I’m up for that, prefer WhatsApp…
+1
Tour of the Battenkill - This is on my hit list as well. I’d love to hear from anyone who has participated.
Vermont Overland (Gravel) - The 2022 edition was one of the hardest rides I’ve done. Great event!
VT Monster Gravel Grinder (Gravel) - On my hit list BUT it falls on Fathers Day weekend and I get the “look” from my wife when I mention registration.
Kearsage Klassic (Gravel) - I just rode this course last weekend. Really nice ride around Mount Kearsage. 17 climbs with 6 - 8 tipping up to 12%-16%. The last 10 miles is rip into town. Lots of fun!
Raid Rockingham (Gravel) - I rode this one for the first time this year and had a blast. It’s a fast course and great for early season (for New England) ride.
Muddy Onion (VT - Gravel) - I did this ride for the first time this year and it might be my new favorite. It’s run very well, the course was fun, the food and beer was top notch. I’ll be back!
Trails in Noanet, Hale Reservation, Rocky Woods and Adam’s Farm are great and there are other open space properties that connect some of those locations. You could bike there and some of the route would be on bike paths but it would be about 20 miles to get there. Some of the terrain works for gravel biking but there is also a lot of single track and some root and rock sections.
Hi @mountainrunner, welcome to the neighborhood. I live right next to Cambridge. You have gotten some great suggestions with the bike shops as a starting point. Some of my other regular go to communities are (The Rippers). Membership is less than $10. They have road rides, gravel, mountain, regular rides at different levels. There are quite a few members from Cambridge.
I am also a board member for (Charles River Wheelers). The club is best known for hosting a few road bike annual centuries, but we have gravel rides too.
Thanks. I’ll check out the links. I’ll be in town in two weeks for a week, so I’ll try to connect in person. Then I’ll disappear for three weeks…
Hi, if you like hillclimb racing at all I am one of the organizers of the Mt Greylock Hillclimb Time Trial in western MA. Race is in September, great climb and after-party. I also help administer the Bike Up the Mountain Points Series with a number of uphill races around the northeast US.
Would you be willing to PM me a link to any of these routes? I’m a long-time roadie starting to get into gravel riding and looking for good options starting from Somerville(ish) beyond “just” the Fells.
If you want an easy, repeatable start from Cambridge or Somerville, the Minute Man Bikeway out toward Bedford and Concord is a solid option, and it gets noticeably calmer once you’re past the busiest stretch. I also end up near Alewife pretty often when I’m coordinating airport pickups for visiting friends through Patriots Limousine, so it’s an easy spot to roll straight into a ride without dealing with downtown traffic.
for future readers do note that Minuteman is purely for getting out of the city, way too many stop signs / pedestrians for any sort of structured riding above a casual z2. Mystic loop is the closest to Cambridge for something close to a no-stops loop.
and it’s not a good one, at least from a safety standpoint. the rotaries in Medford and several intersections with no turn on red (which we should be following) make it difficult. unfortunately the CBTT loop of concord-carlisle is the actual closest loop, in my opinion. the actual greatest loop to train is in westport, 13 miles of uninterrupted riding in a loop
This area is pretty much my reality. I’m backed up against the Fells, so decent mountain biking right out the back door. But otherwise - I basically commit myself to 40-45 minute warmup to head through Medford / West Medford / Arlington, then out the Minuteman and start any workout once I get to Bedford.
CBTT is still where I end up doing my on-road Interval workouts if I’m not driving somewhere. Longer loops will go out as far as around Wachusett Reservoir.
(Side note - severe cabin fever here right now. I’ve started dreaming about those sunny Spring rides…)
@BCM Also try north of Fells. Once you get through Stoneham there are some good roads. There is a route to Crane’s beach that I followed last summer on roads and rail trails and also rode to just north of Portland Maine on road and rail trails through that area too.
Most of my riding is between 128 and 495. There is a lot of terrain for MTB, gravel and road. Bruce Freeman is excellent and so is the riding in Concord and Carlisle.
I have also done some of the Wachusett area stuff. There are a few really good loops out there that stretch towards the Quabbin but I drove there an hour to start. I recommend the WaWa Prison and Maximum Gravel loops on Ride with GPS.
Yup - going to attempt some MTB today on the tamped down trails in Noanet but being on the road now with high snow banks is not optimal. I did Pavement Ends last year in 5” of snow so don’t have issues with dealing with imperfect early spring surfaces but the cold and quantity of snow has made this a tougher winter to get out.
The challenge is Stoneham, Woburn, Wakefield, Saugus - wherever. I haven’t found even a remotely decent route that gets me North of 128 when I’m going North / East without feeling like I’m going to get killed, and that’s from someone who used to commute into Back Bay daily. At least with Rt. 60 - it’s 10-15 minutes that’s manageable before hitting the Minuteman.
I do ride Bruce Freeman on some rides, Oak Hill Road in Harvard, Still River Road.. Lots of routes that head out through Westford/Acton by Nashoba passing by the CBTT, Littleton, Harvard, generally looping back through Sudbury, Wayland and Lincoln past DeCordova… Great rides out that way.
Right now for me, I’ve resigned myself to trainer season. Doing a lot of structured VO2 and Threshold work through April which takes its’ toll. For my outdoor rides I’m looking for more steady Z2 without the stop/go punchiness, which right now means I’m waiting until the Salt and Ice is off the road and suffering on the trainer. Have thought about buying a Fat Bike so I can go do some rail trail / snowmobile trail rides in NH and having a better setup for the winter nastiness but missed the boat on that (again) for this year.
@BCM I have only been through there twice and definitely felt like it was not great through Stoneham. I passed through early so that probably helped.
Here is a screen shot with the route I took. Purple was to Cranes Beach (on gravel tires) and red was to Maine (on road tires).
Yeah - that route goes within about a quarter mile of my house, I know the area well. I’ll probably do some rides that way to change it up, but at the same time going West / Northwest I know the routes so well and the riding is great once you’re outside 128.
Here’s my 70 Mile Route that gets me through some of my favorite areas:
Down by RI? that’ be quite the warm-up to get down there haha (or just take the Commuter rail I suppose).
South of the river, I like the Blue hills loop (MIT Route) (only one light), I see folks doing the golf course but the few times I’ve ripped it there’s been loads of traffic.
I often use the Mystic, Fenwick, Grove loop for 9 min or shorter intervals…have to be careful turning right onto High Street and NOT have it be part of the interval! If you are on the Mystic Loops before 6:30am it’s fairly safe…traffic really picks up around 6:45am. Can also out and back on Mystic Valley Parkway between the rotary and Beacon. I honestly have my head on a swivel until past Concord.
Checking in because I want to welcome @mountainrunner to the area, know more about @FergusYL s ride and maybe meet some new people.
Created a basic Discord, happy to hand it over if TR (or anyone else) wants to run it. Message me and I’ll send invites (so we don’t get a bunch of bots
Thanks for the welcome, @pcleary87 . Been here since mid-2023 now, but still exploring. I’m bummed to lose the year-round I had before moving to Boston. I’d join the Discord for more route options, and maybe even ride with someone. I generally use the MIT routes and the Minuteman Trail for returns to spin out the legs rather than have a serious effort. Overall, my cycling fitness is a shadow of what it was before moving here, unfortunately. (I haven’t had access to the trainer for the past 11.5 months, so that hasn’t helped. I’ll get back to that next week.)
There already is a TR Discord. (Edit - been around for a while, and unofficial, looks like it pre-dates the forum). But, we could probably also create a channel there and use that as there actually are some users there.