Bicycle Sundays: 3 Flats and a Broken Derailleur
Maria and SK invited me along for a ride to Bicycle Sundays, where a stretch of the Bronx River Parkway is closed to cars. SK checked on us the night before to make sure we all had a spare tube and maybe that was what jinxed me (no offense, SK)!
The plan was to meet on the Manhattan side of the Williamsburg bridge and then find a place for some breakfast before hitting the road. It was pretty chilly in the morning but it was a nice start to the day and I love early rides when most people are still asleep and the streets are empty.
Empty Williamsburg bridge, early on Sunday morning.
SK and Maria arrived at the same time and then we rode a few blocks to a bagel spot, that happened to be located next to the “Famous, Original” Pizza School. We didn’t get to eat pizza but the bagel was exactly what I needed.
After breakfast, we were off on our route west, then north, through the city.
It was early enough that we could avoid the bike lane and ride in the streets for a bit, which worked out since most of the bike lanes were strewn with litter and trash anyway. Eventually we joined the bike lane on 8th Avenue and it was there that I heard a loud POP and the air escaping from my front tire. Only 9 miles in and some glass punctured the side wall of my tire. SK is a patching magician so rather than using my spare tube, he got to work patching the puncture for me. I have never patched a tube before, I usually just throw a new one in and get on my way (I have a collection of tubes that will probably be fine once patched so maybe I’ll make that a project), so SK was kind enough to give me a demonstration while he worked. It was here that I learned about booting a tire, to protect the tube from the hole left by the puncture. I can’t remember who provided the dollar bill but SK or Maria, I owe you $1!
After the patch, we got back on our bikes and road north on the bike lane on Central Park West (it’s worth noting that this bike lane was clear of debris but was not spared of cyclists and scooters riding south on a bike lane that goes north). Eventually we reached the Harlem River Greenway on our way to Van Cortlandt Park.
Finding our way into Van Cortlandt Park was a bit difficult and we wound up entering near the golf course that is part of the park. From there, we tried riding to the public restrooms and water fountains and that turned into an adventure in and of itself:
What we thought was a bike path was not but I love hiking so why not add a little into this bike ride? After finding our way out of the woods, we exited the park the way we came so that we could find the entrance with the amenities we needed. We used the restrooms, topped off our water bottles and then rode through Van Cortlandt to connect to the South County Trailway.
This was my first time on this bike path and it was really beautiful but what stands out most to me is the ever-so-slight-but-annoying-enough grade that ranged from 1-2%. Maria was setting our pace and she was booking it through this part of the ride. It was a challenge for me to keep up but I was able to. Had I been riding alone, I know I would have gone at a more leisurely pace so it was actually nice to push myself more than I normally do.
Next, we were to leave the trail to ride some roads before reaching the Bronx River Parkway. We missed the turn to exit and while we stopped to regroup and turn around, I heard air escaping my tire once again. We stopped to make the repairs and found that the first patch had held and that this was a new puncture in the tube. This time around, we decided to patch the new puncture AND patch the tire itself, while still replacing the boot.
The site of flat #2.
I felt terrible that we kept having to make stops for repairs to my tire but Maria and SK were both totally cool about it and also amazingly helpful. I was glad that this happened with them because I learned a bunch from both of them during the process. I also want to add that INNUMERABLE cyclists who passed us kept offering help and checking to make sure that we were OK and that we had all the necessary tools and materials for the repairs; this was a nice reminder of the really great people who exist in this community.
After this second repair, we finished the trip to the start of Bicycle Sundays. Westchester County Parks hosts Bicycle Sundays from May through October and about six-and-a-half miles of the Bronx River Parkway is closed to vehicles and open to bicyclists, in-line skaters, scooters, joggers, and pedestrians. We rode this segment of the parkway, got ice cream along the way and I borrowed a pump from the Danny Cycle’s stand since we could only do so much with a hand pump after repairing my flats.
After we reached White Plains, where the Bicycle Sundays ended, we started routing west to connect back to the South County Trailway. As soon as we reached the path, I noticed my left shifter wasn’t working and my chain was stuck on the smaller of the two chain rings. Once again, SK got to work with trying to diagnose the issue and he noticed a lot of slack in the front derailleur cable. He was able to get it shifted up to the bigger chain ring but then we saw that the chain was rubbing on the outer cage of the derailleur. None of us were exactly sure about how to repair this so we set the chain back on the smaller ring; this actually wound up working out since some remaining parts of the ride were hilly and I’d be riding on that ring more anyway.
The rest of the ride on the trailway was great and it was such a nice change since riding through the city can get annoying and pretty dangerous at times.
It was also a relief to be riding that grade that I mentioned earlier in the opposite direction, because at this point, I was getting pretty tired. This was a nice little reprieve before we had to hit a few more hills on our ride through the Bronx. But, we eventually got to High Bridge, which is the oldest bridge in New York City, and it was pretty cool to be able to ride over that.
The last real stretch of our ride took us to the Hudson River Greenway and at this point, we were done with the wind. Abolish wind. It also got pretty crowded the further south we rode on it. SK and Maria made plans to get food so I left the greenway at 24th Street to get back home to take care of the kitten.
My ride home through the city was pretty annoying, as usual, but I got over the Manhattan Bridge and was at the home stretch when, you guessed it, my front tire was flat again. This was at about mile 69 and even though SK had done all the legwork on the previous repairs, I still didn’t have it in me to change the tube at this point. I debated taking the subway home. I debated taking an Uber XL home (I was seriously tired after pushing myself on this ride). Neither of those ideas really appealed to me so I tried re-inflating the tire, hoping it would hold for the last few miles I needed to ride to get home. By some miracle, I made it back to my apartment. Time to buy a new tire.
