what about the plastic animals?

Tangled Up in Blue

This was wrapped-up bicycle coincidence weekend.  Jeff sent me a link to a funny story about a USC honorary society wrapping all the bicycles on campus with plastic wrap.  They even managed to wrap a student, who was apparently too sleepy to notice that he was being wrapped as he unlocked his bike.

Unbeknownst to Jeff, I ran across this pink Panasonic on Saturday afternoon in Dumbo. 

Am I writing Dumbo correctly?  Has the abbreviation for Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass, made it's way from acronym (DUMBO) to word (Dumbo)?

Another question:  If you were to buy a computer and that purchase came with a $100 rebate on a limited selection of printers (some of which cost $99.95 and would therefore be free), would you get the printer even though you don't want or need it?

Holes Along the East River Bike Path

The bike/pedestrian path along the East River south of 120th St. deteriorated rather badly over the winter.  There's been small holes cordoned off the past couple of years but these are giant festering wounds. 

Over the past several years the city has been steadily extending the bike paths along the East, Hudson and Harlem Rivers.  Someday bicyclists and walkers will be able to more or less circumnavigate the island along the paths.  With completed sections in this state of disrepair I can't imagine that day will arrive anytime soon.

Offensive Orange Bikes

Orange bikes like this one in front of an Apple store began appearing in town a couple of days ago.  It is fashion week and DKNY is using the bikes to bring attention to themselves and their "Explore the City" campaign, which has something to do with bicycling.

While that is all well and good, chaining painted bikes to poles around town is misguided at best.   Since 2005, Visualize Resistance has installed Ghost Bikes, bicycles painted white, as memorials to bicyclists that have died in traffic accidents on the city's streets.  Since it's start the Ghost Bike Project has grown to a couple dozen locations in the United States and several other countries.

Regretfully, there are way too many Ghost Bikes in the city.  Forty-two are listed on the Ghost Bike website.  Some of the Ghost Bikes are in neighborhoods where designers from DKNY would frequent.  There are also two Ghost Bikes within a couple blocks of the DKNY offices.  Given this you have to assume they didn't come up with the orange bike idea in a vacuum.  Someone clearly saw the white bicycles and decided orange would make a great ad campaign. 

Adding to their cluelessness is the photo on their web page about riding in the city.  They mention safe bicycling and the city's free helmet program.  The accompanying photo shows a woman sitting on the handlebars while a guy in long pants rides a bike across a bumpy Belgian block street.  Neither rider is wearing a helmet.  What is the message we are supposed to take away?  Beautiful people do not need helmets?  Helmets are not necessary for models because they can't suffer brain injuries?

Although the NYPD usually turns a blind eye to it, it is illegal to chain bicycles to trees, and the police have been removing the DKNY bikes.

Mo Gridder's

Sticking with the barbecue theme, let's move from pastoral Vermont to the gritty side of New York.  If you are hungry for ribs and your car needs a new radiator, have I got a place for you.  Mo Gridder's BBQ is located at a car repair shop in the Hunt's Point section of the Bronx.  When the car repair shop is open, Mo pulls out the 35-foot long barbecue pit and gets cooking.  The waiting area for the shop doubles as the dining area.  A couple of picnic tables are set up should you want to eat outside and take in the auto repair shops, food distribution warehouses, and strip joints.

As a nod to the mostly Hispanic workforce in the neighborhood, Mo serves his barbecue on Spanish rice.  I went up to Mo's twice this past summer.  The first time on a bike ride.  The ride up was fun, but ingesting all that protein made for a slow return trip.  A second trip was made by car with several teachers.  The ribs were okay on the first trip and pretty great on the second visit.

Down the block, past the strip joint, is a small park containing a tiny cemetery.  The cemetery is the Hunt family burial ground, the neighborhood is on the grounds of the former Hunt estate, and contains the graves of several members of the prominent early 19th century Hunt, Leggett and Willett families.

The Big Apple in Iowa City

Metrocard festooned bike, downtown Iowa City

New York NY Fresh Deli, downtown Iowa City

Is there anything more enjoyable for non-New Yorkers than having a New Yorker discuss signs of New York they have noticed on travels far away from New York?  I think not!  The bottom photo reminds me of a photo project I've never undertaken:  Businesses that use the New York skyline on their storefronts.

Under Wraps

I read yesterday about how NYU has teamed with Times Up! to recycle abandoned bicycles on the NYU campus.  A small grant from the university pays for new parts.  Volunteers at Times Up! repair the bikes.  So far 39 bicycles have been recycled. 

The lovingly wrapped bike above was next to Lerner Hall on Columbia's campus yesterday.   Given the wrapping it probably isn't abandoned.

A Trip to Fort Lee

Palisades from the George Washington Bridge.  The park on the water is where the carnival scene in the movie Big takes place.

George Washington Bridge from Fort Lee Historical Park

Tasty cheese fries and chili dog at Hiram's.  The dog is deep fried in the north Jersey fashion.

Hideous McMansion under construction in Fort Lee.

Another Sunday, another 20 mile bike ride.  This time it was an indirect ride to Fort Lee, New Jersey.  Indirect because it went up around the northern tip of Manhattan before heading across the George Washington Bridge into suburbia. 

Cycling across the bridge is fun.  Taking photos while on the bridge is not recommended.  What you don't notice while riding is that the bridge bounces, a lot, as trucks drive across it.

Back to Ohio:  12 second video of a cow at Young's Jersey Dairy.

Bicycle Museum of America

1955 Huffy Radiobike

1946 Bowden prototype "Bicycle of the Future"

1897 Elliott Hickory - all wood frame, wheels and spokes.

The Crown Store

If you like old bicycles, and you like to travel, have I got a place for you!  I don't remember how I found out about the Bicycle Museum of America, but it wasn't too far out of my way so I stopped in one afternoon.   The museum is in New Bremen, Ohio, about 10-15 miles east of I-75 and the same distance south of St. Mary's.  In other words, it's in the middle of nowhere.  Sorry New Bremenites!

Before the Bicycle Museum of America was the Bicycle Museum of America it was the Schwinn family bicycle collection.  The collection, which makes up about half the 300 plus bikes in the museum, made its way to The Crown Equipment Company (they make lift trucks) which is based in New Bremen.  It wasn't clear to me whether the museum is part of The Crown Equipment Company, or if The Crown Equipment Company set up the museum as a non-profit.  The Crown Equipment Company owns the museum building and seemingly most of the other buildings downtown. 

The town is a little creepy because The Crown Equipment Company has been renovating the buildings and putting mirrored glass in all the windows.  Souvenirs for the museum are available for sale in The Crown Store (this, apparently, is said reverently by all who mention its name.  Also, your humble traveler got dirty looks when we asked questions about The Crown Equipment Company.)  In addition to bicycle museum souvenirs (Your humble tourist bought beautiful, expensively made, postcards, a baseball hat, and a water bottle.  The latter isn't a water bottle that fits on a bike, but its a handsome water bottle nonetheless.) one can buy all sorts of prissy polo shirts, polartec fleece pullovers, and pewter paraphernalia all handsomely embossed with The Crown Equipment Company logo and/or name.

Despite my misgivings about the borg-like qualites of The Crown Equipment Company, the museum is a treat.  There are bikes from the early-19th century, boneshakers from the 1870s, high-wheelers from the 1880s, kids bikes, adult bikes, touring bikes, and racing bikes.  Pretty much an example of every sort of bicycle that was ever made.

Next up:  A visit to a big rock!

Bike Accident by the Planetarium

I actually had two offices at BGSU.  One summer day I was riding my bike from Hanna Hall to the Center for Environmental Programs, which was temporarily in the College Park Office Building.  To avoid a couple of pedestrians I had to swerve off the sidewalk in front of the planetarium (where my friend Karie used to put on excellent planetarium shows).  See that little cliff between the sidewalk and the sand?  My wheel hit that space and I went flying.  The bike was okay and I scraped my forearm and bumped my knee, but it wasn't anything serious.  Several hours later there was a lot of pain in my knee and it was getting pretty swollen.  I decided a visit to the emergency room was in order.

The emergency room doctor asked me what happened and I said "I fell off my bike."  I should have said "I was in a bicycling accident".  As soon as I said "I fell off my bike" I could tell she took it as "I fell off my bike and made a boo boo".  The switch from concern to complete lack of interest was instantaneous.  I was given an x-ray, and told to go home, take an aspirin, and put ice on my knee.

Different Bike, Same Location

The first summer I lived in Bowling Green I resolved to ride my bike on every street in town.  Riding 8-10 miles approximately every other morning the trek took about three weeks. East of Main Street went fast because there weren't many streets and the streets were on a grid.  The west side of town, with its winding suburbs of houses that all looked the same took a bit longer.  I kept getting lost and accidentally repeated a number of streets.  Maybe I should do the same for Manhattan.

It was only natural that the first thing to do after checking in at the Best Western Falcon Plaza was get my bike out of the car and start riding.  That was quite strange riding around town.  Most of the places I remembered were still where they had always been and, even though most of my friends from BG had moved on, I half-expected to see them every time I approached a familiar spot.

The bike rack above is the same bike rack next to Hanna Hall I locked my bike to when I rode to campus.  As I was taking this picture I remembered that I always parked in that exact spot.  Different bike though.  The movers lost my beloved Raleigh Grand Prix (I had gotten the black and white version in junior high) when I moved from Michigan to New York.