Frontier Cyclist, vol. 7

Photo: Max Maddock

(On Tuesdays, Frontier Cyclist writes about urban cycling. Ride on!)

By now, you're back in shape and are cruising the city with bike routes from Frontier Cyclist. Maybe you have plans to see the Bike Film Festival, which opens next week. Still want more? How about our Top 5 bike activities for the week and beyond?

5. Moonlight Rides in Prospect Park
Want to ride at night but concerned about safety? Join the environmentalist group Time's Up for a night ride through Prospect Park. The group meets on the second Saturday of the month at 9.00 PM. The next one is this Saturday June 12. Meet at Grand Army Plaza and bring your lights and helmet. And if you want to race, find another speedway. It's dark out there.

4. Tour de Queens
Registration opens next week for the Tour de Queens (7/11), a 20-mile ride through the city's largest and maybe most misunderstood borough. The ride starts at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which we recommend as a destination if you want to take a practice run before the TDQ.  Catch some tennis love at the US Open, the Mets at the Too Big to Fail Stadium, or get in the World Cup spirit and watch the dozens of pickup soccer games. If that's what you're into.

 

3. Free Bike Fridays on Governors Island

If you still don't own a bike, you could beg your cyclist friends to loan you a spare. You could read our thoughts on the subject. Or you could hop a ferry to Governors island on Free Bike Friday, courtesy of Bike and Roll, and then ride the 5.5 mile loop around the island. There are only 200 bikes available on Free Fridays, so get there early. (Open 10.00 AM to 5.00 PM, Friday through Sunday).

For your musical needs, Governors Island also hosts a series of summer concerts. We missed a performance there on Thursday by Trombone Shorty, whose new record we reviewed. But we're looking forward to Passion Pit (7/3), She and Him (7/10) and Dr. Dog (7/21), whose new record Shame, Shame we reviewed yesterday.  And stay tuned for MIA (8/6), who got so upset at her recent profile in the New York Times Magazine that last week the editors posted a correction. 


2. Bespoke: Exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design
The Museum of Art and Design opened in its new home in Columbus Circle in 2008, right across the street from Jazz at Lincoln Center and New York's shopping mall slash temple to media monoliths. Now through August 15, MAD's exhibit Bespoke features the work of six master bicycle builders: Mike Flanigan, Jeff Jones, Dario Pegoretti, Richard Sachs, J. Peter Weigle, and Sacha White. Visit the exhibit website for highlights and bike music by David Byrne, whose awesomeness was chronicled by Frontier Funbunny. Also, if you play Scrabble, 'bespoke' is a seven-letter word. We are just saying.

1. Bike New York
For  cyclists who want to leave the five boroughs, Bike New York hosts a series of monthly rides. The first one is The Long Island Harbors Ride (6/27) along the North Shore of L.I. You can pick the length of your ride (15, 27, 53, 80, or 105 miles), based on your level of fitness and comfort. Future BNY rides this summer include the Harlem Valley Rail Ride (7/25) and the Husdon Valley Ride 8/22. All we need is the New Haven Valley rail ride and we've got all three branches of Metro-North covered. N.B. Bike New York rides cost $50 and all rides meet at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood. And leave your L.I. jokes at home. LL Cool J, Chuck D, Method Man, and some of our mothers were all born in Nassau and Suffolk County. So was Walt Whitman, before he moved to Brooklyn and became a writer. Yea, that's been happening for a while now.

Photo: Max Maddock

Frontier Cyclist, vol. 7