Color For Today

Some rainy days are cheerful, with raindrops pattering against leaves and windows, and  a soft hiss rising from the plume of a spinning wheel.

Today has not been such a day.  It's just been dreary:  The rain simply drones on, and even though houses are festooned with holiday decoration, somehow there seems to be scarcely a hint of light.

So, I though I might cheer you (and myself) up by offering some color.  This can be seen just a few blocks from my apartment:

  

The owners of the house have put on an impressive display every year I've been in this neighborhood.  Here's  one side of the display:

Some things in it have been constant, like this lovely young lady:

And then there are the concessions to the times:

Tosca simply can't get enough:

After that, we did the ride I described yesterday and, from the Jersey City waterfront, watched daylight giving way to twilight and the lights of the New York Skyline:

A New Randall's Island Bridge For Cyclists?

Today I took a ride to New Jersey, along the Palisades and through Jersey City, Bayonne and Staten Island. From the Island, I took the ferry to Manhattan and cycled up to the 59th Street Bridge, and home.

I've done this ride any number of times before.  However, along the way, I took a little detour on Randall's Island.  

Earlier this year, I'd read that the city planned to build a pedestrian/bicycle bridge from the Island to the Bronx.  Right now, it's possible to use the walkways on the Triborough (RFK) Bridge.  That's exactly what I did today. However, those walkways have their own perils for cyclists.

The Triborough is really three spans that lead into Randall's Island.  One such span, which is close to where I live, connects Queens with the Island.  This span is the most-photographed (for good reason) of the three, and many people think it is the Triborough.  Then there are spans from the Island to Manhattan (at 125th Street) and the Bronx.  

Actually, the Bronx spur is bookended by walkways on its east and west sides.  As those paths approach the Island, they zig and zag like Alpine slalom courses enclosed by concrete walls.  Then they converge at a single steep ramp that ends abruptly at a curve in the island's main road.

The bridge would eliminate those ramps (as well as the stairs one must ascend in order to access the walkway to and from Queens) and instead would be continuation of one spur of the island's mostly-complete bike path.

I am eager to see the bridge completed, not only for making a part of my ride more pleasant.   It is seen as a vital link between the paths and fields of Randall's Island and a greenway that's supposed to be built in the South Bronx. 

 Some residents of that neighborhood walk across the Triborough, but many more drive or take buses to play soccer, softball and other sports and games, have picnics and barbecues, or to fish, on the Island.  In addition to making a bike ride easier and more pleasant for folks like me, I would hope that the bridge would also entice some Bronx residents to walk or ride bikes to the Island.

The South Bronx part of Asthma Alley.  Actually, it's the buckle in New York's asthma belt: The neighborhood's 10451,10453, 10454, 10455 and 10474 ZIP codes have the highest juvenile asthma rates in the United States.  (They are also part of the nation's poorest Congressional District.) Obesity rates are also high in the area, as they are through much of the Bronx.  Ironically, even though much of the fresh produce sold in the NY Metro area goes to the Hunts Point Food Market (located in the heart of the South Bronx), most residents of the surrounding neighborhoods cannot buy fresh fruits or vegetables in their own communities.

Anyway, enough about subjects about which I don't know much (apart from having written an article about the asthma rates).  I am hoping that the new bridge's construction proceeds quickly but safely.  But I have to wonder whether that will happen after seeing the  sign on the left.

It says that Con Ed, the local utility, is removing duct work from underneath the scaffolding. I hope this doesn't delay construction!

Panzo Race, BMX Backflip And Other Bike Games

I'm not much of a game-player.  I think I've played computer games maybe twice in my life.  The only games about which I ever became passionate were chess and Scrabble.  I haven't played either in years.

Still, I was fascinated to learn of the existence of bicycle games.  Someone sent me this link to She Games, which has a bunch you can play for free.  One of the cuter ones is the Panzo Bike Race.




And then there's "BMX Backflip":



Play Free Games Online at Shegame.com




It reminded me of one of my youthful mishaps (though I was, arguably, not quite youthful when it happened): the one and only BMX backflip I ever performed.  What made it a mishap was that it was completely unintentional.  

I was riding the trails (and off the trails--ssh! Don't tell anybody!) of Forest Park when I came to a mound from which pubescent boys launched themselves into flips and spills.  I rode up--the wrong way, on the steeper side-- with the momentum I'd built up from a descent. 

The next thing I knew, my bike turned into the Cyclone without the tracks.  My bike looped through the air so quickly that I didn't have time to find out how it felt, or to be scared--even when I returned to earth.

I landed on my head, and my bike did a backflip on the ground.  I felt that blank numbness you feel when you're in shock and everything seems to stop.  But, oddly, I felt no pain--and wouldn't feel any--even though I fell so hard that my helmet broke in half!

Somehow I don't envision anything like that resulting from playing a bike game.  

Susan B. Anthony On Cycling

"Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance."

Those words were uttered by none other than Susan B. Anthony.  What she said was not at all hyperbolic:  bicycling almost single-handedly brought women's clothing from the 19th to the 20th Centuries.  

In this illustration from an 1895 issue of Punch magazine, the young woman on the left is wearing the then-new "bicycle suit."  The woman on the right, in contrast, is wearing the ankle-length skirt and bodice that were more typical of women's attire until that time.  

I wonder whether the woman in the "bicycle suit" is wearing some sort of girdle or other torture device to cinch her waist. Looking at the woman on the right, and knowing about the fashions of the time, I would guess that she had a corset underneath her outfit.  By the end of the decade, that undergarment would become as outmoded as seamed stockings would later become.  As women were released from the bondage of whalebone, their skirts got shorter and, sometimes, morped into the then-shocking "bloomers", which resembled, more than anything, old-style Turkish trousers.

Even Susan B. Anthony herself probably didn't realize how true her comment was.  Even during the "dark ages" of cycling in the US, women wore clothing that allowed much greater freedom of movement than what their grandmothers donned.  So, by the time the "bike boom" of the 1970's came along, it was that much easier for us to ride--and to work 18-hour days.

Into The Cold

In my youth--and well beyond--I cycled in shorts in all but the coldest of weather.  I can even recall riding in January with nothing covering my calves or knees.  It seems--in memory, at least--that those winters were actually colder than the ones I've experienced in recent years.

Over the past few years, I haven't cycled in shorts past November.  That, in spite of the fact that the past few falls and winters have been milder than usual. (Last winter was one only in name.)  In addition, I find myself wearing long sleeves or an additional layer when I wouldn't have needed them in years past.

I'll admit that since Sandy, I haven't done nearly as much cycling as I did before.  (Sandy was part of the reason; the rest has to do with other things I've been doing.)  So, perhaps, my circulation isn't what it was early in the fall.  On the other hand, others have suggested that it may have to do with being north of 50, or my hormonal changes.  Remember, back in the day I was full of testosterone (among other things!); now I have no more than a typical woman has and, of course, I have continued to take the estrogen I was taking before my surgery.  

From Active

Long before I started my transition, I noticed that women felt cold more often than men, and men were more likely to feel heat.  And, after taking estrogen (and a testosterone blocker) for some time, I started to notice that I felt cold more often than I did before starting my treatments.

So, I have to wonder whether my changes, aging or something else is affecting my sensitivity to the cold.  Maybe I'll end up as a subject of someone's research.  Could that be my contribution to posterity? :-[

Doing Their Good Deed Daily?

Previously, I've mentioned that The Bowery Boys is one of my favorite non-bike blogs.  Now I'm going to introduce you to another:  Old Picture of the Day.

Like Bowery Boys and Nikon Sniper (another favorite), OPD is not normally bike-related.  However, today's photo featured two Boy Scouts giving rides to girls.  The question is:  To whom do those bikes belong?

As you've probably noticed, those bikes have girls'/female frames.  Now, we've all seen guys on girls' bikes:  Come on, admit it, all of you guys have ridden your wife's, girlfriend's, sister's or mother's--or some other woman's--bike.  Maybe you didn't know whose bike it was.  That's OK. ;-)  Or, maybe you even owned the bike.  That's OK, too.  At one point of my life, I was commuting on women's bikes because they were completely out of fashion, so they weren't being stolen as much as men's bikes were.

But how likely is it that both of those Boy Scouts owned girls' bikes?

Were they riding men's bikes, I would have guessed that those boys were following the Scout pledge:  Do A Good Deed Daily.  However, if those bikes belonged to the girls, I would have to wonder whether they "picked up" those Boy Scouts.  From what I understand, that would have gone against the gender norms of 1937, when that photo was taken.  

And it looks like the Scouts' troop is standing in the background, off to the left in the photo.  Could it be that those girls went up to that troop and picked the two boys they thought were the cutest?  Now that would be a real breach of gender norms of that time!

Or do you think there's some other story behind the photo?

Beauty Among The Ruins

OK, boys and girls, I'm going to give you one more kind-of-sad (or, at least, melancholy) posting.  Then I'll try to stick to happy topics, as this is the holiday season.

Anyway, six weeks after Hurricane Sandy, it seems that I see more and more of its aftermath everywhere I turn--especially when I get on a bike.  Here is what used to be nicknamed "Barretto Beach":

This postage stamp-sized piece of Barretto Point Park has sunbathers and picknickers on it when the weather is warm, and people fishing from it at other times.  It's usually full of sand and is clear of rocks and other debris, if not litter.  And, before the storm, this plot was about twice the size it is now.

It is closed off.  So is the pier at the other end of the park, and the barge that houses a swimming pool.  As much devastation as I saw, I was surprised, frankly, not to see more.  

Here is another part of the park that was eroded:

I guess the '60's Schwinn Collegiate didn't want me to look at it for too long.  You never know what kind of effect such things can have on a young sensibility like mine, you know.

At least Randall's Island, through which I ride to get to Barretto, didn't seem quite as badly damaged--or, at least, more of it has been fixed up.  Here is a shot of one of the island's native plant gardens:

I found the color change on this tree particularly interesting:

Usually, I assume that trees with needles rather than leaves are evergreens.  Apparently, this is some sort of deciduous tree with needles.  Whatever it is, I love the effect of its color change.

Well...I guess this wasn't such a depressing post after all!

Over The Rainbow

Whenever you see neon- or Easter egg-colored "deep V" rims on some hipseter's or messenger's fixie, console yourself with the thought that things have been much, much weirder.

From Bike Snob NYC

You see, all of the rainbow boys and girls are merely aping a trend of the 1890's.  Yes, they really had Velocity Deep V rims in "antifreeze green" in the days of the penny-farthing. I know:  I was there.

All right, so now you know I was pulling your crank--I mean, your leg.  But I can tell you that cyclists actually wore tweed in those days!

When we see images of cyclists and their mounts from the 1890's, they usually seem quaint.  I don't think that a century hence, people will see velo-images of the 1990's in the same way.  

Now, that was a time of some really weird bike parts.  First of all, mountain biking took off in the late '80's.  Around 1990 or so, mountain bikes and components appeared that were not derivatives of their road and touring counterparts.  (That's also when the first frames with suspension were built.)  By the mid-1990's, it seemed that every other twenty-something in California who had access to his father's machines was making derailleurs, brakes, seat posts, cranks and almost every other part.  Some were actually quite good and were improvements over what had been available.  On the other hand, some stuff was merely what we used to call "ELS", or Expensive Lightweight S**t.

In the latter category were nearly all cranksets made by those one-man cottage industries.  I knew riders who weren't built like NFL linebackers and still managed to break Kooka, Topline and some of those other over-machined, over-priced crank arms.  And then there is specimen:  a Cucamonga crank:

Whoever made these cranks seemed determined to incorporate every whacky idea and trend in bike components from the previous three decades or so.  On one hand, the holes are from the '70's, while the shape suggests the '80's mania for aerodynamics, or the pretense thereof.  And the pink anodizing is right out of the '90's.

I don't know anyone who actually rode those cranks.  Perhaps they were made to be "collectibles".  What will some future anthropologist surmise about '90's cycling and cyclists from them?

Early-Winter Blues

Coney Island Boardwalk in early winer.  From Kinetic Carnival

Since Hurricane Sandy, I've ridden to a boardwalk that has been completely washed away and another that has been ripped apart in some sections and collapsed in others.  While others have hopes, however unrealistic, that their beloved seaside promenades (or some reasonable replica thereof) will be ready for next summer, I mourn the loss of them right now.  I know I won't be able to ride them this winter; I am not entirely sure they'll be ready for next fall or winter.

Although I occasionally ride on a boardwalk when the weather is warm and the sun is high, I much prefer them when the sun is lower in the horizon (or when it's overcast) and a chill, or even pure-and-simple cold, blows in off the ocean.  Sometimes I take such rides with others; more often, I do them in solitude.  In fact, sometimes solitude is the very reason I take such rides:  During such rides, thoughts seem to come as clear as the winter sky and  feelings as intense, and even sharp, as the crisp salty air.

So, while others fear what they might lose to Sandy next year; I am mourning the rides I can't do now and won't be able to do during the coming weeks and months.  On the other hand, I count my blessings:  Other people have lost far more to the storm.  Some are my students, and I have met others.  At least I still have some things to offer them, even if they refuse.  And I still have hope for those winter boardwalk rides, if not this season.

GI Bike

I am not what anybody would call a "war buff."  And I don't get into the jingoistic self-congratulations that mark too many commemorations of armed conflicts and their combattants.  

On the other hand, I do understand that war cannot be separated from history, and that many valuable lessons can be learned from studying the strategies and mistakes of various military leaders, as well as the effects war has on people who aren't directly involved in the fighting.  And, I must say, it does make me a little sad to realize that most World War II veterans are dead or dying.  It's something I realized today, when I saw a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  A few veterans were present; I think the median age was around 92 or so.

In thinking about the 71st anniversary of the deadliest attack this country would experience until the ones on 9/11, I looked at some images of--you guessed it--military bikes and soldiers on bikes.

The US Armed Forces never designated official bicycle patrols for World War II.  However, soldiers, sailors and airmen used bicycles in a variety of ways during the war.  Here is a patrol in Hawaii:

From The Liberator

They are riding official US Army bicycles made by Westfield Manufacturing Corporation, a.k.a., Columbia.  Here is one, close-up:

Some of the bikes were painted entirely in olive drab, as this one was.  Others had blacked-out hubs, handlebars, cranks and other parts that would have been chromed prior to the war.

Huffman Manufacturing Co (a.k.a. Huffy) made a nearly-identical model that was also commissioned by the Army.  However, Huffy did not make a women's model, as Columbia did.  Columbia also made a folding version of the bike.

Not surprisingly, the Japanese also made extensive use of bicycles during the war (which, technically, began in 1931, when they invaded Manchuria).  Here is a Japanese bicycle patrol in the Phillipines:

From Hyperwar

Perhaps even less surprising is the fact that the British armed forces used bicycles in warfare--or that Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) made a folding bike for the troops.

Interestingly, before the War,  BSA bicycle components were the ones most widely used by racers, including those in the Tour de France.  And, yes, the company is the same one that made BSA motorcycles, which were the world's most popular before Japanese makers took most of their market.