This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Cycling in Syosset

Where are all those cyclists going, anyway?

I live on Muttontown Road in a house that directly faces the street. Early Sunday mornings, I like to sit on my front porch and have a cup of coffee before everyone gets up and the kids start thrashing around. Invariably, when the first rays of sun start poking above the trees, legions of spandex clad bicycle riders in groups of varying numbers start whizzing by. The parade of road bikes continues all day and doesn’t let up until the evening. I have to wonder, where are they all going? I decided to investigate.

As most of you probably know there are a couple of bike shops in Syosset. The larger one by far is The Bicycle Planet, currently located on Jericho Turnpike up by the entrance to the Seaford Oyster Bay Expressway, although I understand they are moving to Robbin’s Lane in the near future. They carry pretty much everything in the way of bikes and bike supplies you could possibly want, and they do repairs. My wife and I purchased our Mountain Bikes there a couple of years ago.

The second shop, Road Worx, is located on Jackson Avenue, right near the intersection with Muttontown Road. Road Worx caters to the serious cyclist; those individuals for whom road biking is a “lifestyle” rather than a hobby. The bikes sold and serviced at Road Worx can be some pretty serious, high-end machines.

I figured that one of these shops must know why Muttontown Road seems to be the epicenter of the Long Island road biking phenomena. Since I’m fairly lazy, and Road Worx is right around the corner from the center of the action, I decided to amble in there to see if anyone could fill me in.

The owner of Road Worx, Will Pennino, was sitting in the back of the store just finishing up with another customer when I arrived. He greeted me warmly and we spoke of all things bicycle related for a  while. As you might expect from someone who owns a high-end bike shop, Will knows a thing or two about the subject. While we were discussing the boom in road biking that has been going on for the last several years, he motioned to a bike parked in the shop which he indicated cost a few thousand dollars more than a new Toyota Yaris. Yikes!

Anyway, it turns out that Will’s locating his store at so close to Muttontown Road was no accident. Muttontown Road is well known among Long Island cyclists as sort of a “cyclist’s LIE”. In addition to relatively low traffic volume on the week-ends, there is also plenty of free parking at the Syosset train station, and at the road’s eastern terminus cyclists have several options to choose from for continuing their rides. Taking a left will send the rider off in the direction of Old Westbury; a right brings them to the lightly traveled byways of the Island’s north shore and the Gold Coast mansions.

In short, Muttontown Road has been a cycling destination for several decades and will likely remain so for years to come. I think I’m going to encourage my kids to start a Gatorade stand to take advantage of the thirsty athletes that pass by.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?