Getting Home From the Ride
We pedal one-way out to Montauk, NY. That means that no matter which route you choose, at the end of the ride you are going to be at the finish line in Montauk, and you really have three choices from there:
• Take our transportation home for your bike and you,
• Have a friend pick you up.
• Move to Montauk for the rest of your life.
We'll cover these choices one at a time:
TAKE OUR TRANSPORTATION HOME FOR YOUR BIKE AND YOU
I'm told that back in the day the railroad still had bar cars, and that's where the bikes went during the trip home after the Montauk ride.
Alas, those days are long gone. No bikes are allowed on the train on Ride to Montauk weekend, even if you have an LIRR bike pass. (Their rules, not mine, but the LIRR crew IS very helpful making the ride possible).
You can sign up for our optional transport home during online registration. After the ride we offer transport to the following locations:
Babylon
Bridgehampton = NOTE Transport to Bridgehampton is for people ONLY. No bike transport to Bridgehampton.
Brooklyn
Hampton Bays
Manhattan
Mastic-Shirley
You don't need to decide in advance -- we'll ask you at the finish line where you want to go.
Departures from Montauk will be at about:
2 p.m. bus
3:30 p.m. train
5:30 p.m. train
7:30 p.m. train
While you travel by bus or train, your bike goes in our private trucks. We will have a free shuttle to take you from the finish line to the nearby Montauk train station. (Our friends from the Town of East Hampton special events board wisely suggested that after a couple of delicious Blue Point beers maybe you shouldn't be pedaling from the finish line to the train station...)
FRIENDLY WARNING #1 -- Specific trips home CAN sell out. There are no advance reservations for specific runs, because no one -- NO ONE -- can guarantee what time they will cross the finish line in Montauk! Missed your preferred departure? Relax! Have a delicious Blue Point or Montauk Brewery beer.
FRIENDLY WARNING #2 -- Bikes are transported home on Sunday September 15th ONLY -- the day AFTER the ride. There is NO bike transport home of any kind on ride day.
Why?
To quote former Amex and Avis Car Rental CEO Robert Townsend,
"If you can't do it excellently, don't do it at all, because if it's not excellent it won't be fun or profitable, and if you're not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing here?"
For YEARS we offered same-day bike return. But it could easily take two hours to load a bike into a truck (there are a lot of bikes ahead of yours!) and then another three hours to drive the truck back. That meant that our wonderful customers were standing around in a dark parking lot for hours very late at night, waiting for their bike. No more.
BIKE PICK UP ON SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 15TH IS FROM 1 P.M. to 3 P.M. ONLY
THESE ARE THE ONLY LOCATIONS WE DELIVER BIKES:
Babylon
We will be BEHIND the station at the corner of Colt Avenue and Sammis Avenue
Brooklyn
139 Flatbush Avenue, direclty in front of the Atlantic Terminal LIRR/Subway station, near the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue
Hampton Bays
The Hampton Bays Water District
NOTE: If you enter that 18 Ponquoge address into your GPS or map app, it mysteriously drops you off abourt 100 feet to the east of where you want to be! Go figure! Use that link above, or go just west of Willy's auto repair to find the Water District building.
Manhattan
In front of Penn Station/Madison Square Garden
Mastic-Shirley
The Mastic-Shirley LIRR Station
The intersection of Northern Blvd and Surrey Cirlcle
Shirley, NY
FRIENDLY WARNING #3: You MUST pick up your bike during those hours. (Yes, you can have a friend pick up your bike if they have your rider I.D. wristband. We wil accept a photo of their wristband, but we DO take this stuff seriously).
Our business office is in the Catskills, and that's where your bike will wind up if you don't pick it up. We have no offices in Long Island or NYC. It will be up to you to retrieve your bike from the Catskills. There is no DoorDash for bikes.
TANGENT -- we once had someone I did not know intentionally miss bike pick up. What went wrong? When I contact them later they said, "I thought I would come to the Catskills and we would we would have lunch together."
Um....
FRIENDLY WARNING #4: If we are transporting your bike home, please be SURE to give it to our bike loading crew as soon as possible after you cross the Montauk finish line in a blaze of glory. Do NOT just leave your bike any old place at the finish line and assume that it will get loaded up for the trip home. It won’t.
READ THIS!
We are cyclists with expensive bikes too, and we are gentle with all of the bikes, but even under the best circumstances, nicks and scratches happen. YOUR BIKE MAY BE SCRATCHED, DENTED, BENT, OR DESTROYED. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR BIKE, AND WE DO NOT PAY FOR BIKE DAMAGE.
In other words, if you see one of our staff jumping up and down on your bike, we promise to kill them, and we will pay for damage to your bike.
But if your bike gets a flat tire, scratched, banged, dented, bent, or destroyed accidentally during shipping, we can not be responsible, and we can not reimburse you. This may be the wrong ride to bring your one-of-a-kind, Dura Ace 25th Anniversary Edition, custom-painted-by-Ernesto Colnago-himself-bicycle.
Why the hard line on bike damage?
Good question.
Years ago I was the tour director of a ride where a cyclist swore that we scratched the paint on the bottom of his bike. (You know -- the bottom -- where you can’t see it...)
The solution that he proposed was that we pay to have all of the components removed from his bike, have the bare frame shipped to Italy where it would be hand-painted, then shipped back to the U.S. and reassembled. Estimated price way back then: $3,000.
Were we responsible for that scratch in his paint? I don’t think so, but who knows? So rather than risk bankrupting our little company every time we ride, we just put this mean policy in place instead.
I’m reminded of our high school drug dealer youth-group leader. He was the first person I ever knew who had a custom-built bike. He had a dream that he dropped the bike and scratched it, so he never rode it again.
You are on an adult adventure and adult adventures involve risk.
• • •
HAVE A FRIEND PICK YOU UP
You can get home on your own by having a friend pick you up. Here's how:
There is absolutely no parking, standing, or stopping cars at the finish line (no; not even for a moment) and the police WILL be writing tickets.
There's just no room or we would gladly comply. We're not anti-car; we're just pro-reality. Usually.
Your driver should park here:
Montauk Point State Park
(The Montauk lighthouse)
2000 NY-27
Montauk, NY
Parking here costs $8, but you get an amazing view tossed in for free. We don't get any of that parking money -- it goes to the NY State Park Service.
We'll run a free shuttle service between noon and 7:00 p.m. for people and bikes between the lighthouse and the finish line.
So after your friend parks at the lighthouse they have several delicious choices:
• Hop a free lift to the finish line. They can purchase the post-ride meal there if you wish, but it's not required.
• Your friend can call you and tell them that you have arrived at the lighthouse. You can catch that free shuttle with your bike to where you are.
Shuttles will run about every 30-40 minutes.
(Continued below)
If You Want to Stay Overnight in Montauk Saturday Night
If you are staying overnight in Montauk you can:
1. Drop your bike off with us at the finish line on ride day and you can pick it up on Sunday at your choice of Babylon, Brooklyn, Hampton Bays, Manhattan, or Mastic-Shirley any time between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. On Sunday get a lift home from a friend, take the train (without your bike!), or take the Hampton Jitney.
2. Hang on to your bike for riding around Montauk. HOWEVER... you can NOT take your bike on the train on Sunday, the day after the ride, even with a bike pass (LIRR rules). You CAN take the Hampton Jitney and they do have LIMITED room for bicycles (which travel horizontally in the luggage bay). Advance reservations highly recommended.
We do not load bikes in our trucks on Sunday.
MOVE TO MONTAUK FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE
Not a bad idea.... Can we all stay your place after the next ride?