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.
The late great comedian and actor Robin Williams had a huge affection for bicycles. Here is a recent article from the Wall Street Journal on his obsession and collection of bikes and his relationship with frame builder Dario Pegoretti.
Robin Williams and Dario Pegoretti: The Comedian and the Bike Builder
By: Jason Gay
August 14th, 2014
By now, you may have heard that Robin Williams was a cycling fanatic. He loved the sport—its history, its pageantry, its champions magnificent and raffish.
He was also a devoted rider, and adored the machinery. Over the years, Williams accumulated a substantial bicycle collection—what Jay Leno does with cars, Williams did with bikes.
“He had everything,” said Chad Nordwall, owner of Above Category, a high-end bicycle retailer based in Marin County, Calif., where Williams was a devoted client. “Everything.”
Williams collected bikes of all types, but he was passionate about one brand in particular: Pegoretti. If you know bicycles, you probably know Pegorettis. Custom-made in Italy by master builder Dario Pegoretti, who built frames for cycling icons such as Miguel Indurain, they are wild pieces of art, almost always steel, colorfully painted by hand. They’re also serious road machines. Imagine riding a high-performance Basquiat. That’s a Pegoretti.
Racial tensions seem to be reaching a fever pitch in the US, set off by a series of killings of unarmed black males by the police. 22 year old John Crawford was shot dead in a Beavercreak, Ohio Walmart (August 5th, 2014) for apparently failing to put down a toy gun he was purchasing for his son.
(August 9th, 2014) 18 year old Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri. Police claim the teenage was banishing a weapon although eye-witnesses on the scene say Mr. Brown was killed with his hands in the air and was complying with the officers that shot him. Only making things worse, were five days of violence that followed by militarized riot gear cops shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators who took to the streets to protest a long history of racial motivated harassment.
Both incidents and a similar killing of 25 year old, Ezell Ford in Los Angeles come in the shadow of a fourth homicide right here in NYC.
43 year old Staten Island resident Eric Garner, a father of six children who pleaded with officers that he couldn’t breathe during a choke hold–Not to mention a whole team of EMS workers who stood by and did nothing…all captured on video in broad daylight.
This is the first case of an unarmed black man being killed in NYC within mayor DeBlasio’s watch which definitely has local citizens concerned about how it will be handled, especially with such a long history of similar killings during past administrations all ending in officer acquittals.
Race is definitely a factor in these killings but doesn’t seemed to be addressed by the NYPD or other police forces, who would much rather discuss a few bad apple officers or debate whether the victims were “resisting arrest.” Within this politically charged climate…the police have scrutinized over their priorities and come up with: Operation Safe Cycle? A rather Orwellian term to crack down on bad biking behavior. I’m sure this will ease the family of Eric Garner on Staten Island awaiting a proper investigation.
08/15/14
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Here is the latest from Time’s Up.
Big news…
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Announcements:
We’re giving a big shout out to our all volunteer mechanics staff, who not only help to fix your bicycles but also empower YOU to learn valuable skills to fix your own bike. Now that’s teaching a “Person How to Fish.” Oh, yeah and they do it all for FREE…the Time’s Up way.
So we are giving some of that love back with an appreciation party, Friday, August 22nd.
Details of the party are in the events listing below.
There is a crowd funding page set up for you to show your support for this celebration: www.commitchange.com/times-up campaign”>
Donate what you can for this great cause.
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Also, not a Time’s Up specific event but a super awesome bike event in NYC (not to be missed)
It’s the second installment of the famous Warriors Ride. They say it couldn’t be done… class=”alignnone size-full” />
Track or Die presents: Warriors Ride 2
Saturday, August 23rd-August 24th.4:00pm till Sunup, Sunday morning.
In 2002, the messenger community decided to host an event that would appeal to more cyclists then the usual “alleycat” street racing crowd. The idea was to have a scavenger-hunt-messenger-style-race that captured the “underground” cult aspect of NYC and could keep participants busy from 7:00pm-7:00am. This facilitated the theme of the Warriors, the cult classic movie from the 70’s depicting an alternate NYC, controlled by street gangs. The protagonists of the films, a gang called “Warriors” had to get from the Bronx to Coney Island, while being chased by rival gangs all through the night.
The bike ride attracted over 800 participants from all over the world and really inspired and united the bike community. Here is a video documentary from the 2002 event:
Get your gang together and check out the facebook events page: www.facebook.com/events/471936076283694/
Time’s Up will most likely be helping out with this event. It should be a great coming together of the bicycle tribes…from old skool to new.
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Time’s Up! is a 20-year-old nonprofit, grassroots environmental organization working to make New York City- and the world- a healthier and more sustainable place to live. All of our events and campaigns are free and open to the public- educational and fun bike rides, bike repair workshops, movie nights and presentations, community garden workdays and outreach, bike and public space advocacy and more.
Come join us for the rides, events and workshops listed below. Details follow the headlines.
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1. CONEY ISLAND CYCLONE RIDE
Friday, August 15th 7:00pm, 7:40pm & 8:00pm (three meeting spots)
Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge (SW corner of Chambers and Centre St/Park Row)
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2. DUMPSTER DIVING FOOD RIDE
Thursday, August 21st, 8:00pm
Tompkins Square Park.
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3. TEN YEAR MECHANIC’S APPRECIATION PARTY
Friday, August 22nd, 7:00pm
ABC No Rio, 156 Rivington St.-Manhattan.
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4. HISTORY, MYSTERY, MURDER AND MONEY TOUR
Saturday, August 23rd, 10:00pm
Entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Side.
****************** Continue reading August Events From Time’s Up
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