As I have done in past years, Sarah and I marked the Brookyln-to-Babylon section of Glen’s Ride to Montauk. The process involves spraying distinct markings on the course with bright pink paint. While route marking is fun, the overspray takes a toll on my shoes and my front wheel.
The markings tell you where to go. Does the mark point left? Then you should turn left. Does it point straight up? Then you should continue going straight.
As the weather warms up, I always get questions about buying a bike. The first thing I tell people is that unless you’re willing to spend $500, you’re going to get a disposable bike and should not even bother. Some people continue to solicit advice, but others balk at the price and don’t want to know anymore. They go to K-Mart, and I never see them ride their new bike.
With the launching of the bike share program in New York, I have been advising people to consider it if a bike station is available where they live, work, and play. The yearly membership costs $95 plus tax, a little more than a $103 per year, and it is a good deal for most people who are getting into biking for the first time. I have a pretty solid track bike I use for the city. It runs great. And although I have learned over the years to do my own repairs, I still shell out a lot of money to maintain my city bike. There are still a few things I can’t do, such as truing wheels and replacing a bottom bracket or freewheel hub. And that’s not even getting replacing into consumables, such ragged tires, punctured tubes, broken spokes, stretched chains, and worn chainrings and cogs. If there was an option that would take care of my repairs for a little more than $100 per year, I’d jump on it in a second.
And if I was starting from scratch, $100 per year would be a bargain. Because to buy a new bike for getting around the city, you’re going to need:
A bike. That’ll cost you at least $500 to get something that won’t break down within a couple of months, weigh 40 lbs, and will make you abandon it after one too many miserable rides.
A lock or two. Citi Bike racks are their own locking stations. A decent Kryptonite lock will set you back at least $70 for either a U-Lock or a more versatile chain you can wear around your waist. I also recommend an accessory cable to the front wheel to use in tandem with the U-Lock or chain. (I use the heavy lock to secure the rear wheel and frame.)
A bell. It’s the law around here, and since I’ve installed a bell, I can ride faster. How? I can ride and ding it once or twice to get someone’s attention and keep them from veering into my lane. It works for other bicyclists and pedestrians alike, but not always. Citi Bikes come with a bell.
Lights. I have spent well over $200 on lights over the years. I used to use a version of Sigma Micro lights, but you have to replace the batteries every few weeks. And they’re not very bright. They’re easy to remove, but that means they’re easy to steal, which happened to me a few times, but I’ve learned my lesson and take them off every time. I switched to these USB lights by Blackburn. They’re really bright, they’re rechargable, and easy to remove. Once you learn how to manage the charging cycles, you get a lot out of it. Citi Bikes come with front and rear LED lights.
Helmet. No matter what you’re going to need a helmet. I’m relieved that bike shares don’t issue helmets because that would be a pretty unsanitary practice. But helmets are not expensive. You can get one a decent one for about $40, and if you see expensive ones, it’s because they’re lighter and better at ventilating your head, not because they’re better at protecting your head.
A floor pump. No one believes me that you’re going to need floor pump for home. You need to pump your tires almost every day. Otherwise, you’re begging for premature tire wear and flat tires, not to mention harder rides. Sure bike shops offer free air, but they’re not open when you leave for work in the morning, and they’re not always on your route. Get a stylish pump with a handle made of something other than plastic (those break). Citi Bikes are maintained.
The initial costs of buying a bike make considering Citi Bike worthwhile. And I haven’t even covered repairs. Once the network reaches places like Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Long Island City and even Astoria, it’ll be a much more compelling option because that’s where I usually go and Citi Bike is not around.
Of course, having your own bike allows you to go wherever you want for as long as you want and ride as fast as your body and bike will go, but if you’re just commuting, the bike share is not a bad way to go.
At first I didn’t think I was going be accepted, but in March, I began riding with the NYCC B-STS. I did miss two rides, as I had gone out of town those weekends, and we were rained out on our penultimate ride last Saturday.
This past Saturday, we finished our last ride. The challenging part of the ride was riding to the top of Little Tor Road, with a 0.9 mile climb at an average 10% grade, and following it with a mile-plus rolling jaunt on South Mountain Road.
But my biggest accomplishment on Saturday was catching up to the group. I overslept until 7:20 and was supposed to leave at 8:00 to meet my group at 8:30. I didn’t get out of the apartment until 8:22. And I realized I forgotten my wallet and had to go back to get it. Although there was no way I was going to make it in time to meet everyone at Sakura Park for an 8:45 departure, I kept going, figuring that at the very least I would ride on my own. At mile 25, I caught the group at a rest stop right before the climbing was due to start. Hurrah!
By the end of the day, I had logged 91 miles, and now I am in great cycling shape for the rest of the summer. And it’s not yet Memorial Day.
An eyewitness told me that the van at far right end of the photo had run down this bike rack just moments before I walked by to find it in its fallen state. I had thought that someone had taken down the rack to steal the bike, but my source says there was no bike parked at this rack.
I use that rack from time-to-time, and now some idiot driver took it out. Damn you!
Almost everyday I ride my bike over some sort of bridge, I don’t really understand how so many bottles get broken, but I see a broken bottle I think I should stop and clean it up… well today I finally did.
On Saturday, I went with the New York Cycle Club for a ride to Croton Dam. It was an absolutely wonderful ride, especially since I missed the ride the previous week, partly due to being sick and partly due to being in Philadelphia. I also had a bad cough most of the week, the remnants of said illness, and it made riding a bit more challenging than usual. Seeing the dam and reservoir at the northernmost point of our ride was absolutely worth the effort.
With the coming bike share, there have been some complaints that the racks will ruin neighborhoods and take up “valuable” on-street parking spaces. But we should remember that parking on the street might not be the best idea.
The driver of this Hyundai tried to run me over today on East 62nd St and Lexington Ave in Manhattan. He honked at me as I was at the intersection in the shoulder and lunged his car towards me. Then in a bout of blind but irrational rage, he ran his car into this minivan. Not shown here was how he almost pinned the woman (pictured) between his car and the van.
It’s been a pretty long, cold winter. Most of my friends have complained about it, exclaiming "I’m over this winter," and "Bring it, spring!" since Martin Luther King Day. But I enjoy the long winter because it allows me to savor the months when there’s work for me and because it feels like there’s a lot of semester left for writing my dissertation. But winter makes me inert. It makes me slow. And I am usually quite out of shape by the time the spring equinox rolls around.
Being out of shape was most evident on Saturday when I rode with the New York Cycle Club for a 59-mile bike ride from Sakura Park to Pizzarena in West Nyack, and back to Central Park. It was my first long ride since last summer. And I was completely out of shape. I began cramping up on the return particularly on the hills on Route 9W. The group kept dropping me despite a good number of the members being my parents’ age.
Once I figured out that they had dropped me, I took my sweet time. I used the restroom twice: once at the Englewood Cliffs Police station and again at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. I rode at a pokey 15 miles per hour, but took it easy on the hills because I wanted to avoid the painful cramping.
When I returned home, I found a couple of mechanical issues with my bike. First, the front tire had a bulge, suggesting that the thread had started to weaken. I could have been in some real trouble should my tire had burst while I was riding, especially since my group was well ahead of me. Second, my rear wheel was significantly out of true. I seem to remember this when I rode it as some point last year. I had loosened my rear brake as triage and made a mental note to repair it later. As with most mental notes, I had forgotten it and thought that my brakes needed a simple adjustment. Nope, my bike really needs a proper tune up.
Discovering that I am out of shape and that my bike needs some work has been a brutal but necessary start to the cycling season.
MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota said Wednesday the authority will consider eliminating the 7% discount riders receive for buying pay-per-ride MetroCards when fares go up next March.
As a pretty regular bike commuter, I only buy the pay-per-ride. If they still offered a one-day (or three-day) unlimited card, I would get those for days when I need to run a good number of errands.
When I first moved to New York in 2001, the bonus on the pay-per-ride was equivalent to 20%. You bought five rides at $1.50 each, you were credited with a free ride. That was a pretty good discount. I would often spend $15 to get the two rides. Ahh, the good ole days.
Currently, the stated discount is currently 7%, but it’s actually much worse than the old days. First, you have to spend at least $10 to get the discount, much more than the halcyon days of the early Bloomberg era. Second, in order to get a free ride, you have to spend $35.75. That amount, without the discount will buy you 15.89 rides. With the 7% bonus, you get a $2.50 added to your card, bringing up your Metrocard to $38.25 or 17 full-fare rides. I wonder how many New Yorkers know about the $35.75 magic number.
I imagine that many people abandon cards with small, random amounts on them because it’s too hard to figure out how much you need to add to your card to get a full number of rides. Thankfully, there’s a bonus calculator on the web and an app for the iPhone, but I doubt these get widespread usage.
