Just wondering if any CT residents or people who spend most of their riding in CT could tell me of any other sweet places to ride. I live in RI, & being a life-long resident, there isn't much to see besides going to the beaches..............& being a life-long resident you know that's boring as hell. MA is a fun state to ride in, but I'm not a big fan of the helmet law either. CT has THE best roads to ride on in southern New England. I love the fact that no matter how lost I get, I can always find my way back easily.

The problem is; I find myself riding in the same places over & over. Every time I think I find a new road that might get me lost for awhile, I get spit out on some sort of familiar road. For those of you who live/ride in CT, the most common places I go are: Rtes. 101, 12, 169, 79, 138, & 6. I try every main road that branches off these routes & find somehow they'll throw me back on to another route from the above. What's a good ride from one of these routes(101, 12, or 6 I imagine) that'll give me a good 200+mi. ride? I don't use maps or GPS, I actually like getting lost. Please help!

 

P.s.- this might help too. The most common towns I ride in are Brooklyn, Danielson, Dayville, Baltic, Pomfret, Chaplin, Newell, Killingly, Hampton, Wauregan, Moosup, & Lisbon.

 

The best riding in CT, imo, is in the western part of the state. A bit of a ride for you, but get west of Hartford, then go over to Rtes 7, 4, 341, 343, 202, and best of all, the backroads that connect these various routes. Be aware that you may occasionally come to an unpaved section if you get deep into the smaller backroads. It's motorcycle heaven in that part of CT, though. I just got back from a month up there and road almost every day.

 

Excellent! I'll definitely check that out. I take it that's the "I-95 side" to get there as opposed to the "I-395 side" I usually ride? Unpaved roads aren't a problem. I don't think there's any New England state that doesn't have their fair share of crappy, unkept, unpaved roads. I do appreciate the warning, though. I'll just need to glance @ a map to see how to get there & then toss it. Thanks a lot, man!

 

NW is the best riding in CT as far as Im concerned. Rt 20 around Barkhamsted Reservior and Rt7 through Kent and Cornwall cant be beat.

 

Nice. Thanks for the input, bro! I guess the next question I should be asking is how to get to these routes. The 2 main arteries that run through CT are 95 & 395. Just need to know which one of these hwys are the quickest to take to get to these places.

 

I prefer RI. I was born and raised there and riding to and around the beaches is a blast. I miss it.

I live in western CT now on the NY border. There is some great riding here. Namely 7. 7 is just a great ride. North or south. Heading north brings you through the Housatonic area and into some nice smaller towns. Just have to be careful not to wind up in MA or NY with the backroads as both are helmet law states.

Last weekend I headed out from Brookfield CT (rte 25) to 7 North. Followed 7 all the way up to 44 east, to 272 to 4 to 63 to 202 to 67 to 133 back to 25. About 150 miles. Gorgeous areas.

 

Well, @ least now I know NY is a helmet state too & I appreciate the tip. It's looking like there's more to be discovered in western CT than anything. I did like riding around the beaches, but nowadays the out of state tourists make it miserable. I went a couple times this summer to South County & Newport & there wasn't a time either my wife & I would come close to getting killed by some lost idiot with out of state tags looking for a certain place or just suck @ driving.


When I stay in RI, I find myself looking for woodsy areas where you'd see a car or another bike pass by every so often. The best places for this are; Scituate, Foster, Coventry, the country side of Cranston, Smithfield(my hometown), N.Smithfield, the outer reaches of Warwick, Richmond(which includes Arcadia, Wyoming, & Hopkinton), E/W Greenwich, Exeter, & Hope. Even as much as this sounds like quite a few places to ride, this is RI we're talking about. It's like you go to these towns/cities for less than an hour & you're done.

 

take route 44 from RI to western CT just a short section of I-84 through hartford to route 4 in Farmington. Opens up the whole northwest corner for you. Routes 4,63,7and back to 44 is a great ride. You can stay within the state and not worry about helmets.

 

I live in the NW corner of CT, and agree whole-heartedly. I've ridden all of the routes that have been mentioned many times. I don't care about the helmet issue; I frequently ride into NY and MA as there are some real nice roads just over the line in both states.

What part of RI are you coming from? Either 6 or 44 heading West from RI are nice rides themselves. Both will take you into the Hartford area, which is not a fun place to ride, but once you are beyond Hartford on 44 (or coming out of Farmington on 4 as waramaug suggested) you have a lot of choices as to where to go.

Personally, I stay the hell off of 95 in CT unless it's absolutely necessary, even in a car. If you are coming from, say, the Westerly area you might have to be on 95 for a short time to get to Route 9, but you could also take Route 2 all the way from Pawcatuck to Hartford, and then head West from there.