The itinerary included:

1. Los Hermanos – Bushwick
2. El Globo – Corona, Queens
3. Roosevelt Ave Taco Trucks
4. Acapulco - Greenpoint
5. Tulchingo Deli IV – Sunset Park
6. After party @ DeKalb Market

We didn’t make it to the last two due to time but opted to grab a beer and tacos at the Woods in Williamsburg before heading to DeKalb Market for the after party. The boys of the ride loved all the meat tacos at El Globo, recommended by Jeffrey Tastes at the Nixtamal killer. The veggie tacos there were pretty awful though. Overall, Los Hermanos was a group favorite again as well as the trucks on Roosevelt Ave.

Were you on the tour? Which was your favorite?

For more photos check out our Flickr and add to our pool.

Ming taught us a bunch about the history of Chatham square and gave us a very personal look into her life and knowledge of Chinatown. Did you know that Lin Zexu, the leader against the English-Chinese opium trade, statue stands with his back facing Wall St? Ming also intorduced us to her favorite restaurants and even a secret passageway. It was the first of a series of tours so if you didn’t make it out this time, more are in the works!

Also a big thank you to everyone who came out to the #bikenyc meetup on Oct 4th at Red Lantern Cycles! We had a huge turnout, of 40/50ish people, great vibes and one of the best birthdays I’ve had in awhile. Thanks to Brian of Red Lantern for being so awesome, providing the space, tunes and keeping the beer flowing. All of this was made possible by Google Places. Thanks! Until the next one, keep riding. If you have photos, please send! Seems I was too sloshed to take any proper photos.

Next up, Tour de Taco #3 this Sunday, Oct 9th. It is going to be epic.

We’ll be meeting up at Red Lantern Bicycles (345 Myrtle Brooklyn NY, 11205), a new cafe & bike shop in Fort Greene started by the guys at Brooklyn Bike and Board. Google Places is sponsoring the happy hour and two $50 gift card giveaways. Details below. A big thanks to both of them!

Enter to win a $50 gift card to Red Lantern Bicycles!

Summer Streets is a great introduction to cycling in the city because for 5 miles or so, some of Manhattan’s busiest streets are closed to motor vehicle traffic. We took the Brooklyn Bridge over which connects right to the route. The bridge was the busiest I’ve seen in my 6+ years in NYC! If you missed this ride, you still have one Saturday left. It’s one of my favorite summer events and I highly recommend checking it out. Our route is below.

Thanks to Gudphoto for group portrait! You can find him in front of Bike Habitat again this coming Saturday for your very own bike portrait.

post ride beers and fries

Check our Flickr set for more photos from this ride.

Our route from Brooklyn to Manhattan Summer Streets. Click for map.

Sunday 8/14 there are two rides to City Island in the Bronx.

Ride with the Bike Nerd and meet at Meet at Continental Army Plaza at 10am. More info on FB.

Or head over with Nona Varnado at 10:30am.

We kicked off the season with a ride to Governors Island for Figment festival. This ride becoming one of my favorites because of it’s proximity to Brooklyn, the free ferry ride over and the car free island. Not to mention Figment is always so much fun and full of interactive art and music.

Interested in joining us? Sign up for our email list for future rides. Scroll down for the route.

in front of the bicycle toad at our destination

riding the ferry over with our bikes

You can check out more photos on Flickr.

The Route

from Grand Army Plaza to the Gov Island ferry – 2.8mi on bike lane streets

click for the google map

I should start with a disclaimer. I am in love with Barcelona. It was by far and away my favorite of the cities I visited and cycled in on my trip. I arrived with some dreamy stereotypes in my head (ahem Vicky Cristina Barcelona – yeah I said it) and what I came away with was even more lovely than one Woody Allen film could depict! Ok so now that is out of the way, cycling culture!

I started my trip by meeting up with Txell from Barcelona Cycle Chic and Steven, a friend of hers from Pedal Messengers. They took me to rent a bicycle from My Beautiful Parking, a very cool bike shop in Barri Gotic (C/ Cervantes 5) where I got a lovely Fuji single speed for the next three days (15-35 Euros per day).

My new cycling friends and I went out for a night tour of the city where we mostly drank and ate for the next few hours…just my type of ride! We got to discussing the growing bike culture in Barcelona. The city installed Bicing, a bike share system in 2007 which helped launch bike culture in the city. Now Barcelona accounts for 10% of all Brompton sales!

You can see bike lanes and increasing numbers of cyclists around the city. Not to mention, Barcelona is the perfect size for commuting and has year round cycling weather. Because the culture is so new and fairly small, cyclists seem to unite together. I was hanging out with a a cycle chic blogger and a messenger and it wasn’t really a big deal. This is something you don’t find in NYC very often. It’a shame that we have our own pockets of bike groups here – commuters, messengers, racers, etc and very rarely do they intersect. One of the goals of my rides has been to bridge this divide!

I spent the next few days on my bicycle getting lost, cycling from one mountain to another and eventually to the beach. Everything in Barcelona is easily accessible and within 20-30min on a bicycle. Along the way I noticed that cars generally pay a little more attention to cyclists in BCN than in NYC and that cyclists here pretty much ride where they want. Bike theft is a problem just like any other city but people generally get away with using cable locks. To give you an example Steven locked his Cinelli frame to my Fuji and leaned it against a tree and we had no problems.

Overall Thoughts:

Barcelona is at a very exciting crossroads when it comes to bike culture! The newish bike culture makes for friendly cyclists and they ability to cycle in the narrowest of the old city roads…one of the coolest ways to get lost and see the city! But because the culture is new, look out for motorists who aren’t used to sharing the road.

I’m always going to recommend you spend a day on a bike in any city, but you should REALLY spend a day on a bike in Barcelona. It’s a smaller city with the perfect weather and great for cycling.

For more photos from the trip check out BrooklynbyBike on Flickr.

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.

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