Well kids, the mother of all city rides is slowly approaching–on Sunday 13 September 2009 that is. The New York City Century Bike Tour, the longest distance being 100 miles, which is all within the city. Kind of like the Tour de Bronx, Tour de Brooklyn, Tour de Queens and the Five Boro all rolled up into one ride. Now of course, this ride is made for all levels of riders to participate, except I must note that this ride differs from the others in that the streets are not closed off to traffic. Meaning that you ride with cars whizzing by you in the New York City Streets. I don’t say that to freak you out, but that is just the reality of riding here in the big city. I do it all the time as do many other riders so it shouldn’t be any different for a lot of us. However, for those that are a little uneasy about riding in traffic, let me note that you will be riding in a pack of riders. You will not be alone and that should provide some kind of bravery for you to get out there and enjoy the ride!! This is not just a one hundred mile ride either. There are a few routes within the ride and they are broken up as follows:

15 Miles: This route is for beginners, children and those that want to slowly ease into these kinds of rides. This route runs from park to park (which I’m guessing is Central Park to Prospect Park) along the 9th Avenue bike lane, led by the NYPD. (See kids, not so bad, eh?)

35 Miles: This is the East River Loop in which you ride through Manhattan and come back through western Brooklyn, including riding around Prospect Park, and also through Queens.

55 Miles: This is the Waterfront route (sounds kind of sexy to me). This is kind of a “beachy” type which winds along the Brooklyn Greenway aside the Verrazano (those of you who have done the Five Boro know this pathway) going down to Coney Island and links up toward the end with the 35 mile route. I have to say that I ride the Greenway all the time to go to Coney Island and it really is worth the ride. The pathway is nice, clean, flat and very breezy!!

75 Miles: The Velodrome. Oh yeah!! You get to ride 75 miles and get to hit up the Kissena Park Velodrome in Queens. As my faithful readers know, I would suggest that the fixed gear newbies get their tuckuses on this ride so they can actually say they put their expensive little bikes in an actual velodrome. Then they might have some leg to stand on when they try to turn their noses up to us freewheelers. But I digress. Just try this one out.

100 Miles: The New York City Century, which is recommended for experienced riders only. These lucky guys and gals get to ride all the way out to beautiful Far Rockaway and Fort Tilden after Marine Park. (I like Marine Park!!) Then north through Astoria Park Queens up to the Bronx. Not for the squeamish I tell you…

Now of course, I’d love to try my hand at one of the upper level rides, but man, this beginning of summer typhoon we are having right now is killing my riding hours!! My poor bike is feeling totally neglected these past few weeks. Poor baby. However, keep riding, stay in shape, be god to your bikes, and find out the whole lowdown about the century right here.

See you on the road…..(once the flood waters subside…)

Here is a great guide I found on this site called Performance Bicycle. Read on…

How To Wash Your Bike

In just 10 minutes you can have a clean bike. This quick wash is perfect after rainy road rides or muddy mountain bike rides. It won’t pass a white glove inspection, but it will be clean, lubed and ready for the next ride.

Ready? 10 minutes. Start the clock now. Break out a bucket of warm, soapy water and a soft brush. Time for a good bath. Washing your bike doesn’t need to take a lot of time or make a huge mess. You will need the following:

* Bucket with warm soapy water (dish soap works well as most have a grease cutting agent which is effective but not so strong as to degrease bearings or totally strip off everything).
* Bucket with clean water
* Large brush with soft bristles
* A few dry, clean rags
* Chain lube of your preference. If you use a dry lube for the chain, you will need something for the cables like Tri-Flow®

Dip your brush and load it up with soapy water. Start with the handlebars. Slop on the soapy water, wash quickly across the bar, then move downward and rearward. No worries if the dirt is still there, just let the soapy water do its work while you keep going. Hit the stem, top of headset, top tube and seat post.

Load up the brush again and go back to the head and down tubes. Brush the lower headset, fork crown, front brake and down the fork blades (don’t forget the opposite side) to the front axle.

Load up the brush again. Back to the lower headset. Brush down the down tube and hit the area around the bottom bracket shell. Don’t do the cranks and chain rings yet.

Load up the brush again. Start at the base of the seat post and brush down, get the area around the chainstay bridge, then go back up to the base of the seat post. Now down the seatstays (don’t forget the opposite side). Be sure to get the rear brake, down to the rear axle and the non-drive side chainstay.

Load up the brush again. Slop soapy water on the rear derailleur, then the front derailleur.

Load up the brush again. Now hit the drive side chainstay, chain rings, cranks and cogset. Toss the brush in the clean water bucket.

Using the clean water, follow the same pattern with your brush. Once again making sure to get everything, and rinsing your brush frequently.

Now grab your rags and wipe the bike dry in the same order as the soaping. Change the rag around frequently to ensure you’re wiping with a clean rag rather than a dirty one.
Lube up your chain thoroughly, floating all the pivots with lube. Break out the Tri-Flow® or cable lube of your choice and lube the derailleur pivot points and brake pivot points on caliper, cantilever, and V-brakes (be careful not to get any on the brake pads).

A drop of oil or 2 on exposed runs of cables can work wonders as well. If you have Teflon lined cable housing, there is no need to lube under the cable housing. If not, drip some Tri-Flow® down there too. Go back and move all these parts back and forth a few times to work in the lube, then wipe off any excess with a rag. DONE.

I got an email today stating that they are now taking early registration for (*squeals like little girl*) the Five Boro Bike Tour, happening this year on 3 May 2009!! If you go to active.com, you can sign up for receiving emails from Bike New York and all other kinds of outdoor activities going on. If you’d like to participate, the webpage says to act now, as last year’s ride filled up a month in advance!! I think I will do it this year. Yes, I do work on Saturday night the night before, but I think this time I will condition myself to be able to work the night before (because in this economy I can’t afford to trade away my Saturday night). I guess I will hold off on the Red Bulls until the morning, when I line up for the ride. Drink lots of water, sleep a ton that whole week, not overdo anything.

Oh boy, oh boy, all this talk about riding is getting me amped to ride again!! Granted I STILL haven’t hit the slopes this season (but I will, I will!!) and already I’m thinking about strapping on my cleats, putting on my cargos, pointing the bike in whatever direction and riding. Oh, my skin is tingling right now, I swear. I would even ride right now, but I already made that mistake last year of trying to ride in the snow. It was all cool until I took a turn and slipped, and came down with all my weight on top of my right knee. Ever feel a shock wave go through a bone? I wouldn’t recommend it.

Spring is juuussst around the corner… (in my crazy mind…)

So there you have the latest light I got for the handlebars. If you don’t know, the law states that white lights are positioned on the handlebars, red on the rear. This light is from a company called Knog, which seems to have a lot of good stuff. The name for this light is the Toad. As far as I knew until now, I thought they only made lights and other small peripherals for the urban cyclist. However, upon inspection of the website, they have so much more. And they really seem like a good company. But, unfortunately, I have to post about my dislike for this light.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t totally hate it, but the design is dually cool and hindering. The outside of the whole unit is made of silicone, so when affixed to the handlebar, it doesn’t move around much. And the loop itself is also silicone and what yu do is unhook it from the body at the back where you see the loop overlap on the body in the back. Pretty neat idea, as you can pull it off and on easily when stopping and chaining your ride in the city. However, the flap that sits on top of the body seems a little too thick, so when in this weather, it is getting colder and you are wearing your fingered riding gloves, it is a bitch to try to press the little button to turn the light off and on. Granted you can pull the flap off to also press the button, but who wants to do that to turn the light on then ride? And again, with fingered gloves, it’s a bit of a pain in the butt. However, there are five LED lights and three settings for the lights and they are uber-bright!! I love rolling down the street and seeing the little light make the street signs glow in front of me, even as far as the corner from a few feet coming up the block!!

But again, if you also notice by the picture, the lights run vertically. So when attached to the handlebars, the bottom most lights get blocked by my brake lever!! Which then leads me to only one conclusion…. This light is made for fixed geared bikes. AAAARRRGGHHHH!!

These lights shown above are the same as the light I got for the rear. Also Knog. This one is called the Frog. The only color they had at the store was white, and the LED is red of course. Had I known that these lights come in all these gorgeous colors, I would have sought some out to match the color of my bike frame. Don’t let the little size fool you, the light is pretty powerful. Now I’m not going to say that cars can see you from up the block, but within a reasonable distance, you are visible, especially if you set the light to the flashing mode. This little guy only has the two modes, flashing and steady.

The store in my neighbourhood in which I get a lot of my gear is called Jack Rabbit Sports. I believe I have mentioned them before in another post, but this store is well worth mentioning again. However, they still haven’t updated the webpage for their cycling training programs. C’mon guys, get it together!! Sheesh!!

Is it any wonder my bottom is sore or outright numb with streets like this? Really, here in NYC there are still cobblestoned streets, but only in lower Manhattan on the West Side and Soho and also some parts of Brooklyn by the waterfront near the old Navy docks by Red Hook. I won’t even talk about the old trolley tracks that are still embedded in the stones in Brooklyn which are evil traps that catch road tires and make you fall in front of moving cars… Uhh…maybe that’s just me. But anyway, my point being that it’s hard sometimes to get to these areas without having to roll over these stones and I feel the right seat could do the bottom good. So here is another seat that I have found, have a look:

This baby I found on the Trek site. Have a look around, it’s pretty cool. I may not be a fan of the bikes, but the gear is alright. This seat specifically is a Bontrager Race Lite Saddle, unisex from what I can see.

I don’t know why, but I prefer gear for men more than I do for women. I find that the fit of men’s gear suits me (as I am a whopping five feet eleven) but even more than that, I find that these companies sort of “coddle” women. It’s like this sexist sort of culture that makes all these “pretty” bright colors for women’s clothing, despite the fact that riding causes you to get covered in dirt and grease, thus ruining the pretty, pretty colors. The bikes are fashioned for “easy riding” and I swear if you go through catalogues, hey make the bikes different for “women’s bodies”!! Really?!?! Last I checked, we were of the human variety. It’s like the boy’s club and we’re not allowed. They say that we are smaller–I’m taller than the average man. We need different seats–that may be true, but I prefer the men’s seat because I don’t need extra cushioning on my butt. When I’m tearing down a hill I want to same advantage as the men do and I don’t need to be dragging a granny seat underneath me. They say that the handlebars need to be some kind of weird positioning for our smaller hands and smaller frames. It’s like they are trying to convince us that we are smaller and more inferior. Is it any wonder that there is no women’s Tour de France? However, there is an equivalent of the Tour, which is called the Grande Boucle which you can learn more about in this Wikipedia article.

However, I’m getting off subject. This is a topic that I certainly will get back to.

So anyway, once again I will leave you with a moment of zen:

I guess I’m obsessed now about finding the right cyclocross for training. I keep on the lookout for all kinds of bikes, familiar and new and while waiting for some maintenance on my bike this week, I sat in the store reading a magazine and came across this line of bike. I had never heard of them, but the picture impressed me so much I had to of course share it. If you’d like to check out the stats or view any of their other styles, check out the site, Redline Bicycles. You know, there are so many choices out there that I feel confident I will find a dope ride!!

On another note, I had a friend this week try to ride back to his house at night drunk. He fell. I still can’t get a straight story out of him, but he says that he remembers swiping mirrors of parked cars then falling. No matter what the story, he has a huge road rash on his right shoulder, swollen and scraped elbow, also right side, and of course his right wrist, which he says e couldn’t move. HE couldn’t move his elbow at all. When came morning, he had a big red mark on his forehead, which he swears that would have been worse had he not been wearing a helmet. Now how many stories to I have to ell in order to get riders all to see that these things happen? You don’t even have to be hit by an actual car to fall and hit your head and get hurt. And in fact, he has to go get a new helmet because he says it’s cracked on the inside.

And riding drunk? Just don’t do it. I learned my lesson last summer about trying to ride dunk. It took a deep tissue bruise on my right side, just above the pelvis (thank Jesus it wasn’t the pelvis), and a twelve hour stint in the ER to teach me. There is just no excuse for riding drunk now. Most bikes have quick release tires which you can pull off and fit into a cab–especially if you are like me and go NOWHERE without your baby–or at the very least, chain it good to scaffolding (my favorite) and come back in the morning to get it. Trust me, it’s worth it to get your ride hungover in one piece than risk riding at night and getting banged up…or worse, dead.

You know, I miss the old segment of The Daily Show at the nd in which Craig Kilbourne would say< "...and here's your moment of zen..."

...and here's your moment of zen...

While waiting for my bike to bike to be serviced the other day, I had some time to walk around the bike shop and browse. I cam across the tools and picked this one out. I just quickly looked at the container, decided that I needed to replace my broken Allen key tool, propped it up on the counter with some Alcis cream and ran off to work. Then I had some time at work to pull it out and look at the instructions and boy was I surprised!! This instrument has 16 different tools on it. Of course there are the Allen keys, one of which is a 5mm Allen Key that has an 8mm head that slides up and down, thus giving you two tools on the one key. There are also spoke wrenches, which I imagine one day I will learn what they are for, especially in an emergency situation. The black plastic sides pop out to become tire levers!! Sweet!! But the super awesomest thing about it is the chain tool. It installs or removes chain pins and loosens stiff links. Also has a chain hook. Double sweet!!

And double good that I have this tool because I learned that day that you cannot change the chain without having to replace the entire cassette as well. The chain and cassettes fit perfectly together as they wear on each other over time. Putting a new chain on an old cassette wouldn’t quite work. I did not really know that. But now I’m glad I do. I have been thinking about changing my cassette anyway, especially getting a gear that gives me more resistance on downhills. Now I have to figure out whether to get road gearing or mountain gearing. OH!! The agony of cyclocross!!

Well anyway, going through the website for Topeak (as I always do for anything I buy for my bike), I came across this glorious thing of beauty that must have been made by god him/herself:

Oh god, just looking at it brings a tear to my eye…. This bad boy, the Bikamper, uses a 26” mountain or 700c road front wheel in place of tent poles. This is a one person sleeper (kind of a bummer), three season and packs down compact enough to strap to the handlebars. How freakin’ cool is that?!?!

Also, I hate to report my poor bike seat is starting to die. I have already started looking for some new ones–again, the mountain or road gear dilemma–and going through said Topeak site, came across the link for another one of their companies called Allay which makes saddles. I was looking at this one as a possible candidate:

We’ll see what happens…

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I admit it. After swearing off the Brooklyn Bridge in a previous post, ranting about the ever annoying tourists clogging up the bike path and vowing to only take the Manhattan Bridge, I pussed out. I have started taking the Brooklyn Bridge again. Don’t give me that look. It’s just that the Manhattan Bridge is so desolate and really scary at night. I know, I’m girling out right now, but I can’t help it. The Manhattan Bridge is creepy, and I can’t ride it all the time. Now I guess I have to learn how to do that kick that cyclists do to get pedestrians out of the way… Eh. I’m not that mean. I’ll stick to yelling at them…

Also, I have now started hanging out with a friend in Queens and have widened my riding circle. Long Island City and Astoria have now felt the burning of my tires on their streets. I have ridden in Queens before of course, but not regularly. I totally dig Long Island City for the long stretches of nearly deserted roads (especially down by the waterfront) in which you can ride without the constant starting and stopping, especially with the cleats. The streets aren’t that bad and you can really get in a good amount of mileage. Astoria is nice, clean and quiet, with more residential streets, but they seem even less crowded than Brooklyn. You can tear down the roads at whatever pace you choose, provided that you know how to get around Queens. No, really, Queens streets are totally confusing. I understand how the addresses work, but not how the grid works…when there is an actual grid. Most of the time the streets run like London streets–they start and stop and continue at their own will!!

Anyway, getting out to Long Island City from Brooklyn is a pretty cool ride. There is the 59th Street Bridge which goes straight into LIC, but I prefer to go through Williamsburg, heading straight down Bedford Avenue to its end where it crosses Manhattan Avenue, making a right and going down until hitting the Pulaski Bridge. The Pulaski Bridge is a little bridge that takes you over the water that cuts Brooklyn and Queens on the northern edge of the island. It’s a nice climb then descent, and when ou get to the Queens side, you are smack on the edge of Queens Plaza. You know by the Citibank building right there. I can see that building from my place here in Brooklyn. To look at it from my place is a real sight–I can see how long I ride to get out there!!

The 59th Street Bridge is a kind of cool ride. There are people on it–even this bridge has more people on it than the Manhattan Bridge…creepy…–and the incline is very weird. Going from Queens to Manhattan, the grade is long and gradual, then drops quickly almost all the way over to the Manhattan side. Thus, in turn, when going from Manhattan to Queens, you have this sharp hill going up, then the rest of the ride is the easy, long downhill. There is this weird part of the bike path in which you could literally go into the traffic, which also kind of creeps me out, but I suppose it’s for emergency access. I just wish they would somehow cordon it off so that may be kids can’t just turn their bikes or scooters into traffic. Anyway, once you get from Queens to Manhattan you are, of all places, 59th Street!! East Side, and when you get to the end of the bike path, it makes a totally sharp turn, in which if you don’t know it’s there and are tearing down the hill, you could get hurt. So be careful over there.

I plan on doing some more distance riding, as I have learned this year that I prefer the endurance rather than the sprint…although I can sprint pretty damn good. I am working my way, albeit slowly, to be able to a century, then I think I’m seriously considering entering cyclocross races. Yes!! I realise what I have to do is to start out doing more and more endurance, all the while working on my sprinting (easy in the streets of New York), and then uphills (AAAARRRGGGHHH), finally working on my offroading. I look forward to getting any new gear I might need for that…..

So as I just stated in my previous post, I lost the Lake cleats I had for my pedals. I left them in a cab of all places–a CAB!!! Drunk!! Now I am all about riding, but I am also advocating that if you can’t put the booze down, then certainly get your drunk ass in a cab. Just don’t be as stupid as me and leave a dope pair of cleats in the backseat…

Anyway, I went to my local bike store and got some new cleats. Boy what an experience that was. I don’t remember if I had mentioned that I am not really a big fan of my local bike store, R&A Cycles, but I didn’t have time to go all the way down to my favorite bike store in Bay Ridge and then get all the way back up here and beyond to Manhattan to get to work. So to R&A I went.

First off, what really gets me is the fact that they do not acknowledge you when you walk in. And then when they do, they ask you what you need and every time someone stated they wanted to buy a new bike, the salesman asked how much they were willing to spend. I guess that’s a valid question, but somehow they way they asked and how they asked kind of got under my skin. It was like if you didn’t say high enough, you were at the bottom of the waiting list.

So the salesman I got was this guy that had been working there for years and he was one of the reasons I don’t like this store. So when he came to help me I was like, “Damn!!” So then he proceeds to talk and talk and talk away, mostly about himself and how good he used to ride and I had on my “I’m not interested” face and so he brought over some other guy that needed help and had him wait near us so he could keep running his mouth to someone. So he fitted me for the shoes, put the cleats on (for an extra charge) and then what really got me was when he asked me, “Are you willing to spend more money?” And I was like, “For what?” And then he says, “For some pedals for the shoes.” I nearly lost it. This whole time during the sale I was telling him I lost my shoes and needed new ones and described what kind of pedals I had, and rather than actually listen to what I had said instead of talking about himself the whole time and what famous cyclists he knew, he failed to connect to me, his customer. I sternly told him that I already had pedals and brouhgt him to my bike to show him. He was like “Oh…”

Now even worse than this, he then tells me that the shoes may not fit the pedals. I hit the roof. I explained to him that I happened to be in the store the day before, showed the guys what kind of pedals I have and they said getting the shoes would be no problem. (Funny enough there was a guy in there the day before that also spoke at about eighty miles an hour and I also felt he didn’t listen to what I was saying. So I dealt with the cute salesman who was really nice too.) He bends down to look at the pedals and I have a yellow circle with some kind of squiggly black symbol in the middle of it. The shoes he sold me were Shimano. He said that I’d need the Shimano pedals because each company has their own fit for the cleats. He said he didn’t have his glasses on and had me read what was printed very small on the part of the pedal that screws into the crank. It said Shimano. I was relieved. But then I realised that the symbol I just described on my pedal was the same symbol on the packaging the cleats came in. I was astounded that he didn’t recognize the logo–yellow circle with black squiggly line in the middle. That’s when I realised this guy was so full of shit it was coming out of his ears.

Anyway, I learned a little something from this ordeal. That I have something called SPD pedals. They are also called platform pedals. They are mainly used for mountain biking and also from what I hear, fast downhill riding. Sweeet. They look like this:

And you can actually notice the Shimano logo I was talking about. That dummy in the store couldn’t even recognize the logo.

Anyway, if you also notice, the size of the pedal is larger than the average clipless pedals that usually look like this:

I wanted the platform pedals in the event that I for some reason have to ride without my cleats, or perhaps in a really good mood and lend my bike to someone for a ride–albeit a very short one. That’d be like asking a woman to take her newborn baby away from her. However, I am willing to at some point try out the smaller racing pedal to check out the action.

The shoes are pretty sweet too. They have a much stiffer sole than the previous Lakes I had for a better, more correct foot position when pedaling, but also a hard rubber that is soft enough to walk around in when need be on the hard city streets. I still haven’t gotten the courage (or the money) to get the carbonite soles that are totally inflexible and are too slippery for regular walking. But apparently they are the best for pedaling. I guess sometime in the future I shall see….

Ahh, it has been a while since I posted. First was because my net was down for like a week, but then I was having the worst luck with my bike and I was so bummed about it, I couldn’t bear to write about it for a while. But now I’m OK I guess. I had lost my riding glasses at night when I had them tucked into the front strap of my backpack, and as I pedaled upward, my knee was hitting them. I guess I popped them out and then they were gone. Next up, I was riding at night again, crossed a major six lane street and thankfully (small miracle wrapped in bad luck) got to the other side when the bolt that held my seat to the pole snapped in half. I wasn’t that far from home and I was able to retrieve the pieces and get back safely. Then I got a flat–first one in two years–and I don’t even have Mr. Tuffy in the wheel!! (I will explain Mr. Tuffy in a bit.) As it turned out, I rolled over a staple and it stuck in my wheel. Again, thank goodness I was in my area so it wasn’t that far of a walk–although walking long distances doesn’t bother me either. And the thing that really got me, the one that hurt the most was when I lost my cleats for the pedals. Ahh, that bummed me out for two days!! I had just gotten those sneakers and pedals if you remember my post when I was all jazzed about it. But then I got some new ones, something different, and I will report about them next.

So anyway, I snapped this picture of this tandem on the street and I thought it was totally post-worthy. IF you saw it in prson, it totally looks like someone had fused two random bikes together to create this monster, and what an awesome monster it is. Another photog took a picture same time I did because this bike was just so eye-catching!! I can’t believe that they parked it so casually on the street, but then again, what would-be thief would make a clean getaway on a tandem? That would be hilarious!!

And I don’t just mean being super-psyched about being a Brooklynite. I am speaking about the Brooklyn Pride Parade which took place on Saturday, 14 June which marched down one of the main drags of Park Slope, good old 7th Avenue. I am attaching here some pictures of one group that I was impressed with–Dykes on Bike Cycles of course!! As it was nighttime, the photos didn’t come out as clear as they should ahve, plus it was raining like a mother and then even on top of that, my battery ran out before the last of the parade went by. You’d think that would put a damper on the festivities or even my mood, but no, not at all. I like to go out and support the Pride parade so wasn’t going to be a grumblepuss for anything!! So here are some pictures I took of the ladies.

Now it was at this point (above) that the girls got off their bikes and proudly raised their rides up in the air to cheers from the spectators and cheers and howls from me!! I was so happy for them that I wished I could have rode with them for support and to have another woman on a bike, showing my continuing advocacy of gay rights as a straight woman. Call me corny, but I was moved by the gesture.

I am excited about the upcoming Pride parade in Manhattan which is my favorite. I will find out if maybe the Dykes on Bike Cycles will let me ride with them as well as make sure that I take better pictures. Even if they are still fuzzy, I’m putting up pictures of the riders and even better if I get an interview with one or more of them!! We shall see….

HAPPY PRIDE BROOKLYN and NEW YORK!!

P.S.–If you are interested in the other pictures I took of the parade you can see them here.