From the Minne-Apple to the Big Apple

In my last post I mentioned spending some time in New York this summer. Other than an overnight at a hostel in Manhattan en route to New Hampshire via Amtrak, I had never had a chance to experience the city.

While my first trip this summer was brief, it occurred smack in the middle of the Weinergate saga and made me feel like I was at the center of the universe. I checked in to my hotel, turned on the tv, and saw this:

I marveled realizing the press conference being broadcast around the world was happening just across town. (I guess I'm still hayseed enough to say, "Look who's in the big town.")

The second trip to NYC was for an entire week, and my assignment finished up early granting me a full day to spend at my leisure. A recent copy of Momentum Magazine featured NYC biking resources, including the address of a shop with reasonable rental rates. I decided to spend the morning on two wheels, so I took the subway from midtown to Greenwich Village and had no trouble finding the shop.

Hudson Urban Bicycles features a combination of vintage three speeds and cruisers for sale, decked out in full fenders and Brooks saddles, as well as their contemporary counterparts (think Batavus and Linus). While their rental stock wasn't quite as fabulous, I did find a Batavus three speed to help me navigate through overcast Manhattan and Brooklyn, with full fenders giving me insurance against a chance of showers.

I worked my way across the southern tip of Manhattan, following signs for the Brooklyn Bridge. I crossed into Brooklyn, explored the space, and started to make my way back when I suddenly heard the "pop!" and "gussssssssssh" of an inner tube's life being cut tragically short. Perfect timing.

Amazingly, it didn't take long for the situation to be remedied. In rare fashion, the Google map application on my Blackberry actually worked, and I located a bike shop just blocks away. R&A Cycles fixed me up in no time flat, and I was back on my merry way. I changed my plans to cross the Williamsburg bridge, opting for a more direct route via the utilitarian Manhattan Bridge.

I made the mistake of spending the last bit of time in lower Manhattan. While it was cool to see Soho and the financial district, it left a lot to be desired in terms of bicycle infrastructure. The cobbled streets and pedestrian traffic in Soho made it very difficult to get around. The sheer volume of vehicles and pedestrians combined with fewer bicycle lanes made the financial district almost impossible to navigate. I admitted defeat, locked the bike up, and hoofed it over to Ground Zero, Wall Street, and Charging Bull at Bowling Green Park. I was pleasantly surprised that the bike was still there when I returned.

Once leaving the financial district, I had no trouble making it back to Hudson to return the bike. What's more, they even cut my rental bill in half to compensate me for my troubles and reimbursed me for the flat. How's that for Minnesota NYC nice?

The rest of the city appeared to be quite easy to navigate on bike. Separated bike trails flank the island, there are a generous number of bike lanes in Brooklyn, and Central Park has huge amounts of space dedicated to bikes. I wouldn't say it is quite on par with Minneapolis, but it is still a great bike city and I'd love to ride there again.

Gone 'til November...

No posting since June? Wow, I didn't anticipate that or else I would have sung a Wyclef Jean song earlier. Since June there has been a lot of accounting. And a lot of cycling. But more accounting...

To give the 30,000 ft summary, here's what happened:

Work
New York
Work
Cycling in New York
Work
Seattle/Montana
Work
Cycling in Iowa
Work
Work
Work
Work
Work

If you mix in some Minnesota cycling through there you pretty much have the summary.

And now a word from our sponsors...

Thank you, generous cashier at Au Bon Pain (Capella Tower) for providing me with two plastic bags with which to cover my beloved sneakers. The skies opened up on Wednesday right as I prepared to ride the bike home, and I didn't want to ruin a perfectly good pair of Adidas. I promise I will patronize your skyway level pastries and/or coffee soon.

Twin Cities Bike Walk Week came and went (June 4-12) without much fanfare here. After two years of setting up a work team, I've learned that most people in public accounting aren't interested in these kinds of activities, so I didn't even bother signing us up. I did participate in Bike-Walk Day (Thursday the 9th) but arrived somewhat late so most of the excitement had faded by that time.

If anyone hasn't heard of the Nature Valley Grand Prix, it's a great freebie spectator event to take in. I made it to the Crit races in both St. Paul and Minneapolis this year and enjoyed every second of it. You can check out some video highlights at the website, and here are a few teaser pics from St. Paul and Uptown, respectively:

Watching this race almost makes me want to drop a few grand on a high end racing bike, some tight fitting expensive clothes, and some clipless pedals. Almost.

Whoomp! (There it isn't)

I wanted to title this post in the present tense when I rode past the Ace of Base themed pillar this morning. But by the evening commute, the graffiti police had already cleaned it up:

I'm continuing to tack on the miles from commuting and other rides. Last week was pretty good:

Monday - No commute (Memorial Day)
Tuesday & Thursday - Bicycle
Wednesday & Friday - Carpool

On Thursday after work I rode almost 20 miles, then logged a 55 miler on Sunday morning to finish the week right at 95 miles.

YTD Mileage
The last confirmed reading I have on my odometer is 613 miles at 11/1/2010 which was about the time I switched over to the winter steed. So my estimate for year to date mileage is 483 miles.

How many miles are in a fortnight?

Well, the fortnight ending May 29th had about 120 miles. Most of this (80 miles) was spent riding to rural Zimmerman, MN, then back to the Elk River North Star station where I caught the 5:15 train back to Minneapolis. The rest was from some recreational rides and commutes.

The miles should start building up now as I'm getting ready for a full week of RAGBRAI this summer. Other things on the summer bike agenda: complete a ride from the twin cities to Iowa and get rid of a few bicycles in the garage/basement.

Consider this a five day warning

You absolutely HAVE to go check out the Nice Ride MN website and sign yourself up for a membership. As I've mentioned before, it's only $40 through May 31 and it's pretty easy for this thing to pay for itself with the money it saves:

Want to bike to work but don't want your bike to get stolen? Find a Nice Ride station near you and save yourself the $40+ you would have dropped on a Kryptonite lock.

Live in the suburbs and don't have a station close to you? Park for free on the fringes of downtown near a NR station, and ride on in to the office. In a week it will have paid for itself.

Even if you don't do either of those, a membership still comes with a TON of good coupons for bike shops and restaurants so you can probably get your $40 back through purchases at these locales. Not to mention that a membership comes with two complimentary 24 hour subscriptions for a friend ($10 value).

Seriously, this is a great deal, so go get yourself signed up PRONTO!

Wednesday's Commute - Early 90s Flashback Edition

Today's round trip to the office provided both morning and afternoon stimuli which sent me immediately back to the days of hyper-color t-shirts:

AM - Ace of Base lyrics splashed across a supporting pillar of my favorite underpass

PM - A pack of rollerbladers gliding down the Hiawatha trail

I logged more hours both rollerblading and listening to Ace of Base in the 90s, but I'm not certain what compels someone to risk criminal charges by announcing "All that she wants is another baby" in the public arena.

Anybody remember what you were doing in the early 90s?

Toward another disequilibrium?

In a perfect world, my commuting miles would match my work hours:

4 miles to the office + 4 miles from the office = 8 miles/day

8 miles/day x 5 days = 40 = 40 hour work week

I have spent the past few months working a lot more than 40 hours, and riding a lot fewer than 40 miles each week. Hopefully that starts to flip very soon since busy season is over, and the weather is making for more ideal riding conditions. I don't think I'll be having much of a problem getting closer to a 1:1 ratio as long as the weather cooperates, and hopefully I"m closer to 2:1 or 3:1.

I did keep the "consecutive months with at least one bike commute" streak going by riding to the office on a Saturday, plus to the client site last Monday the 25th.

In other news, the NiceRideMN bikeshare is operational again, and I've already logged a few rides. Through May you can score an annual membership at a reduced price ($40) and they also throw in two vouchers for 24 hour passes you can use to let a friend tag along. Get yours here!

March Madness

It's almost over. One more game to see if the Huskies or Bulldogs reign as champs this year in NCAA basketball. I'm pulling for Butler, though I admit I was too busy this year to even complete a bracket since my own (January through) March madness overwhelmed me. Thankfully, it's also coming to an end soon.

Looking back at March, I did have one good week of riding (March 14 - 18) when I covered half of the week's commutes on bicycle. Since then, the weather has been spotty and I haven't wanted to ride the the Long Haul Trucker until conditions improve a bit, but the coming week looks good, especially if rain washes the winter sand and grime off the streets and trails.

Saturday was one of the first truly bike-able days of the year, and it marked two milestones: the first time I have broken two chains in one day, and the first ride on the Drifter in 2011. I rode my Dunelt 3-speed to the closest bike shop (the Hub) to grab a new chain for the Trucker, but the chain snapped only blocks from my destination. This was caused more by the significant corrosion that had accumulated on the chain than my massive leg strength overpowering the steel rivets. To add to the irony, the shop was out of the size of chain I needed for the Dunelt so I "scootered" home on the bike.

After a few botched attempts to install the new chain on the Drifter (more on that later), I met up with a friend to wheel over to the opening of 2011 Minneapolis Artcrank, and break in the Drifter. This was my second time checking out the Artcrank event, and I actually thought this year featured a stronger selection of posters than the 2009 event. I walked away empty handed, yet again, primarily a function of the posters I liked not fitting any color schemes in our house. Here are my top three:

"Neighborhoods" - Adam Turman

"Twin Cities Cycling: Stone Arch Bridge" - Tim Kramer

"Twinfinite Cities" - Todd Zerger

Don't worry if you wanted to check out Artcrank but couldn't make it to opening night, it continues through May 22 but moves on to One on One Bike and then Art-a-Whirl. Check the website for details.

So how did the other chain break? On the return leg of the ride, the chain snapped right as I crossed Lake Street on Minnehaha Avenue, this time only one block from the Hub (which had been closed for an hour). As I mentioned before, I experienced a few mishaps installing it initially and forgot to properly weave it through both the front and rear derailleurs (not once, but twice). The final time breaking and reconnecting the chain was a little sloppy, and I wondered how well it would hold up. Not well it turns out. Two bikes, two rides, two broken chains.

I figured I needed a few minutes to simmer down, so I walked the bike home.

Beware the Ides of March

This morning had me itching to get on the bike since it's been warming up here and I haven't ridden to work for a few weeks. In my excitement I didn't bother to check the calendar. I doubt Julius Caesar realized he was halfway through March, either.

A soothsayer's warning had even come to me over the weekend as I cracked open the latest edition of Adventure Cyclist magazine:

Nevertheless, I wasn't the least bit concerned with applying too much front break or going over the handlebars this morning. I mainly focused on spotting areas of refreeze since I had recently swapped out the studded tires in favor of normal tread. Perhaps this distraction, or my blinding ambition to get to work as quickly as possible, kept me from exercising proper braking form.

To be honest, I don't know what caused me to fly over the handlebars, but it was likely more than neglecting to lock my elbows. All I remember is riding upright one second, and being catapulted face-first to the ground the next.

As I shook off the confusion, I sensed a looming threat: my bicycle, a trusted traveling companion, hovered above me ready to strike, moved to act by gravitational force. I didn't even have time to muster an "Et tu, Brute?" before it came crashing down on my back and sent me crumpling to the ground.

Thankfully, nothing was seriously injured on me or the bike and I got back in the saddle and completed my commute, which is more than Julius Caesar can say.

Will it ever stop? Snow? I don't know...

But I will be excited when it does stop. I will also be very excited when le weekend no longer means spending a day in the office and only one day at home.

I've always fancied myself a youthful looking chap, but after six busy seasons, I'm finally starting to look my age. I got home last night and tried rubbing the exhaustion out of my eyes, but all I saw was a tired old man with dark circles under his eyes staring back at me in the mirror.

As you can imagine, the "counting" to "cyling" ratio has been extremely high for the first two months of 2011. Even though I started off the busy season with a client downtown, I only logged three bike commutes in January. I was out of town for 2 1/2 weeks in February and only added one in that month. But after November's lack of bicycle commutes, the current streak sits at three straight months, and if a we get some decent snow melt, there's no reason to think I can't keep it going in March.

Wanna know what it's like to snow-bike in Minneapolis? Check it out, you'll even see some of my south Minneapolis haunts. Enjoy the illegible winter biking tips, brought to you Star Wars style at the at end!

If I Had Done It, Here's How

Remember when I promised this write-up during the account of my first RAGBRAI experience?

Probably not, so go back and refresh your memory (see part I and part II)

In any event, I wanted to figure out how successful I would have been had I needed to slap together some make-shift fenders to keep myself free of road grease and debris.

I grabbed the supplies I had accumulated and set to work.

I found it quite easy to cut-out fender patterns from the empty 24 pack, and using the scissors I had snatched from my friend's place, I was able to trim them to size. In no time at all, I had both the front and rear fenders in place:

Front Fender

Rear Fender

While the rear fender easily held itself connected to the rack via zip ties, I found the real challenge was fashioning front stays to give the fender some support. I found some small twigs and snapped them to size to gain some clearance between the tire and front fender, and the bread ties connected the sticks to the front eyelet. I punched the other end of the twig through the cardboard fender, and voila:

I tweaked the fit after a quick spin around the block, and once I was confident everything was secure, I really put the fenders to the test. It rained the day before so puddles abounded. I spent 10 minutes sloshing through every body of water I could find in south Minneapolis to see how well they would hold up. The gleaming white t-shirt I wore remained completely unspoiled, and the fenders were a little damp, but still held their form.

Altogether, it took me right at one hour from start to finish. Although it was a fun project, I hope I don't have to do this for RAGBRAI 2011. Speaking of which, the route gets announced this month, who's riding with me this year?