Boston area weekday riding advice?

[KJMUNC]

I'm a few months away from finishing grad school and have an offer to work for a Boston-based firm, but I live in NC and was wondering what the riding scene is like in the city--at least during the 3 warm months :(

Are there any organized group training rides during the week? My wife and I are visiting the last weekend in October to get a feel for where we might like to live, but it's almost certainly going to be pretty close to downtown.

Any thoughts or advice (especially for a good shop) would be greatly appreciated!

Our other option may be San Fran, which would be like Elysium for riding..... :banana:

[Bittersweet]

Two little shops: Belmont Wheelworks, International Bicycle.

[fstrthnu]

IBC is the best shop.

As far as the riding goes... totally sucks imho. SF might have the better rides.

Fstrthnu

[davids]

Two little shops: Belmont Wheelworks, International Bicycle.
Yep.

Lots of great riding in three of the four directions (gets damp to the East rather quickly...) Click here (http://forums.thepaceline.net/showpost.php?p=262568&postcount=2) to get a fly-over taste of a weekend ride.

Look for some of my routes on Bikely for morning routes to the south. I ride with a group of friends. We're very friendly, and would love to include any semi-serious rider!

I live in the city, about 4 miles south of downtown, in Dorchester. You will hear nothing but scarey stuff about Dorchester. The great majority of it will be wrong.

[TimD]

IBC is the best shop.

Fstrthnu

Here it might be appropriate to engage in what a journalist would call "full disclosure"...

TimD

[fstrthnu]

Here it might be appropriate to engage in what a journalist would call "full disclosure"...

TimD

IBC is the best shop... period. :)

Fstrthnu

[rsl]

I moved to Cambridge about 5 years ago for grad school, and decided to stay awhile longer after finishing my degree because I liked the area so much.

I got my road cycling start here and many of the routes will always have a fond place in my heart. Riding near Concord, Lexington, Lincoln, and Weston are great and easily accessed from where I live in Harvard square for morning rides before work. On out towards Acton, Stowe, and the town of Harvard are really nice too.

I second Belmont Wheelworks as a good shop, although i want to go check out international soon.

As for clubs, there the boston road club (www.bostonroadclub.com) and quad bikes in arlington does rides too. There are PLENTY of cyclists, so you likely wouldn't have a hard time finding people to ride with.

[davids]

...Wheelworks and International Bike are both great shops, atmo. Both. Great.

The riding season is a lot longer than three months. A lot of folks ride year-round here - I enjoy riding on the road when it's above, say, 40. So, I'm consistently on the road from April through October, and ride regularly in the colder months, as long as the days are warmer & there's not snow on the ground. Lack of daylight is more of an issue than temperature, atmo. And the fact that I have to work during the day.

I switch to mountain biking during the cold months. There's truly great riding close to the City, both south (in the Blue Hills) and north (in Lynn Woods.) Twisty, hilly, rooty & rocky, New England singletrack is an awful lot of fun. I got into mountain biking before road riding, and it's a great counterpoint.

Boston has a bad rep as a bike-friendly town. I'm sure it's far from the best, but I can count on one hand the number of problems I've had with drivers over the last five years. (Three, in fact.) I might just be lucky, but I've talked about this with friends, and they agree - I've had a lot more problems with Boston drivers when I'm behind the wheel of a car. Roads in the city are narrow and congested, but it's always a short ride to less-congested, scenic country(ish) roads.

Then there's the bike scene. I don't think it's just my local bias, but Boston seems like a real center of modern cycling. We've got Independent Fabrications, Seven, and Parlee. The aforementioned bike stores, where everybody knows your name, and where they're on first-name bases with the bike world's movers & shakers. And Boston seems to be home to half the members of this forum (not that we ever meet outside of cyberspace...)

And in terms of life in Boston in general... After over 20 years here, I still love it, in all its tortured provinciality and worldliness. I saw a great description of the place in this Sunday's Globe: "...[the] place that is simultaneously the high-mindedness and small-mindedness capital of the world." Perfect.

Welcome to town. Feel free to pm me with questions about real estate and neighborhoods...

[Ti Designs]

IBC is the best shop... period.

Well, there you have it. There's also this other little place tucked away between Cambridge and Waltham which sells a little known brand of bike frames made in New York...

If you're looking to ride west of the city, there's a group leaving from Harvard square at 6:30 AM on Monday, Wednesday and Friday as long as it's not raining. There's also an 8:40 Saturday ride, and a zillion other things happening on two wheels. Feel free to e-mail me (ed@that_second_rate_bike_shop.com) or PM me from the forum if you're looking to hook up with the group. Our fall rides are coached rides where we're teaching the new Harvard students the skills they need to race come spring. There's a no-drop policy so you need not be intimidated - few euro ex-pros show up and when they do they drop back to tow people back in.

[1centaur]

Have to ask why oh why would a serious cyclist volunteer to live in the city of Boston if he had a choice? Every minute spent riding out of the city and back into it is a minute not spent on quiet, well-paved country roads. So why are you saying you will live near the downtown? If it's about not owning a car, I bet it's cheaper (and more pleasant) to own a used car and rent in the suburbs. Check out the T maps (subway) at mbta.com to see if you can get some distance towards the better riding.

www.crw.org is a good site to visit.

Great riding season is May to October; the four shoulder months present a number of good riding days even if you are a weekend only (outside) rider. Snow and ice are a problem on road tires riding near the gutter, so Jan and Feb are trainer months for me.

[KJMUNC]

Thanks for all the advice....I figured the local scene had to be pretty good, but just never really looked into it from a riding level. I'll keep you guys posted on where I end up and may reach out to you after our trip to get your feedback on specific locales etc.

Cheers,

Kerry

[Bittersweet]

I'm a big fan of the greater Massachusetts Ave corridor from Harvard Sq to Lexington as a place to live and ride. Not better than other spots in Boston but I thought it was great riding and living. Out to the southern edge of Arlington this is all on the Red Line "T" (subway). We lived in Cambridge, Somerville, and Arlington over the years. My wife and I had a car but rarely used it in the week other than certain errands. The Red Line is fast and effecient into town for work. Bike parking at Alewife or Davis stops is good. Different neighborhoods along this corridor with ever increasing but varying housing costs. The Minuteman bike trail runs from Alewife out to Bedford for commuting or access to the "country" for riding. A little shop called Wheelworks is in both Somerville and Belmont, which are both in this general area.