Showing posts with label group bike ride. Show all posts
Showing posts with label group bike ride. Show all posts

11/5/11

Time's Up Moonlight Ride is All That

I just got home from the Times Up NYC Moonlight Ride and I loved it!
It occurs the first Friday night starting at 10pm of every month.
I've been trying to not-have something to do but have failed for several months now. I'm so glad we did it!

Malaika got this cape from a seller on Etsy. It's beautiful! And so is she and I had so much fun, I'm glad she didn't let me punk out and get in my bed at 8pm like I could have/would have.
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If you're looking for a cape, she and I recommend this one.  I'm really in a mood where I want to buy made in USA things or thrifted items. I'm trying to not-buy disposable, cheap, made in china shit clothes.

Sidenote: I asked the head designer at my company what she thought of a certain local chain in NYC and she said "Slutty garbage."  Deadpan comments like that thrill me.

If you're not good at seeing in the dark- You need to get some sick lights or maybe don't do this because it was quite dark sometimes and you just had to trust that you weren't about to be bumped off your ass.

Great thing about it - It's a real treat to be able to ride on the paths in Central Park in the middle of the night. At first I felt like a rebellious schoolgirl riding on the walking paths where bicycle riding is forbidden and not to mention- rude.

But at night when no one is there it's sweet.

Our first stop happened shortly into the ride. This is Wollman rink and it's probably a good idea because I bet you a dollar it's way less popular than Rockefeller's or Bryant Park's.
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I'm really glad about my outfit-
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I was perfectly prepared for the temps and the terrain. There are terrain situations - wear sneakers! This is my tough-ass-bitch leather motorcycle jacket I bought over the summer from a real motorcycle supply place. It's finally cool enough to wear it. I got an American Apparel hoodie (heathered brown) to wear under it and beef it up a little.

Me and Malaika gossipped and chatted the entire ride and felt bad that we were probably bothering everyone but I hope we were OK and I hope we didn't seem too silly. We were dressed quite differently from everyone else. There was a majority of reflective safety vests, like utilitarian ones.

Overall- I loved this ride. We were dazzled almost immediately and maintained excitement and loveliness/romance about the city at night. I hope I can do it several more times and get some friends and my punk-ass playstation playing husband to do it too!

We stopped just a few times. I kind of expected more stopping, hanging out-type socializing. At this stop at the northern end of The Great Lawn, there were some astronomers who let us peep through their telescopes. That was fun and nice of them.
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Suggestion: I think lights should be required or strongly recommended on this ride. (Lights are the Law anyway) -Not to light your way, but to make you visible to others. I came up real close on a slower person who had no lights in the beginning.

Safe coincidence: Only 1 person was not wearing a helmet in our group of about 20 riders.

Me at the end! I had a scarf wrapped around my head/ears to protect ears from wind.
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I also had to zip my chest-plate up. The wind was cool and fierce on the way home. Sometimes the wind is pushing against me and it feels like I can't move forward and I laugh nervously in those times sometimes.

Also- I got these Ski glove at the K-Mart. Thank goodness I had them!
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I rode home at almost midnight up a desolate Madison Avenue.
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When I got home at Midnight I was hungry mungry! Thanks to Malaika for a very nice Friday night bike date and thanks to Time's Up for being such a nice organization. I was so happy when they got a shout-out on Rachel Maddow tonight for the generator bikes down at Occupy Wall Street.

No- I have not yet been to OWS because I'm scared the police will beat me up. 

8/23/11

Final Installment of Summer Streets

Summer Streets
I am so glad I participated in all three installments of Summer Streets. I fell into the first one accidentally, but loved it immediately.

This week me and Malaika established a meet-up spot, so other people could easily locate us and hang out. This was a good solution, because last week I missed people. Summer Streets is busy!
Bike Girls at Summer Streets
Kristina, Maureen, Sheryl, Malaika and Me! And a very cute Jen with a black Linus Dutchie stopped by briefly.

Julian
And Julian sporting a really cute houndstooth man-pouch. It's contents match my little bicycle cosmetic pouch of supplies.

After hanging out in the Whole Foods picnic area and eating free snacks, some of us rode down to my favorite summer spot, that sadly, is closing at the end of the month - Imperial Woodpecker Sno-Balls!
Sno balls

I was a little nervous leading people on a ride. It was short, but still. This was a BIG FIRST.
MalaikaUsually I'm just leading my husband around.

Reggie & Kristina are a very neat couple. They had a costume party Halloween wedding for gosh-sakes!
Reggie & KristinaKristina's Schwinn Wayfarer is a model that has caught my eye before. It's a very cute bike.

Kim is a Londoner, who is new to biking in the city. We pushed her boundaries and I hope she's proud that she rode on streets without bike lanes.
Kim

Me and Malaika again, used the West Side Greenway to get home. We had outfits to plan to celebrate Sheryl's birthday later that evening.



7/25/11

World Naked Bike Ride NYC - 2011

There are many posts on the internet about yesterdays NYC edition of the World Naked Bike Ride.
I'm just going to tell you the ten things that I was enormously thankful for.

1. Thank goodness Steven the Bike DJ was there. Seriously. When we got separated from him, it was heart-breaking. Not only does he have one of the sweetest rigs I've ever seen- He played perfect song after perfect song.
My boyfriend STEVEN
I'm lovingly angry at him that he is not on twitter. I want to know where he is and what he's doing at all times. 


2. The police escort was fierce. I think it irritated and annoyed a lot of people. It was excessive, but it made me feel really safe. I feel terrible that I might have set a bad example by not wearing a helmet. We went so freaking slow and we were so surrounded by cops- I felt an amazing freedom riding on the typically mean streets of NYC.
SO MANY POPO's Behind Me!
Look at all those police cars! Those are all some sort of blue-lights-flashing vehicles. We were surrounded by scotters, little parking meter rigs too. And in this one, I've got my own private scooter escort! 


3. The Balloon Girls. 'Nuff said.
We Love these girls!


4. I love that the artist Ventiko was there. It was lovely meeting her and I love her statement wearing this on the ride. Thankful for and delighted by her presence.
VENTIKO


5. I am checking off a point in the Let's Go Ride a Bike Summer Games. I rode in a big, awesome group ride. Check!
Sometimes the ride looked so huge coming up behind


6. I'm thankful so many people stopped, gawked, cheered, photographed, clapped, hooted and hollered at us the whole way. 
Sheryl took the best pic of some tourist agog at the sight. 


7. I'm thankful and glad I met Ann. She's super cool and one more person unintentionally peer-pressuring me to get a Canon S95. And to go buy these from American Apparel. 
Ann!


8. This cute pregnant lady! 
_DSC3624Pic from Dogseat. Glad to meet him too. 


9. Awesome displays of body paint. 
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10. I'm super thankful for all the cute people like Joe from Time's Up who ushered and directed us through the ride. They were very sweet leaders. 
Me & Joe from Times Up!Sheryl's pic. 


Thankful that Sheryl took ultra-flattering scantily-clad pics of me like this one! 



MOST THANKFUL to hang with Sheryl, Ann, other people I got to meet, and have a warm, fuzzy blanket of bike community for a wonderful Sunday afternoon. 


For my whole photo set on Flickr click here


And Dogseat's pics


Ann's pics


And might I also recommend Sheryl//BitchCakes photos? Yes! Of course

7/2/11

Skirts on Bikes with Jasmijn Rijcken

Jasmijn RijckenJasmijn telling her story and pumping us up for our ride.

Jasmijn Rijcken being told by a NYPD officer that biking in a short skirt was dangerous has been a hot topic in the local news and huge in bicycle news. There have been tons of stories about NY Police stopping people for totally legal things, like hanging a purse on handlebars.

Personally, I've never had any bicycle problems with the police.

Jasmijn brought these signs and shared them with many of us: I LIKE THE WAY I BIKE, I BIKE THE WAY I LIKE!
Skirts on Bikes Line-Up

This ride was very well publicized and very well-attended.
Skirts on Bikes getting ready

We even recruited some riders as we went along. This cutie joined us!
We recruited her!
I was telling her about the after-party that awaited us at HUB and she texted her friend/s to meet her there!

Dan from Linus is behind me. There were some nice gentlemen riding with us.
Me at the end

We passed out fliers about why we were riding and our flier had the map of our route:
Passing out flyers on the roll
We rang our bells the whole way through and attracted a lot of attention. I stopped several times to talk to people and almost always found myself chatting at stoplights about what we were up to.

Chatting at a light:
Skirts on Bikes

The event started at Hudson Urban Bicycles at 139 Charles Street. They loaned out bicycles to anyone who needed one. This lovely lady (I'm sorry I'm so bad at names!) borrowed this gorgeous lavendar Abici.
Love her and Her!

Basil had tons of panniers and baskets to give out. This cutie scored this basket. She had the perfect bicycle purse- the little sequined Coach cross-body.
Cute girl!

Jasmijn was very busy! She's a tall lightning bolt of energy!
Jasmijn is busy!
My little dress is from TJ Maxx and old H&M Belt. Lipstick is Revlon Fire & Ice.

One of The.Most.Exciting.Moments was when I realized that Karen and her Fyxation Pink Tires were there! I geeked out over this girl! Pink tire sisters meet!
Sisters + Sisters

Her bike is super fancy. I'm so glad I found out about pink tires from her! Her bike was featured on a Transportation Alternatives e-newsletter. Love at first sight.
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When these 2 ladies walked up to the event I was so HAPPY Because I immediately recognized The Jane Hotel's Bicycles! They informed me they were here on vacation from Australia. They found out about the event from a flyer. I'm so happy I met them and I hope they find the pics!
Australians on Jane Hotel Bikes!
Jess & Claire! I asked their names at least three times. Then I implored them to rent bicycles to do their Washington D.C. tourism because it's still one of the best things I've ever done!

Another awesome moment was meeting Joanna Goddard! I love her Cup of JO blog! She and this sexy blonde from *I believe, but I may be wrong- Swedish Elle* I think* in the white jumpsuit.
Joanna

I chose this Basil Rosa Double Bag (Basil had tons of free giveaways!) for Kate Middleton. I also met a nice guy who works for Linus. He was definitely taken by Kate Middleton's beauty and asked to photograph her. I was a proud Mama.
Basil Pannier!

I actually was allowed to take so much free Basil swag that I had to break out the bungee cords and serious strategy to get it home.
The colors of the cargo
All my stuff!

Major day of biking in heels:
Skirts on Bikes

My full outfit pic in the morning in Central Park:
Skirts on Bikes Day

To see all of my photos from the event on Flickr go HERE.

I feel like I spent so much time telling people they need to get on Twitter and get active with the #BIKENYC hashtag. It's so educational and fun! I find out about so much fun stuff and so many of my coolest, neatest new friends are all because of #BikeNYC - Dmitry was first, then Amanda & BitchCakes to name a few!

The Skirt Ride was filled to the gills with photographers & cameras and I look forward to finding more articles about it but to start I've found:

New York Press story here.

Cup of JO's post on the event here.