The Joy Of A Staycation: Biking In The City

I like to take a "big" trip every now and again.  But Memorial Day weekend is one of those times I'd prefer not to.  The weather has been warm and sticky; it rained on and off on Friday and Saturday.  But one of the great things about being in New York on a weekend like this one can be seen here:

This is the view down Washington Street, near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel.  I was on a bike, and I had it all to myself.  


Ironically, the most congested part of Manhattan may well have been the Greenway along the Hudson River, only a block away.  Tourists always flock to the Intrepid, which is about two miles up the Greenway, for this holiday.  And, it seems that everyone who isn't going there renting a bike, or stopping to sprawl themselves across the Greenway to take photos.


Here is another view from Spring Street:

After my ride, I went to the barbeque my fiend Millie has every year.  I more than made up for all of the calories I burned on my ride!

500 Posts, And A Bike That Will Not Help Your Resume

This blog has been in existence for almost two years.  And this is the 500th post on it.  


To celebrate, I'm posting a picture of a bike that "will not help your resume":

The Cannibal And The Statue

Do you want to see a sign of a real hard-core racing bike?

I could barely fit a business card between the brake bridge and tire--which is a 700X25C.  Yes, that bike isn't meant to take anything more than 700X23.


The bike is an Eddy Mercx road frame from 1994, built as a single-speed with only a front brake.  It owner, who came to unlock it as I was about to snap a picture of the whole bike, says, "It rides as great as ever."  I'm sure it does:  Well-made European lugged frames constructed from Reynolds, Columbus, Excelle, Falk or Durifort tubing tend to ride well forever as long as you don't crash them.


One interesting thing about the Mercx bicycles is that if you removed their decals and paint jobs, they'd be indistinguishable (to most people, anyway) from the classic Italian frames of the day,  They even had Italian threads.  But they were made in Belgium, the home country of "The Cannibal"--whom I still believe to be the greatest bicycle racer of all time.


Not far from the bike in question was the Statue of Liberty

  It's in front of the Loews Building on East 61st Street, just down the block from the Hotel Pierre.  This is one of the "drafts," if you will, of the more famous (and much larger) version that looms over the harbor.  

I wonder whether someone has told some tourist that it is indeed that Statue of Liberty, and said tourists went home believing that they indeed saw the "original."