Category: Bikes

BRITTANY O’NEAL BIKING IN BROOKLYN

Brittany O’Neal with the smooth lines, speed, and power, slicing through Brooklyn streets and making it look easy (it’s not).

I lived in Brooklyn for about five years, and biked a lot of miles, so a few of those streets brought back a lot of memories. I didn’t cover those miles like Brittany does, but hey, that’s okay.

DOORED

I was riding through Chinatown, minding my own biz, and some kid opened his door and I hit him. I was going slow, so nothing crazy happened, but the frame for my touring bag broke. This means the bag that I carry my 25lbs worth of stuff is broke now. Boo! Thankfully the kid gave me a few dollars towards a new frame.

This could have been a lot worse.

LAPS

I’ve been doing some laps at Central Park in recent weeks. Lots of aero bars and tourists on rented bikes.

My 40-60 mile jaunts between towns and cities are within my abilities so riding around the park is for the saddle time. I’m not trying to break any speed records, I just want to build up to 4-5 hours of time on a bike seat.

THE BIKE

In case you’re wondering what sort of bike I will be riding during my adventures, it is a NYCBikes single speed with flat bars. Right now I’m not planning on adding any extra bags or a seat-post rack. This is mostly because I don’t have a lot of stuff, but once I start hauling my laptop and the rest of my possessions (which isn’t a lot) that could change.

I wonder if doing this adventure on a single speed is a mistake, then I remember I’ve done some serious rides on this bike already. I’ve done 75 miles a few times, and a handful of 50 milers. Even the ride to Nyack, NY and back. I realize I won’t be doing these rides in record setting time, but I’ll get there.

BIKES ON SUBWAYS

Since my rear flasher freaking fell off while riding down 2nd ave I figured it’d be safer to take the subway for the 2nd half of my commute.

And yes, there is something written on the floor but I didn’t get the full text. And yes, it includes the word horny. Yea.