a hot day, and Fiddlers is much better shaded by trees.

Then north on Breakneck Rd to Wawayanda Rd (which enters the park and turns to dirt), but instead I went north on Barry Dr. Several nice ponds along the way. Barry Dr started to go downhill (warning sign for 14% grade) with some eroded road surface in several places. I saw that the road was not evenly graded as I was expecting -- instead there were gentle and steeper sections. At the bottom where it meets rt 94 in New York state, the road sign was "Barrett Rd", so I guess the two jurisdictions couldn't agree on the name of the road -- so the name changes where it crosses the state boundary. After climbing Breakneck, my legs felt it on the steep sections on Barry Dr, but the top section didn't feel as steep as the lower two.

Then I had a drink + snack at the store by Lake Wanda, and continued north and then west on rt 638, pleasant with moderate ups and downs, finished with a steeper down to rt 515 -- and I went down rt 515 north, the downhill got steeper (warning sign said 17% grade, but to me it felt more like 13%) down to rt 94, and left on Vernon Crossing to finish.

On my way home driving on rt 17A east, I thought I might still have the strength to climb Kain Rd in Orange county. It was tough and very sustained, but with alternating sitting and standing, I made it to the top. The ice cream store was open this time, and I decided that re-fueling was appropriate, but with the heat of the day, I ate inside in the air conditioning, instead of outside with the big view to the west.

what's here

riding between GWB and Newark

visiting NYC + Hudson Valley from Europe

Vernon NJ climbs -- Breakneck tougher than Fiddlers?

more . . .

see also