seems like this could be an annual post for the beat. three of us headed down from hartford this weekend to new york for the bike new york ride. very fun. we joined 36000 of our closest friends on a tour of all five boroughs (only seven blocks in the bronx = ripoff on that one!).
several tips for would be riders:
1. don't show up early in battery park. hook up with the front end of the ride at central park or, like we did, on the lower east side after a very good breakfast after a decent non standing around waiting for a ride to start wakeup time. we had no problem hooking up and stayed at the front all the way through, smooth sailing.
2. skip the first couple rest stops, they are way to crazy busy.
3. bring warm, waterproof clothes.
4. take pics.
5. check out your bike before you ride, while blowouts sound cool, they cause very not awesome multi cyclist wrecks...... none of us got involved in those though.
although the suck factor increased as the ride went on, the temperature dropped, the wind picked up and the rain started to pour it was all in all a very fun experience. at the end we even got to know what refugees must feel like, check out these pics on the staten island ferry:
bring me your poor, your tired, your huddled frozen wet cyclists:
definitely worth it and if it were a nice day it would be incredible on staten island for the festival and the ferry ride with views. even cold it was really awesome to see new york by bike with no cars...
of course we did follow up the ride with harrowing high speed dash through all of lower manhattan with one wreck (bike versus big hole, hole wins, ben lands on hip, says ow....) but no one or bike hurt!
Ben, I was there too! I totally agree that you don't have to start at the beginning. We did and it was just frustrating because of how slow it got started, not to mention anti-climactic.
ReplyDeleteThe ferry indeed felt like an ellis island moment. We were rocking the poncho babushka look.
My one complaint is no free larabars at the finish line! I felt disdain to pay for a sandwich when we were soggy/cold/muddy at the end. I'm glad I held out for venezuelan arepas in the LES instead.
bianca-
ReplyDeletesteve mentioned that you were there and at one point right before the vz bridge i swore i saw you ahead and hammered up to be disapointed...
Were there any lines at the ferry this year?
ReplyDeleteWe got stuck in the debacle a couple of years ago where it took ~3 hours before we got onto one.
Last year, we got stuck in the jam up at Mahattan Bridge when the guy had the heart attack. We found a way around though, and managed to jump the queue. It was too crowded, though, and we bailed at the Brooklyn Bridge and rode around Manhattan for a few hours...Good times
Photos of us cold and shivering on the Staten Island ferry here.
ReplyDeleteWe had to wait 20-30 mins.
The story in my family is that my great grandfather promised my grandfather a bicycle when they would arrive in America. Upon sight of the shore my Grandpa (3 or 4 at the time) remarked "Can I have my bicycle now?" (but you know in Sicilian)