Northeast - Took a 5 AM Ride on Olmsted & Vaux's Ocean Parkway & Prospect Park

About a month ago, I bought a neat LED headlight and taillight at Target. The headlight has 3 modes, while the tail light has about 6. I particularly liked that one of the headlight modes allows me to aim the light right into the eyes of oncoming cyclists.

I woke up around 4 this morning drenched in sweat after a horrible nightmare. I had gone to James Madison High School's 50th anniversary for my graduating class, riding my Huffy Prospect bike and was ridiculed by my fellow graduates who all came with Cannondale 400 spoke count, Motorbegone and Unspecialized bikes.

Even though the only window in my apartment faces a shaftway filled with garbage, I was able to detect a faint smell of sweetness in the early morning air. So I put the lights on my bike and headed north on Ocean Parkway. I had the front light flashing and it was neat seeing some of the reflective signs ahead flashing messages at me. As it turned out, it would have been wiser had I aimed the headlight down at the path as I was thrown from the bike 3 times on one stretch of the bike path around Ave W, that seems to lie on a major fault line.

I really enjoyed riding with the lights flashing as I have a strong need for attention, as witnessed by this flurry of vapid posts.

I enjoyed the ride in the park. Riding down the speed run by the lake, I gave my Huffy full rein. I reached an all time record speed for me of 9.6 mph, before the bearings in the front wheel seized up.

huh?

Pretty funny. Good writing, HeyPaul!

nice spoof

nice spoof

Papa T and Rumrunner... I'm glad you got a kick out of my adventures.

Around the middle of this week, I got another night pass to leave the ward for a couple of hours. I headed to Roosevelt Island with my bike, taking the B train from Sheepshead Bay and changing at 34th Street for an F train which took me to Roosevelt Island. The elevator wasn't working, so I had to ride up about 5 banks of escalators and listen to those noxious escalator safety messages on the way up. Somebody must have been messing with the annoucements, because I could have sworn it said "Have a coronary" instead of "Have a nice day".

Anyway, I got there about 7:30 although it might have been closer to 7:45. I wanted to get some night shots of the ruins of the Smallpox Hospital, so I headed to the south end of the island. They have spotlights on the building. It's an eerie sight, which is also visible from the other side of the river in Jersey City. I got some shots of the power house buildings which have an incandescent brooding look at night.

All this time, I had my flashing lights blazing a trail for me. One young couple asked me where I had gotten the headlight since they had never seen anything so bright. I told them and went on to recount many details of my sordid existence. I didn't notice their eyes glaze over, but after about 5 minutes I realized that they were no longer standing there listening to my story.

Okay, enough of the shtick. I took the tram back to Manhattan and found it isn't as scary at night because it's harder to see how high it was. It was great to see the avenues all lit up on the Manhattan side.

I headed up 60th Street, passing 3rd Ave, Park, Madison, Lexington and finally 5th. (I purposely jumbled the order, to give nit pickers a chance to show off)

Anyway, I headed into Central Park and immediately breathed in the fetid smell of the aerosolized particles of horse fecal matter, which apparently is a source of worry only to me. I was surprised to find many cyclists riding without any lights. I was passed by a pack of 3 possessed roadies without any lights. I realize that lights would weigh them down and probably be very uncool for their image. However the law of conservation of momentum from high school physics would have taught them that the momentum of the photons given off by a rear taillight would give them an equal and oppositely directed forward momentum that would more than offset the decrease in acceleration caused by the weight of the light.

I doubt if anyone is still reading this, but after slipping on several patches of fresh horse droppings, I left the Park and eventually ended up on the Hudson River bike path, which is on the west side of Manhattan. There I found more people with lights and even a few cyclists with some. When I and another well lit bike approached, I didn't know whether I should flash my headlights, ask them if they bought their headlight in their local bike shop or just wave when they past. Instead I decided to ring my bell 3 times.

I hit the Brooklyn Bridge about 10:30, about an hour before it closes for the night. There weren't that many people or bikes on the bridge. Less than half the bikes had lights. The bridge seems especially critical, since you often have to balance your position on the path between the people, oncoming bikes and the width of the path at any given point. At this point, I really didn't care as I had to get back to Roosevelt Island, to retrace my path home, as I must return the same way that I go someplace. This particular obsession created problems for me at 34th Street since the B train was no longer running. I had to wait about 7 hours for B train service to resume and another hour or so to catch up with car 5012, the car I came in on.

If you've gotten this far and feel that this is the worse piece of crap ever posted on Bike Forums, blame Papa T and Rumrunner for encouraging me. I can't help myself.

poetic ... reminds me of the night I drove down to see the battery after 9/11 and I ws on the Brooklyn side looking west at a dark city except for the flood lights and rising smoke. it looked like a batman movie set.

as a young man living in the bronx and yonkers I and freinds would wander the streets looking for things to photograph. the city is much bigger visually than it is geographically.


we even climbed up the old aqueduct tower before it was renovated and almost died on the broken wooden steps. it was like a harry potter movie set/video game. I still have those b&w pano pics of the harlem river

so tempted to run down for a "city" ride but I would have to build up a special bike just for the inique conditions, including "accerories" for the dark parks

be safe green hornet

poetic ... reminds me of the night I drove down to see the battery after 9/11 and I ws on the Brooklyn side looking west at a dark city except for the flood lights and rising smoke. it looked like a batman movie set.

as a young man living in the bronx and yonkers I and freinds would wander the streets looking for things to photograph. the city is much bigger visually than it is geographically.


we even climbed up the old aqueduct tower before it was renovated and almost died on the broken wooden steps. it was like a harry potter movie set/video game. I still have those b&w pano pics of the harlem river

so tempted to run down for a "city" ride but I would have to build up a special bike just for the inique conditions, including "accerories" for the dark parks

be safe green hornet

Exactly. The city can be very surreal especially when viewed from a distorted mind.

I took a bunch of shots that night. Here's two of them.

This is the current embodiment of part of the former New York City Lunatic Asylum.

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/th.16f3269275.jpg (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?16f3269275.jpg)

A view into one of the support buildings on Roosevelt Island.

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/th.36b2284807.jpg (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?36b2284807.jpg)

If there is a clear lack of interest in these photos, I will post more of them.
As a proud Huffy bike owner, I must advise that all photos were taken with a 4 year old (and showing it) SONY camcorder with a digital still card of about 100K pixel quality. That plus my excellent WebTV internet connection should provide purists with hours of enjoyment.

I for one do not want to see any more ;-)

Oh and the smaller the better!