photo: genevieve walker
velojoy street scene
Genevieve spotted this canine bicycle passenger in front of Espresso on Ninth Street and Avenue C in Manhattan this week. The petite pooch apparently rides on the e-bike’s back rack without aid of a basket. Tiny seat belt?
Upcoming Events:
Saturday, January 28 – Bike Share Open House
If you’re shopping at Essex Street Market on the Lower East Side this weekend, add checking out the New York City Bike Share bikes to your list. The open house is part of Alta Bike Share’s and the NYC Department of Transportation’s ongoing introduction to the system, due to launch this summer.
12 – 3 pm
120 Essex St. at Delancey St., Manhattan
Information.
Sunday, January 29 – Learn to Ride a Bicycle for Adults
It is never too late to embrace the joy of riding a bicycle. Bike New York presents free, 2-hour bicycle-riding classes for adults and mature teens — and the good news is that they’re indoors. An easy system teaches all the basics needed to ride with confidence.
PS/IS 180, 120th St. at Manhattan Ave., Harlem
10 am and 1 pm
Register here.
February 11 – Hot Chocolate Ride
Mark your calendar, and stay tuned! We’ll soon be posting details of the next in a series of awesome social rides organized by getbikingny.com Read more…
Back row, from left: Tania, Girls Bike Club leaders Kayla Story and Coralee Montes, Ladijah, Jo-Jo and leader Zorida Ortiz. Front row, from left: Shacora and Naomi. photo: velojoy
As I registered this week for the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC in March, I was thinking about some of the moments that stayed with me from the recent Youth Bike Summit here in New York City sponsored by the community-based shop Recycle-A-Bicycle.
As Pasqualina Azzarello, RAB executive director, has said of youth engagement in promoting bike-friendly communities, “The desire to connect around this issue is potent,” a fact reflected in the voices of the youth summit participants.
(Above) Leaders and members of the Girls Bike Club of Chicago’s West Town Bikes, a program that encourages empowerment and self-sufficiency through cycling, gave a spirited presentation (claps and cheers!) to a packed room. Men still outnumber women three to one in bicycle commuting in the U.S. Efforts to engage young women in cycling, and to develop leadership around sustainable transportation — early — is one path toward changing that calculus. Read more…
photo: velojoy
There’s no doubt that keeping your bike clean and operating smoothly can be more of a challenge in winter because moisture, salt, sand and road grime conspire to sabotage you on a daily basis.
Road salt can cause your frame to rust and make parts, like the bearings in the bottom bracket that allow you to pedal your bike, seize up. The sand that’s so liberally sprinkled on city streets on snowy days? It gets caught in your brake pads, causing premature wear of pads and rims.
velojoy welcomes new contributor Susan Lindell, director of retail operations and chief “wrench” for Recycle-A-Bicycle in Brooklyn. Susan’s monthly posts will help keep you in the know about the basics of bike maintenance and mechanics.
These and other threats make for a sad bike and a frustrated bike mechanic. Here are a few simple steps to keep your bike clean, healthy and happy this winter: Read more…
A new study from the Alliance for Biking and Walking focusing on the 50 states and the 51 largest U.S. cities finds increases in the percentages of Americans walking and bicycling to work and improvements in overall safety, and underscores economic and health benefits. However, it finds disproportions in risks to pedestrians and cyclists, and in funding for projects related to active transportation.
The study, Bicycling and Walking in the United States: 2012 Benchmarking Report, highlights progress and benefits as well as challenges in encouraging people in the U.S. to walk and ride bicycles. Last conducted in 2010, it presents a trove of data, plus models of success from around the world, for use by policymakers, advocacy organizations and others interested in promoting sustainable transportation in local communities. The survey arrives as Congress is considering the next federal transportation bill, which designates how billions of federal tax dollars will be allocated.
Growth, Plus Benefits to Economy and Health
The survey finds that between 2006 and 2009, the percentage of people who commute by bicycle or on foot increased from 2.9 to 3.4 percent. However, while the survey reveals that 12 percent of U.S. trips are by bike or foot, 14 percent of traffic fatalities are among bicyclists and pedestrians. At the same time, pedestrian and bicycle projects get less than 2 percent of federal transportation dollars. Read more…
photos: velojoy
velojoy street scene
On the eve of its closing, I stopped in to the Guggenheim to see Maurizio Cattelan: All, in which the lifetime sum of this Italian contemporary artist’s work in a variety of mediums (taxidermy!) is suspended dramatically inside the museum’s atrium from rigging attached to the ceiling (top photo). My dizzying journey up the museum’s signature spiral ramp, past works such as the notorious La Nona Ora (1999), led me to…a bicycle dangling just beneath the oculus. Turns out the artist, a provocateur who has announced his retirement from the art world after this exhibition, uses a bicycle as his main form of transportation. This one, a Bianchi, refers to Cattelan’s contribution to the Italian Pavilion of the 1997 Venice Biennale, in which he parked ordinary bicycles near the works of other artists. “Highlighting the incongruity of the outside world and the exhibition display, the bicycles were so subtle that exhibition attendants repeatedly removed them, only for Cattelan to replace them,” says the show catalog. If you missed this eye-popping exhibit, the app is one of the coolest ever.
Upcoming Events:
January 23 – Icebreaker TouchLab Opening
Icebreaker, the New Zealand maker of Merino wool clothing for active outdoor wear opens its second TouchLab NYC store across from the High Line in the Meatpacking district. (At this time of year, we like their base layers for cycling.)
11 am – 7 pm
823 Washington Street
January 28 – Outlier Open Studio
Devotees of Outlier, the Brooklyn-based performance wear company known for tailored pants for bicycle commuting will appreciate an opportunity to get a close-hand view of its offerings and to check out new products.
2 – 7 pm
87 Richardson St., 3rd floor
Information.
Read more…
photo: velojoy
On a particularly frigid morning in New York City recently, a bicycle commuter commented on twitter: “Just removed my gloves and discovered 5 Popsicle sticks inside.” It’s true that few sensations are as uncomfortable, or take the fun out of winter cycling faster, than cold hands.
Fortunately, there are plenty of gear options to help keep fingers frost-free. When the mercury starts to drop below 35 degrees F, I rely on a variable, three-part layering strategy to stay comfortable on my ride. Read more…
photo: Joanna_Pan
The benefits of riding a bicycle for transportation in the city don’t subside during the winter. In fact, some may multiply. Think zipping past traffic stalled by sloppy weather. While it’s true that cold temperatures and snow can throw some curve balls your way, a few adjustments in your riding technique, choice of a route and routine on arrival at your destination will keep your rides safe, comfortable and enjoyable throughout the winter months.
Click here to view Part 1 of this series, in which contributor Neil Bezdek focuses on what to wear and how to prepare your bike for winter riding. Also read Neil’s Rambling Man blog about life on the road as a pro racer at bicycling.com.
Your skills
Staying safe on wet roads is all about thinking a step ahead and remembering that your traction is limited.
• Brake twice. Quickly squeeze and release the brakes before you really need to slow down. This clears water off your rims, and you’ll have much better stopping power for round two.
• Brake before turning. Braking and turning each apply lateral force to your tires. Doing both at the same time doubles this force and is more likely to send your tires sliding.
• Lean your bike, not your body. It’s impossible to turn without leaning in, but leaning your bike instead of your body makes it easier to keep your mass over your tires and correct for a skid. If you lean inside with your body and your tires slide outside, the only place for you to go is down. Read more…
photos: velojoy
velojoy street scenes
We spotted these related bicycling themes on the same day at the West 72nd Street transverse (top) and in the West Village in Manhattan.
Coming Events:
Friday, January 13 – Sunday, January 15 – Second Annual Youth Bike Summit
Read our post about an event that’s engaging a new generation in cycling and advocacy, and sign up!
Saturday, January 14 – Market to Market Social Ride
Winter blues? Shake ‘em off with a social ride to the flea markets of Brooklyn. Hosted by experienced city riders Kim Burgas, Liz Patek and Kimberly Kinchen, this relaxed event is a great way to connect with fellow cyclists. The ride begins at Union Square in Manhattan and makes a stop at McCarren Park before continuing on to the Brooklyn Flea and Artists & Fleas to prospect for vintage treasures.
noon – 5 pm
RSVP and updates here.
Tuesday, January 17 – Lottery Registration for TD Five Boro Bike Tour
This annual 40-mile ride on traffic-free streets through the five boroughs, produced by Bike New York, has become so popular in recent years — 32,000 spots sold out in less than 24 hours last year – that it’s switching to a lottery system for 2012 registration. The period to enter online for the May 6 event opens January 17 at 10 a.m. and runs to February 7 at 5 p.m. (VIP and charity ride entries are not subject to the lottery.) Click here to read all the details of how to enter. Read more…
In the week before the Second Annual Youth Bike Summit in NYC, the gathering of young people, educators and advocates from around the nation that convenes at The New School in Manhattan this weekend to encourage and empower a new generation of cyclists, Pasqualina Azzarello, executive director of Recycle-A-Bicycle, the event’s organizer, radiated calm.
Near her work space, a neatly organized island amidst the sea of used bicycles at the RAB retail shop in Brooklyn, hung hundreds of canvas tote bags (photo above), colorfully hand-painted by RAB teen volunteers for the conference participants.
On that day, Azzarello, who leads the NYC-based organization that focuses on bicycling as a vehicle for youth development, environmental education, community engagement and healthy living, had good news. Summit registration was trending up over the inaugural year, and two new sponsors, Specialized and Planet Bike, had come on board. Read more…
Bike bells are required equipment for cycling in New York City. How else to shoo free-ranging pedestrians and what-not from the bike lanes? We like our bells brassy and classy, so this one made an instant impression. The custom alphabet etched onto the surface gives the familiar design by Crane an extra-quirky quality. Says Elysse Ricci, who created the typography for the artists’ collaborative Nothing Major, “I’m always down with a nice set of glyphs.” So are we. (h/t refinery29)
Nothing Major, Brass Bike Bell, $30.
