Bicycling with Laundry and Good Bye 2011

This will be the last post of 2011 so good-bye 2011 and off to bigger and better things (although this year was pretty rad with Good Times winning their 4th Championship in 6 years)! This year my new media agency, 720 TECK, will be launching several exciting projects for us and for clients. One project that is near and dear to me is The Grand Agora. I have worked on many client's ecommerce sites before, but I have never OWNED my own. Like I said, this is going to be an exciting year.

Sam the Eagle is having a New Year's Eve party tonight so I needed to pick up my clean clothes from the laundromat (just to get them dirty at the party - I hope). It is December 31st and it is about 50 degrees so I thought it best to take my bike. I asked my housemmate, Queen D, to take some nice shots as I biked away. She kindly obliged and here are some of the results.

I need to drop off some dirty laundry and pick up some clean laundry so I have something to wear tonight at Sam the Eagle's New Year's party. I brought in about 30 pounds of laundry on the back of my bike

If the weather is nice it is always better to get the exercise then to drive. Remember where that gasoline you are putting in your car comes from. It comes from Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Venezuela (among a few other places). None of these places are particularly friendly to us, yet we flood them with American dollars to wage war against our interests!

Save some dollars, burn some calories, and do something good for the America - ride your bike!

Going to the Fall Classic in Style

I am on my way to play some softball. I could have taken my car, but instead I decided to warm up before the game by taking a bicycle. The fall is fast approaching and we need to take advantage of every warm day left this year.

Photography credits go to @Fishthenet!

Random Bike Pictures

Bicycling to Dyker Heights, Brooklyn from Fresh Meadows, Queens.

On a breezy and sunny summer morning I set off to prove to myself that transportation on bicycle is a valid alternative to driving or public transport here in NYC. As you may or may not know I live in Fresh Meadows near St. John's University. I had business to attend to in Dyker Heights Brooklyn (which is near the Verazano Bridge).

If I drove and there was no traffic I could arrive there in 29 minutes. Anyone that has driven on the Brooklyn-Queens-Expressway or the Long Island Expressway can attest there is nothing express about them, ESPECIALLY during morning and evening peak commuter times. Time in traffic is one hour and 30 minutes. Hmm - doesn't seem very efficient, does it? The cost for 40 miles of driving, at 20 miles a gallon equals about $6 total gas cost to travel there, not counting wear and tear on my vehicle as well as the possibility for tickets (which is very high in this city).

Can the public transportation do better? Doubtfull but let's see what Lord Google says. The fastest way to my destination using buses and trains is one hour and 24 minutes but in involves the LIRR which brings the cost to about $10 each way, $20 total. For $5 I can take one hour and forty-one minutes but I have to take one bus and 3 trains. Fun stuff, NOT.

Finally on my trusty bike, according to Lord Google, it takes one hour and tweny-six minutes, costs me nothing, I get free exercise, and I get to do a little exploring of Brooklyn.Of course these times are assuming a brisk 10mph average. I hover more around 7mph on my English roadster (which is all I would trust to not get a flat) so my time to arrive is increased. Since I was going to a meeting and I didn't want to look totally disheveled I went even slower and arrived in about 2 hours but still, I spent no money and I hopefully lost a little weight. If traveling to Brooklyn is better by bike, then travel to the corner market has to be better by bike!

Bicycle riding in Brooklyn seems very different then bicycle riding near my house in Queens. Over here it seems like everyone is a Lycra monster counting their cadence. In Brooklyn a lot of people have roadsters and most people seem to be riding their bikes because they need to get somewhere, not because they are practicing for the Lance Armstrong team. In Brooklyn there are lots of beautiful girls riding beautiful bikes having a beautiful time.

I was also able to experience, for the first time, two great green-ways on Empire Blvd and on Ocean Parkway (which by the way happens to be the oldest bike path in the country or city, I don't remember). There are few feelings better then flying down a totally separate bike lane without worry that you are going to be flatten by an incoming NYC bus. On the 17th of July I am planning an excursion with some friends to further explore Brooklyn by bike and I welcome all of you to come along. I think this time I will hit Coney Island. Now that's awesome!

The Tricycle Saga.

So for some time now I have been trying to convince the Diva's mother to bike to work. Fearful of bodily harm she confused that a two wheel bike was not for her. She insisted that it wasn't she was unable to ride a two wheeler - it was just that the possibility of falling prevented from possibly taking the busy avenue to her work.

I hate to admit it but she has a point. When riding around town on a two wheel bike there is always an increased danger of fall and falling equals pain and pain equals the dark side. That is when I came up with the brilliant idea that she should take a tricycle to work. Unfortunately, to my chagrin, the Diva's mom insisted she would do it but for fear of mockery. Imagine, she proceeded, me on a tricycle going down Bell Blvd or Northern Blvd! She insisted trikes where for kids.

Sorry but that that silly rabbit was right, trikes are not just for kids! Trikes are for everyone and they have the added bonus over bicycles of increased carrying capacity, increased stability, and increased visibility to cars around you. I mean what driver would miss a tricycle peddling down the boulavard!

So in order to convince the Diva's mom to trike to work I will begin chronicling all tricycles I see. First off we have this beauty. It belongs to an older Jewish gentleman in Brooklyn. who was slightly physically disabled. I saw this tricycle parked in front of a store and I started taking pictures. The owner approached me and told me all about his bike. This one is electric and pedal assisted and according to the owner, he often takes it for 35 mile trips.

This next one passed right by my house. I had to chase the owner down in order to get the picture. This 21 speed tricycle was being manned by a kind women in her 40's or 50's obviously demonstrating the viability of transport via trike.

I have seen many other tricycles but only recently have I begun their documentation. I know that with enough time I will be able to convince the Diva's mom that taking a tricycle to work is fun, good exrcesise, and a money saver when it comes to wear and tear on ones car and gas for one's hung of metal.

TO BE CONTINUED>>>