streetstomper

The 5BBT is bringing back something from the past, but at a cost. Used to be in the first 25 years or so, before they forced you to go to their bike expo to pick up your rider ID materials, they would mail them to you. Now they're willing to do so again, but you have to pay $30 for the favor. That's per rider, even if two or more people are at the same address. All on top of an outrageous $112 registration fee. The Tour de L'Ile Montreal is asking $33 for registration, and that's Canadian dollars, I think, which would be about $24 US. The stench of greed is overwhelming. I guess they need to please their expo vendors, who wouldn't be willing to rent expensive booths if they didn't have a captive audience. It would be just too common-sensical yet difficult to have a table near the start line where out-of-town riders could make arrangements in advance to pick up their kits.

john m flores 

I haven't ridden the event since the 1990s so I wasn't aware of having to go to the bike expo, which kind of sucks. They're basically charging everyone that lives and works outside of Manhattan an extra $30. I was thinking of doing it this year despite the high cost (cycling in NYC during the event is a singular and unique experience) but I'm now on the fence.

Thanks for sharing.

Dahon.Steve

The One Boro Bike Tour is back! You get to tour Manhattan and see Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island on highways. Save yourself the money and visit this site for maps of all New York City bike lanes. You'll see much more of the city than you'll ever do on the 5BBC.


NYC Bike Maps - New York City's Bicycle Paths, Bike Lanes & Greenways | NYC Bike Maps

Jarrettsin

I like the Expo.
But won't sign up because the weather has sucked the last 4 out of 5 years, they need to push it back!

zacster

i did it once in the rain and it was no fun at all. We bailed in Downtown Brooklyn and took the subway home since it was easy from there.

Jarrettsin

I did it once in the rain, poured the whole time was cold too. My good rain gear and boots held up but not my gloves my hands were so bad by the end it was painful.

So many people came unprepared all the rest stops ran out of thermal blankets and I saw ambulance at every rest stop.

I've done the ride 4 times that was the last

KenCT 

This year will be my 20th 5 Boro. Bailed out last year at the Brooklyn Bridge.

There were two other times we only did half the route because of heavy rain and cold. I don't really mind the rain but the cold can be a bit much for me.


Wet ride during 5 Boro tour 2019.


Seems like most years are cool and some rain. I remember a few tours where it was sunny and hot. I ride with a group that varies between 6 and 15 each year, it is our kick off to summer. Going to the expo is a big down side mostly due to the extra cost involved. The few of us that go to the expo pick up the packets for the others. Most of us are retired and it is only a 90 minute train ride to Grand Central and it is an excuse for us to visit the city for the day.

streetstomper

Not really. I guess most people can come in on Saturday, but there are probably more than a few people who don't want to or can't make it a full weekend in NYC. Then if you don't have friends or family in the city who can do a proxy pickup for you, you'll have to pony up $30 more. What a difference from the once-friendly tour that mailed the packages to everybody inside and outside the city.

Not really a matter of whether you like it or not. Some people just can't make it or don't have the time.

streetstomper

Oh, and fair warning to anyone who may need to sell their packet if they can't make it for whatever reason. Don't trust anybody, not even here on Bikeforums. I "sold" a packet for a friend here to a Bikeforums member. The buyer swore he would pay the $100 he agreed to. He never did and came up with all sorts of excuses. First he couldn't follow directions. Emailed him a color scan of the ID so he could do a proxy pickup and told him to display it on his smartphone, just as BikeNY said to do. The idiot printed it up and said it was too big. He still got the rider packet anyway. Then he said he obviously didn't look anything like the ID, so he decided to skip the start line and start a mile or so north. Based on his incredibly stupid assumption that they would have time to check 34,000 IDs at the start line, he said his ride wasn't as enjoyable because he was "forced" to shorten it. Hello! Your rider ID kit is all the ID they want to see. He said he would pay half of the money. Again, he never did and I never heard from him again. DON'T TRUST ANYONE. Get cash before you turn over your packet.

Jarrettsin

Wet 5 boro

ChiroVette

Well, first off, I live in Brooklyn and have zero interest in going to the Bike Expo for any reason, certainly not to pick up something that can easily be put into the mail with free shipping. I think the expos are usually downtown, and parking is a nightmare. Public transportation to there is a huge pain in the ass. Not that any of this matters. LMAO I am not paying these people $112.00 plus their moronic mailing fee to participate in a ride with no refunds for inclement weather, potentially dangerous, or at least inconvenient, rider-bottlenecks, and for what? To ride alongside ten thousand weekend warriors, encased in wall-to-wall, mostly inexperienced riders, who half the time don't look where they're going?

I paid the first few years I did it, way back in the late '80's and early nineties. I think it was a lot more reasonable back then, but I'm not sure. Then I started just showing up and riding, hoping not to be thrown off the ride. In all the years I showed up without any sort of ride pack, nobody even looked at me funny. I have heard security in the ride is a lot tighter in the past 10 years, so I haven't tried crashing the ride (lol unfortunate and unintentional pun) in a while.

I may do it this year, weather permitting. I mean, what's the worst thing they can do, throw me off the...um streets? Is that even legal? This is still the United States, and I'm not sure there is a legal precedent to tell me that I cannot ride on public streets just because they rented them. If stopped, I can simply say that I am not "participating in the ride" and just make up some excuse about going somewhere else and using the street I am busted on "coincidentally." I assume the worst they could do is toss an unpaid rider off the...what? Off the public street? I suppose if they are renting it, cops may toss me off. But if I do crash the ride, I would only leave the route if a police officer demanded it. If some ride marshal or administrator yelled at me to leave, I would ignore them, and tell them to call the cops to throw me off. Then I can just ride somewhere else to get however many miles I want in.

Unless there are fines or possible lol criminal charges if I am caught "trespassing?" Which I seriously doubt. I assume I could only get in any real trouble if I am causing trouble or committing a crime, I am not sure what they could actually do to me if I decide to crash the ride.

Then again, I literally have this same conversation with myself every year, and have not crashed the ride in over ten years, since I heard that they started cracking down on people like me who stopped paying the entrance fees sometime in the '90s. I will probably just grouse about it being stupid and a violation of my civil liberties to be banished from 40 miles of PUBLIC streets for the day, and just ride somewhere else that day.

joesch

Given you live in Brooklyn, why not just ride the route anyother day, when the weather maybe better and you dont have to be part of the crowded tour.
Some good questions about people who just want to do their normal daily rides on bikes. They should not be prevented (fined, or told to get off route) because of the ride?

ChiroVette

I ride all over NY City all the time, and am not married to reproducing the 5 Borough Bike Tour route. I do, however, love the idea of riding on roads like the BQE and over the Verrazano, Not enough to be worth $113.00 plus the choice of either blowng a day and picking up my kit or paying their price-gouging mailing fee.

Again, I am not sure if there is legal precedent to:

A. Legally penalize me for riding without paying.
B. Demand I leave the route or a cop will be called
C. Chase me down if I ignore ride officials (but obeying a cop if he stops me, of course!)
D. Or for a cop to even care enough to get involved.

Again, all this is assuming I am not causing trouble, being a jerk-rider, verbally abusive, or breaking a cycling/traffic law. The caveat, of course, being that a lot of this is assumption on my part. There may be some obscure trespassing laws that a cyclist would be breaking by riding on a route that is being "rented" by some organization and closed off for that purpose.

dmark 

Astoria Park by Hellgate Bridge!

SBinNYC

The added security is mostly due to the aftermath of 9/11. One cannot go into most office buildings without producing a photo id. The security people from NYC and the other agencies instituted similar requirements. That photo id requirement necessitates a prior, in person, check in. Some of the package delivery services provide a similar service but it's expensive. It's not a simple leave the package at the door delivery.

Unfortunately, the security people take "cheaters" far more seriously than the ride organizers. The ride organizers will ask cheaters to leave the route. Some of the security people for non-public roadway areas have detained cheaters. Some agencies can be very aggressive.

Some cops take the security issue seriously. Two years ago, about 10,000 riders were treated to an unscheduled detour through Madison Square. A suspicious package was spotted along the route. The bike tour was detoured, until that package was inspected.

zacster

They can't stop you from riding in the streets but they can stop you from riding on any road not normally for cyclists, like the FDR or the BQE or the bridges. These are closed and paid for by the organizers. Other than preventing you from entering or escorting you off I don't know what legal recourse they may have.

Do you just walk into a movie theater without paying?

Stop being a jerk.

ChiroVette

Hey genius, try reading the post you are responding to before calling someone names. You might come off a little more informed.

From my post above:

streetstomper

But you also wrote:
So you admit to doing it in the past, and not just once, but numerous times. There's always the chance you'll do it again. So you haven't done it in ten years. That you ever did it in the first place is rude and inconsiderate to those who honestly paid their registration fees. You basically spent most of the post rationalizing that what you did wasn't really wrong and saying the only reason you don't do it anymore is because you're afraid of the higher security, not because of moral enlightenment. If you "will probably just grouse about it being stupid and a violation of my civil liberties to be banished from 40 miles of PUBLIC streets for the day" out of a sense of entitlement, why don't you try riding on the route of the NYC Marathon or the Thanksgiving Day Parade during those events?

ChiroVette

LMAO Over a decade ago, yes. When the rules were different and entrance wasn't enforced. It was a more lax vibe back then, as you wouldn't get booted off. I even asked cops and officials back then, while crashing the ride, and they laughed, and told me basically as long as I wasn't causing trouble, they didn't care. But its different now. Enforcement is more strict. So I adhere to it.

Try again. There's a chance anyone can do anything. Should I be arrested for potential-murder because a guy cuts me off on the road and for a fleeting moment, I have a violent thought about him? Last I checked people can only be something, like say a jerk, based on present actions. Calling people names should be reserved for actual acts or stated intent to break a law, not presumption just so someone can feel better being a righteously indignant keyboard-warrior in a message forum.

Hahaha this is even more fun than the rest of your post. Newsflash: there's something called a statute of limitations. And, as I said, things were a lot different with this ride over a decade ago. Nobody really minded back then. They do today, though.

Tell you what, honey. If I crash the ride this year or in any subsequent years, knowing what I know now, then I promise to post it here and give any keyboard-jockeys who wish it, all the ammunition you please, to fire off your righteous indignation. Hell, I'll even agree with you. Fair enough?


Edit: As much as I might complain about it, there actually is some reasoning to stricter enforcement I hadn't thought about before reading the excellent points in SBinNYC's post, which is that a lot of these rules were either written after 9/11 or were there before, but more strictly enforced since. This could also possibly be influenced by that horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. All things considered, yeah, I might complain about it, but in truth, if added security helps to keep everyone safe, then its probably overall a good thing.

streetstomper

You still don't get it. The reason for not crashing the ride now or in the past should not be because there's better enforcement now. The reason should be because it's rude and inconsiderate to do so when tens of thousands of other people paid good money to do the ride. That's what zacster was trying to tell you. If you continue to insist that there was nothing wrong with what you did, then he's absolutely right that you're a selfish jerk with a sense of entitlement, someone who thinks as long as there are no consequences for them, they'll do anything they want. And that's all I have to say about that. Knock yourself out with any rationalizations you want to come up with. I'm not going to waste any more keystrokes trying to explain right and wrong to someone with no sense of ethics.

ChiroVette

No, based on his post, he said this and only this:

Since I am not crashing the ride, regardless of my reasons, I am not "being a jerk" according to his stated reasoning. If he had another agenda, such as you do, then he should have stated it. But admonishing me NOT to crash the ride, when I have no intention of doing so, and clearly stated it, means he either didn't read the post, or was just looking for a reason to become all righteously indignant in a message forum. lol If he was going to hold me accountable for my thoughts and reasons, which you are clearly trying to do, then he should have said that I have bad thoughts. Hahaha

What are you a 12 year old girl? "Oh, no! You're thinking bad thoughts and following the law in a way I don't approve of! Waaah Waaah, you jerk!" See, now you're just trolling me. I expect it from a preachy, low-brow keyboard-warrior like you, lecturing me about morality because of my motivation to follow the law. Newsflash, my self-righteous sparring partner: people often consider consequences, such as a traffic ticket or parking ticket, for instance, when they elect not to blow red lights, drive above the speed limit, or park illegally. There's a reason why we have laws and punishments for breaking them. So that people will think twice about whether they are willing to risk legal penalties. If not, then punishments for wrongdoing would not be necessary.

Oh, I think we both know that isn't true. Self-righteous, pontificating, sanctimonious blowhards like you never get enough of blathering on about what someone is thinking, and conflating that with their "actions." You and I both know you're not done with trying to win an argument you already lost, because you refuse to delineate between my actions and my reasons for not breaking the law.

Edit: Hey, I have a thought. Maybe I should crash the ride this year, even though I had no intention of doing it. This way, I can post about it here, tauntingly, of course, and you can then call me a jerk and whatever else you want, because then I will actually have broken the law and not just lol wanted to break the law. Seems to me that, in your myopic, moral-despotism, you see no difference between wanting to break the law but not doing it, and going ahead and actually breaking the law.

cookingjnj

Myself and a bunch of buddies will be riding the 5 Boro again this year for the 6th time. Last year, due to the cold and rain, only three of the seven us road the course. Yeah, it was miserable and by far the worst year we had suffered through. Since we are in NJ and not in the city, we actually look forward to the Expo and packet pick-up. This has turned into our "boys" weekend. We all take the train from NJ and meet in NYC at the World Trade center late afternoon on Friday, make our way to the Expo, pick up our packets and hang there for a while. We then go to dinner, have a few drinks and then head back to Jersey. On Sunday we ride, then head to a restaurant in Jersey City for lunch, again another drink or two, and finish at a local watering hole in our town. Not a real healthy weekend, but one we all look forward to. We are all signed up again this year. Hopefully with better weather. I think my gloves are still wet from last year.

Rage

I have been doing the tour and volunteering at BikeNY since I was a kid, almost thirty years now. The first Sunday in May is one of my favorite days of the year. It’s like Christmas to me haha.
But I do agree that it’s pretty lame that they are now charging thirty dollars to mail you that packet. And, yes, it does have to do with them wanting as many attendees at the Bike Expo as possible, the inconvenient location not-withstanding. But BikeNY does a lot of good with the money. Take a look at their bike education classes for children and adults alike, for starters.
The tour also always sells out very quickly so there’s no surfeit of tour participants. Which means their peccadilloes are unlikely to change.
That said, it is doubtful you will have more fun on a bike in NYC than on tour day. It really is a singular experience.
...unless it rains. It can really suck when it rains. Think it was 2009 or 2010 that it poured all day long. And it was cold. Super, super cold.

ChiroVette

These are all valid points, and I do actually agree. My opinion, however, is that they should make rides like this less expensive. For two or three riders, say, ($260.00 or $390.00) that's about the price of a steak dinner for all at Peter Luger's. That's of course, with them adding insult to injury by charging absurd fees for people who don't want to, don't have the time to, or simply cannot make it to their little cycling rally to pick up their ride gear. Yes, they do a lot of great things with the money. But closing off the streets to other riders not willing to pay $100.00 or $130.00 to be there? I can't help but wonder if that's not a bridge too far. Of course, I have the right to abstain, as I have and will continue to, but its a bicycle ride, for Christsakes, not dinner at a 5 star restaurant, a dinner cruise on the Spirit of NY, or a guided helicopter tour. lol

streetstomper

That's hasn't been true for the last few years. Used to be they would sell out in days. Now it takes months, and I'm not sure they actually do. If you go to their site today, two months after registration opened, you can still register.

In fact, at this point, it's anyone's guess whether this event will even happen this year. If the city and state can't get a handle on the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19, it may become too much of a risk to pack 34,000 riders together at the start line, not to mention all the porta-potties riders have to share, with no sinks to wash hands at. The state is already recommending older people avoid mass events. The organizers have sent out an email with a vaguely reassuring message, but even they admit uncertainty as to where the situation might go in two months. If SXSW wasn't safe from cancellation, there's no reason to believe that 5BBT would be different, especially if the state or city governments bring pressure to bear in a public health crisis. Cases in NYS are doubling every few days (it jumped from 105 confirmed infections last night to 149 this afternoon), and I don't see any reason that's going to change within the next two months.