The more you bike the more you get twisted. In my case, I can't bare the sight a beautiful weekend day unless I can ride. Take last Saturday for example. With partial sun and mid-40's temps, it was the perfect mid-winter day for a long ride. I was scheduled to go to a party/meeting of the Appalachian Mountain Club's backpack committee in Ossining, NY. I needed no better excuse and decided to bike there.
This was my route, for the most part, going 45 miles from Brooklyn to the Ossining, NY Metro North station. If you try and follow it, know that Google mis-identified some one-way roads as going the wrong-way. It took me 4 hours, including stops for "comfort breaks." I rode an HP Velotechnik Grasshopper fx, with Ortlieb recumbent backpack/rack-top bag, and one bunch of collard greens strapped onto the rack-top bag with a bungee net (get it from Rivendell Bicycle Works).
Three years ago, I first rode this route. At that time, the South County Trailway (Westchester) was incomplete and there were numerous miserable detours connecting sections of the rail trail, if you could find them. ("Why should I mind riding a Rans Screamer recumbent tandem on rocky and muddy single track?" "I think the rail trail must continue up there, somewhere." "Who says I can't shoulder a recumbent tandem like a cyclocross bike and carry it up a hill?") That trip, estimated at six hours, ended up taking 12 or more. Admittedly, the long, hard day may have been due to the ozone alert, 110-degree temps, numerous breaks, as well as getting lost, still, the route was eminently blamable.
These days, hallelujah, it's a straight shot, from New York's Van Cortlandt Park, where you pick up the Old Putnam Rail Trail, on up. Only a short section through Elmsford takes you on city streets. As a result, this is now one of the best routes out of the city.
Go out and ride it.
Best,
Robert
------------
Robert Matson
New York City Recumbent Supply
The Innovation Works, Inc.
copyright 2012 Robert Matson
This was my route, for the most part, going 45 miles from Brooklyn to the Ossining, NY Metro North station. If you try and follow it, know that Google mis-identified some one-way roads as going the wrong-way. It took me 4 hours, including stops for "comfort breaks." I rode an HP Velotechnik Grasshopper fx, with Ortlieb recumbent backpack/rack-top bag, and one bunch of collard greens strapped onto the rack-top bag with a bungee net (get it from Rivendell Bicycle Works).
Three years ago, I first rode this route. At that time, the South County Trailway (Westchester) was incomplete and there were numerous miserable detours connecting sections of the rail trail, if you could find them. ("Why should I mind riding a Rans Screamer recumbent tandem on rocky and muddy single track?" "I think the rail trail must continue up there, somewhere." "Who says I can't shoulder a recumbent tandem like a cyclocross bike and carry it up a hill?") That trip, estimated at six hours, ended up taking 12 or more. Admittedly, the long, hard day may have been due to the ozone alert, 110-degree temps, numerous breaks, as well as getting lost, still, the route was eminently blamable.
These days, hallelujah, it's a straight shot, from New York's Van Cortlandt Park, where you pick up the Old Putnam Rail Trail, on up. Only a short section through Elmsford takes you on city streets. As a result, this is now one of the best routes out of the city.
Go out and ride it.
Best,
Robert
------------
Robert Matson
New York City Recumbent Supply
The Innovation Works, Inc.
copyright 2012 Robert Matson
