BridgeNotTunnel

Hello fellow Hybrid riders.

I'm a camera obsessive rider in NYC who recently took some time off the bike due to a fall, which gave me some time to start piecing together footage from some of my more notable rides.

My first project was the infamous 5 Boro Bike Tour.


Part 1: Starting line in Battery Park to Central Park


Part 2: FDR Drive


Part 3: Queensborough Bridge


Part 4: Long Island City - Astoria - Long Island CIty


Long Island City to Brooklyn

(5 video per post maximum)

BridgeNotTunnel

Part 6: Brooklyn, Gowanus Parkway - Verrazano Bridge - Staten Island


Staten Island - Finish Line/Ferry

Hope you enjoy the ride!

treadtread

Can you put some descriptions in? Just a text description before the embedded video would be fine.

BridgeNotTunnel

Ok, sure.

I will add some route info later, thanks.

jbchybridrider 

I watched the first video. I'll watch the rest later, it's 2.00am here and I'm dog tired looks good though.
I wonder, do you guys have stop/go lights for pedestrians or is it enter at you own risk. Some of those pedestrians look pretty game trying to cross.

BridgeNotTunnel

I've added descriptions for the locations on the route.

JBC, there were areas where we were held up to let traffic flow but pedestrians also made their own mad dashes across the tour route.

PatrickGSR94

Yeah I was going to say, how does the logistics of that work? I assume there is staggered starting where groups start at different times. But how long does that take to get 34K+ people started? And what about traffic that wants to cross the designated tour route?

And then how do they go about getting all those thousands across on the ferry? Multiple ferries?

Looks similar to the Midnight Classic I rode on recently, in terms of the police blocking off the roads and tons of people, though we had "only" around 2,000, which I thought was massive when I was there.

BridgeNotTunnel

The 5BBT is a colossal undertaking for sure, and NYC loses money each year when they bring most of the traffic on the route to a dead halt.

Staggered starts were instituted for the first time this year, even though I was as close as you could be without VIP tix, it took nearly 10mins of slowly walking my bike to the actual staging area and then finally get rolling from "go".

There were places along the route where we were stopped to allow traffic to cross, but they were truly few and far between.

Delmarva

I really like riding that tour with 30,000 of my closest bikin' buddies! It's crazy and great fun...

PatrickGSR94

I saw on the website that the 2012 event sold out in one day, and so this year they're doing a lottery system where you register for $6 (nonrefundable) at any time over the course of several weeks in January and February 2013, and then the participants are randomly chosen from the lot of registrants, to give everyone a fair (but not guaranteed) shot at being able to ride.

Similar to how the last several space shuttle launches worked. In the 90's NASA couldn't even give away all the tickets to view space shuttle launches. Then the last few in 2010 and 2011, there were so many millions of people who wanted to attend (especially the last flight of all three shuttles) that they had to do the lottery system. I was lucky that I got in to see the final launch of the final shuttle Atlantis STS-135.

Dahon.Steve

Good post overall. I think the OP was going too fast. The last time I went, there were a number of people taken away in an ambulance. Please don't ride like the OP did becuase he took alot of chances. One mistake by another rider and it would have been an entirely different experience. Trust me, there are ALOT of bad riders and your skill might not be enough to save you.

BridgeNotTunnel

Thanks, and I agree with you Dahon.Steve, 100%.

Most people should not ride the way I do. Though I do not perceive how I ride as particularly reckless, then again my riding style has been honed by Manhattan rush hour.

Today I had a toddler, and a very small child on a bike move into my path within minutes of each other on the East River Esplanade and was able to stop, both parents apologizing.

With all of my gear and undeniably a small percentage of my attention on filming, it's a testament to how safe I ride in a city of 8mill people when you realize I've only had 2 falls in almost 2 years/5k miles (My most recent fall I was NOT filming).

I think it's also worth noting that I am familiar with route and road conditions of most of the 5BBT that takes place on regular streets, and the parts you see where I am riding at speed are calculated risks. I cannot sustain those speeds, and I chose to sprint some areas admittedly for effect.

I am still a clydesdale at 260 lbs, as I was at the time. :|

My average speed for the 40+ mile route was 12.94 MPH according to GPS.

I also rode the 10 miles to and from the start/finish, home.

I recently took an older gentlemen recumbent rider who reads my blog for my 3 boros 6 bridges tour, and he told me he felt he learned a lot about how to safely ride by following me as he is not an NYC native.

Here is the original 5BBT blog entry with links to the raw unedited ride clips: https://astoriahd.blogspot.com/2012/0...-tour-606.html

Dahon.Steve, if you like you may follow this link to the Ride of Silence coverage which I am very proud of.: https://astoriahd.blogspot.com/2012/0...6-2012-30.html

Though I understand that some of my riding is not exemplary, I am a far cry safer than the average.

I signal, I run blinkies during the day, and even have a BikeGlow!