Sunday, November 16, 2008

City (e)scapes

Perhaps its the leaves on the ground or the roadies in Central Park, but I'm longing to get out into the forest. The city has a lot to offer, but I feel like I need the soothing blanket of leaves under my tires on an autumn day. I'm not exactly sure if I've been infected by mountain bike fever, or if I'm just restless.

I've set up the Spicer in a new 'City commuter hybrid' mode for now. Summer is over, so its time for fenders and a brake. I can't really justify the risers though, other than I wanted a change. They're cut to about 46cm wide, which is just wider than my bullhorns, the only difference is that a plastic bar end cap is the first point of contact, instead of my hands. Regarding whether or not they're versatile, I did a 50km ride to Orchard Beach yesterday, and suffered no discomfort.



Speaking of City bikes, the winner of the City Racks Design competition has been announced. I tested these racks out a little over a month ago, and am happy to find that one of my 'finalists' made the cut. Congratulations to Ian Mahaffy and Maarten De Greeve. Hopefully NYC will find a reliable manufacturer of these racks, and have them on every block soon.

I'm sick of hearing stories of signposts bent down to the streets. I want to ride where the signposts aren't.

4 comments:

morgman said...

I like the winning rack. Looks like it should be reasonably cheap to manufacture, have good longevity, and be good to lock to. I wonder what the standard is for how deep these things are buried. The new Vancouver racks don't seem to be that deep, and only allow a single locking point, though a freelocked second lock could be considered sufficient.

((lyledriver)) said...

wanna take a pic of the new vancouver rack?

morgman said...

Yeah, I've been meaning to do that for a while.

morgman said...

I tried taking a photo of the Mielgeot on a rack yesterday morning, but the light was harsh and I wasn't happy with it. Instead, I took a photo of a dad explaining how the bike worked to his kids while it was locked to the tree outside the office.