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Today was the Five Boro Bike Tour. It was not the most enjoyable ride I've ever had, and I did not finish. The rain wasn't the worst part. Neither were the three flats I got. The worst part, which other cyclists had told me about when they turned down my invitation to do this ride, was the traffic.

One of the single best things about riding a bike is never being stuck in traffic. You glide by lines of cars stopped at red lights. You can go around anything, take another route, and enjoy yourself while the cars seethe in traffic.

Not today. Today, we sat in traffic just like the cars who were being diverted for the ride. In some spots in fact the cars were moving more quickly than we were.

And you know what? It's better to be stuck in traffic in a car, where it's warm and dry and you have a comfortable seat and a radio. It really sucks on a bike, in the rain. I stuck it out through a bunch of jams, at the 59th Street Bridge, at the Pulaski, in Dumbo, but after standing for more than 15 minutes in the rain on the Gowanus, I was finished. I've spent enough time stuck in traffic waiting to get on the Verrazano Bridge in my life. All the good momentum I'd built up coming down the expressway from the BQE was gone, I was no longer ready to hit the bridge and finish up, just cold and tired and hungry. And I'd been on the bike for more than six hours.

I zipped off at the 65th St exit on the Belt, and then had to navigate my way through that very complex interchange alongside the cars coming off the highway, but after carrying the bike over a divider and pushing it up a hill, I got out of there and took the train home.

I'm glad I did it, I suppose. It was fun in spots, especially riding down the FDR and over the bridge, or through the BQE trench and around the turn onto the Gowanus. But it was interminable. My average speed was 8.6 MPH; I've only had a lower speed than that on rides where I was taking lots of photos or where I met friends and walked through the park with them. (The bike computer only counts time when you're in motion, so the time I spent fixing flats and standing still in traffic is not counted in the average.)

Oh yes. The flats. The first one was on 6th Avenue near Radio City. I've had mixed success fixing flats on my own, so I walked it up to the park, where the good folks from NYC Velo fixed it quickly, and then fixed it again when it went flat almost immediately. (Yes, the bike tech and I both went over the inside of the tire and the rim very carefully with our fingers and found nothing.) I got a third flat, on 125th St, a loud blowout near Lenox Avenue that everyone around me heard. That one I changed myself (successfully!) with some help from another rider. Thankfully the tire behaved itself after that.

I'm not sure I'll do this ride again. Obviously the rain dampened things a bit, and perhaps it would have been better to have tried to start at the front of the pack rather than relaxing and starting in the middle (and falling almost to the back after all the flat tires). But it's just too crowded and not terribly well managed, and I was very disappointed to find that you ride over the lower level of the Verrazano. That was the main attraction of the ride for me -- being able to ride over that bridge which is normally only open to cars. But on the lower level? Not so exciting.

Anyway. Some photos are up on Flickr. I'm happy to be home with some hot coffee, and I will certainly get to bed early tonight!

Tags: bike

I did it -- 30 miles around Manhattan for BikeMS. Actually a little more than 40 overall, including the trip in and back. It would have been more like 45 miles, except that at 6:15am I was waiting for the A train at Lafayette Street because it was raining so hard it wasn't safe to ride. So that put a literal damper on the start of the ride but everyone was in good spirits, and the weather cleared until by the time we got to the 20-mile rest stop at Inwood Hill Park, the sun came out.

lizoleeta and I finally met up at the finish line -- she was about 15 minutes ahead of me -- and took some celebratory photographs. But I have to say the high point of the day was opening the little bag of goodies to find ... DRY SOCKS!

Thank you to everyone who helped me raise $1,000 to fight multiple sclerosis. I'm honored to have been part of this effort, and it was inspiring to see so many New Yorkers riding in the rain to fight a terrible disease. And best of all, twice during the ride, we passed the Walk For Breast Cancer twice. I didn't se rosiebird but she was in there.

Tags: bike

I did another ride out to the Rockaways, out across Jamaica Bay on Cross Bay Boulevard, with a two-stop detour on the A train since the last bridge to the Rockaways is still closed. I had planned to go further east and back around JFK but it started looking like rain so I headed back to Flatbush Avenue and home -- a total of 38 miles.

It was a nice ride, through the neighborhood of Broad Channel, which is almost a small town, halfway out on Jamaica Bay -- almost everyone has a boat in their backyard. And the train ride is pretty spectacular, riding across the bay with the seagulls flying alongside.

I think this is the last long ride I'll be doing before the Bike MS ride. If you haven't already (and thank you to everyone who did) there is still time to donate.

Lots of pictures on Flickr.

Tags: bike, photos

I tried the Bayonne bike ride again, and this time made it with no flats. I took the ferry over to Jersey City, rode down through Jersey City and Bayonne, over the Bayonne Bridge, through Staten Island to the ferry, with a stop for lunch with Mom and Dad, and then back home. The route map overstates the mileage (because there's no way to put a break in the route for the two ferry trips) on the one hand, but understates it on the other because I didn't put it all the backtracking (finding the entrance to the bridge was a challenge) and photo detours. Actual riding distance was 32.5 miles over three hours.

New Jersey is much maligned, in part, because the parts you see from New York City are marshes and industrial wasteland; driving into Elizabeth over the Goethals Bridge always reminded me of the Descent Into Mordor. But it's also beautiful -- the Kill Van Kull, the marshes, and an uncommon view of the Statue Of Liberty. Bayonne is also a nice old town with a real downtown and some charming old storefronts. And a Times Square completely free of tourists and chain stores.

And the Bayonne Bridge itself is beautiful, a very distinctive arch that has graced the covers of many Port Richmond High School yearbooks -- my high school is almost underneath the bridge -- with a separate walkway. I took a few nostalgia shots in Staten Island -- PRHS, Ralph's Ices, my old neighborhood park -- and then sat on the Brooklyn side of the Staten Island Ferry going home.

Tags: bike, photos

I spent much of today on the bike, riding a 30-mile loop along the Brooklyn waterfront. It was a pretty hot day, but not terribly so, and there were some great breezes coming off the water. Plus, the waterfront was full of people enjoying a beautiful Sunday -- swimming, boating, fishing, and bicycling too.

Riding 30 miles felt fine (although I was pretty leisurely about it: an average speed of 11.5 mph, not least because I took so many pictures), so as I suspected I'll have no problem with the 30-mile version of BikeMS. When I got home, however, I wasn't really feeling like doing the whole thing again, so we'll see if I can manage the 60-mile version of the ride.( Details and pictures )

Lots more photos on Flickr.

Tags: bike, brooklyn

No, I haven't signed up for a bike ride in Mississippi, but on October 5 I will be riding in Bike MS, a fund-raising event for the New York City chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. MS is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system. Its effects are unpredictable but it can disrupt the ability to move (for instance, making musicians unable to play), affect cognitive ability, or even result in blindness.

There are nearly 7,000 people living with MS right here in New York City. I am asking for your support so we can fund even more programs, services and research projects in the coming year. Last year alone, the National MS Society committed over $33 million to fund over 300 new and on-going research programs. This was made possible, in part, through the support of people like us.

Please visit my ride page and make a donation.

Tags: bike

Finally, a real spring day -- high 60s and sunny. I took the bike on the first real ride of the season (errands and laps around the park don't really count), to Madison Square Park to meet rosefox for lunch on a bench in the sun. It was a pretty leisurely ride (just under 14 miles in about 80 minutes of riding; average speed 10mph) but it felt great. The photo is the East River looking north from the Manhattan Bridge.

Tags: bike, photos

It's been a while since I've posted photos here; my flickr photostream is probably a better way to keep up with them. But here's a selection from the last few weeks.


( The Stills at Celebrate Brooklyn )
( Coney Island )
( The Roulette Sisters )

Tags: bike, music, photos