Be part of the second organized bicycle tour from New York City to Martha's Vineyard!
Produced By The Urban Mobility Project-
So scroll down,read on and get ready to ride!
Designed specifically as an extension of The Ride to Montaukon June 19th 2011!
Montauk to Martha’s Vineyard, with ferry return to Manhattan
Martha’s Vineyard is an amazing place for cycling. The island is quaint, small scale, and laid back, and locals have a live-slow attitude.
The island is about 60 miles around, with about 40 miles of separated bikeways. These bikeways traverse three-quarters of the island around the perimeter and through the island center—making cycling free and easy. The state forest route is my favorite, but the beachesare some of the best I’ve seen.
This is a self contained group ride with a leader and sweep!
NO VAN SUPPORT!
What You Get!
Lodging
Montauk – 1 Night
Hotel in town(to be determined)
Newport - 1 Night
Dorm Style
Martha’s Vineyard – 6 Nights
Martha's Vineyard Family Campground
Two Room Cabins include 2 double beds and bunks to sleep 6, a small refrigerator, and an outside gas grill with side burner. All cabins have water available, electric lights and outlets, a picnic table, fire ring, and mattresses. You will need to bring your own cooking utensils and bedding.
All Ferry’s
Staring at Montauk Point
Block Is
Pt Judith,R.I.
New Bedford, Mass
MV to NYC
Food (not included)
Block Island - has many Restaurants and deli's
On the Road - we will be stopping for lunch along the way.
On Martha's Vineyard-You have three choices
The MV Family Campground has a general store on-site for food and supplies.
You eat at one of the many local restaurants or cook your own meals at the cabins!
Go shopping at the Stop and Shop in Vineyard Haven just 1 mile away and cook back at your cabin!
The Riding Pace = Moderate 10-12 mph
Sunday June 20th
Day 1
Ferry from Montauk to Block Island.
There we spend the afternoon exploring the island or just sitting on the beach relaxing!
Later in the afternoon we ferry to Newport via Pt Judith,R.I. There you are welcome to ride the Mansion Loop or explore Newport before checking in the the Hostel.
Total mileage about 20 miles
Short Loop around Block Island
Monday June 21st
Day 2
A beautiful 40 mile ride through the back roads of R.I and Mass. to New Bedford.We will stop for lunch and bathrooms at the halfway point.We continue on to New Bedford to catch the high speed ferry to Vineyard Haven, MV! We arrive early evening. Ride one mile to check in to MV Family Campground Cabins!
Total mileage 41 Miles
Kite Festival,Mansion Loop , Newport
Rest of week on the Vineyard
We will lead rides or you are free to explore on your own!
Gingerbread houses in Oak Bluffs
Easy parking at the beach
Bend in the Road Beach
.
Sunday June 27th
Return Home via Seastreak Ferry to Manhattan ,Wall Street Pier 11,NYC.
This bicycle tour is suitable for ExperiencedCyclistsofAllLevels! A note for the faster riders.Once you get to the Island you can go to it as hard as you like!
Experienced Tour Leaders
I live in NYC and have 30 years of cycling experience urban and open road.I have toured in Mexico, France,Alaska,Hawaii and all over the States. I ride almost every day all year round. I have lead many groups of cyclists through and around NYC. I have completed this ride to the vineyard about 50 times.
I will make sure that this ride is lead safely and and a moderate pace! With years of experience behind me I can handle any situation that comes my way.
In addition to leading the tour we will have tools, extra tubes and tires and the mechanical skills to take care of any bicycle related problems on route.
What you need to bring!
You should be able to fit everything you need in2 panniers!
Each of the Vineyard’s three main towns—Oak Bluffs, Vineyard Haven, and Edgartown—have a completely different flavor! The island has a music and art scene that rivals NYC (on a smaller scale), with plenty of nightlife!
All three Vineyard towns have attractions and nightlife, but Oak Bluffs has it all and its just a 4 mile ride from the campground!
Art galleries
Blues clubs
Movie theaters
Arcades
Dancing
Lots of ice cream shops!
All of which are easily accessible by bicycle, even at night, provided you bring a good light set.
Cars are few and the top speed limit is 45 mph. There are no highways or chain stores, which creates a feeling of being very far from the insane pace of New York City!
In my 30 of cycling experience on Martha’s Vineyard, I still discover new things every time I go. I’m extremely familiar with every inch of the route, and even more familiar with Martha’s Vineyard. I know lots of local spots and a few of the local cyclists to help keep you out of the tourist traps.
I learned about Martha’s Vineyard about 30 years ago, while camping in Woodstock. A cyclist who had been touring around the States told me about the most amazing place he’d ever seen: Martha’s Vineyard. He was RAVING about it—and he just happened to have an extra ferry ticket.Of course I had a bicycle with me so I packed up the next day and drove off to New Bedford to catch the ferry!
He was absolutely right. Cycling on 60 miles of separated bikeways in incredible Vineyard scenery and along pristine beaches was just too much! I couldn’t get enough. I started going to the Vineyard as often as I could, even trips for Thanksgiving and weekends—even in the dead of winter.
To extend that incredible feeling, I decided to ride my bicycle all the way to the Vineyard from my front door in NYC! That brought things to the next level. Arriving in a cycling paradise—by bicycle—was pure bliss.
Since then, I’ve done this trip about 50 times. Only rarely have I driven or rented a car on the island—it’s just not necessary. Martha’s Vineyard is the perfect place for a car-free cycling vacation!
My route to MV goes by way of Montauk. (I’ve been doing The Ride to Montauk almost since it started in the ’80s.) So I decided to put the two rides back to back. Two fantastic routes in one week-long vacation! How great is that?!
From Montauk, we do two short day rides with 2 ferry's to Block Island to Pt. Judith, RI to Newport,RI. We spend our second night in Newport,RI then ride on to New Bedford,Mass for our final ferry.We arrive in Martha’s Vineyard on Monday afternoon. There, we spend five full days at the Family Campground cabins in Vineyard Haven. The return from Martha’s Vineyard is via Seastreak Ferry right to Manhattan!
About Me
I started taking long cycling trips on my Stingray bicycle when I was about 11 years old. Living in NYC, I began using my bike as transportation, going from borough to borough. After giving up my drumming career at age 22, I thought that since I rode my bike everywhere, I might as well make money doing it—and became a hotshot NYC bicycle messenger.
That led me to start my own courier company Born to Run Messengers. I’ve also been a partner in a cycling advertising company: Adride Outdoor. I still have a fleet of Quadra-cycle ad bikes.
I have done lots of bike touring in the States and Europe; local century rides; and innumerable rides to Nyack on the now-famous Route 9W. I have commuted to my job in Manhattan from all over the New York City area, including Kew Gardens Hills,Flushing,Queens and Englewood Cliffs, NJ. I first participated in the Ride to Montauk way back when it left from Jamaica Station in Queens, NY.
Today, I am an avid urban-family cyclist. I bike all around NYC with my wife and 6-year-old son. We have many great bicycles to use for whatever we need—including a Recumbent Tandem and Organic Engines Pedicab!
I hope to make this your best cycling experience yet!
Please call or email me with any questions you may have. I look forward to riding with you! You can register by sending an email to
Cycling since the age of six. Never got off my bike,.I became a bicycle messenger in the 80's for Can Carriers, Started Born to Run Bicycle Messengers a few years after. I guess I made an unconscious decision to use my car as little as possible in NYC until I just eventually got rid of it.
I've bicycle toured all over the States including Alaska,and Hawaii!I also made it to the jungles of Mexico. As far as Europe I've only made it to France.I've always been a Cycling Commuter in NYC from Manhattan,Queens and Ft Lee ,NJ.
My wife makes fun of me because I hardly know how to navigate the subway!
I hope to enlighten all of you with this blog.Cycling is not just about Racing and Light Bicycles.If you travel the blog and use the search box ,you'll find bicycles and people from all walks of life.The uses for these incredible machines are endless especially in an Urban environment like NYC! My Favorite place to ride is without a doubt Martha's Vineyard.My favorite bicycle trip is riding from NYC to Martha's Vineyard! Second Favorite place to ride is Manhattan!
Have fun on the blog.If any of you have some interesting story feel free to Email me!
shelly.urmo1@gmail.com