I’m organizing a gravel ride out of Bedford NY (home of our sponsor Ride Brooklyn’s sister shop) in the near future. I am communicating with Pete who owns the shop and rides in that area for ride guidance (although I imagine Grant can also chime in) but figure we are looking at a 4-5 hour ride through some beautiful countryside. 

Currently looking at Friday July 5th or Sunday July 14th. Otherwise we may look at dates in August. 

Respond to this thread if you are interested and state whether those dates are a definite, possible or impossible.

Let others in the club who may be interested know to respond to the post so we can get a good group to participate

I can make either date, but for July 5th, it would be better to know by this weekend. 

14th works best for me. Love the idea!

I can probably do either day!

Is this start/end in Westchester?

Definitely interested in a gravel rude but can't do either.  Happy to do a recon ride this weekend though!  

I think the 14th works for me!

14th might work for me. Thanks Patrick!

5th is a maybe ,14th is definite , love the idea 

14th works for me! Ill post some route options that I've done, there's a lot of gravel roads in Bedford/Katonah/Pound Ridge

Since most can make it the 14th let's aim for that date. 

My thoughts were that people could carpool and/or take the train to Bedford where we could use the Bedford bike shop as our start and end point. Between Grant and Pete we should be able to come up with an enjoyable route. Recommendations for coffee/food encouraged as any epic gravel ride has to end with a meal worthy of an instagram post (or a Michelin star rating)

We can do this again later in the season if some members can't make this ride. 

Here's a route I put together! It includes an excursion to Scott's Corners which is my favorite town to stop for coffee. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/47345275

The gravel up here is pretty tame, I think 35 smooths would be as wide as i'd go. I can also change this route to not include Scott's Corners and instead add more miles into North Salem which would add more gravel sectors. Lmk what ya guys think.

Grant, Strava says that this would be a 4 hour ride. Do you think that is a reasonable estimate given the climbing?

Random: Ian at ROR (who was our guide during Crossbay Roubaix) did this NYCVelo Fire Tower Brevet in just under 27hrs.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11817149382

https://www.bikereg.com/66199

There are three tiers to register for - T1 under 48hrs in one continuous ride, T2 between 48-120hrs in one continuous ride, and T3 as long as you want in as many different rides needed - all on a pedal bike, no motorized or public transports.

Looks kind of amazing if you're into this sort of thing...

do it! 

Guys , chance I may not make this gravel ride 
I may want to get home for 3pm to watch the Euro final , if do come chances are @LennartZandbergen won’t be there 

I won't be there - I'll be in DC of all places, hopefully watching the Dutch getting some retribution for this display: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKSHgMqCwbQ&ab_channel=FIFA 

PatrickGrehan said:

Grant, Strava says that this would be a 4 hour ride. Do you think that is a reasonable estimate given the climbing?

Yup I think that's reasonable, not counting stops.

But unfortunately i'm dealing with a pretty annoying GI infection and am on some heavy antibiotics. Haven't been able to ride for a couple weeks, definitely don't think i'll have the energy to ride this route by Sunday Really annoyed I can't join consider it's kinda local roads. Please let me know how it goes.

Gonna insist, this route is at best 5 hours. (it is the same distance than Farmer's Daugther, with barely less elevation) 

So far, it sounds like Lennart, Mark, and Grant are out. If they are, I am likely out too, as getting there from Brooklyn might not be trivial. 

Who is actually planning in joining the ride?

Should we consider cutting the ride to 60km or so, rather than 100km? (I could maybe edit and propose a route)

I'm still in but okay with postponing so more people can join.

Can't say I wouldn't be happy for it to be postponed so I could join, but understand regardless.

Route wise, you're probably right Eloy, here's a shorter option  that i'd recommend. Ward Pound Ride Reserve which this cuts through I believe has a little bit of gravel/singletrack trails but i'm not entirely sure where, I can look into that. Either way cutting through is really pretty, I love that park. 

Sorry guys , I’m bailing I want be be home for 1pm to watch the Euro finals , by some miracle England are in .

Matt is also unable to go the 14th. I reached out to Adam but haven't heard back yet. We can reschedule, however I am out of town until August, so either you go without me later in July (which is fine) or wait til August. BTW, I'm fine with shortening the ride whichever day we choose. 

So, do we have consensus to postpone?

We are postponing the gravel ride to another date when more people are available and healthy 

@PatrickGrehan Any thoughts on a new date?

There is talk of having it on Saturday September 7th. How does that work for people? (The 8th could also work - later in season we have more conflict with CX races)

Sorry for the delay. For a gravel ride out of Bedford, we would likely go with Grant's shorter proposed route.

This weekend's forecast looks better for Sunday than for Saturday. For anyone who is interested in joining please post whether you can make it Sat, Sun or both. We will make a call based on weather and availability.

Hoping we can get a good turnout on a beautiful day!

I’m in for either day 👍

Saturday works for me.

Here's a revised route to fit in about 4 hours: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/48292046

Oh interesting, realized over the weekend that I've ridden in the area a little bit, as that's where my good friend Jon Greene lives. 

I created a route based on the last ride I did there, that close matches what Grant suggests above:
https://www.strava.com/routes/3265864750731300598 

That looks like a good route, i'm not super familiar with the roads. Historically I haven't been a huge fan of road riding in North Salem, was in a group ride and had a couple asshole drivers drive way too close and honk a ton.

I did forget I had posted a shorter route earlier. The one I originally posted [0] stops in Scotts Corners which I love, but the one I posted this morning [1] has a higher percentage of gravel, thanks to doubling back on itself over gravel sectors. I'm up for whatever.