B-Tel

I just read How The Hell Do You People Ride With No Brakes? and instead of thread jacking I'm starting a new thread. I rode into Manhattan from Brooklyn over the Manhattan Bridge this morning and whenever I do this, I try to go down that last little steep part of the ramp without touching my brake, but I can't do it for fear of riding out of control into the intersection. Is this not difficult for others to do? Do I just need to get stronger or braver? I haven't done the Williamsburg Bridge on my fix yet, but I remember that being even worse. Been riding fixed for about 4 months. Sorry to make this so NYC specific!

luckycat

I usually slow down before I get to that last part of the bridge on the manhattan side. There's that really sketchy blind corner where the path is covered and you're next to the trains. If I'm still going to fast I'll slow down(or skid) again before making the right down the hill to the street. You really have to watch out for people on the sidewalk at the bottom, if they are coming from the right side you won't seem them until the last second.

ultra-g

Stick your foot on the front tire to slow down ... no brakes!

neuron

there are some scary riders (non-fixie, at that) that cut the lane. one night i was getting up to speed going into brooklyn, and someone was in my lane at that blind spot where it verges off from the train tracks. i had to slow down and got annoyed, b/c getting to speed with my bike takes some pedalling.

anyway. i ride with two brakes. i take it from the skid marks at the turn many just skid before they reach the steep downturn. the thought of hitting a ped or a vehicle there is a little too scary.

btw, does anyone else miss the other side of the manhattan bridge? the ramp on the MHTN side was so much nicer. the brooklyn side with the stairs, not so much. but it was smoother, or something.

brokenrobot

Yeah, I miss the other side! Better view, better pavement, better practice mounting and unmounting to climb the stairs...

ch0mb0

I'm with you and the robot. The north side is the suck for riding. B-Tel, take the side facing NJ. It is a lot smoother and very straight - no nasty curves or steep hills at the exit, but yeah those stairs...

Anyways, I'm feeling the Brooklyn Bridge lately. Less confined, nice view. It can get really dicey getting off on the Manhattan side in rush hour though.

p.s. cool pan-o-ramic!

luckycat

The south side was a little nicer in some ways, like the view, and it did seem a little smoother. However, getting dumped right on Bowery wasn't always so great.

My main beef with the new path is that blind corner by the train. I've had a lot of people cut the lane there as well, as neuron stated, very sketchy.


The brooklyn's okay, but there's just too many damn tourists, etc walking over it, who just don't pay enough attention.

Either one is still better than the williamsburg, with all those damned yellow bumps.

48x16

When I lived there I had no problems slowing down without brakes.

turd

i'm more concerned with that supertight corridor than the enter/exit ramps since you can always adjust for speed ahead of time..

mookchigga

I cross the Manhattan and Brooklyn fairly often and even though the view is better and you're up above the cars, I hate, hate, hate the Brooklyn b/c of the tourists. I like the new Manhattan north side only because there are even less peds than the the shared south. (But I hate looking at that stoopid building with the sloped roof thing on the Brooklyn side.) I've never really had a problem with the blind turn since it's a good reminder to slow down but I agree with everyone that the ramp down to the street blows. The new ramp on the Brooklyn side sucks not so much when I get off but when I try to get on. Usually I'm approaching from downtown (Jay Street?) and it sucks trying to get onto the sidewalk while dodging cars exiting the bridge. It was a little easier before but not really. Some traffic engineer should really rethink the situation there.

timmhaan

Is it the south side of the bridge that has the stairs? I've been taking that bridge for a while now and I never have to deal with stairs.

mookchigga

How do you avoid the stairs in Brooklyn if you're on the southside?

jessefive

How is the W-Burg bridge on bike? I want to make a trip up there soon to bike between friends who live in Brooklyn and Harlem....

timmhaan

it's a great bridge except on the manhattan side they have these little steel plates about 30 feet apart which makes the decent kinda crappy. It's more annoying than anything else though. Otherwise that bridge is my fav.

neuron

i take the brooklyn bridge in the mornings and the manhattan at night, on my way home. in the morning there aren't a whole lot of tourists, i guess they're still sleeping a bit in the morning. the suck part of the morning commute is on adams street, where the peds are many and tend not to look when crossing the street. oh, and getting off the bridge, though it helps that sign "red signal ahead" for the cars allows me to speed through the intersection.

the bburg bridge, i've found coming down fast i sometimes come out of my clips. though i keep them a bit on the loose side. the bburg brige i find is the bridge i spin out most on, this on a 52-15.

nine

i thought north side was bikes only and south peds only. i never take the southside. and i concur, the entrence to man. bridge through traffic sucks. sometimes i ride the other side on the sidewalk and try to time the light just to avoid it. and yes, how many tourists have to be smacked before the realize one lane is for you the other is for BIKES. so annoying.

turd

there was actually a meeting this past tuesday regarding those 'expansion joint covers,' as they're known. here are some interesting info & stats:
read more here: https://www.transalt.org/bridges/williamsburg.html
& here: https://www.transalt.org/press/releas...liamsburg.html
take the survey: https://www.transalt.org/press/askta/050113wbsurvey.html

turd

also here are images of all the entrances/exits for the bridges

MANHATTAN


WILLIAMSBURG


BROOKLYN

luckycat

I hate that damn bridge, especially those yellow bumps, and especially on a track bike. On a mountain or even a road bike I can deal with it, but it sucks on a fixed. I guess it's better than it used to be, with the steel plates in the middle that didn't really fit so you could see the traffic below you in places. I got twelve stitches from those damn things. It also used to be a really good place to get robbed, lots of dark spots...

timmhaan

yeah, i knew some people had crashed. i thought that had declined quite a bit though after they were painted yellow. i hope they eventually take them off though. as i recall they aren't even necessary for the bridge to function correctly. that said i am a little worried about people picking up massive speed on that long decent though - just because there are so many peds and baby strollers around (and we all know they don't always pay attention). i see it as a potentially danerous area with or without the plates.

luckycat

You also can't adjust for the speed of whatever idiot might come flying down the bridge towards that corridor/blind turn as you're coming up to it, and they don't always stay in their lane...

FixednotBroken

i've seen a couple of gnarly crashes there - one woman lost her front wheel and went down really hard...

those bumps are infinitely more dangerous than not having them, and they're structurally superfluous. i think they were put there as 'speed bumps' - you don't see any on the ramp down into brooklyn. Transportation Alternatives is doing some good work; let's hope we all succeed in getting those hazards removed.

neuron

heh. i remember the bburg bridge before the renovation. damn, that was a scary ride. the metal plates just didn't have any traction and there were spaces where you could look down through the joints. it quickly made my decision to not commute into manhattan from williamsburg when i lived there.

the bumps are a damn site better than those plates! but i'm glad they're reevauating the bumps. TA kicks butt, and i'm sure they're gonna get rid of them, when is another question.

unaesthetic

I may be looking at this wrong, but judging on how those are shared estimates, how did more people suffer damages to their bikes than actually crashed or lost control of their bikes?

turd

well flats for one...