Ride with GPS

Alan, a British gentleman who rides with the Tuesday night Griggstown Grinders bicycle group, utilized this new site to post the rides; Ride with GPS .  It really is a great site for bicyclists and motorcyclists.  You can upload routes from your GPS device or create routes and then print cue sheets.  The elevation profile is the most accurate I've found showing elevation and degree of slope along the route.  IMHO it is far superior to other GPS sites.  And you don't have to own a GPS to utillize features of the site, you can create a route and print cue sheets.  They are running on a shoestring budget, so it may be slow during peak times.  Tell me what you think.

New York Five Boro Tour

This weekend started on a positive note. I went on a bicycle ride out of Cranbury on Saturday and on the way back 3 of us got caught up in a fast pace line at the front and after several miles realized we must have passed a turn as a wait at a stop sign yielded none of the other 20 something riders in our group. The Garmin mapping paid off as it led us back to Village Park; much earlier than the group too. After that fun and fast 45 mile bicycle ride I met with a motivated buyer to show him my 1996 HD Softail Custom. A good outcome, some green in my pocket and one less motorcycle in the garage.

Sunday was the New York City 5 Boro Tour and an alternate strategy from staying at a hotel in Manhattan last year. This year the plan was to take the Staten Island Ferry early and have the truck ready for a quick escape after the Tour. After checking with several club members that have years of experience with the Tour I realized that I had to take the 5 AM ferry; which means I had to leave the house at 3:30 AM. To get a good night sleep I needed to go to bed much earlier than usual. The fast bicycle ride and the 40 mile Softail ride (to deliver to the new owner) weren’t enough to get me to sleep early no matter how hard I shut my eyes. I have one witness to my staying up late as I responded to his text Saturday night after 10:30 PM.

Up earlier than expected on Sunday I arrived at the ferry parking lot and rode to the entrance of the ferry. Below you can see the ferry arriving from Manhattan and my position for getting on the boat (no one in front of me, lots to the sides).

Pictures from on the ferry, as you can see I was in the front and there were plenty of bicyclists behind me.

The picture below is our starting position. At the intersection of Church Street and Worth Street; this is the first block of riders that aren’t VIP’s (in the first two blocks in front of us).

The picture below is from Worth Street looking back towards Ground Zero and all the riders behind us.

The picture below is looking forward from Worth Street at the VIP riders in front of us. It’s early and the VIP’s get to arrive up until the 8 AM start and get slotted into their spot, so it fills up by the start.

At a little after 8 AM we started; walking our bicycles at first, we mounted by the starting banner and rode up 6th Avenue (The Avenue of the Americas). I was with a group from my bicycle club and had decided to stick with them and not “race” to the finish like I did last year. It seemed like a good decision up 6th Ave. as the traffic jam of cyclists hadn’t spread out and we encountered our first bottleneck as we entered Central Park. Slow pace through the park but the nice weather made the pace bearable. Out of the park we headed up to the Bronx, back across the 3rd Ave. Bridge and onto the FDR Drive. We climbed up to the Queensboro Bridge and crossed the East River. At the top of the bridge I stopped to take a picture but a marshal immediately instructed me to keep moving. I did manage to get a shot after we crossed Roosevelt Island but it wasn’t due to my stealth picture taking it was due to another bottleneck.

Up through Queens we stopped in the rest area at Astoria Park under the Triborough Bridge (picture below); refill with water, great snacks and back to riding.

We stopped at the Con Edison Learning Center rest area to meet one of our members that had gotten ahead of the group. Check out the spectacular view of the Manhattan skyline! The 5 Boro Tour offers views of New York City from many angles making it a fun and exciting ride.

In Brooklyn Kyle flatted (picture below) and we got two views we may not have seen without the stop to repair the flat tire. First a rider came past with a parrot on his shoulder; ironically I’d seen this same rider and bird partner last year in Brooklyn. Three minutes after the bicyclist with the parrot on his shoulder a man walked past us on the sidewalk with a pet rat on his shoulder! Only in NY.

After riding through some neat neighborhoods in Brooklyn we entered the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and then on to the Gowanus Expressway. On the Gowanus as we got close to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge there was a cool breeze blowing off the East River providing air conditioning to the 90 degree temperatures. I took an opportunity to stop and shoot the photo below of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

Climbing up the lower deck of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge I stopped again to photograph the riders and walkers coming up the deck. And the view out of the bridge of NYC; last year this view was obscured by the rain and clouds; this year the view was spectacular but the 90 degree heat had some haze that the camera caught looking up towards Manhattan; now the speedy decent the bridge into Fort Wadsworth Park for the festival.

It took me 50% longer this year than last year. Last year it rained HARD and made the event epic. This year the weather was beautiful. I was very impressed with the quality and condition of the roads we used; after a tough winter the Department of Transportation must have worked hard to fill all the pot holes. I didn’t just imagine this; I was witness to the many fresh repairs I saw while riding in the event.

As I rode from Fort Wadsworth Park towards the SI parking lot I rode up to two of NYC finest on their Trek bicycles (example below). I overheard them talking about all the accidents they had seen today. Striking up a conversation with them, they said the city encourages as many of NYC Police to bike the 5 Boro Tour as possible to provide security and help with accidents and medical emergencies. I asked them if they thought there were more riders this year verses last year. They laughed and said there were at least twice as many riders this year due to the weather. They added that last year the Tour was pretty safe as only the hard core bicyclists come out in the bad weather.

Fun event!

NYC 5 Boro Tour Tomorrow

New York City's Five Boro Tour is tomorrow for 33,999 bicyclists and me!