RidetheCity.com is a service that maps the best bike routes in New York. You add a starting point and an end point and the service finds dedicated bike lanes, greenways, and other “safe” routes for you to take on your two-wheeler through the mean streets of the city.

We’ve just been given permission to let you folks beat up their latest incarnation, RidetheCity 2.0 with a few interesting updates. Co-creator Jordan Anderson reports:

- Much faster routing and overall performance
- Better looking maps
- SMS support
- Sort of wonky, but workable multi-language support
- Better info. about bike shops and rentals

The new service uses CloudMade Web Maps Lite tiles for a far prettier interface and it seems snappy as heck. The map is considerably nicer to look at and the sharing system is great – you can send an SMS message with your directions to your phone for orienteering on the go.

There’s even a bonus for Brooklyn-based readers: RidetheCity is having a launch party on Saturday at Radegast at 113 N 3rd Street in Wiliamsburg, Brooklyn from 2pm until 6pm. They’ll be giving out RidetheCity schwag and one lucky person will win a Bicycle Habitat gift card.

The new site will go live tonight but feel free to test it on their sexy beta server until then. They even have a widget for those so inclined.

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