Biking NY.

I'm sure you've all been waiting for this post - riding in New York! Don wanted to photograph me standing in front of one of the many spaces in the city that has been repurposed for humans to hang out in. This little patch was in... Chelsea?




It was truly one of the highlights of my trip because I've never seen the city by bike before. It offers a lot of opportunities. You can cover tons of ground, you're not stuck in the human traffic on the sidewalks, it's really fast if you know where to go... and I happened to bike on a Sunday with extremely fabulous weather so I was lucky in that regard too.

When you look at NY traffic you would seriously think twice about biking in it, bike lanes or not. But the funny thing is once you're out there it's not nearly as terrifying as you might think. This being said, I would still caution novice city cyclists about entering into Manhattan traffic. You definitely want to be sort of experienced. Maybe not bike courier experienced, but at the very least used to riding amidst cars. The interesting thing is there are so many lights that you can ride right behind of and in front of cabs, taking the whole lane, but you never really slow the traffic because they're stopping all the time.

Before the trip I was mostly excited to bike on the new lanes and Broadway Blvd and the Brooklyn Bridge, etc. However, it's nice to see that even NY has its growing pains with the emerging cycling culture. What I mean is that I sort of expected NY to be an oasis of stylish cyclists. It's nice to know that Edmonton is doing alright in terms of the cultural change regarding cars and pedestrians and bikes all existing harmoniously. Pedestrians were littering the bike lanes CONSTANTLY! This is especially true in the touristy areas. Generally speaking, it was much more fun to cycle right in ordinary traffic or on paths that were more well defined and separated from the mob areas.




This one was in Chinatown.




If you want to see the route we took, Don took time to chart out where we went.

One really handy route was cycling downtown via this long bike lane on the west side, by the water. You can get uptown and downtown in a snap. Though there were a few annoying parts where there is construction happening so there were several broken links. However, that is all temporary. This lane was more like a multi-use trail, no cars and only joggers!






Here is a lane that was easy to navigate. No double parked cars (unlike the one going up 8th avenue where we had a real life "cultural exchange" with somebody who was double parked).




I think this was the one going up 8th. Not at the busy place part yet.




My friend Richard suggested biking over the Brooklyn bridge. I scrunched up my nose because a few days before I saw tons of pedestrians who had no idea what the difference was between the walking lane and the bike lane. It was still nice to say I biked over the Brooklyn bridge, but honestly, the Williamsburg bridge is way more fun. Faster. Wider. Real people.




In Brooklyn we saw brownstones like in the Cosby show!




We were in dire need of refreshment and stumbled across this little place called Pies and Thighs in Williamsburg. They have amazing pie. They have fried chicken. They have iced coffee. Sound good? It was.

We rode by and just saw some tables in a hole in the wall (yes, quite literally). Don investigated around the corner and discovered the entrance. It was the perfect thing to give us the strength to go on.






We went back to Manhattan and rode up to Central Park to meet up with friends. By that time my sit bones and bum area in general were the most uncomfortable they had EVER BEEN. We rented our bikes from Central Park Bicycle Shop. I had heard from fellow blog friend (yes you, the dude who made a video of biking on Broadway Blvd, I can't find your contact info and blog name at the moment, please send) that he had rented some bikes from a stand outside of Central Park. He warned me that the bikes were horrible. I'm not sure if this was the same place, but my bike was the most terrible thing I have ever ridden. No exaggerating.

Absolutely HORRIBLE!

The pros about that rental place was the location, the service was very quick, and it was easy to make a reservation online. Also, the prices were really reasonable. And I do think they had some better bikes because I saw other people riding bikes from the same place and they weren't the same bikes we were on.

The whole time I was wishing and praying I had one of my own bikes. Actually, I was really wanting my road bike. Really light. Perfect for a lot of starting and stopping.

The rental was the wrong size. The saddle was wretched. The grips on the handles were painful. It was HEAVY. And not good Pashley heavy. Bad bad heavy. Let's just say I never thought I would live to see the day when somebody would ride past me on a Trek Hybrid and I would be jealous. Oh man, I would have done anything to have ridden a Trek Hybrid that day.

Because of scheduling I didn't get a chance to meet up with NY cycling friend, Boris, who tells me the West Village's Waterfront Bike Shop is the place to rent a decent ride. After an entire day riding that abomination, I wished I could have ridden the foldy Boris had planned for me.

Don's bike was bad too. But mine was much worst. He kept looking over at me and offered condolences. Biking was super fun, but it would have been over the top if I had a good bike too.

So biking in New York? It had its ups and downs but it was simply fantastic. Totally exhilarating! Even with the saddle from hell and torturous hand grips that left indentations on my hand, which took several days to go away. At least when people asked why my palms were purple I could say, "It's from this crappy bike I was riding in New York!"