There’s been a long tradition of bike shops hosting group events, training rides and sponsoring teams here in NYC.
Here are a couple of announcements for the new year:
Red Beard Bikes based out of DUMBO has a group ride every Sunday.
From their site:
SHOP RIDES:
Redbeard Bikes River Road Ride
*Note the new, later start time!*
Departs the shop @ 8:30 AM every Sunday. Riders of all levels are welcome; this is a no-drop ride.
We typically ride about 50 miles roundtrip.Our route is usually: Brooklyn Bridge, West Side Greenway to 96th Street, Riverside Drive, George Washington Bridge, River Road to the Ranger Station (Alpine, NJ). We sometimes go further to Piermont, NY, and return to the Bridge via 9W.
Bicycle Roots in Crown Heights, Brooklyn is proud to announce a cycling team dedicated to the ladies. Road and Track with a mix of experienced riders and newbies.
Here’s more from their site:
Introducing CRCA/Bicycle Roots p/b Hatchmap
Our Commitment to Women’s Racing
From the very start, Bicycle Roots has been committed to making cycling accessible to women in particular. Women’s involvement in cycling takes so many different forms, and we love them all, but we get really excited about women’s bike racing.
Women’s participation is overlooked too often in the world of bike racing. It wasn’t that long ago that at bike races, female racers were lumped into the men’s categories because there were not enough of them. Now female racers have their own fields, competing separately from the men. But still, at larger races and events, women’s prizes are fewer in number and smaller in value, and women’s race courses are shorter.
These inequalities will persist as long as women’s involvement in racing lags behind that of men. The solution? We need more women racing bikes. That’s why we’re beyond stoked to announce our sponsorship of a NEW Women’s Road and Track Race Team for 2015: CRCA/Bicycle Roots p/b Hatchmap! Bicycle Roots/Hatchmap is a women’s development team. The team will promote women’s race development through a combination of team coaching and mentoring by fellow racers.
The team is comprised of a mix of experienced racer/mentors, who are all Cat 3 or higher, with at least 2 years’ of race experience, and development riders, who are either brand new to racing or have less than 1 year’s experience. The racer/mentors have joined Bicycle Roots/Hatchmap because they want to share their knowledge with the development riders, as well as to focus on collective team advancement in addition to their own personal goals. How cool is that.
With temperatures in the single digits, one might not even go outside let alone ride a bicycle.
Photo: Frozen fountain in Bryant Park. Posted by: @swampynomo
Michael Vitti of C.L.I.M.B. (Concerned Long Island Mountain Bicycists) posted a guide to dressing for cold on a bike by a group who knows a thing or two about icy weather. Chicago area cycling club-Elmhurst Bicycling:
Winter Cycling Dressing Guide
by George Pastorino, Mountain Bike Coordinator, Elmhurst Bicycle Club
Several folks have e-mailed me about how to dress for cold weather bike rides, so I thought that I would send out a winter dress guide for cyclists that has been battle tested by Pussanee and I…we both hate to be cold and unlike me…she has a scant amount of body fat to insulate her.
This is just an example of what works for Pussanee and I, there are many good ways to stay warm riding all year and everyone has a different internal thermostat and cold tolerance, but this article will give you a good general starting point.
Pussanee and I ride all winter long and are never cold First I will address the tops and bottoms. Most people over dress for cold weather rides, down to about 25 we will wear a smart wool top and bottom under a breathable windproof jacket and wind resistant tights. Below 25, we will add a thin synthetic long underwear under the smartwool layer and go to windproof tights…..this set up takes us all the way below zero, don’t forget you are cycling not ice fishing….dressing too warm is a killer. It takes a little tinkering to find the best combination for each person and weather condition. Most of the winter I just wear the thin synthetic long underwear under my windproof tights.
New Year’s is about goal setting and one of mine is to downsize a bit. This may benefit your goals if one of them to ride more in 2015.
I’m selling a classic 90’s aluminum road bike with a cool paint job.
Here is a description from a recent craigslist post:
“Treat yourself right this New Year and grab this classic road bike with unique iridescent metalic paint job.
Great commuter or entry level racer. 54cm Raleigh r700. 90’s classic.
Looking for a fast city commuter? Want to do laps in the park or long rides up route 9w?
Here is a classic 90’s frame with unique metamorphic paint job that changes color depending on the light. Light aluminum frame.
54cm (perfect for 5’7″-5’9″ height)
In great shape. A few frame scratches but consider it urban camo. Barely used and kept in storage. Previous owner was a bike mechanic who kept an experienced eye on it. I used it mostly for group rides and commuting.
$500.00-a steal.
model: R700
color: Metamorphic Blue
year: 1999
size: 54cm
Carbon Fork.
Frame tube: 7005 aluminum, butted
bike weight: 20.5
made in: USA
Lauren Evans from Gothamist has some tips on biking in the snow and acknowledges it is possible, but be careful.
Can You Bike In The Snow?
Published: January 6th, 2015
The important thing to remember about biking in the snow isn’t whether it’s possible—everything is possible, except time travel and convincing your best friend to ditch Cameron Diaz and marry you instead.
Whether you should bike in the snow is largely an issue of tolerance: Would you rather be whipped in the face by an onslaught of tiny, freshly-sharpened ice daggers, or cram into an overly hot train car with a group of wet, cranky people-cattle and their mouth-breathing children? The obvious answer here is “Mexico,” but it’s already too late to plot any sort of escape this month. If you do choose the former, follow along to reduce your inevitable misery:
Gotta love it NYC…
Kind of like when the cops threw the occupy demonstrator Cecily McMillan into Rikers prison for hurting a cop after she was groped and mangled.
From Gothamist-
Driver Runs Over Brooklyn Cyclist Then Sues Him For Damages.
By: Christopher Robbins
October 16th, 2014
In May of this year, John Roemer was riding his bicycle north on Union Avenue in Williamsburg when he was struck from behind by a driver near Ainslie Street. Roemer suffered a fractured hip and was in the ICU for three days. The driver’s insurance recognized that she was at fault and paid for Roemer’s medical bills and his bicycle, but the driver wants recompense for the damage Roemer’s body and bike did to her car, so she’s suing him for $2,000 in small claims court.
Got a problem with space in your city, such as where to put the protected bike lanes? Why not build a highway extension along the outskirts, by the river. The same thinking of industrialist Robert Moses in NYC for the automobile is now being proposed for the bicycle in London. Check out
what a group of architects are envisioning for this thriving UK metropolis.
Floating bike highway proposed for London’s River Thames. The billion dollar project could alleviate traffic and pollution.
By: John Dzieza
October 6th, 2014
A group of architects, engineers, and artists proposed a novel way of creating protected bike lanes in traffic-clogged London: a floating bike highway along the Thames. The path, called the Thames Deckway, would run east-west along the river’s southern bank for about seven miles, from Battersea to Canary Wharf.
“London needs to think outside the box of conventional solutions to solve its deep-seated traffic and pollution problems, the River Cycleway Consortium said in a statement announcing the proposal. “The river Thames, London’s main transportation thoroughfare from Roman times up to the 19th century, is overlooked today as a major travel artery except for a handful of passenger boats.”
I know, when it comes to Jewish holidays who wants to be bothered…unless of course it means getting free parking. But here is one modern adaptation where religious Jews took the holiday of Sukkot and put it on the road…
Three wheels and three walls in NY/
By Raffi Wineburg
October 8th, 2014 (A fleet of pedi-sukkahs cruise through New York City. Photo credit: Chabad.org/JTA)
JTA — The holiday of Sukkot commands Jews to live in “booths” — commemorating the. — The holiday of Sukkot commands Jews to live in “booths” — commemorating the temporary dwellings their ancestors inhabited while wandering the desert for 40 years. Though many Manhattan apartments measure only slightly larger than those original booths, unless the apartment roof is retrofitted with twigs from Central Park, it doesn’t quite qualify as a sukkah.
Thankfully, one Brooklyn yeshiva student with the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic sect has taken it upon himself to ensure that all New Yorkers can experience the holiday.
Virgin Atlantic Airways knows what’s up. Besides flying its customers all over the planet in style…they also know that travel is also about great adventures once you get to your destination. Now we all know that once you’ve landed, the best way to explore…duh…on a bicycle.
Virgin Atlantic also has a great travel blog (blog.virgin-atlantic.com) with lots of suggestions on events and activities to check out across the globe.
I recently had the pleasure of participating in a segment for Virgin’s blog all about exploring NYC by bicycle.
Just to wet the whistle for tourists, I was teamed up with Nick Reale who works as a tour guide for www.getupandride.com which has a number of guided tours in Brooklyn.
Nick choose a route based on Getupandride’s B-M-W, tour: Brooklyn-Manhattan-Williamsburg. This 10 mile loop takes participants on a scenic path across two of NYC’s architectural marvels, the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges.
Nick compiled some great photos and I was able to GoPro the whole way which was blended into a hyperlapse video:
If you’ve never ridden in NYC before…this is a great route to start on.
In these times of ticket blitzing cyclists, being called
#OpSafeCycle, it’s hard not to be cynical and merely discredit the NYPD ‘s efforts as merely ways to make money and punish people instead of trying to create real significant change in street safety. Former D.O.T. commissioner and now traffic analyst, sheds some light on the subject. In this article he gives some positive suggestions on how NYC can create better bicycle behaviors.
From CityLand:
Improving Bicyclist Compliance With Traffic
By: Sam Schwartz and Gerard Soffian
August 20th, 2014
Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative to substantially reduce traffic fatalities can only be achieved if all users of our roadways respect traffic rules. This needs to include bicyclists for their own safety and for the safety of others. On the streets of New York City compliance by bicyclists is not the norm. They frequently do not stop for a red traffic light, and often are seen bicycling against traffic flow, riding on the sidewalk and committing other infractions. What is needed is a more rational and appropriate way to promote compliance. Past culture-changing efforts in the City such as cleaning up after your dog, banning fireworks and restricting cigarette smoking have been remarkably successful. Changing the behavior of bicyclists also can be accomplished, but only with a new approach.
