Following is my suggested route for what I call the “circum-Manhattan bike tour.” It is all river, (almost) all the time. It’s also an amalgam of two rides I did; in the first, my uptown leg was all on the streets, and on the second, I discovered the superior uptown (river) route. Since I haven’t done the whole route, I have only an approximate distance of 31. See the bottom of this post for the map with some annotations, as well as the official city bike map.
The west side part of the tour is easy and fun. It is all modern bike paths from the Battery to 181st Street (at the George Washington Bridge). There are lots of great places here to stop and get refreshments right in the park (Battery Park, World Financial Center and Winter Garden — here you have to detour around the Winter Garden to the Marina, Christopher Street, 28th Street, 42nd Street, 66th Street, 79th Street boat basin, 125th Street with Fairway). Going north from there, you ascend a big hill until you are alongside the northbound Henry Hudson Drive. That continues for another mile until the path terminates at Riverside drive, one block below Dyckman.
You descend to the street (carrying your bike down the stairs or walking it along the edge), and then go one block up to Dyckman, and take a left back under the highway and over to the river where you can ride next to the ballparks. Another half-mile gets you to a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks. You have to carry the bike up the stairs, but you then find yourself in the wooded paths of Inwood Hill Park. This is a real treat. You could probably spend 20 minutes just riding up and down the paths through the woods here (it’s pretty hilly though). When the pedestrian path on the Henry Hudson reopens in 2010, you can also get to it from this point and cross into Riverdale (probably the best way with the fewest ridiculous hills). I just kept going north parallel to the tracks and the river and around under the Henry Hudson Bridge (quite pretty; see my previous post on exploring the bridge). This takes you to the very tip of Manhattan.
You then follow the path back around the hill and down past the lagoon. Getting from here to the Harlem River bike path (which begins at Dyckman Street and 10th avenue) is all streets, but it’s not too bad. If you go east from here to Broadway and 10th avenue, you will find that 10th is so deserted you can ride on the sidewalk all the way down to Dyckman. Note that on your left there is the MTA service depot — who would have thought that they do their servicing in Manhattan of all places? It just goes to show how eclectic the island is.
Once you reach Dyckman and 10th, directly to the south is Highbridge park. There are mountain bike paths in this part, if that’s your thing. On the north side of the street, the river path begins. This extends down to about 165th street, when you are directed over a narrow bridge across the highway and back to the street. From here, you can either go up the hill to 155th street and St. Nicholas Avenue, or you can go down the hill and ride parallel to the highway and housing projects. Either way, you have to take the streets to 120th and the FDR drive, where you can once again cross the highway and get on a greenway going south. I don’t have a great route here; when I have taken St. Nicholas it ends up being quite pleasant, though. According to the city bike map, there is a separate river route from 145th to 133rd on the Harlem River, but since I haven’t looked for it, I can’t say.)
From here on, you will find that the East River greenway is not comparable in any way to the west side one. You will find that for large stretches — 86th to 14th street — it is narrow, crowded, derelict, and noisy, where it exists at all. From 59th street to 37th street you must ride on the city streets. From 59th to 51st street, you are on Sutton Place, which are quite pleasant. From 51st to 34th, you have to take 2nd avenue. (If you do the ride in the opposite direction as I have in the past, you take 1st and get to go by the UN Complex in the 40s, which is cool.)
Below 14th, the park is much wider, but also more crowded, without a separated bike lane. They are in the process of repaving it, I think, so above Delancey Street or so, the path is awful, and below there it is quite smooth. If it has rained recently, this upper part will have enormous ponds that you’ll have to ford with your bike. Even in the lower section, the park is somewhat of an afterthought, though, and you end up with narrow lanes and lots of opportunities to hit pedestrians and be hit by cars (you’re not on the street but you’re not really off it, either).
At the very southern end of the route, the park disappears altogether and you are adjacent to the highway traffic (this time without any dividers to speak of). However, this brings us back to the battery, where you can wend your way along State Street or through Battery Park, although in the latter there is no opportunity to ride as the park is so overrun with tourists.
View Circum Manhattan bike route in a larger map
