By Harry Nara · Last updated
- Team fundraising deadlineThursday 15 April 2027
- Where
- Bowling Green, Manhattan, to Staten Island
- Tickets
- Ticketed
- Time of year
- May
- Dates
- Around the same dates every year
The ride is held on Sunday 2 May 2027 and registration is already open. Riders on the Team Bike New York route must reach the 650 dollar fundraising minimum by 23:59 on 15 April 2027, after which any shortfall is charged to the card on file the following day.
This is the rare big-city event with nothing to watch. It is not a race, there is no finish line worth standing at, and the whole point of it happens to the people taking part rather than in front of a crowd. Either you have registered and you ride, or you are someone whose Sunday morning now has forty miles of closed road running through it. Both are worth planning for, and the second one catches more visitors than the first.
What the Five Boro Bike Tour actually is
A charity ride that borrows forty miles of the city and gives it to bicycles. The route begins at Bowling Green in lower Manhattan, works its way through all five boroughs and finishes with a festival on Staten Island, and for the whole of that distance there is no traffic to share the road with. The organiser calls it the largest charitable ride in the world.
What separates it from a marathon is that the road itself is the attraction. Riders get a highway and the deck of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which carries a timed climb, and neither is somewhere a bicycle is allowed on any other day of the year. That is the thing people pay for, rather than a finishing time.
Where to watch the Five Boro Bike Tour
- Be honest about this one: there is very little to see. The field is spread across forty miles for most of the day, the riders are not racing, and nobody is going to be moved by watching strangers pedal past. If someone you know is riding, the useful thing is to meet them at the end rather than to find a kerb.
- Bowling Green and the lower Manhattan start. The one point where the whole thing is concentrated rather than strung out, and the only stretch that looks like an event. Early in the morning, and over quickly.
- Any avenue on the Manhattan leg, before the field thins. Worth ten minutes if you are nearby and curious, mainly for the novelty of a wide New York avenue with no cars on it at all.
- The Staten Island finish festival. Where the day actually gathers again. This is the place to wait for a rider, and the ferry terminal is the natural meeting point afterwards.
- Anywhere you are trying to drive. Not a recommendation. The closures are the part of this event that reaches people who have no interest in it, and they are the reason to read the route before choosing a Sunday morning plan.
Tickets and what it costs
Entry is paid rather than balloted, which makes this the most gettable of New York’s big participation events. Standard adult and youth entry sits a little under two hundred dollars once processing is included, and around a fifth of it is a tax-deductible donation to the organiser. Membership of Bike New York does not reduce it. A VIP tier costs roughly three times as much.
The third route in is the charity one, where instead of a ticket price you commit to raising a fundraising minimum of six hundred and fifty dollars. The commitment is real: the deadline falls weeks before the ride, and whatever is still short on that date goes onto the card you registered with. Read that before choosing it as the cheap option, because it is not one.
Registration opens well ahead and the ride does fill, so this is a thing to book when you decide on the trip rather than after you land.
Official information and booking: www.bike.nyc/events/td-five-boro-bike-tour
Getting there
The start is at the bottom of Manhattan, which is straightforward: almost every subway line runs to within a short walk of Bowling Green, and on ride morning you will be able to follow the bicycles.
Getting home is the part that surprises people, because the ride finishes on the wrong island. Staten Island has no subway connection to the rest of the city, so the way back for riders and anyone meeting them is the ferry across to lower Manhattan. It is free, it takes about twenty-five minutes, and it carries bicycles, but several thousand people all want it within the same few hours. Budget the wait rather than the crossing.
If you are not riding, treat the route as a moving wall through your Sunday morning. It touches every borough, so there is no single neighbourhood to avoid; the thing to do is check where the road closures fall before committing to an early flight, a booked brunch on the far side of one, or a cab anywhere near the line.
Mistakes worth avoiding
Treating it as a race
There is no finishing time that matters and no field to stay with. People who ride it flat out miss the only thing it offers, which is an empty road through a city that never has one.
Forgetting how you get back
The ride ends on Staten Island. The ferry is free and takes bicycles, but it is the only way off, and a large share of the field wants it at once. Anyone with a flight or a dinner that evening should build in far more slack than the crossing itself needs.
Choosing the charity route to save money
It replaces the entry fee with a fundraising minimum and a deadline. Miss the target and the balance is charged to your card, which can end up costing more than the standard ticket.
Assuming a spring Sunday in New York is warm
Forty miles at bicycle pace, much of it beside water and some of it on an exposed bridge deck, is colder than the forecast suggests. The wind on the Verrazzano is the part nobody plans for.
Booking a car or an early flight that day
The closures run through all five boroughs rather than one district, so there is no simple side of town to stay on. Check the route before assuming a road journey will behave normally.
Other New York City events
Frequently asked questions
Is the Five Boro Bike Tour a race?
No, and it is built not to be. There is no overall result, no field to keep up with and nothing to win, beyond a timed section on the climb over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. It is a charity ride whose selling point is the road rather than the result: forty miles of New York with the traffic taken off it, which is not available on any other day.
How much does it cost to ride the Five Boro Bike Tour?
Standard adult and youth entry is a little under two hundred dollars with processing included, and about a fifth of that is a tax-deductible donation. Being a Bike New York member does not change the price. A VIP tier runs to roughly three times as much. The alternative is the charity route, which swaps the entry fee for a fundraising minimum of six hundred and fifty dollars, with any shortfall charged to your card after the deadline.
How do you get back from Staten Island after the ride?
By ferry, which is the only practical option, since Staten Island has no subway link to the rest of the city. The crossing to lower Manhattan is free, runs frequently, takes around twenty-five minutes and carries bicycles. The catch is volume rather than cost: thousands of riders finish within a few hours of each other and all of them want the same boat, so the wait at the terminal is the part to plan around.
Does the Five Boro Bike Tour affect getting around New York?
Yes, and more widely than most city events, because the route runs through all five boroughs rather than closing one district. Roads shut in sequence as the field moves along them, which means there is no single area to stay clear of and no reliable way to drive across the line. Subway services are unaffected. If you have an early flight, a booked table or a car that morning, check the published route first.
Is the Five Boro Bike Tour hard?
It is long rather than difficult. Forty miles is well beyond a casual afternoon ride, but the pace is unhurried, the route is flat apart from the bridges and there are rest stops along the way. The two things that catch people out are the climb onto the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge near the end, when the legs are already gone, and the exposure: bridge decks and waterfront stretches are windier and colder than the forecast for the city implies.
Sources
Dates on this page are checked against the organiser’s own listing and confirmed through 2027. Written and maintained by Harry Nara.