SoCaled 

Visting relatives and saw this shop and had to stop in:

Located in Schuylerville, NY, halfway between NYC and Montreal. Cool little shop, nice owner. They do a Schuylerville to Montreal and back 3-day ride, 1 day up, 1 rest in Montreal, 1 day back. They also do some Centuries and shorter rides, as well as winter Canal hikes.

clasher

They used to run a brevet series out of that shop too, I was planning to do their 400k before the pandemic came along.

unterhausen

That's interesting that they ran brevets, I am not sure I ever heard of them. RUSA only lists Finger Lakes and Long Island in New York.

clasher

They don't list much info on their page: Saratoga Brevet Series but their routes are still on rwgps: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/30900502 that was the 400 I'd been interested in riding.

Steve B.

RUSA does not list Long Island. Never heard of one being done here, not sure how they would without taking the ferry to Conn.

unterhausen

If you look in "regions" Long Island is there. They are holding 200, 300, 400k this year https://rusa.org/cgi-bin/eventsearch...&sortby=region

Here is their webpage https://www.lirando.org/

I didn't find a map for the 400k, but the 200k and 300k are all on LI. It looks like you could fit a 400k on LI, but maybe they don't.

400k course description

Steve B.

Well, 400 kilometers is 240 miles. Its easily possible to plan a route that goes way out east to Montauk Point and back and see that distance if you zig zag a bit. Interesting, never knew they did this locally.

Thulsadoom

I did a couple of 12 hour races out there a few years back. The Saratoga 12/24. That was a lot of fun. I don't think that shop was there then.

unterhausen

I asked a New Yorker and he said the RBA quit. Too bad.

antimonysarah

He'd been doing it for quite a while, and had pared back to doing just a ride or two in non-PBP years (last full series was in 2019). I gather he wanted to focus on the non-RUSA rides he offers/not bother double listing stuff (the Montreal ride used to also be certified as a pair of RUSA 300ks). I've never met him but I did chat with him over email and he seems like a nice guy.

Amusingly, in 2019, one of his rides (IIRC the 600k) and an NER ride passed each other in opposite directions on the same road; I don't know if that's a first for RUSA (two different regions on the same road simultaneously) but it was amusing. (We don't usually venture into New York much, but we did on that ride; a 200k/300k loop around Lake Champlain -- I hope to get a chance to put that event on again soon, but running remote starts is more of a logistical pain than local ones and we haven't had someone in Burlington interested in running it.)

From what I know, the Long Island rides were initially set up under the auspices of New Jersey, but got their own "independent" region at some point. I keep meaning to go down for one of their rides. I think jlippinbike might be the 400k route designer?

jlippinbike

Yes. I was the route designer for Long Island Rando's 400k and 600k brevets. I joined RUSA back in 2017 and one of my riding goals that year was to earn the RUSA Cup award. I needed a populaire and Long Island Rando was offering one in April as I recall. I think I rode it the week before I rode the PA Rando fleche. But I don't remember specifically. In 2017 Long Island Rando only offered a pop, a 200k and a 300k. I talked a bit with the RBA about why he didn't offer a 400k or a 600k. I talked with him at the pop's turnaround and finish. I beat him to both stops on that ride. The RBA (Steve) said he wasn't much of a designer, and there didn't seem to be much demand. I said I figured it was possible to create the routes. And a couple of years later I went ahead and designed them. I never went to ride them because I'm not a fan of the current NY (including Long Island) way of doing things - lawlessness. The 400k route is RUSA Brevet #2641 called There 'N Back Again. See https://ridewithgps.com/routes/32865234. And the 600k route is RUSA Brevet #2636 called Around Long Island. See https://ridewithgps.com/routes/32592674. Both of these links are the ones I used when I got them approved by the RUSA route committee to be part of RUSA's brevet catalog.

The description for the 400k route on the Long Island Rando web site is not consistent with the actual route. The RBA has a volunteer update the site and that volunteer doesn't do a very good job (in my humble opinion). The current RBA (Steve) says he sort of inherited the RBA position. The RBA before him was the founder of the club, and he never got it fully up to speed and then moved away. Steve did not want to see the club fold. So he took over at the helm. But Steve only has limited time to donate to the club.

I did my best to create a 600k route without having too much overlap. If you click through the above link for the 600k route you will see that there is some overlap. Oh well. That's as good of a job as I could do.

BTW, I reside in Princeton, NJ. It's a hassle for me to get onto Long Island. And I have plenty of beautiful roads to ride from my home.

unterhausen

I have heard riding on Long Island isn't the best. It's good they don't take the ferry.

Steve B.

Its perfectly OK if you know which roads to avoid. I frequently see a road riding group on weekends that I think starts in Queens, NYC and rides on west and then returns on NY Route 27, also know as Sunrise Hwy. Why they ride this road is beyond me, there's a NY State designated bike route 1/4 mile north whose collection of roads is vastly safer. Riding L.I is really no different then any urban area in the U.S., same numbers of drivers who hate getting slowed down by a cyclist using a lane. I have been road riding here 30 years and rarely have any negative encounters, but I also pay attention to ride routes that have less thru traffic.