Jim from Boston

I just finished replying to this post on the Touring Forum "Where to cycle from Chicago" with this comment,

So I’m starting a thread to catalog cycling possibilities in various cities. If there is enough interest, I’ll list the cities reviewed in this opening post. See if we can keep this thread bumped by adding cities.

Cities Reviewed (in order of post numbers):

1. Boston, MA
2. Boyne City, MI
3. Edwardsville, IL (near St. Louis, MO)
4. Tampa, FL
5. Southern California/Los Angeles
6. Seattle, WA
7. Fort Worth, TX
8. ...
9. ...
10. ...
11. town in northwestern Oregon
12. Columbus, OH
13. Philadelphia, PA
14. ...

on the Fifty-Plus Forum ("Tell me About Cycling in Your City")

• Encinitas / San Diego County, CA
• Lebanon, CT
• Benton, AK
• Atlanta, GA
• Fort Worth, TX, continued (with a great video)
• Left Coast USA
• the area around Narrangansett Bay, RI
• Los Angeles, CA
• Monterey Bay, CA
• Lincoln, NE
• Indianapolis and Carmel, IN
• Shoreview, MN (near St. Paul), Marco Island, FL, New York City, NY, and the Netherlands
• Des Moines, IA
• Rossland, British Columbia (near the US border)
• Lancaster, England
• SoCal (LA)
• Phoenix, AZ
  
• ...

on Regional Discussion Forums

• Detroit, MI (Moving to Detroit)
• Denver, CO (Moving to Denver in Jan!)
• New York City (Go West from the George Washington Bridge)
• Philadelphia (ride from Philadelphia to New York)
• ...

Here’s my rewrite of “A Cyclist’s Guide to Metro Boston.”


Welcome to Boston and environs; I love riding in and around this town. I'm a year round commuter from Kenmore Square downtown to Norwood 14 miles southwest of Boston, and a road cyclist.

For some generalities, my favorite map is the AAA road map of metropolitan Boston. I think of the area in sectors radiating from downtown and surrounded by a circumferential belt about 10 to 15 miles from Downtown, known as Route 128 (“America's Technology Highway”). All the riding is markedly better outside of 128.

Even better, a concentric beltway, I-495, is about 20-30 miles outside downtown, and there you are in exurbia and rural countryside. One could stay in Boston and explore various sectors by driving out to a distant starting point, or take the Commuter Rail outbound with fully-assembled bikes. The city and inner suburbs though are nice and interesting, but the traffic is urban, sometimes heavy and confusing.

Even though I've lived here for over 30 years, I always get lost on a new ride. Streets are laid out in a haphazard fashion; many streets, particularly the one you are riding on are not marked; they surreptiously change names; and in rotary intersections it's easy to lose your sense of direction. (I don't have a GPS.)

On a happier note, the Transportation Authority (MBTA) allows bikes on subways and commuter trains with certain restrictions and that's a nice way to get out of town without city riding, as noted above. MBTA > Riding the T > Bikes on the T

See also this post about local bikepaths / MUPS in the City of Boston proper, and nearby.

I would describe the sectors as (mostly for road riding outside of Rte 128):

• North Shore: Beautiful Atlantic coastline, especially north of Lynn, to include Nahant, Marblehead and Marblehead Neck, on through Salem, Beverly and into ritzy Beverly Farms, and up to seafaring Gloucester, Rockport, Ipswich, etc.
  
  
• Northern Suburbs: Lynnfield, Reading, Wilmington, Woburn, down through Winchester, etc: Pleasant suburban to rural inland roads.
  
  
• Western: Lincoln, Lexington, Concord, Wayland, etc: Very ritzy, buccolic and historic; very popular for riding. This area IMO has the steepest hills.
  
  
• Metrowest: Framingham, Natick; pleasant suburbs though pretty commercial along Rte 9
  
  
• Southwest: Needham, Wellesley, Dover, Medfield, Walpole, Westwood, etc: probably more popular than the western burbs; wealthy exurban to rural, moderately hilly country roads, horse farms, mansions.
  
  
• South; Norwood, Canton, Randolph, etc: middle class suburbia; rideable and interesting [See this ride report from July 2014]
  
  
• South Shore beyond Quincy and Weymouth and into Hingham, Scituate, Marshfield, etc: Atlantic coastal, nice riding, though I find it hardest to get to because of confusing suburbs and pretty heavy and industrial sections, especially Weymouth, but this summer (2011) I have found a pleasant alternate route to the South Shore via Rte 53 and Broad St in Weymouth, and this sector is now a desirable area to ride.

I am a solo rider but the Charles River Wheelman and the North Shore cyclists, are two local clubs I am familiar with that have organized rides. Some bike shops also have organized rides, e.g. Landry's and Back Bay Bikes I know for sure. Wheelworks, International Bicycles and Harris Cyclery (where the late Sheldon Brown worked) are also well-known shops, and the Mass Bike Coalition, massbike.org is a local advocacy group.

Feel free to PM me with other questions, and