Additional to yesterday’s put up, quite a few you commented that I might have used the Campagnolo derailleur by working a brief size of cable after which fine-tuning it with the barrel adjuster:
So thanks for the recommendation, however WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU ALL WHEN I NEEDED YOU?
Shifting on, whereas I’ve typically been commuting by prepare nowadays, yesterday’s climate compelled me to trip the A. Homer Hilsen Categorical as a substitute:
There have been some modifications since I final commuted recurrently by bike. For instance, the bike path on the Henry Hudson Bridge has been upgraded, which improves the primary leg of the trip by roughly a thousand p.c:
Principally, this permits me to chop out virtually all of the chaotic Bronx and Higher Manhattan road driving and takes me proper from my neighborhood to the Henry Hudson Greenway.
Sadly, one other change is that the Henry Hudson Greenway is closed from W. a hundred and twenty fifth Road right down to W. one hundredth Road:
This required me to climb all the best way as much as Grant’s Tomb:
Grant’s Tomb is legendary as a result of somebody’s buried there, although I can by no means keep in mind who. Additionally, in case you’re a New York Metropolis bike owner, it’s equally if no more well-known for being the venue for the Grant’s Tomb Criterium. Right here’s the Milwaukee at Grant’s Tomb when my son raced it there a number of years again:
I used to be irritated that the detour was forcing me depart the greenway and do battle with site visitors, however once I received to Riverside Drive I used to be shocked to find there was no site visitors:
So have been the smuggies proper in spite of everything? Is that this congestion pricing at work? Might it’s that between all of the outsiders who don’t wish to pay the toll and the locals who gained’t depart their parking areas except you set a gun to their heads, no person’s driving and one thing resembling order has been imparted upon the streets of Manhattan?
I dunno, however Decrease Manhattan was additionally noticeably calmer than it was the final time I commuted to Brooklyn by bike:
That bike lane was all the time blocked by site visitors, and now there was no site visitors.
Eerie.
I imply it’s not like there weren’t any vehicles, however a better proportion of them have been hanging off of hooks:
See?
And sure, I seemed up the plate:
Holy crap! 23 tickets in 2025 alone and we’re not even midway by March?!? That’s one ticket each three days:
Effectively achieved.
Returning house that night I had a head begin on dusk due to the time change:
However by the point I reached the greenway the solar was retreating behind New Jersey:
And as I drew nearer to house darkness fell and it was simply me and the eerie phosphorescent glow of the odd e-bike:
As for me, I used to be outfitted each to see:
And to be seen:
For I do know that within the span of about an hour driving the size of Manhattan at dusk takes you from this…
…to this:
The Henry Hudson Bridge bike path entrance on the Manhattan aspect is so distant that it feels virtually illicit, and after carrying the Homer throughout the footbridge over the railroad tracks and climbing that steep, darkish path by the woods I used to be horrified to seek out that the trail was closed:
Till I remembered that was the doorway to the outdated path and that the brand new one was open for enterprise:
In all it was an pleasant commute, however at a t20-to-40-ish minute premium over the prepare every manner it’s not one I can all the time afford.
(And no, I’m not getting an e-bike.)