I had to go up to NYC (Brooklyn and Manhattan) for a day trip recently. It was interesting to see how our more urbane and hardy cousins up north deal with cycling. Now, whenever I'll hear people saying how District riders are "hard core" for riding on the streets, I'm just going to laugh in their face. Our rides are like a jaunt down Main St in Pleasantville after visiting New York City. To those that ride on the streets of the Big Apple, you da real MVPs.

This is a bad photo but I tried to show what Manhattan riders have to deal with. I took this photo while crossing the street and trying not getting clocked myself by cars and bikes. There is a green-painted bike lane back there. It is not physically separated from the vehicle lanes. There are cyclists back there, lead is on a CitiBike. I failed to capture that there were also cabs pulled over, delivery trucks as well as cops all up on the lane and Really. Big. Potholes. There's also garbage and cardboard boxes in the lane. It's pretty much Damnation Alley (holla if you've ever actually seen that flick) for cyclists. CRAZINESS.

Nice gleaming row of CitiBikes, NYC's bike share program. Bikes are same as our CaBis. Said manufacturer of both bikes has since gone into bankruptcy with a new owner hopefully sorting things out soon. This is in Brooklyn next to the York St. station. I saw a LOT of CitiBike users so that's awesome that people are using it. Hopefully it has shut up the detractors of the program in NYC, but... probably not. You'll notice that at this station, which was typical throughout the city, there are a lot more bikes per station.

When I stepped out of the York St. station, this is where I want to insert the Buzz Lightyear meme and say "Bicycles. Bicycles everywhere!" But I don't want to turn this blog into Brightest Young Things. But yeah, there were a ton of bikes, true story. So let's get on with the photos!

This is a Heritage bicycle, handcrafted rides from Chicago, IL holla! This model I think is the Chief with different handlebars. Lot of high-endish stuff on here... Brooks saddle and grips, Velo Orange fenders and chain guard, and Tektro brake system. Also love the Bowery Lane Bicycles wood crate on the rack. BLB makes their own bicycles as well out of NYC but sells the crates separately for $50. Maybe I need to get into that business... because my crate construction and utility is better. ;) All of this was locked up with a heavy duty Abus chain lock.

Really old and rusted over Huffy bicycle. The entire surface of this bike was rusted over but the chain itself was well maintained. Maybe the rustier the bike, the more hipster it is? Seat was also removed by owner for security. I saw a lot of that in NYC, people taking their saddles with them after parking their ride.

Linus bikes. Linus bikes everywhere. This company really does have a great marketing and sales distribution system. Their bikes are EVERYWHERE. This Roadster is locked up with an Abus folding lock. The Brooks saddle is also locked on with its own separate security chain.

One of PUBLIC's distinctively orange C7 bicycles. Even its stock saddle is locked down. Personally, I really hated the stock saddle and you can buy replacements for $5. So saddle theft must be huge in NYC if you are locking that down. I really wish PUBLIC had made the V7 in orange, I would have totally gotten that.

I was walking down the street in Manhattan and saw this Vanmoof parked there. The owner was standing next to it and we talked about his bike a bit. It's an F series bicycle that he bought from a shop in Brooklyn. And he replaced pretty much a lot of things on it, in his words, "to survive the mean streets of Manhattan." He binned the stock cream-colored tires because they got dirty too fast (true story) and couldn't handle the rugged streets so he put on big ass tires on it. He also replaced the stock grips with more ergonomic sporty ones that allowed him to aggressive thrash the bike about when he needed to avoid potholes. He added a front brake to it so he could stop quicker when "effing tourist buses pulled in front of him."  And finally he replaced the Brooks saddle for a sports gel conform seat because "I got a big ass and it needs to be coddled." Said coddling saddle is also secured the hell down to the frame. He was a really nice guy and we enjoyed talking about bicycles for a bit. He was impressed I knew about Vanmoofs. Personally, I don't like the over-engineered look of his ride but when you gotta ride down Damnation Alley every day, you gotta do what you gotta do!

This is the first time I've been back to NYC since I've gotten into biking and I got to see The City through different eyes because of it. I love that biking does that to you. Things that seem old and tired suddenly seem new and refreshing. I had planned on visiting the guys at Brooklyn Bicycle Company to meet them and see their office but I ran out of time. Hopefully I'll be back and get to see them soon.

As a head's up, I will be organizing a bike scavenger hunt in DC on July 12, 2014. I will post up official details on July 1 but this will be a ride where teams of 2-4 riders will scour the city for items off their hunt list that will be DC- and Dutch-bicycle focused. You do not need to have a Dutch bicycle to participate... just a bike. Look forward to see you there and have a great weekend!