Biking for FUN. — sam way explores

In an effort to oh, I don’t know, try and enjoy life, I went on TWO spontaneous (and one non-spontaneous, but that’s for another post) bike rides.

On Friday, Claudia, whom I met through Girls Bike NYC, reached out to me about taking a quick afternoon ride down to the beach for a dip. With my back feeling better, I am trying to get more regular rides in and I was either going to do laps in Prospect Park Friday night or try a longer route the next day. Since I was planning on going to the Girls Bike NYC ride on Sunday, it didn’t make much sense for me to do a long ride the day before, so Friday it was! But as the day progressed, the odds of me getting out there on my own got slimmer and hanging out in my apartment, doing nothing, seemed more appealing. Claudia reached out at the perfect time.

I’m a planner and if I’m being fully honest, in the past, I probably would have come up with an excuse to not go. In fact, I debated coming up with an excuse for a few seconds this time too. But why? There was nothing stopping me from going - I was finished with work and definitely didn’t have any other plans. I need to work on being more flexible and would I really regret getting a ride in and getting to know a new friend?!

I happened to be working from home on this day (a very rare occurrence), so I was able to meet Claudia at Grand Army Plaza at around 4:30 PM. We rode down to Coney Island through a combination of Bedford Ave and Ocean Parkway, our bathing suits under our kits, ready for a swim.

I had never actually gone in the water at Coney Island, so this was a first for both of us, but the water felt great and Claudia and I were kept busy, trying to jump all of the waves before they crashed into us.

We dried off with the breeze (the wind got sand into every crevice of our clothes, helmets and bags) before gearing back up for the ride home. This time, we opted for the service road on Ocean Parkway, which was a MUCH better riding experience than the deteriorating bike path.

This may sound silly, but I’m proud of myself for getting out on this ride and doing something different with a new friend.

The next day, I worked on slowing down. I walked to get an iced coffee and then was able to get some chores done around the apartment in the morning before taking my bike out. Slow down.

I went for another unplanned ride - imagine that! I knew I wanted to work on the latest Girls Bike NYC blog post, so I brought my laptop along for the ride. I decided to head east and do some riding through the part of Bed Stuy I used to live in but I was on the Pack Rat, so it wouldn’t be a ride without me having V brake issues - this time on the front wheel. I noticed my brake pads started rubbing on one side of the rim and after some investigating, decided to try resetting the wheel and retightening the quick release. With A LOT of effort, I was able to center the wheel between the forks and get enough clearance between the rim and brake pads. Maybe it’s time for those thru axles. I then took the liberty of cleaning all of the dirt off my feet in one of the park’s fountains.

After the repairs, I got going again and wound up close to my old apartment. I noticed signs for Lady Moo Moo, a little ice cream shop that is only open seasonally. My landlords at the time told me to get ice cream from here, but I never had the chance when I was living in the area!

Good thing I stopped for this treat because somehow, for the remainder of the ride, I try to sit down for a meal but never actually succeed.

From here, I rode over to Forte Greene and stopped at multiple bars/restaurants but they were either not open yet, or didn’t serve food. I wound up at Walter’s, right across from Fort Greene Park and grabbed a seat at the very PACKED bar. It was a lot louder than I anticipated and being crammed in at the bar didn’t feel conducive to working on my laptop. I got a beer and then decided I would just eat something quickly before going somewhere else to sit down and work. Well, I drank the beer but the bartender never took my food order, so I paid for my drink and bounced.

I rode around Fort Greene Park for a bit and stopped to take in part of a basketball game that was being announced by a vivacious DJ.

Next, I headed south through Prospect Heights and figured I could at least find a bar with food on Vanderbilt. I stopped at Bilt Bar, which… also had no food? Despite pictures of food on the bar’s Google and Yelp reviews.

That didn’t stop me! I got a refreshing cocktail and set to work on the blog.

Feeling accomplished after publishing the Girls Bike NYC: Brewster to Tarrytown post, I rode over to Prospect Park and decided to sit on the lawn and listen to some live music for a bit.