Customer Reviews

Short Bike Rides on Long Island, 5th (Short Bike Rides Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book includes a great selection of bike tours, and is a must-buy for cyclists who live on Long Island or plan to tour it on two wheels. My teenage son and I have ridden almost all the tours in this book and have never been disappointed...in fact, I've lived on Long Island for 25 years and discovered many scenic areas I never knew existed. The maps and directions are much clearer than similar books I've used, and most tours include both short and long versions of the route to match your available time and stamina. A nice bonus is the wonderful one-day ferry-and-bike tour of Block Island (actually part of Rhode Island).

This book is only for the very casual rider who lives in Long Island and carries his bike by car. As a Manhattan resident (sans car, of course) who was looking forward to help in exploring Long Island via train and bike, I was disappointed.

The 40 bike rides described are pretty SHORT -- less than half are over 15 miles and even the longer rides have options that reduce the ride to 8-12 mile range. There are even a handful of rides less than 5 miles long.

All ride descriptions do include driving directions to the starting point, in addition to map and route guide. However it's difficult to use this book without a car. The starting points are scattered all over the island with little information on how to connect them via bike route or train.

This book of do-it-yourself road bike tours is a great example of how the genre should be done. The maps are clear, the cue sheets are concise, and the descriptions are informative but brief. Distances of the rides vary from 8 - 20 miles or so, and are largely well-chosen. And the book is small enough to take with you.

When I lived on Long Island I did several of these rides and was not disappointed.