So you just moved to New York. Or maybe you just bought a bike, or finally dug it up from your storage unit. You find a group ride (hopefully with the help of us here at Wayra), show up, and within ten minutes someone says they're "rolling up 9W to Piermont and back over the GWB", and you realize people are speaking a language you don't have yet.
Hopefully this can help.
The Places
The Loop
Central Park (6.1 miles) or Prospect Park (3.3 miles). Which one depends on who's talking. Manhattan riders mean Central, Brooklyn riders mean Prospect. Both car-free, both counterclockwise by convention, both crowded with pedestrians, scooters, and e-bikes. Best hours for an actual ride: weekdays before 8am or after 7pm. Faster traffic passes on the right.
Harlem Hill
Central Park's signature climb. Short (about 0.4 miles), punchy, steeper at the top than the bottom. This is where many park races are decided. Pacing strategy here is important, right after the short descent you hit Three Sisters, and it's easy to lose the group if you're gassed.
Three Sisters
A series of three rollers on the west side of the Central Park Loop. A common place to lose the group during a race.
Cats Paw
A short climb on the east side of the Central Park Loop just north of the Loeb Boat House. This is where Central Park races start, and is one of the potential finish lines.
Engineers Gate
The Central Park entrance on 90th St and 5th Ave. Common meeting point for many group rides, and one of the potential finish lines for races.
GAP / Grand Army Plaza
There are two of these. One at Central Park by The Plaza Hotel, and one at the entrance to Prospect Park. In the context of cycling, they're usually talking about Prospect Park.
9W
The two-lane road on the New Jersey side of the Hudson. Route 9W (and some bonus streets to and from) reached by crossing the George Washington Bridge. This is the New York road ride. Long stretches without lights, a generally good shoulder. You'll hear "doing 9W" or "ride 9W", Outside of the park loops, this is the road you'll get the most familiar with. Almost every route outside the city will start and end with some portion of 9W.
River Road
Two roads, same name, both heard often. The most common is Henry Hudson Drive, the road that drops from the GW down through the Palisades to the riverside. One of the best roads to ride in the nearby area. It's often closed due to storm damage lately, but some riders have been known to ride it anyways.
The other, less common is the actual River Road, a flat road along the riverside connecting Piermont and Nyack. Heads up, locals here get annoyed if you ride double pace line.
Market
The 9W Market, a popular turn-around point for 9W rides. Stop, grab a coffee and a pastry, ride back to the city. Classic Sunday morning group ride.
Piermont / Nyack
Two small towns on 9W that function as turnarounds. Piermont is closer (~40 miles round trip from Manhattan). Nyack is the next one out (~50). When someone says "we're rolling to Nyack," you now know roughly how far and roughly how long.
Orchard
A destination further than Nyack. Orchards of Concklin, a popular stop for apple cider donuts.
Bear / Bear Mountain
A full-day ride up into Harriman State Park. Real climbing (for New York at least), real distance (close to 100 miles typically), the closest thing NYC has to a mountain climb. For our western friends, it's a small hill at 1,270ft but here, "Doing Bear" is a big day out.
Kissena
The 1964 velodrome in Queens. The only banked track in the five boroughs, and the home of NYC's track scene.
Floyd Bennett
A decommissioned airfield in southern Brooklyn that for years was NYC's de facto criterium and training venue. Long, flat, wind-exposed. Where weekly local crit racing actually happened. Racing there has been on pause for a while now. Fingers crossed it comes back.
The GWB
The George Washington Bridge. The only bridge with a cycling path that gets you out of Manhattan to real roads. Cross it and you're at the foot of 9W.
The Rides
A / B / C Ride
Group ride pace tiers. A is fast (often 22+ mph in flat sections). B is brisk, conversational only on flats (~18–22). C is social and steady (~14-17). Floors and ceilings vary by club.
CRCA
Century Road Club Association. The countries biggest (and oldest) racing club, around since 1898. They run the Central Park races. If you're getting into road racing in this city, you'll almost certainly go through CRCA.
The behaviors (and the hazards)
Door zone
The imaginary four-foot-wide strip next to parked cars where a swung-open door will end your ride. NYC bike lanes are often painted directly inside it, which is a known problem. Ride to the left edge of the painted lane when you can.
Salmoning
Riding the wrong way against traffic in a bike lane. Common, dangerous, and the source of most "yo, what are you doing" moments. Don't.
Shoaling
Cutting in front of a cyclist who's already stopped at a red light, so you're the first one off when it turns green. Annoying, occasionally hazardous, called out frequently.
The vocabulary falls into place faster than you'd think. Show up to a ride, listen for ten minutes, and you'll recognize half of this. The other half you pick up the first time you cross the GWB and someone asks "are we doing River Road?"