Today I left Manhattan, cycled through urban streets, a good stretch of “service road” along I-495 and then local roads of varying pleasantness…

Yesterday I hemmed and hawed trying to figure out whether to go out Long Island or along the Connecticut shore – until Bridgeport where the choices would rejoin.

As best I could tell, the distances were close to the same and both went through densely populated areas. The CT route spent more time in Manhattan while the Long Island route crossed into Queens and then out the city…

What decided it for me is the CT shore route seemed to have more climbing. Not that it went very high, but instead you would spend the day going up and down the same 60ft over and over. Long Island wasn’t flat (>2000ft climbed today) but less of the climb/drop/climb cycle.

First few photos still of the area near Times Square taken yesterday afternoon. A typical bike route. Lots of bikes including some very fast e-bikes zipping along. Random pedestrians mixed in. Some following traffic signals and a lot of honking.

Citibike does a good business including e-bikes.

This was a bike locker component.

This morning I was too busy riding in Manhattan to take photos but definitely glad I left by 6:30am. Expect it would have become more chaotic later. After three miles I reached the Queensborough Bridge with a separate bikeway. Lots of bikes mostly coming the opposite direction and even a few mopeds.

After this a sequence of urban streets. Some small, some larger and lots of turns. I let Komoot plan my route and was reasonably pleased with road choices in the morning.

This was 34th Avenue in Queens. For more than a mile it was blocked off against cars. People were out walking, jogging and biking. A great little road that went parallel to a large road (NY 25).

Most of the middle of the route looked like this. This is a service road parallel to I-495. One way traffic with the interstate to the left. Sometimes a shoulder, sometimes not. Sometimes houses directly to the right, sometimes not. Sometimes trees separating from the interstate and sometimes you saw it directly. However, traffic overall was light so not the most exciting road but it got me where I wanted to go.

These guys were having fun tuning bikes outside. Enough of an excuse to check out the well-stacked store. Told me cycling was popular in these parts. I saw about a dozen riders in the service road sections of the ride.

Eventually I left the service road and more local roads. These were mixed. Some like this farm/school election display. Not much in the way of shoulders and sometimes hectic with a lot of traffic. Also some steep little up/down sections.

At last the last few miles were along a busy highway but I was fortunate to find a bike path.

Overall, occasionally hectic riding and more aggressive drivers than New Jersey but great weather and a good ride on Long Island.

Strava tells me 53.61 miles in 5:49:56 for average of 9.1mph. 2119 feet climbed and 4137 calories burned.

Tonight is a HOA annual meeting for some land I have near Evant, Texas.