Cycling in Lower Manhattan

I am in New York City for a few days, with all sorts of nice cycling people who have gathered here for the New Amsterdam Show this weekend and the Bobbin Bicycles/ Adeline Adeline party last night. One of the first familiar faces I encountered was the beautiful Julie, of the Julie blog. This lady works in the fashion industry and rides all over the city on her white and pink Linus loop frame named Kate Middleton... which I think speaks for itself: Cycling in New York has certainly become more accessible over the past few years.






On my way down here on the train I realised that I had not been to the city since maybe - which is almost 4 years ago now. I have to confess that I don't love New York. It's not that I hate it. I just fail to see the magic and romance in it that everyone gushes about. Maybe it's because my family briefly lived in Washington Heights at a time when it was anything but romantic and my impressions are forever coloured by those childhood memories. Whatever the reason, I just see New York as a very large, very crowded city where you have to watch yourself despite all the art galleries and coffee shops and lofts and trendy boutiques that have popped up in neighbourhoods that used to be considered "dangerous."






And despite hearing about all the new cycling infrastructure here, I couldn't easily picture myself riding through the streets of New York, at least not right away. What about the dense traffic? The notoriously aggressive drivers? Walking from Penn Station to Tribeca it was hard to imagine myself sharing these busy streets on two wheels.





But an hour later I was doing exactly that - on a beautiful Retrovelo, courtesy of Adeline Adeline. While my travel radius was mostly limited to lower Manhattan, it was still a surprise to experience how relatively easy riding in the city has become.





I started out on the West Side Highway bicycle path, which is quite impressive. The 5.5 mile stretch of major road along the Hudson River has a protected greenway running through it the entire way, with somewhat frequent but well designed interruptions where bicycles even get their own green light.






The lanes are wide, allowing bicyclists to pass pedestrians and each other if need be. Cyclists were courteous and used their bells. Pedestrians behaved predictably. With views of the city ahead and views of the river alongside, it is a great path.





Many of the piers in this are have been renovated and developed with all sorts of little restaurants an recreational complexes. The weather was pretty terrible on Thursday afternoon - heavily overcast skies and cold temperatures - but there were lots of people strolling along the piers and enjoying their day.





One great thing about New York City, is that no one found it strange at all when I would stop to photograph the bike. In Boston passers-by will sometimes comment how wacky it is that I am standing there and taking close-ups of a bicycle, but here no one batted an eye.






Having had my fill of the West Side Highway, I took to the streets. Some streets have bike lanes and others don't, but honestly I found that it did not matter hugely. The bike lanes were so frequently blocked by double parked cars and delivery vehicles that a degree of comfort with vehicular cycling was necessary regardless. There was a lot of traffic, but it was slow moving and drivers seemed accustomed to cyclists. I got honked at a couple of times, but so did everyone else around me - honking just seems to be a way of communicating here. When I needed to make a left turn and didn't change lanes early enough, a taxi driver saw my predicament and let me squeeze in ahead of him with an impatient but not unfriendly wave. Overall it was entirely manageable and not any more stressful than riding in downtown Boston.






I will not be in town long enough to experience riding in the city as a person living here would, but my Thursday afternoon jaunt was a nice introduction to cycling in New York. After 4 years away it was certainly the best "welcome back" I could have hoped for. I will eventually be posting about the New Amsterdam Show and all the other things I am doing here, and you can check my twitter feed for "live coverage" snapshots of all sorts of neat things. Have a good weekend!

Little Wild Horse Canyon

For the majority of our honeymoon Jessica and I explored the canyonlands of southern Utah for a couple of weeks. We had beautiful weather for the majority of the trip and did 16 hikes that added up to a total distance of 64 miles. We wanted to stay away from the large crowds that often plague national parks of the southwest, so we focused primarily on exploring and hiking within Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. This monument is administerednot by the NPS (National Park Service)but by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). The monument consists mostly of dirt backroads leading to trailheads with trails that have little to no maintenance but lead to some incredible canyons. Most, but not all, of our hikes were within this monument.



Our first canyon hike was in Little Wild Horse Canyon, not far from Goblin Valley State Park. We left our motel in Green River early in the morning hoping to be the first ones at the trailhead. Our plan worked as we were the only vehicle in sight when we arrived at the start of the trail. The trail was beautiful right from the beginning as it headed up the wash. Before long we were in the canyon, but it was quite wide at that point. Not long after hiking up and around a dry fall, we were in the canyon narrows. This is where it got really interesting. The canyon had several nice sections of narrows and in the narrowest section we had to turn sideways in order to make it through. Eventually we came to a few boulders wedged in the canyon that put a stop to our forward progress. At this point we turned around and returned to the trailhead via the same route we came in on. It was a wonderful start to our canyon adventure!

Verdant Cascade

Verdant Cascade, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

I came across this small waterfall while hiking in the Las Trampas Regional Wilderness. I was amazed at how green and vivid the boulders were.

All of Las Trampas is filled with interesting sights and habitats. There are hot, dusty, chaparral-covered ridges, dark, fern-filled forests, and wildflower-dotted grasslands.

These waterfalls, however, are the park's crown jewels. Hidden away in the forest, they are visited by few and known by even fewer.

'So My Husband Wants Me to Get a Bike...'

Since the start of the Spring season, I have been getting emails from women that read something like this:

My husband/boyfriend is a cyclist and he wants me to get a bike so that we can ride together. I am not very good at cycling, or sports in general. What bike do you recommend? My husband/boyfriend sent me a link to your blog and said that you would know.

Nice. Notice that the phrasing is not "I would like to get a bicycle so that I can accompany my husband/boyfriend on rides," but that the desire and intent are attributed entirely to him. This is something he has probably been convincing her to do for a while, and finally he sent her to my website, as if to say "See? Other women can do it!" (Great way to make her hate me, fellows!)




Of course if he does succeed in convincing her to buy a bike and join him, I can already see how that will go. He: the man dressed like a professional racer on a $2,500 road bike. She: the woman in ill-fitting bike shorts, cotton tank-top and sneakers, on a $600 hybrid. He: stern and professorial, explaining the importance of proper cadence and posture in a tireless monologue. She: red in the face and panting, sneaking longing glances at the families picnicking on the grass. Eventually it ends in bickering and tears - or worse, a fall. I see this on the local trails all the time. Please, don't be that couple.






If you are a cyclist and want to share your favourite pastime with your spouse, that's fantastic. But please understand that in order for someone to enjoy cycling as much as you do, the interest must come from within - and that you are essentially killing any chance of that happening by pushing too strongly or making the person's first cycling experience too difficult and stressful.




So what should you do instead? Well, for starters don't try to be your spouse's teacher or mentor. Unless she has absolutely never pedaled a bike before, there is no need to "instruct" her, as tempting as that may be. Even if you think she is "doing it wrong", leave it. She did not sign up for a bicycle course; she just wants to have fun with you out in nature. Give her that, and she will associate cycling with the nice time she had - and therefore will want to do it again.



Also, even if you have been cycling since age 5 and can compete in timed half-centuries in your sleep, consider downplaying your prowess and adapting a "leisure cycle" mode. Don't kit up. If you have an old beater bike, ride that when you are together instead of your super-fast roadbike. I would even go so far as to suggest buying an old vintage upright-ish bike for yourself, to match the level of the bike your spouse will be riding. This will even out the playing field between the two of you and will make you less intimidating.



In general, I think that getting your spouse to cycle is not about what she should do to keep up with you, but about what you should do to make her comfortable with her current level of skill. If it's going to work, that's the only way. Only if she enjoys cycling, will she become motivated to improve her skills, and perhaps will even start asking you for advice - giving you plenty of opportunity to play "coach" when the time comes for it. But that initial enjoyment is key, and it is up to you to set things up in a way to make it happen. Think about it from that perspective, start slow, let her figure things out for herself... And perhaps before you know it, your special lady might delight you by becoming a bona fide obsessed cyclist, entirely on her own accord. She may even start a blog.

Sometimes ya just strike out!

And you have to wonder, What were “they” thinking when this was filmed? It's not the first time I've come across something like this. And I'm sure it won't be the last! [big sigh] Somewhere on this page is the guy I'm looking for...





Index to Deeds, Union County, Ohio for the “A” surname and “W” given name.Family History Library film 571773 accessed February 24, ..

Non-Clipless Cycling Shoes: What Do You Look For?

For those of us who don't use clipless pedals on our roadbikes, it would seem that the issue of cycling shoes is simple: Just ride in whatever shoes you like. However, at least for me it doesn't really work that way. The shoe has to feel right to cycle in, or I am miserable on a long ride.

The most obvious factor I look for is sole stiffness: My feet must be able to push the pedals without the soles of the shoes bending over the edge; otherwise it feels weird and tiring over the course of a strenuous ride. This is why most types of sneakers and casual slip-ons don't work; they are too flexible.The shoe must also be made of a breathable, yet waterproof material. It is uncomfortable to cycle in soaked cloth shoes in the rain. It is also uncomfortable to cycle in leather dress shoes, because my feet get too hot.Finally, the shoes should not be bulky, so as to fit into my Power Grips and generally not take up more space than necessary on the pedals.

I've been wearingAdidas running shoes on the bike, which have considerably stiffer soles than other sneakers and are also less bulky. They've been working well, except for one thing: the shoelaces. I tie the laces as securely as I can, then tuck them in under the "vamp" of the shoe to keep them away from the drivetrain. Mostly they stay there, but once in a while they come out and then I have to either stop the bike to fix them or risk getting them caught. And I have gotten the laces caught on the crankset a couple of times, so I am paranoid about it. Particularly on my fixed gear, the cranks are very narrowly placed and my feet are close to the drivetrain. I really do not want to get anything caught in there, and having to constantly watch for my shoelaces coming loose is annoying. So I reverted to childhood and bought velcro shoes. I've actually managed to find a pair of Adidas Originals, a special edition made with velcro instead of laces. Same stiff sole and breathability only nothing seems in danger of getting caught in the drivetrain. They look kind of silly, but as long as they work for me I don't care.

What shoes do you wear on the bike if you don't ride clipless?

Acadia :: A Leisurely Carriage Ride

We had gone over to Wildwood Stables on Thursday (September 13th) to see about going on one of the carriage tours. The first available opening for "Mr. Rockefeller's Bridge Tour" was for 2:15 on Saturday, so we made our reservations.



Saturday morning dawned with gray skies and scattered showers forecast for the day. We crossed our fingers and hoped that the rain would hold off until after the carriage ride, but no such luck. It started sprinkling as we drove into the parking lot. It drizzled off and on until the beginning of the ride then rained steadily, but not a downpour, for the first hour of the two-hour ride. Rain jackets and ponchos were the apparel for the day!





The carriage tour is a good way to see more of the natural beauty of the park as well as admire the work that went into creating the carriage roads and building the bridges. The driver of the carriage was also the tour guide. We were sitting at the back of the carriage and I sometimes had a hard time hearing what he was saying, especially when he was facing forward rather than looking at his passengers.



It was an interesting ride, with tidbits of information about the construction of the roads and the history of the area.






The colorful underside of one of the bridges.




This bridge is located near the Stanley Brook entrance, on the southern side of the park. We drove underneath it several times on our way to and from the park.





The 'Stanley Brook' entrance bridge from the other side. A hint of fall color is showing as is a bit of blue sky.






The carriage roads are very well maintained.




This Cobblestone Bridge was the first of Mr. Rockefeller's bridges and was built in 1913.





Patiently waiting for the rest of us
to get on board the carriage to continue the tour.





By the time we returned to the stables, the sky had started clearing, the sun had made an appearance, and we were mostly dry!