bicycle diaries

my commute is often on my bike nowadays and it's appropriate i'm reading david byrne's bicycle diaries. it's made me reminisce over the many cities i've biked in. copenhagen. pittsburgh. berlin. london. kyoto. portland. tulum. los angeles. i once saw mr. byrne biking in les and at a st. vincent show. he is inspiring to bike more even when i'm not in New York.

update: just started the buenos aires section and realizing we stayed at the same hotel, bobo.

bfc to boil

going ride my bike until i get home

this was pretty much me this weekend.

bfc: red hook

mini bicycle fun club excursion: red hook. this destination was just a hop, skip and a jump away. funny shar was thinking of an ikea trip just yesterday, but all the rain deterred it. the sunshine was out, and we had the largest turnout for a bfc.

mike - check
eric - check
jen - check
richard (bfc first timer) - check
shar - check

i was all over this trek. first stop, steve's key lime pie. in my brief residence living in carroll gardens, i attempted to go twice and was denied. not today friends.

eric, richard, mike and jen post-pie

bfc is becoming a food tour on bikes. we hit up the ball fields after pie. i gots me some mexican corn. kids, the red hook food vendors close up trucks for the season november 1. get your papusas and delicious aqua frescas now.

bfc - staten island

unexpected scenic ride: staten island. bicycle fun club (bfc) met up to ferry over to staten island. shar's never really been to staten island. only rode the ferry once and got off to get back on. it was quite the treat. biked to the verrazano and past it to the beach. my beach cruiser sure loved it and all the boardwalk biking. what a successful trip that ended with the best pizza in the five boroughs according to the daily news.

eric, jen, mike = bfc

spectrum of bikes in bfc - eric's fancy fixed gear beaut and my beach cruiser
reward = sausage and broccoli di rabi from sal's

the crazy "apocalyptic weather" colors of sunset from battery park. we just caught the view as we departed the ferry.

feat of the day

feat of the day: biking home from time square over the brooklyn bridge. it was my first solo biking effort. thanks eric for escorting me over the manhattan bridge. two bridges in one day. gooooo shar! thanks to this site i was able to navigate home despite not following the directions exactly. i survived sans helmet. sorry gloria and dermot for worrying you.

note to self: never bike home on the bk bridge on a weekend and a gorgeous night. peds don't understand bike lanes.

bikes back

long awaited return: shangra-li fuji purple goodness*. thanks to mike's spare mountain bike tires and the fine folks at dixon's, shar's bike is back on track. i blew out my back tire earlier this month. this made me uber sad, but i finally got myself to a bike shop to get it repaired. the bike station on vanderbilt which was my first choice had closed or i would have done it sooner. i upgraded my bike with a basket and lights. fancy, no? i have to bike down to red hook as orginally planned before the blow out. i wish stumptown would open already. maybe a visit to saki's?

*goodness = when i went to pick up my bike another customer was like that's a funny looking bike and i had to answer it's mine. funny looking = unique :)

bicycle brilliance

belated biking: shangra-li unveiling. i bought a fuji bike over two months ago, and finally took it out on loverily labor day. it's an old cruiser in the hue of purple. sexy, no? my first mini ride was to clinton hill, which required me to navigate atlantic avenue. let's just say i felt like i was going to get run over easily. man, i wish there were bike lanes. i really do heart biking. i used to bike all over copenhagen when i was a wee exchange student. copenhagen ruled though with their huge ass bike lanes and massive amounts of bikers that always made me feel safe in numbers. not so stateside, but i'll brave the streets alone until the bicycle fun club (aka mike, eric and i) team up to shred the streets of nyc.

most looking foward to: nfl kick off - thursday, september 4. are you ready for some football? shar is, um, always ready. in fact, this is me a week ago during my lunch break. oh look what i encountered?so shar loves her some pigskin action. anyone interested in seeing brett favre in all his ny jets glory? even though favre bumped my QB crush chad pennington from his role with the jets, i can't help but see the ol' cheesehead in action before he really retires.