Further to yesterday’s post, a number of you commented that I could have used the Campagnolo derailleur by running a short length of cable and then fine-tuning it with the barrel adjuster:
So thanks for the advice, but WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU ALL WHEN I NEEDED YOU?
Moving on, while I’ve generally been commuting by train these days, yesterday’s weather compelled me to ride the A. Homer Hilsen Express instead:
There have been some changes since I last commuted regularly by bike. For example, the bike path on the Henry Hudson Bridge has been upgraded, which improves the first leg of the ride by roughly a thousand percent:
Basically, this allows me to cut out almost all the chaotic Bronx and Upper Manhattan street riding and takes me right from my neighborhood to the Henry Hudson Greenway.
Unfortunately, another change is that the Henry Hudson Greenway is closed from W. 125th Street down to W. 100th Street:
This required me to climb all the way up to Grant’s Tomb:
Grant’s Tomb is famous because someone’s buried there, though I can never remember who. Also, if you’re a New York City cyclist, it’s equally if not more famous for being the venue for the Grant’s Tomb Criterium. Here’s the Milwaukee at Grant’s Tomb when my son raced it there a few years back:
I was annoyed that the detour was forcing me leave the greenway and do battle with traffic, but when I got to Riverside Drive I was surprised to discover there was no traffic:
So were the smuggies right after all? Is this congestion pricing at work? Could it be that between all the outsiders who don’t want to pay the toll and the locals who won’t leave their parking spaces unless you put a gun to their heads, nobody’s driving and something resembling order has been imparted upon the streets of Manhattan?
I dunno, but Lower Manhattan was also noticeably calmer than it was the last time I commuted to Brooklyn by bike:
That bike lane was always blocked by traffic, and now there was no traffic.
Eerie.
I mean it’s not like there weren’t any cars, but a higher proportion of them were hanging off of hooks:
See?
And yes, I looked up the plate:
Holy crap! 23 tickets in 2025 alone and we’re not even halfway through March?!? That’s one ticket every three days:
Well done.
Returning home that evening I had a head start on nightfall thanks to the time change:
But by the time I reached the greenway the sun was retreating behind New Jersey:
And as I drew closer to home darkness fell and it was just me and the eerie phosphorescent glow of the odd e-bike:
As for me, I was equipped both to see:
And to be seen:
For I know that in the span of about an hour riding the length of Manhattan at nightfall takes you from this…
…to this:
The Henry Hudson Bridge bike path entrance on the Manhattan side is so remote that it feels almost illicit, and after carrying the Homer across the footbridge over the railroad tracks and climbing that steep, dark trail through the woods I was horrified to find that the path was closed:
Until I remembered that was the entrance to the old path and that the new one was open for business:
In all it was an enjoyable commute, but at a t20-to-40-ish minute premium over the train each way it’s not one I can always afford.
(And no, I’m not getting an e-bike.)
