Swim Bike Run
Slowtwitch.com
  • Login >
Slowtwitch.com
Search menu
Hot Forum Topics

Poll

Best Recent Tech for Tri
What is the most beneficial recent bike tech used in tri bikes
View Results


Home > Forum > Triathlon Forum > North Boston locals help please

Triathlon Forum

Back To ForumPrint Thread

Login required to started new threads

Login required to post replies

Tri
Classifieds
Lavender
Jobs
Notices
North Boston locals help please
Quote | Reply
gluestick
Sep 23, 19 11:33
Post #1 of 9 (1003 views)
I have been roped into visiting my sister in law this coming weekend and plan to bring along my road bike for an early ride Saturday morning. She lives up in Stoneham and I am trying to put together a decent route of something interesting. My 3 goals are:

1) 30-40 miles in length
2) A cycling friendly route. I plan to shoot out relatively early Saturday, but have spent enough time in the Boston area to know that some roads are nothing short of suicide on a bicycle
3) A cool/unique point of interest should be the target- right now I have Nahant in my sites

I put together a draft of my proposed route on RWGPS: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/31177151

I would appreciate any input to make this a better/safer/more interesting ride for those with local knowledge. I would also be down with riding with someone or a local group if that is an option as well for this Saturday 9/28.

Thanks in advance

Eric
"It never gets easier, you just go faster."
-Greg LeMond

Quote Reply
Re: North Boston locals help please [gluestick] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
jflan
Sep 24, 19 1:07
Post #2 of 9 (893 views)
i dont live arount there but lived in somerville years ago. i dont think anything on your route is especially nice or bike friendly, other than nahant itself. if you have a car just shoot over to concord/lincoln which is where everyone from north side of boston rides. if you can't take the car, look up towards boxford/topsfield maybe ( i personally don't know the area) but it looks much less dense and probably better riding. check google street view to make sure you're not choosing a divided hwy death trap, and check out strava heat map to get an idea of what roads are usually ridden.
Quote Reply
Re: North Boston locals help please [gluestick] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
natethomas
Sep 24, 19 1:42
Post #3 of 9 (880 views)
I live in Bedford, not far from Stoneham, and there are plenty of rides from around here into Concord, Acton, Carlisle, Westford, and a few other towns that are great rides with relatively low traffic. What’s special about Nahant? Why does there need to be a unique spot?
Blog: http://262toboylstonstreet.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/NateThomasTri
Coaching: https://bybtricoaching.com/ - accepting athletes for 2023
Quote Reply
Re: North Boston locals help please [jflan] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
jond81
Sep 24, 19 3:21
Post #4 of 9 (858 views)
jflan wrote:
i dont live arount there but lived in somerville years ago. i dont think anything on your route is especially nice or bike friendly, other than nahant itself. if you have a car just shoot over to concord/lincoln which is where everyone from north side of boston rides. if you can't take the car, look up towards boxford/topsfield maybe ( i personally don't know the area) but it looks much less dense and probably better riding. check google street view to make sure you're not choosing a divided hwy death trap, and check out strava heat map to get an idea of what roads are usually ridden.

I agree with the above in terms of that local area. I live in Southern NH now but grew up in Melrose which is adjacent to Stoneham, it's not an ideal biking area. You'll be stop and go at lights and traffic most of the time. You're already starting in north Stoneham, if you can drive 15-20 mins north up 28 and get into Andover you can do a great clockwise loop from Andover, Groveland, Boxford, etc. My daughter has soccer at 8:15 or I'd join you. If you're hell bent on getting to the beach/water for some views you want no part of Lynn/Saugus, trust me, you need to be more north-east up towards Hamilton, Ipswich, Essex, etc. Old roads, nice and wide, lots of bikers and this weekend is supposed to be beautiful so you'd see a lot of people out. Look at the satellite maps of where your route goes vs north above 95 closer to 495; there's a lot more green up north.
Quote Reply
Re: North Boston locals help please [gluestick] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
chooch
Sep 24, 19 5:41
Post #5 of 9 (799 views)
Agree with the above posters that much of the are you're targeting isn't the most scenic or bike-friendly. If you're looking to go along the water, the Marblehead Neck is generally the go-to destination (though you'd probably have to go through either Peabody or Salem to get there, which are traffic nightmares), and some folks just do loops of the 3-mile Neck route.

You could check against routes at crw.org (Charles River Wheelmen - I think there is a legacy CUE sheet list in the Resources section), or look at the Route library of North Shore Cyclists (http://www.nscyc.org/).

Alternately, if you can get there, the Minuteman Rail Trail is sort of the bike mecca of the area, though if you're looking to go fast, you should go early before the strollers and hobby joggers fill up the trial. http://minutemanbikeway.org/home/about/. Pretty easy to get out to Walden Pond, too.
Quote Reply
Re: North Boston locals help please [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
347CX
Sep 24, 19 5:48
Post #6 of 9 (790 views)
I live in the next town over and I'm going to concur that maybe the route won't be the best. If you're starting from that spot in Stoneham, you can just head up through Reading and there are some great roads to Ipswich, especially early on a weekend morning. Here's a route for that https://ridewithgps.com/routes/9225473 It would be 60 miles so maybe a little longer than you'd want but it's a nice one. You can also ride west through Winchester via Forest St in Stoneham and make your way through Lexington. There's also a huge cycling community in Winchester and there's always weekend rides leaving at 6-6:30 from the downtown Starbucks, usually one group going quickly to Harvard and back in 3ish hours. If you're interested I can keep you posted on what I see going on for the weekend (different people call out different rides on Fridays)
Quote Reply
Re: North Boston locals help please [347CX] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
gluestick
Sep 24, 19 6:19
Post #7 of 9 (772 views)
Thank you for the detailed reply. I would certainly be interested in jumping in a group ride if people are starting early Saturday. Please keep me posted.
"It never gets easier, you just go faster."
-Greg LeMond

Quote Reply
Re: North Boston locals help please [gluestick] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
plifter242
Sep 24, 19 6:20
Post #8 of 9 (769 views)
I used to live in the town north of Stoneham, Reading now I live in Ipswich and that route doesn’t look fun at all. Like everyone else in the thread has stated you either have to go north or west. If you want to see the ocean go north, you’d be better off driving somewhere and riding and driving back. This link should help with a route:

http://www.nscyc.org/routes-database
Quote Reply
Re: North Boston locals help please [gluestick] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
gluestick
Sep 24, 19 12:29
Post #9 of 9 (689 views)
Thanks to all who weighed in, saved me what sounds like a lousy (and potentially dangerous) ride. I had done the North Shore Cyclists "Quiet roads North of Boston" loop a few years back, I may just repeat it as I know what to expect traffic-wise. What group rides out of the REI? I can't seem to find them.
"It never gets easier, you just go faster."
-Greg LeMond

Quote Reply
Back To ForumPrint Thread

Our Partners

transition-DOT-area-AT-slowtwitch-DOT-com

Advertise with us

©1999-2024 Slowtwitch, Inc., and Slowtwitch.com
Reproduction of material from any Slowtwitch.com page
without written permission is strictly prohibited.