I bike several hours one day every weekend, usually through NYC from
lower Westchester. It's true that there are lots of maps that tell you
where the paths are, but it's also NYC, where things change all the
time, signs fall down, and the overall attitude sometimes seems to be
"figure it out yourself". If you ride around the city - especially in
the middle of the Bronx - you find lovely bike lanes that end without
warning. So, a couple of things:
1. The Hutch path is great. it starts at the northern end where the
Hutch goes under Pelham Parkway - it's on the west side of the Hutch,
and goes for probably a mile or so down to near Tremont. When you get
to what seems like the end of the trail, you go left uphill, across the
street under the elevated subway line, and go to the left again, and the
path shows up again at the corner - this time on the east side of the
Hutch. It goes for another mile or two - with one road crossing where
you need to be careful because the cars come fast and may not look - and
ends next to a cemetery. There, you can go right, across the Hutch
overpass, and once again be careful when you cross the offramp from the
Hutch. Then you're near the "Whitestone Cinema" whose signs you see at
landing if you use LaGuardia a lot.
2. Pelham Parkway has what it asserts are part of the NYC Greenway. It
goes from the Bronx River Parkway all the way over to where the path to
City Island is. The ride to and from City Island is pleasant too - and
coming back you can go north and take the path that follows on the south
side of the golf course up the back of Pelaham Bay - it ends in a
residential neighborhood in New Rochelle. The Pelham path is okay but
there are a lot of pedestrians on it so it requires a little patience.
The path up the Bronx River Parkway on its east side is a great way to
get up to 233rd if you are traveling north.
3. If you take the Hutch south to its conclusion you basically are on
your own but a good place to go is the Triborough from there. It's way
better on a weekend - on a weekday there's too much car traffic and WAY
too much truck traffic, and on the weekend all of the warehouses and
truck routes are much quieter. There are many routes down - none are
ideal but none are horrible.
4. It's not so easy to find the pedestrian/bike entrances to the
Triborough on the Bronx side. One thing - you should go on the
Manhattan side for the part that goes to Randalls Island because it
doesn't have steps on that part - though on the main piece from Randalls
to Queens you have 3 flights of stairs, but they aren't bad.
All of this is lots of fun, and Queens and Brooklyn are great rides on a
weekend morning. But for all of the comments about websites and maps,
there's just no substitute for being willing to make mistakes, since
even if you study the maps for days you'll find places they don't
do***ent, or things that have changed, or things that aren't explained
clearly. One thing that is extremely helpful if you are willing to
spend the money is a GPS. I use one and it's saved me countless trips
up hills with dead ends and other unproductive endeavors - and they cost
about a third as much as I spent a couple of years ago. It's money well
spent for serious urban bicycling. You'll still make mistakes but the
number will be lower and it will be manageable.
Hope this helps. Obviously you have to be even more careful in urban
bicycling but I've done these routes zillions of times and I think they
are all great. Hope you find your way and enjoy them too.
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