Originally Posted by
Papa Tom
I was a volunteer at the Astoria Park rest stop. In my 5 years of working this event, I've never seen as many folding bikes as I saw this year. What's it like trying to climb those bridges on 16" wheels?
I love telling this story.
In the years before they had a start at Prospect, the route was heading over the TriBorough at around 75 miles or so.
As I'm carrying my bike up the first set of steps, I stop to help a father on a mt. bike, behind which and attached was the single wheel kid/pedaling thing that attaches to the seat post of the parent bike, so a 10 year old or so riding that. Attached to the kids single wheel unit was a Burley infant trailer with a baby in it.
So Dad, son, and baby all having done 75 or so, I can only assume - unless he picked up en-route, but you'd have to be pretty familar with the route to know how to do that. And you'd still need to get home from the Bronx.
All this stuff had get un-assembled and reassembled twice to get up the bridge steps. Then he/they had to continue. They might have bailed over the pedestrian bridge from Wards to Manhattan, but who knows.
That's a long way with kids and assorted trailers in tow.