Bicycle Love - Part 1 by Stacey Harwood

Last Sunday I bought a used bicycle off of Craigslist.  It’s a 1960-ish women’s Raleigh “cruiser,” as bicycles with upright seating and handlebars are now called, and I paid $100 for it. For another $70 I added a basket, a bell, a lock, and new brake pads.   I hadn’t been on a bicycle in many years.  When I moved to New York City in 1998, I brought my touring Cannondale with me – the bike that had taken me throughout France; up and down the Maine coast; from Seattle to Vancouver and back to Portland, Oregon;  and on countless trips from Albany, New York, to Saratoga Springs and beyond – but I found NYC cycling unnerving so I gave it up

 

But a few months ago the idea of bicycling around town became appealing.  How easy it would be to make my rounds.  I’m not interested in a bicycle for serious exercise or pleasure trips.  I want transportation.  Hop on, zig-zag across town from the farmers market to Chelsea Market to Kalustyans to the Strand.  Making such a trip on foot or by public transportation would take an entire morning or longer.  With a bike, I could finish my errands in a couple of hours.  My daily commute to work is already brief – three subway stops – but it would be even briefer on a bike.  So,a bike.

 

I took my inaugural trip to work this morning.  I headed down Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park, south on Thompson Street, which hits a cul-de-sac at Canal.  I walked across Canal (otherwise, carnage), and continued down West Broadway to my destination at Church and Warren.  Here’s what I learned:

1.  It’s important to stay with one-way streets though finding them may take you out of your way.

2.  So that’s why they’re called Pedal-pushers!

3.  Potholes, grates, bumps – the streets are a deadly obstacle course. 

4.  The bike lanes are on the left.  I’m not yet sure if this makes sense.

5.  Beware of cars making turns:  They don’t use their directional signals and they either don’t see you or pretend they don’t see you.  Taxis are especially dangerous.  I punched the trunk and hurled epithets at the taxi that cut me off.  That felt really good.  Maybe I’ll carry a bat.

6.  The city needs more bike racks.

Savings:  $2.25 subway fare.  Expenses: $2.25 brioche at Grandaisy Bakery on Beach and W. Broadway. 

 

To be continued.  .  .

Comments

[Laura Orem]

You need a cool hat with flowers on it, too. And PICTURES!!

[Eric Bourland]

The brioche will do you in.

[Shelley]

Sad new thing here in California: The White Bicycle.

Bicycles totally white are chained to places where cyclists lost their lives.

[Sally]

You and Dustin Hoffman! Careful punching cabs-though maybe an apt term for riding a bike in the city is "cab puncher."

[Stacey]

Sally - Did Dustin Hoffman punch a cab? Shelley that is sad, like the flowers you see on the roadside where someone has died. I have to say, after my rather scary bike ride home from work, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep it up. Eric, yes, I know all about brioche, alas. But I wanted a little treat to mark my first outing.
Stacey

[Eric Bourland]

In Chicago there are white bikes chained to posts around the city where bicyclists died. Sometimes the cyclists bring it on themselves, sometimes not.

[Laura Orem]

Re: Dustin Hoffman. In "Midnight Cowboy." Unscripted - the cab almost ran him over.

Here's the clip -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c412hqucHKw

You can change it to "I'm biking here!"

[early wynn]

I'm a Bike supporter!

[Jason Crane]

Fantastic! Riding just to get around is a very cool thing to do. And, as Christopher Morley said: "The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets."

Have fun!

Jason Crane
jasoncrane.org
rocbike.com

[Stacey]

Jason, Thanks for the Morley quote.. I have to say, I'm a bit shakey on the bike. Not sure if it was a great idea to get such an old one. So you're from Albany! I did a lot of riding back in my Albany days. I had a 60 mile route from Albany to Saratoga Springs that criss-crossed Route 9 and ended at the great pool on the grounds of the Gideon Putnam. Those were the days. Thanks for the comments everyone.