And I mean that quite literally. I mean, take a look at the shot above. That is the Manhattan Bridge pretty much on any given day!! The Brooklyn Bridge however, is another story. Now, I am a pretty laid back chilled out person. But when I try to ride over the Brooklyn Bridge, I am enraged by the time I get from the concrete incline up to the slatted plateau because of the throngs of tourists that just can’t stay out of the bike lane. I mean, REALLY people, they have a picture of a bike in one lane, and a picture of a walking figure in the other. You don’t have to speak English to understand that the bike lane, when facing Manhattan is on the right side, and the walking path is on the left. When facing Brooklyn, the bike lane is on the left, and the walk path is on the right. I don’t even have a picture to post here of this nightmare because I get so mad about it, that I don’t even think of my camera as I’m riding through all the inconsiderate people. All I want to do is blast an air horn right up on someone’s ear every time I get on the bridge….

…But never again!! Yes, I have now renounced the Brooklyn Bridge for riding forever more!! I mean it. My poor nerves can’t take it. I can’t stand the tourists in the bike lane taking pictures, not paying attention, strolling in the lane like three wide, letting their kids run around in the lane–oh that’s a doozie!! Or my personal favorite, they stroll in the bike lane on the downhill. Oh god, there is nothing that enrages me more than to have a good speed going, flying, literally flying down the decline on the bridge and having to rubberneck because of these thoughtless people. Rubbernecking…..on a bike?!?! Oh hell no….

Sometimes what I do to teach them a lesson is to time it so that as they are strolling and not paying attention to what they are doing, I speed up and literally brush their arms as I whiz by. And more times than not, I hear them get startled and jump a bit. I always smirk, thinking that maybe I have taught them a lesson. I can feel the dirty stares on the back of my head, but I don’t care. They need to either have me scare them or some equally thoughtless cyclist actually hit and hurt them. Yes, I can admit there are thoughtless cyclists too–we are not always the innocent ones out on the road…

One time I was so pissed at having to keep yelling my usual “Excuse me!!” to all the offenders that I just lost it on one woman when I came upon her in the bike lane that I yelled (and even much to my own surprise), “MOVE!!” She was so stunned she turned around and I gave her a dirty look as I rolled by her, and again, I felt a dirty look thrown right back at me, boring into the back of my head. I felt a little guilty about yelling at someone like that, but I was frustrated with the whole situation.

And it doesn’t even really get any better in the evening either. So I am making a call to arms: all cyclists, take the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges as our own!! I mean, sure, you may at times have to take the Brooklyn Bridge to a destination that is close to it, but remember, you’re on a bike. In my book, there is no “out of the way” on a bike. It just means more toning for your thighs, more conditioning your circulation. Who cares if you have to go a few blocks more? Isn’t it worth it just to avoid fantasies of beating down a tourist in the bike lane with your chain?….or is it just me that has those fantasies?…..

Really, look at that picture of the Manhattan Bridge during the day. It’s empty. You can ride however you wish across the span–hey do wheelies if you want. No one is on the bridge!! Granted, at night it really is creepy–I know I’m spooked on it at night and I don’t spook very easily–but you get to and from Brooklyn a lot quicker. And also noted is that it lacks the same kind of incline and decline the Brooklyn Bridge has which most riders prefer to work up a bit of a sweat. But if you hate the tourists in the bike lane as much as I do, consider he Manhattan Bridge. Or even the Williamsburg Bridge. I really like the span they have. It is architecturally interesting, brightly painted, stickers and social commentary galore for reading while you ride, wide lanes and the incline and decline you’d miss if not on the Brooklyn Bridge.

I know for sure that my sweet affair with the Brooklyn Bridge on wheels is dead. And Middle America and most of Europe killed it…

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.

So kids, I am out in the Hamptons this weekend and I am spending time with a family friend. She took me with her to her spinning class this morning and I have a few things to say about it….

First, the class is so totally counterproductive to any kind of actual riding, road or otherwise. It was very weird to my trained brain and body to watch everyone pedaling on these bikes like their tails were on fire!! Then they slowed down, then sped up again, slowed down and sped up even more–and all this to clubby techno music, and the instructor wasn’t yelling at us, but had her voice raised to get everyone amped. So anyway, I think I may have stuck out because I had my race stance on and kept pedaling at the same pace the whole class. I was crouched over like I was doing a long distance ride on the long bars, which in a way I was. I found it to be quite refreshing to keep pedaling for long periods of time as opposed to the constant starting and stopping in the city. And as I kept up my pace (and even put on more and more resistance), I knew people were going to burn out, which they did. Some folks of course are into the spin class and did pretty well, and I applaud them, but I know that if they were put on a bike on the road, it would be a very different story.

I realise now that spin class isn’t really about being able to pedal or have some kind of semblance to riding. It is all about burning calories, which is what these folks totally did. However, I still say the real thing is the real deal.

And the one thing that really got me was the fact that here you are in this room, stationary (which drives me NUTS about the gym), sweating your face off with no cool breezes that come with the open road. I swear I soaked through my clothes and was dripping sweat all over the place and I kept thinking, “God this is a hot box!!” It was weird to see just how much I can actually sweat. I guess that since I am active, my sweat glands have no problem pumping it out, but when outdoors, it’s a little better than being indoors and stewing in your own juices. UGH!!

But all in all, I got a great workout and I really didn’t even feel much burn. I am very happy about that, because if I did actually feel some kind of burn, I’d be worried…..

Now you have to use your imagination and clean up the image a bit. Or maybe not. I mean if you think about it, maybe keeping the tattoo looking a bit scruffy like that would make it look more authentic. I mean, it would look like you have just scraped your leg against your cassette (like any normal day), but it’s really a tattoo!! How cool would that be?!?! Think about it–a tattoo, that looks like a grease stain on the leg that looks like a tattoo anyway, but it really is a tattoo!!

OK, I do dork out sometimes, but I’m cool with it….

Oh how happy am I that summer is here. Beautiful blue skies, flowers in bloom, warm breezes, tan lines…. And time to shed the long sleeved jerseys for something like this baby from Craft:

Of course now is the time for rain and lots of it. Making sure your breaks are on point is key!! Aside from that, you need the right gear to stay dry. I have looked around for some rainwear and there seems to be a trend for the standard yellow jackets and pants that remind me of the rainwear you wore at camp. However, this beauty from Pearl Izumi caught my eye:

So far this spring, start of summer, there seems to have been a lot of rainy days. And my saddle seems to channel rain straight down the crack of my….well, rather than give up my saddle, which I really like a lot, I’d like to get my hands on these from Showers Pass:

My saddle is a WTB saddle here:

Now do you see the reservoir going down the middle of the saddle? Now, this is supposed to distribute your weight on your butt evenly so you don’t go numb, but I swear when it rains, it just channels the water into my seat. This is a great saddle and like I said, I will not change it. I think this is geared more toward mountain biking and I’m sure that riding on the mountain in the rain is a no-no. However, since I have a cyclocross, it is weird when I look up components for my ride, as some are mountain, some road. I dig the mountain saddle….

Anyway, there will be much to do during the summer, as I have joined two cycling clubs, and there are many tours just dying for my involvement. Also this year I am going to be on the lookout for ways of getting out of the city (gasp!!) and find roads to ride for miles and miles into the sun… And I fully intend to be prepped with the best gear!!

So tooling around on the web I found this site called MeetUp in which meet up groups are created by interest and then they have meetings. The site is a hub to gain members and the meetings are organized and info is emailed to your email address. So naturally I typed in “cycling” in the search box. I came across a page of cycling groups and I just signed up for two of them!! The first one is called NYC Cycling Chicks. It seems there are one hundred and twenty seven members, and I guess I make it one hundred twenty eight–though I’m not sure yet because I had to fill out some questions from the organizers asking me about my riding and experience and level of difficulty. I hope they add me, that would be weird to turn someone away don’t you think? The second group I signed up with is called Beacon Bicycling. This is a new group and I think I”m member number thirteen. Lucky!! No, really, thirteen is a good number for me.

So I finally signed up with Facebook recently, hoping to get this blog out there, and I came across this pretty cool online bike store. It’s called

I Bike Do You 2 has some pretty cool stuff, including BMX gear and unicycles!! I also just happen to like the way the site looks. I urge you to check it out, see if there is something that is of use to you!! I think I want to get the Race Face Hoodlum Hoodie…..

Also, I got the little picture of the logo for the shop by using this thing called Clipmarks. You can use it to add stuff you clip from other sites to your website, blog or save them and put them into pages like I have here. Pretty neat little tool!! Now this site is going to have a lot more visuals. Yay!!

Yes, kids, the stubborn one here finally made the switch to clipless pedals!! What ultimately prompted me to do it is the fact that the regular metal pedals had those spikey things on them that kept stabbing, knicking, tearing and outright cutting my legs. I couldn’t take it anymore. So down to my regular bike shop I went, Bay Ridge Bicycles. Those guys are awesome.

So I was very trepidatious about getting the clipless for the first time. I was worried about being attached to my bike during a fall and breaking my ankle or even worse, falling in front of a car and not being able to get away in time, still being attached to the bike. (As you can see I was terribly afraid). I have even seen plenty of folks falling down not being able to click out in time. I didn’t want to add another item on the list of things that can hurt me on my bike. However, getting cut on the leg everyday from those awful metal pedals changed all that.

I didn’t realise that there were the clipless that were a hybrid of sorts. The pedals I got (above) can be used with the shoes that lock in, or they can be used without. I figured that during the learning period I could just switch to regular shoes. Well the first day I fell. Twice. The first time I caught myself on a fence. The second time was a full on fall, in the street, foot all caught up in the front wheel. How embarrassing!! I even hit my elbow and got a speed knot that really hurts when you touch it. But I’d rather a speed knot on the elbow than a broken ankle any day. I got up, dusted myself off, with the help of my friend John, and was kind of shaken. For a moment, I considered putting my sneakers back on and just trying at it again another day. But I wouldn’t let myself. I clicked my feet back on those pedals, shaking, but I did it. I didn’t fall again the rest of the day. I almost fell again the next day, but got my foot out in time. I realise now that I still have to be rolling to get out. And what has really helped is the advice that one of the guys in the shop gave me. I have played it in my mind like a broken record. This is what he said:

“When you’re coming to or even think you’re coming to a stop, click out.”

His advice was great. I click out when coming to corners like twenty feet away or if I think something is going to keep me from being able to move on, I click out about ten feet away and I have my foot out in time. The problem I keep having is forgetting that I’m clicked in sometimes and I stop on a dime and think I can just put my foot down. When I do that, I make myself roll some more and click out. Man, it’s an experience I can tell you. It’s almost like learning how to ride all over again!!

Now what I also get out of this is the power I get from using the clipless. I get more out of the rotation and man I swear even the dreaded uphills are not as bad!! I feel I have more control… Why oh why did I wait so long to go clipless?? I used to use the stirrups when I raced. I forgot how much power you get when attached to the pedal. But then when I stopped, I just went with the laceless and didn’t think any more about it. How stupid, especially now with my penchance for demoning through traffic, I need the control. I almost see now why fixed gear is so popular with the messengers.

The shoes I got are from a company called Lake. Check out the website. The shoes I got are these:

They are so comfortable!! And they are very sneakery, so you can ride and then also walk around without wearing the stiff, clicky road shoes (which now that I think about it is another reason I didn’t want to go clipless). They also have a really cool reflector on the back. Because of shoes like these, I feel much more comfortable with the switch. They are utility and fashion in one (girly coming back out…). I am really glad I got them!!

So I got some info about a cycling club called “Dykes on Bike-Cycles” from some nice girls at the Tour de Brooklyn. They are looking for riders for their 2008 Pride rides. There are three of them. One is for the Queens Pride on 1 June. Second is the Brooklyn Pride on 14 June. Third is the biggest Pride parade (and my favorite parade of the city so far) in Manhattan on 29 June. It is five bucks to ride. To RSVP go to dykesonbikecycles@gmail.com.

Check out their blog here. It’s a pretty neat page.

Check it out.

As I was walking out of the door with my bike, heading down to DUMBO to sign in for the ride, I wondered just why they have to start an eighteen mile tour so early. The start time to sign in was eight o’clock. I knew there weren’t that many people riding and I was a bit cranky on the way down.

However, my attitude changed as soon as I got down there. First, the vibe of a crowd of riders is always infectious. People were jazzed, dressed up in their tour outfits, kids were excited, people were chatting with friends, people were wearing their bike gear and all kinds of bikes were in attendance. So of course a bike nut like me got excited too. Not only that, but the day was gorgeous!! Not a cloud in the sky. I even had to pull off my riding jacket to cool off. (Tis not me looking at the map. I just thought this would be a cool shot.)

As I waited there for the ride to start, these two awesome girls came over and chatted with me and we ended up spending the ride together, along with another friend of theirs. They were really cool people and I enjoyed hanging with some new people!!

The ride itself was kind of slow moving. At first I was a little irked. But chatting with new friends and the beautiful weather overshadowed the pace. I thought the turnout was pretty good too. It wasn’t that crowded, but still it was big enough to make a show of it. The crowd wasn’t as diverse as the 5 Boro or even the Tour de Bronx (which, by the way, I have already signed up for). But that was cool, because I think the riders were all Brooklyn natives so you know they were all cool!!

The ride was cool and I had a good time out in the sun and getting some fresh air and more exercise. I even got a shot of this really cool ride:

Pretty bitchin’ if you ask me. The owner even wore a leather vest over his T-shirt, bandanna and black jeans. He looked like a Hell’s Angel!!

I would totally recommend anyone doing this ride. It’s a great way to get to know your fellow Brooklynites, your fellow city dwellers, and just some good clean fun….

The first bike that caught my attention is this one:

A John Deere?!?! Like the tractor dudes? I mean, is that for real? And I am genuinely asking because I really don’t know. I didn’t know that John Deere made bicycles. I can tell you that this bike was old because when I lifted the frame it felt like I was bench pressing a weight in the gym. Yikes. I can’t even imagine trying to get up a hill riding this bike, but I sure as hell would surpass the speed of sound if you put me on a downhill on it!! Here is the far-out shot:

Pretty cool for tooling around the neighborhood, grabbing scant groceries and some cat food no? I am a sucker for the front basket on a bike. It always makes me want to get out, pedal to the nearest Italian shop and buy some vine ripened tomatoes, fresh baked Italian bread and a brick of fresh spun mozzarella, and some flowers. Yeah, I girl out like that sometimes.

Next in line was this one:

Peugeot. Classic. Funny how being a more contemporary biker, I don’t come across bikes like these anymore and it is more reminiscent of my childhood than being a kitschy throwback for the uber-cool. I think it’s awesome that people ride classic bikes like they ride classic cars. It’s all about being in the know. Anyway, looking at the handlebars, I kind of squirm, as I have never liked the brake cords hanging out like this:

I am more of a streamline kind of gal.

But in speaking about these classic bikes, I have a a treat of sorts. I came across this site in my ongoing research to find all bike knowledge that I can. It is called Bicycle Classics and they have products to keep up your classic ride!! They seem to have a pretty good collection of parts and they seem to be as geeked out about bikes as I am!! Major plus in my book. Check it out. The site itself is very basic, they do not have any pictures of the parts, but it seems to me to visit this site, you really have to know your stuff, and perhaps this site is geared to bike geeks as well. It’s well worth checking out if you are serious about wanting to upkeep a classic bike.