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visiting Philadelphia on a bicycle
Sharon and I rode into and around Philadelphia last Saturday, and we pretty
impressed -- plan to do it again. Found some good route info on the web, which led us to a wonderful variety of riding. We started from the north out near Doylestown, Pennsylvania, then followed some popular club route ideas to go thru Ambler and the Five Points into the Chestnut Hill and Mt Airy sections in the city, and West River Drive to the Art Museum. Next some "sightseeing" around the university and center city. We tried riding around the perimeter of South Philadelphia. Then a quick swing by Independence Hall and up onto the Ben Franklin Bridge. Exited along the Delaware River up thru Bristol PA to visit Trenton the state capital of New Jersey, and some pleasant Bucks county roads back to Doylestown. What was most special for us was in and close the the city. Next time we'll focus more on that, and skip some of the outlying stuff (or try exploring some different outlying areas). Highlights of our visit: * houses in the Mt Airy + Chestnut Hill neighborhoods (northwest in city). * high view from the up on the middle of the Ben Franklin Bridge. * farms close in to city (e.g. Narcissa Rd + Flourtown Rd). * visiting city sites that were special to us personally. * West River Drive (closed to cars on Saturday) * seeing big structures on our loop around South Phila: stadiums, ocean liner, seaport cranes, etc. It would be great to hear more suggestions for our next visit. more of our details below. Ken ________________________________________________ resources * Greater Philadelphia Bike Map is an amazing level of detail for such a large region: http://www.bicyclecoalition.org/map/map.html * Philadelphia Bike Map on the web -- covers only the city itself. * Bicycle Club of Philadelphia * Bill Cotton's website * paper map of detailed Philadelphia city streets * paper map of detailed roads of Montgomery county * paper map of surrounding region (also had Central Bucks county, and some printouts from web) more highlights -- things we liked further outside: * Radcliffe St alongside the Delaware River thru Bristol PA * Stoney Brook Rd + Pineville Rd (in central Bucks county climbing northwest up from the Delaware River near Washington's Crossing) -- and earlier riding north on non-wide Rt 32 from Washington's Crossing turned out to be rather nice because a bridge was closed, thus less vehicle traffic. what we did not like: * in center city Phila: riding on Chestnut St + Walnut St is too slow -- even though they're one-way streets, not enough traffic lanes. * flat roads in Phila city northeast along the Delaware River went on for too long. Most of the individual miles were OK -- some rather nice -- others on the bumpy side. Just too many of them for us: we prefer the hills and curves of the Hudson River. specific route ideas: * for next time, one route we found that seems to spend lots of time on the kinds of roads + farms + neighborhoods that Sharon and I like was the "Five Points Ride" by Myra van Inwegen, linked from the Bicycle Club of Philadelphia website: http://www.phillybikeclub.org * for the perimeter around South Phila, we found 25th St to be a nice way to get south quickly. Then we rode a block east on Oregon, south 24th into Roosevelt Park, around the park road a ways, then found a ramp to another road near the naval base, sorta north on that lead to Rt 611 / Broad St near the stadiums, then east on Pattison. * bridges -- many of the Delaware River bridges (other than the Ben Franklin) anywhere in range of Phila are not ridable. The sidewalk on the Tacony-Palmyra bridge is only for walking. I took a closer look at it, and I have to say it did not look very inviting for riding. Ken |
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#2
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visiting Philadelphia on a bicycle
Ken: I belong to two suburban bike clubs, Central Bucks Bike Club
(cbbikeclub.org) and Suburban Cyclists Unlimited (suburbancyclists.org). Check out the cue sheets available on both web sites. I think the best riding in the region is north and east, and west of the city. You were, for part of your tour, in "lower" Central Bucks and Lower Bucks, but it gets prettier and less-trafficked further north and over in Hunterdon County, NJ. I would have suggested heading east or north from Doylestown; I like to go into NJ. Of some interest is the multi-use path called the Schuylkill Trail, along the Delaware River, that runs from Center City far out into Montgomery County, ~25 miles paved, when it changes to crushed gravel and is called the Perkiomen Trail, fine for MTBs and hybrids. The entire route is ~60 miles, if I recall? I don't know your preferred pace and cycling preferences, but I'd be glad to provide more info and guidance for your next trip. Regards, Roy Zipris |
#3
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visiting Philadelphia on a bicycle
In article . com,
"Roy Zipris" wrote: Ken: I belong to two suburban bike clubs, Central Bucks Bike Club (cbbikeclub.org) and Suburban Cyclists Unlimited (suburbancyclists.org). Check out the cue sheets available on both web sites. I think the best riding in the region is north and east, and west of the city. You were, for part of your tour, in "lower" Central Bucks and Lower Bucks, but it gets prettier and less-trafficked further north and over in Hunterdon County, NJ. I would have suggested heading east or north from Doylestown; I like to go into NJ. Of some interest is the multi-use path called the Schuylkill Trail, along the Delaware River, that runs from Center City far out into Montgomery County, ~25 miles paved, when it changes to crushed gravel and is called the Perkiomen Trail, fine for MTBs and hybrids. The entire route is ~60 miles, if I recall? I don't know your preferred pace and cycling preferences, but I'd be glad to provide more info and guidance for your next trip. Regards, Roy Zipris The Schuykill River Trail follows the Schuykill River ( amazing! ) and does not go anywhere near the Delaware River ( yet ). The SRT is about 20 miles from the art museum to the Perkiomen Trail which is 22 miles to Green Lane Park IIRC. A little shorter if the detour become permanent. Someday the SRT will go up to Pottsville and down to the navy yard making it 75 miles long. Someday! HTH |
#4
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visiting Philadelphia on a bicycle
H M Leary wrote:
The Schuykill River Trail follows the Schuykill River ( amazing! ) and does not go anywhere near the Delaware River ( yet ). You're right, of course, H.M.; thinking of my preferred cycling along the Delaware, my mind raced ahead and caused my fingers to type in the wrong river. --RZ |
#5
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visiting Philadelphia on a bicycle
In article .com,
"Roy Zipris" wrote: H M Leary wrote: The Schuykill River Trail follows the Schuykill River ( amazing! ) and does not go anywhere near the Delaware River ( yet ). You're right, of course, H.M.; thinking of my preferred cycling along the Delaware, my mind raced ahead and caused my fingers to type in the wrong river. --RZ Yes! I like to ride from I-95 up to New Hope. On both sides of the Delaware. HAND |
#6
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visiting Philadelphia on a bicycle
Roy Zipris wrote
Of some interest is the multi-use path called the Schuylkill Trail Good, we'll try some of that next time. I belong to two suburban bike clubs, Central Bucks Bike Club (cbbikeclub.org) and Suburban Cyclists Unlimited (suburbancyclists.org). Check out the cue sheets available on both web sites. I checked those lists of cue sheets, and while they're probably helpful for the club members, I found them kind of overwhelming for a visitor -- because hard to decide which ones to start with. I found the Bicycle Club of Philadelphia lists more helpful because for each route they had an interesting little description that was designed to help choose. I'd be glad to provide more info and guidance for your next trip. How about say what some of your own favorite routes are and why. Sharon and I generally like rides that are moderately hilly, and when we're visiting some other area, we like to ride at least 75 miles to make it worth the time + cost of travel (like our Phila loop was about 110 miles). Thanks for your help, Ken |
#7
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visiting Philadelphia on a bicycle
Ken Roberts wrote:
How about say what some of your own favorite routes are and why. Sharon and I generally like rides that are moderately hilly, and when we're visiting some other area, we like to ride at least 75 miles to make it worth the time + cost of travel (like our Phila loop was about 110 miles). For general group rides, I tend to favor moderate terrain (CBBC categorizes rides as flat, moderate, or hilly) and distances of ~35-50 miles, so I'm familiar with routes that would meet your preferences more by reputation than by actual experience. What I will do is go through the CBBC cue sheets and pull out the ones that might be of interest to you; would it be easier to send you a PM or list them here? (Incidentally, I am one of CBBC's cue sheet editors and you can generally tell which routes I edited by the relatively extensive comments, which I think are indeed helpful, even to club members.) One resource that you might also appreciate is a wonderful web site, a labor of love, by a fellow named Dustin Farnum, called New Jersey Bike Map (http://www.njbikemap.com/). One of the great features is his indication of elevation changes, marked with a circle at the bottom, a flag at the top, and the number of feet. With these maps and cue sheets, it's easy to link up parts of various routes so that you can create longer rides to meet your interests. Let me know if you'd prefer a PM or post. And if you let me know when you'll be in the area, there may be a club ride or two that you might enjoy. Regards, Roy Zipris |
#8
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visiting Philadelphia on a bicycle
You may find my website useful. It has information for bicyclists visiting
Philadelphia, including links to local clubs, some featured rides, routes in and out of the city, and relevent maps and books. The link is http://home.comcast.net/~miketordoff/. |
#9
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visiting Philadelphia on a bicycle
In article ,
"Michael Tordoff" wrote: You may find my website useful. It has information for bicyclists visiting Philadelphia, including links to local clubs, some featured rides, routes in and out of the city, and relevent maps and books. The link is http://home.comcast.net/~miketordoff/. Probably the best of the lot, IMNSHO, is: http://www.billcotton.com he has cue sheets for everything! HAND ride safe |
#10
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visiting Philadelphia on a bicycle
"H M Leary" wrote in message ... In article , "Michael Tordoff" wrote: You may find my website useful. It has information for bicyclists visiting Philadelphia, including links to local clubs, some featured rides, routes in and out of the city, and relevent maps and books. The link is http://home.comcast.net/~miketordoff/. Probably the best of the lot, IMNSHO, is: http://www.billcotton.com he has cue sheets for everything! HAND ride safe Thanks. I like the idea that ken mention about descriptions. I will look into that. However, the cue are of ride that I have done and on myride page are descriptions on my rides. -- www.billcotton.com |
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