TD Five Boro Bike Tour

zehnd · 10-27-2015, 04:52 PM

A buddy and I are going to do the TD Five Boro Bike Tour in May. Can any of you tell me if it's difficult to register? If you don't act fast are you s**t out of luck?

We are also going to VRBO. The ride starts in Battery Park which is at the south end of Manhattan so we’ve been looking at places around there as it starts early in the morning so figured we’d want to be relatively close. The districts around battery park are quite pricey but just to the north and east there is NoHo, Lower East Side and the East Village and then to the north and west there is SoHo and Greenwich Village. I would imagine those area are good.

Any pointers?

jorian · 10-27-2015, 06:04 PM

Don't know anything about it but it sounds like a great way to see the 5. Good luck!

Mark Howard · 10-27-2015, 06:07 PM

I travel to NYC every other week. Based on what you describe above, try the Doubletree on Stone Street in the Financial District. Close to where you need to be, quiet at night (for NYC), close to a couple good restaurants and taverns.

Brian 162 · 10-27-2015, 06:38 PM

I stayed at the Holiday Inn in Chelsea (7th Ave. W. 26th) this past summer. The room rate was $250 (CDN) per night.
It was close to the subway which will take you anywhere in NYC.

zehnd · 10-28-2015, 04:38 AM

Thanks, I will check those places out. Coming from a community of 15000 people, 32000 riding bikes that day should be interesting.

Kraftwerk · 10-28-2015, 07:36 AM

Plan to do some walking at the bottle-necks and choke points bridge entrances etc.. Funny to ride on the BQE though.
Yopu might find more info on a bike forum like: http://www.bikeforums.net/forum.php

VaSteve · 10-28-2015, 02:21 PM

It's a pita to register. The event is fun. I will post my write up of last years event when I get home.

tcar · 10-28-2015, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zehnd

A buddy and I are going to do the TD Five Boro Bike Tour in May.

Interesting... down here in the states we spell it 'Borough'.

wayner · 10-28-2015, 03:26 PM

On your way back home, hit the rideau lakes bike tour out if Ottawa to Kingston

June
If you do, pm me and I'll ride with you

zehnd · 10-28-2015, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kraftwerk

Plan to do some walking at the bottle-necks and choke points bridge entrances etc.. Funny to ride on the BQE though.
Yopu might find more info on a bike forum like: Bike Forums

Thanks for the pointer, looks like I won't be riding with my cycle shoes because of that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VaSteve

It's a pita to register. The event is fun. I will post my write up of last years event when I get home.

Please do

Quote:

Originally Posted by tcar

Interesting... down here in the states we spell it 'Borough'.

Lol, I just copied and pasted it from the website.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wayner

On your way back home, hit the rideau lakes bike tour out if Ottawa to Kingston

June
If you do, pm me and I'll ride with you

We'll have to check that out.

Donald

VaSteve · 10-28-2015, 04:30 PM

I posted this on a another site:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hunter View Post
I have done the five Boro ride a while ago (2000). It was fun. 30,000 cyclists at least at that time. We got there really early which paid dividends as we where the front of line line. There were two other separated blocks of riders further ahead which were VIPs. The first mile or so do not clip in both feet, elbow to elbow. The people at the back took 10-15 minutes to get to the starting line. When I did it I went too fast and really didn't take in as much of the surroundings as I would if I did it again. The only spot IIRC that caught me off guard was the 180 degree turn to get onto the 58th street bridge. Great ride at your own pace. Contact me it you want to talk more.

It was a lot of fun. Very very crowded. A woman crashed before we even crossed the start. I was in the third wave, which kinda sucked. LOTS of folks that must only ride once a year. I saw a woman on a 30 year old ten speed show up with flat tires. Lots of folks breaking the rules. It definitely keeps you on your toes dodging the slower and clueless riders. Saw several accidents, one guy tearing into another one after a crash. One total douchebag yelling a people to MOVE so he could speed through and then jamming on his brakes in a big skid down the queens boro bridge over an over again.

Cool bands playing including a gospel choir in Harlem as dressed up ladies went to church. Hipsters with big beards drinking beer at 11 am in Brooklyn.

Next time I'll ride a little slower and take it in a little more.

VaSteve · 10-28-2015, 04:37 PM

Registration is in January online. Prepare to hit refresh a whole lot. It's a monster pain. You have to go down in person to get your number on Saturday. I stayed with my brother in new Rochelle and he dropped me off at about 6:30 am or so. Lots of people rode to the start.

The starting corral is a pain, just stand around and wait. Once they turned us loose I dropped the hammer and kinda regret it. I did the whole thing in 3 hours. And probably blasted too quickly through Manhattan. The place to blast by is queens past the auto shops and boring stuff.

I rode the ferry back to Manhattan it was free and my brother picked me up.

zehnd · 10-28-2015, 04:41 PM

Thanks, we are going to have to rent bikes so we'll probably have to move fast on that too. I'm looking forward to it. I've never been to NY.

zehnd · 05-19-2016, 05:47 AM

Following up on the ride. It was more of an endurance test if anything for us. 7 Celsius and pouring rain the whole day on a rented bike that didn't fit well. Not much of a site seeing tour as you had to watch for other riders and with the rain clouds you couldn't see far.

The whole NY thing was an experience for me, especially trying to figure out the subway on a weekend with all the shutdowns for construction. lol