You can call me whatever you want, just don’t call me late for the bike ride… or something like that. Just wanted to take a minute to let everyone know that BCBC has a new phone number!
“Why?” you ask, because even though you clearly can, not everyone is able to access the interwebs.
So get out your little black books and tell your friends. Our new number is:
So, as reported earlier, I bought this folding bike, and it’s 30 pounds, so pretty heavy compared to the sirrus I’m used to carrying around on one arm.
To get to my apartment, I have to climb a flight of stairs adjacent to two other apartments. Tonight one of my new neighbors (I moved recently) opened the door to let someone in from outside (not me! I swear) and saw me lugging this folded bundle of bike upstairs.
“A little cold to be riding bikes, huh?” she asks me.
I’m sort of taken aback and say, “Huh?”
“Isn’t it a little cold to be out riding bikes?”
For perspective, I’m wearing a wool coat, black tights and a knit dress. I feel like I’m dressed pretty appropriately for 49 degrees (even if it feels like 43, according to my friends at weather.com).
“… um … not really … ” wound up being my response.
Which was probably a jerk thing to say, but riding a bike to me is so second-nature, her question sounded as ridiculous as someone asking me, “Don’t you think November is a little bit cold for driving a car?” or “Isn’t fall just a little chilly to be just walking around outside with a coat on?”
I should have just said, “Oh, I ride my bike year-round, it’s a main form of transportation for me,” but I was just so stunned (and I was tired and in the middle of lugging 30 pounds of aluminum and rubber up a flight of narrow stairs and her tone just sounded so haughty) that I didn’t think to say it.
Next time I’ll be nicer. Promise.
Still, that interaction probably put the brakes (har har) on any friendship with the new neighbor. I’ll roll (ugh, allison) with it.
So now I’m about to go running. Probably too cold for that too. (And so dark!)
I had a big North Newark route planned out today but spent much of my time checking out three places on just two blocks of Broadway between 2nd and Arlington.
First, the old Benefit Mutual Life Insurance Building on the corner of 2nd.
Next the Mt Pleasant Cemetery, by far the most interesting cemetery in Newark. It’s very old, historic, beautiful and well maintained, and is a perfect place for a stroll. Shown are the front gate, a large mausoluem, a cobblestone path and the Newark firemans’ graveyard.
Then right across the street is the feudal gothic style Newark Police 2nd Precinct building.
Needless to say I didn’t complete my trip but tomorrow it’s supposed to be 70º so . . . .
Mutual Benefit Bldg, Mt Pleasant Cemetary and 2nd Precinct bldg.
A decision several weeks in the making came to fruition today.
Last month, I decided I wanted to buy a folding bike to celebrate another marvelous year on this planet. I tried a full size dahon at our man nelson’s store, al’s cycle solutions, which was fun and I knew it would be convenient.
But then I got a little sidetracked. I fell in love … with a cannondale synapse. I felt like I was willem dafoe in spiderman, gliding purely by the power of my hands and feet.
I was siding with the road bike. I mean, this was love, right? All you need is (the bike you) love.
But love is a battlefield. I started to have doubts. I take the path every day to Newark, and I hate having to leave my current bike exposed to the elements locked up at Grove Street. Did I want to go from a specialized sirrus I’ve been beating around for three years to a fancy road bike I’ll barely let myself touch? Or a bike I love so much that I’d be pathologically nervous about someone stealing it? Or a bike I knew in my heart of hearts I couldn’t properly take care of. Women who love (bikes) too much, on the next Oprah.
And then, no joke, it came to me in a dream. I had been visiting my family in this dream, trying to get all around the baltimore/dc/annapolis/western maryland region, relying on the kindness of strangers (and their cars), and I was so frustrated that I didn’t just have a folding bike that I could tote along with me.
Reader, I bought it.
(If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with. No, but really, I love my new bike.)
After a week of waiting, it arrived today. It’s a Dahon Cadenza, 8 speed hub, 26″ tires, and a ride as smooth as an opcao custard cup.
Still. Bikes are expensive — dreaming is free … at least until my dreams drive me to eventually buy the $1,000 road bike I (not so) secretly pine for.
Just writing that made me feel like I was making my new bike a cuckold. I think there’s something wrong with me. (Okay, or maybe a lot of things.)
The leaves were at autumn peak last Sunday in Maryland so a friend and I biked 12 miles (24mi. r/t) of the Baltimore-Annapolis Trail, an old railroad right-of-way now bike trail that runs from the BWI Airport to Annapolis. It’s part of the East Coast Greenway.
It’s a beautiful trail that winds through deep woods, over streams and behind some rural residential areas. You end up just over the bridge from historic Annapolis near the Naval Academy. The path is in excellent condition, is well maintained and had very light and polite bike & pedestrian traffic. The only down side was a 15mph speed limit because your bike really wants to cruise at about 22mph.
Our total trip was 42 miles…21 miles to Annapolis, eat a sushi lunch, then 21 miles back to his place just off the Chesapeake.
Trail Info:
The trail is red on the map
Bike Advocacy Letter to the Mayor of Harrison, NJ, the location of the new 2010 Red Bull Soccer Stadium ( as well as lots of new car parking lots!)
Dear Mayor McDonough,
I am writing as a concerned resident of Harrison and as a member of the Brick City Bike Collective. I have lived in Harrison since May of 2006 and commute to work in New York City on the PATH. I plan on making Harrison my home for some time to come. In considering this investment, I write to ask for the incorporation of bicycle transportation in the town’s street plans.
One of the principal reasons I and others choose to reside in Harrison is the convenient access to public transportation to New York City. Biking from my home to the PATH station is an affordable and a quick way to cut down on my commute time and cost.
In the refurbishment of downtown Harrison, the creation of viable bike paths along main roads in town would encourage and facilitate bike use. Encouraging bike use is important as it is a form of transportation that cuts harmful emissions and helps to reduce vehicle congestion. Bike friendly policies and projects would benefit an ever expanding community and attract new residents as well as investors. Many people are becoming aware that biking is a great way to become intimate with a town and get exercise at the same time. In fact, Frank Rodgers Blvd in Harrison is already home to a portion of the East Coast Greenway, a bikeway running from Maine to Florida.
In addition to dedicated bike lanes, bike racks should be placed in well-lit, heavily trafficked areas, especially at the PATH. The sidewalk rails – currently used as an impromptu bike rack – do not provide enough space for the current bike commuters. Furthermore, some type of surveillance would be appropriate in the area around the PATH, to discourage bicycle theft and to increase public safety.
Adding bike paths and bike racks would make getting around town easier and more convenient and would in turn make Harrison a more attractive place for many commuters to call home. People would be encouraged to bike around town rather than drive and would increase foot traffic at local businesses. Bike friendliness is a major indicator of a town’s quality of life. The town of Harrison is at a crossroad in its development and has the potential to be a place where people feel safe and comfortable riding bikes for fun, fitness and transportation.
I hope that while redevelopment plans are in the works, current issues and needs will not take a back seat. We must take action now to improve the lives of town residents and to ensure future generations’ well-being. I applaud the Town of Harrison on several fronts and realize the tasks set before you are not easy to complete, but with diligence and planning, achievable.
Thank You,
Yarrow Willman-Cole
Advocacy Committee, Brick City Bike Collective
(thanks to Kyle and Monica for editing assistance 
)
I saw the perfect bike today on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn between N4th & N5th St (Greenpoint). It has deep character, slim frame, beautiful lines, gorgeous color and no branding except “3rd Ward on the crossbar and “member” on the main stem. It’s a work of art that should be in a museum. And I gotta have one! If anyone recognizes it and has an idea where I can get one, please let me know… timtsoup at gmail dot….
My new flame .... a real Bedford beauty
Ryan and I got married on September 12 behind our house in Camp Alley (one of the few remaining brick alleys in Newark). Then we headed upstairs for afternoon tea with our guests, including food, drink, dancing, a cheesy poem contest, cupcakes, and fun. To celebrate even more, we hosted a celebratory bicycle ride.
We grabbed our tandem (purchased off Craigslist for $35 and fixed up complete with a sparkly “Just Married” sign), about 20 friends and family grabbed their bicycles, and the photographer hopped in front of the tricycle. We all met outside 407 Mulberry at 4pm. The ride departed at 4:30pm, heading across McCarter Highway and into the Ironbound. After a quick stop at the Murphy’s Varnish Building (a gorgeous yet contaminated building that is being torn down), we headed around the lot with the chickens (show chickens and roosters) and down Ferry Street (where it smelled of bbq-ed meat). We continued under Penn Station (ring ring ring) and rounded the corner of Market and Broad up towards Washington Park. Then past the cute abandon of Halsey Street and turned right up Hill Street. We should have been forewarned that Hill Street is named thus for a reason – as this is where the tandem’s chain could not hold both a bride and groom. Stopped in front of the beautiful Kruger-Scott mansion (the man who built it built one of Newark’s velodromes!) on MLK Boulevard with chain snapped in half, we decided to half-roll/half-hitch a ride home. Thanks Mike Christoff for the ride on the trike!
Overall, a super fun ride with lots of bell ringing and celebration. Lots of people on the streets and in cars turning their heads wondering “What is going on?” then cheering when they found out. No flat tires, a broken chain (luckily, close to home), and, after nap time, an after-party. Why is it that bicycle rides are so great for celebrating?
The mapped route can be found here.
“Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.”
The NJ Transit buses cannot run bikes off the road up here.
Nik Wallenda had the right idea.
The NEWark bike lane in the sky.
