Brooklyn by Bike

Even though I couldn’t join my fellow cyclists on bike this past Sunday for our food cart ride because of a leg injury, I still had a great time crawling the street for delicious Ecuadorian, Mexican and Halal food. A big thanks to Danny, Steve and Noel for helping lead and to Ryan for giving me lift on the back of his Workman Cycle to ended the day at Corona Ice King! #BikeNYC folks are rad.

This is a recap from Brooklyn Cyclist. Thanks Tyler!

I joined about 30 other biking foodies today for a trip to the food trucks on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens — one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the world. If you love food adventures, this is place is a MUST-visit! There were at least a dozen trucks along a 15-or-so block stretch of Roosevelt serving up everything from shrimp ceviche to pig ear tacos.

Thanks to Anita of Brooklyn by Bike for bringing everyone together once again.

Here are a few photos from the day. And here’s a link to a map from Grand Army Plaza to Roosevelt to help you find the trucks yourself.

Hungry #bikenyc foodies:

La Tia Julia. Their tortas looked amazing.

Egg and rice taco from a truck on 91st St & Roosevelt Ave.

Found this fantastic gallery of photos from Brooks Saddle factory in Smethwick England.

Metal parts are stamped out and heat-treated, flat pieces of leather are soaked and then formed in molds and the parts are all assembled by hand. After seeing how much work goes into a single bike seat, these famously expensive saddles start to look cheap. [via Doobybrain via Wired]

Cute or useless?

Master-Piece, known for their high quality bags and luggage, has produced a new series of bike chain covers. As usual you can count on the brand’s quality and styling. The bike chain comes in a series of colorways and will be released soon. Via Warp via Highsnobiety.

Sunny 60 degree weather in October spent on a bicycle with a group of friendly people had to have been the best way to end a season of rides here on Brooklyn by Bike!

Our Gears & Grub ride with VendrTV hit famed street food spots in Brooklyn from Sunset Park Chinatown to the Red Hook ball fields and the Brooklyn Flea.

[For more photos from the ride check out Flickr. Were you on the ride? Add you photos to our Flickr pool or to our Facebook event page! Map is below.]

Thanks to everyone who came out! I had a blast. We’ll do it again next season (unless I get that winter ride together)!

View Larger Map

Out in the heart of Queens there is a little known velodrome buzzing with track racers from the area. We rode out there this past Sunday to watch the New York state elite finals. Though most us of didn’t know the first thing about track racing (no brakes, no gears), a racer from MIT was kind enough to explain the matches and the rules.

[More photos are on Flickr. Were you on the ride? Add photos to our group pool! Our map of the ride is on Ride the City.]

That's MIT Mike on the right.

We learned a little something, got to watch the 20 lap races and meet some fantastic people on our way. Post ride we even had our second #bikenyc tweetup at Berry Park. As one of our riders put it, “cycling must really be marginalized if this is the big state event and you can’t even get a sandwich.” It’s true. We could all stand to support our local cycling community a bit more and I definitely recommend you check out the Kissena velodrome. They have some upcoming labor day events. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen.

Yesterday I got my first flat on the 3 month old Surly bike. The pinch flat was my fault as purposefully hit two curbs in a row. C’est la vie. I’ve been riding around on stock Ritchey SpeedMax Cross tires mainly because I’m too cheap to shell out money for new tires. I also rather like that they spit out gravel when I hit a rough patch of road and given their knobbiness, the tires are pretty fast.

I figure I will cave in after a few flats and invest in city proof tires. NYC is full of glass, potholes and the like so I turned to my Twitter friends for recommendations.

In order of most recommendations we have the following city proof bicycle tires.

1. Schwalbe Marathon

feedmeshow “Tough, high-mileage tires, with a reflective strip for better nighttime visibility.”

BicycleFixation “tough, comfy enough, not too slow.”

Price per tire $25-32

2. Specialized Armadillo

marcmayer “I use armadillo tires. One set of tubes for the entire season. Worth 80 ish for a pair.”

misterarthur “Armadillos are bulletproof but are like riding on train wheels. (YMMD)”

Price per tire $45-60

3. Continental Gatorskins or Top Contacts

mlascarides “Riding Continental Top Contacts. Con: A bit squirrely when riding parallel to painted lines. Pro: Good feel, indestructible.”

Price per tire $28-45

Other mentions include Bontrager Hardcase, Hutch Fusion 2 and Vittoria Rubino or Randonneur Pro.

What do you recommend?

This morning on my commute from Brooklyn to Midtown, I photographed a few of my frequently traveled bike lanes. Some of you may know that I was thrilled to see the north side, segregated bike lane (cycle track) on Sand St. completed. This road is regular part of many folks daily route as they head onto the Manhattan bridge. With the new cycle track, cyclists have a safety barrier between them and downtown Brooklyn traffic, fantastic! Click the photos to see more from the Brooklyn by Bike Flickr set.

Recently, Copenhagen Cycle Chic posted “The Good News and Bad News About Cycle Chic.”

The good news is that the very simple concept of riding a bicycle in your regular [preferably fashionable in my opinion, but not a prerequisite] clothes is being picked up by the press all over the world. This is a good thing.

If you want to ride a bicycle to work or the supermarket over short distances, you do not need ‘gear’. Just open your closet.

[via Cycle Chic]

Alright so I admit, I was inspired by this post and thought, to hell with it. I am going to wear my normal work clothes on my bicycle. Now I usually commute in a t-shirt and loose fitting pants, so today I wore a collared shirt instead. I traveled pretty slowly the entire time getting to work in an hour rather than 45min, but I still arrived sweaty.

Now I know I can get away will wearing my normal clothes in the winter, but come summer, it goes out the window. This is why I really do think there is a market for functional, fashionable cycling clothes…clothes that will wick away sweat but still look hot. While I agree with Cycle Chic that slapping cycling labels on regular shoes and clothing is just a marketing gimmick (ahem Topshop), there are companies out there who put time and money into researching and testing functional clothing.

Take Outlier for example, they make high quality tailored clothing for cycling. (Though not currently for women! …they tell us a women’s line is coming soon.)

Also Patagonia although not cycling specific, makes high performance clothing that can also pass in the office.

With the increasing popularity of cycling, there should be more options for causal and commuting cyclists to look good and feel good too. Sure a trip to the store doesn’t require specialized clothing, but a trip to work in the big city could.