NYC 5 Boro Bike Ride

This coming weekend I'll be cycling the 5 Boro Bike Ride in NYC with my husband Brett and bariatric pal, Rich. Rich was a regular in this room 3 years ago during my surgery and post-op time. He has become a great friend. I was curious if anybody else in the room might be riding? -- Tom

Hi Tom,  I am having surgery on the 17th...I am way to big at the moment to ride a bike...but it is one of my goals!!!!! NYC is awesome... is this an event that happens every year? Is there a group that organizes it? What an Awesome goal to get to for next year...if you don't mind sending back some info on this that would be greatly appreciates....Good luck with the ride, may be able to join you next year!!!! Xico

You would be surprised at your ability to ride. There are cyclists of all shapes and sizes. Plus, start small and work your way up. It's great exercise to speed your weight loss.

Th  5 Boro ride in an annual event on the first Sunday of May. It is sponsored by Bike NYC. They have a nice web site. http://www.bikenewyork.org/rides/fbbt/index.html You should go there and sign up for notices and become a Facebook friend. The registration is around 02/10. The 32,000 spots fill up in  one day. So, you need to know the registration day and register on that day.

Best of luck and hope your riding goes well.

Tom

I wanna hear all about it...where's the ride report??? :)

Here's my trip report. It was definitely not what I expected...

The ride went pretty well. It was perfect sunny weather. My friends Rich Brett and I finished the ride. It is a must-do at least once for any cyclist. When else can you cycle through NYC from Battery Park through Manhattan to Harlem and then across into the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and end on Staten Island with no traffic to deal with?  It has plenty of rest stops and even slower paced cyclist can do the ride.

Now for the problem… delays… delays… delays. Registration maxed out at 32,000. With perfect weather everyone showed up. We arrived 2 hours before the starting time and we were waiting back 6 solid blocks of cyclists. We pushed off about 40 minutes after the first riders. It went pretty fast through Manhattan and Central Park. There was a 15-20 minute delay funneling down into Central Park. A small 10 minute delay in Harlem and about the same crossing the Queensboro Bridge. The Queens was fast. Brooklyn had several delays of 10-15 minutes. The big delay of the day was almost 2 hours on the BQE expressway. The cyclists had to funnel down from 4 lanes to 2 lanes due to construction. After that we flew across the Verasanos Narrows Bridge onto Staten Island and to the Ferry. The ferry was backed up and added another 45 minutes. Bringing 30,000+ people back on ferries that hold 1,500 takes some time.

It was a long day. We left the hotel at 5:50 a.m. and returned at 7:10 p.m. According to my GPS, we did about 4 hours of cycling and 5 hours of not cycling. Of those non-cycling hours, 1 1/2 hours was at rest stops and attending the post-ride festival. That left 3 ½ hours to the miscellaneous stops. That was frustrating. According the our GPS, we averaged around 10 mph when we were cycling. Again that speed is driven by the crowd.

Some advice when you do this ride… Arrive as early as you can- 6 a.m.  Or be sneaky like a person I talked to. She got off the subway just after the start line at the next block and then just cycled into the crowd when the first cyclists passed. Not real honest but it works! Also don’t go into the ride looking to see how fast you can go. Because of the number of cyclists, you can only get 5-10 minutes ahead until the next traffic jam. Your finish time is pretty much predetermined from your start time. It is called a tour and that is what it is. Take your time and enjoy the sights of the city. You will see all kind of people and neighborhoods. The people were nice and friendly cheering you on.

The logistics of cycling with 32,000 people is challenging. You have to constantly watch out for other people. The ride allows children. So, you need to be extra careful round them. People of all shape and sizes ride. They are on anything with wheels. It was fun watching the cyclists. I think I may do it in the future. As I said at the onset, it is too cool to cycle through a city.

I’ll post some pics once I edit them. I did get nice pics of the skyline and bridges.

Tom

Wow, that sounds like a long a crazy day. I can't imagine all those people and all those delays, but it must have been so amazing to ride through the city without cars!

WTG on conquering your fears though!! So, what's the next big goal? .........What's that you say, a century ride out in California? 

Looking forward to seeing those pics!!!