conquered the soft underbelly of queens

Well, I finally did it. For the past four weeks or so, in my attempt to
catalog real art that was posing as graffiti on the walls of New York
(shameless plug: www.graffitirider.blogspot.com) I was thwarted in trying
to go from Brooklyn north into Queens. Route is: Manhattan East Village,
Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo, Williamsburg, Maspeth, Woodside,
Sunnyside, Queens Boro Bridge, and home. Sometimes it was the weather,
once a flat unfixable under the circumstances, once it was getting lost in
a construction detour maze, etc. I've never had a problem going east from
Brooklyn to Queens, only north.

The stupidest balls-up was riding over some 2-bit bridge over some
industrial creek. The sign said "walk bike over bridge" but all bridges in
NYC that don't have dedicated bike lanes say that. The official NYC bike
route map had a big, special note saying to walk the bike. So what did I
do? I took a lane and rode over. Right over the open steel grate decking
and got a good slice taken out of a tire for my trouble. There's only one
other bridge like that that I had consistant problems with (Broadway
Bridge, Inwood to Marble Hill) but they put up signs (since gone) detailing
why you should walk the bike.

But anyway, fifth time was a charm and I got rewarded with an excellent
hidden cache of grafftit-art under an old viaduct in, of all places,
Woodside, Queens.

--ag

In article , Andy
Gee wrote:

snip

The stupidest balls-up was riding over some 2-bit bridge over some
industrial creek. The sign said "walk bike over bridge" but all bridges in
NYC that don't have dedicated bike lanes say that. The official NYC bike
route map had a big, special note saying to walk the bike. So what did I
do? I took a lane and rode over. Right over the open steel grate decking
and got a good slice taken out of a tire for my trouble. There's only one
other bridge like that that I had consistant problems with (Broadway
Bridge, Inwood to Marble Hill) but they put up signs (since gone) detailing
why you should walk the bike.

snip

Peripheral to your comments, just some advice from someone who's
learned the hard way: In wet conditions, when crossing an unfamiliar
bridge surfaced with metal (grating or otherwise), ALWAYS make a point
of clipping out (if equipped with clipless pedals) and slowing to a
walking pace to determine the degree of traction. If the wet surface is
comprised of uneven metal grating, dismounting and walking the bike
across may be the prudent choice.

Luke

Luke wrote:
In article , Andy
Gee wrote:

snip

The stupidest balls-up was riding over some 2-bit bridge over some
industrial creek. The sign said "walk bike over bridge" but all bridges in
NYC that don't have dedicated bike lanes say that. The official NYC bike
route map had a big, special note saying to walk the bike. So what did I
do? I took a lane and rode over. Right over the open steel grate decking
and got a good slice taken out of a tire for my trouble. There's only one
other bridge like that that I had consistant problems with (Broadway
Bridge, Inwood to Marble Hill) but they put up signs (since gone) detailing
why you should walk the bike.


snip

Peripheral to your comments, just some advice from someone who's
learned the hard way: In wet conditions, when crossing an unfamiliar
bridge surfaced with metal (grating or otherwise), ALWAYS make a point
of clipping out (if equipped with clipless pedals) and slowing to a
walking pace to determine the degree of traction. If the wet surface is
comprised of uneven metal grating, dismounting and walking the bike
across may be the prudent choice.

Luke

Advice above that even. Hide your pride and get off and walk across the
grate. I was riding on the north side of Chicago once and didn't notice
a grate that had only parallel bars in line with my motion. My tire was
thin enough to fall completely into that drain up to the axle and I went
head first over the bars, unhurt but upside down with my riding
companions laughing themselves off of their bikes. After that I paid a
lot more attention to the seemingly harmless grates. This was way back
in 1961 so those type grates may no longer exist, but it still drove
home the point to look where your wheels are going.
Bill