wandering manhattan in the rain

 

here are some shots from wandering manhattan on a rainy day.  I was feeling kind of ill so I kept it mellow.

 

 

 

“moustache man” strikes again.  love it.

(since then he has been arrested .. sadface)

 

 

 

 

 

yarnbombing a trike.  that did not look easy.

 

 

 

 

chairs outside of the adidas store in soho

 

 

 

 

running from the thunderstorm

I happened to be on the high line when a thunderstorm hit.  scary clouds loomed over hoboken until suddenly the temperature dropped 20 degrees and the full-on thunderstorm hit.

 

 

 

 

I wandered chelsea a bit.

 

 

 

 

I saw this sad spectacle of a bike.  everything had been stripped except for the crankset, saddle, and brake posts.  is this proof that using an old chain to secure your saddle works?

 

 

 

 

 I hopped back on the high line.

 

 

 

drinking hearts

 

 

 

 

loved the lighting here

 

 

 

 

 

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Third Rail Coffee and Gus

friendly baristas at third rail coffee

 

 

 

I had a shot of intelligentsia’s black cat

 

 

 

Gus, a harlequin great dame

 

 

 

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west village diptych

 

captain softee ice cream truck at sheridan square and pastries at tartine

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bike and coffee shops in new york (part 4)

This is part 4 of the bike and coffee tour.

(part 1 of the tour and part 2 and part 3)

Abraco (86 East 7th Street New York) is a small space with a strong smell of coffee and a distinctive neon sign that is featured prominently as their logo on their website.  The beans are from counter culture, and the guy apparently has Bay Area roots and had previous experience at blue bottle.   For more information, there’s a good writeup in New York magazine.

Abraco’s website pushes some delicious looking pastries, but I only ended up getting an espresso:

The espresso, a ristretto, had a very “traditional” taste to me.

As claimed, the place was tiny and crowded.  Nothing wrong with that.

Sam and I continued walking in the east village, headed towards brooklyn but in search of food.

We stopped by Dumpling Man for a snack:

I only ended up with a shot of the bathroom.  “Please be good”

We took a little stroll through Tompkins Square Park and then came across Busy Bee Bikes (437 East 6th Street, New York, NY)

Nothing too crazy here.  You can see a pretty big used part selection behind the glass on the right and a pretty bright paint job outside where some of the people from the shop were working on repairs.

Our next stop was Bike Works (106 Ridge Street, New York), just on the manhattan side of the Williamsburg bridge.  they had a decent selection of cycling caps here, so I picked a couple up as souvenirs.

Also in front of Bike works:

big ring riding.

The city was painting new bike lanes on Rivington St as we approached the Williamsburg bridge.  Fresh green paint!

Williamsburg bridge photos:

Heavily covered with graffiti good and bad:

aand plenty crowded with cyclists and pedestrians.  It was cool to see the variety of styles.  There were old beater bikes, fixies with chopped bars, cheapo mountain bikes and nice road bikes.

We took a break to sit down and rest our legs in Williamsburg.  There was some group ride going on that looked more instructional than anything else:

we started walking in the general direction of park slope, feet and legs starting to get tired.    I happened to spot Bicycle Station (171 Park Avenue, Brooklyn, NY).  I went in for a bit.  The shop seemed small, and relatively sparse possibly due to the fact that they had moved to this location not too long ago.  A family came in with a bunch of bikes needing attention and they were starting the repair as I left.

I stopped into La Bagel Delight for some food and then took a quick peek into Bespoke Bicycles (64-B Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn) before meeting Sam for a beer at Mullanes across the street.  It was well-lit with some beautiful signage.

replenished and rested, we continued towards park slope.

Saw this on Atlantic Ave:

worst prizes ever.  but cool tape job.

This little amendment to the BNE sticker took some planning.  I got a kick out of it:

we had some time to spare before meeting up with Sam’s friend for dinner, so naturally we walked up and down 5th and 7th avenues.

Stopped into R&A Cycles (105 5th Avenue Brooklyn) for a second:

R&A has a big shop with many fancy road/tri/whatever bikes.

passed by Dixon’s (792 Union Street Brooklyn), so I stepped in for a second too:

Dixon’s is also a pretty large shop but their focus seemed to be used bikes and repairs:

We walked on to Tea Lounge (837 Union Street Brooklyn) where I didn’t get more coffee because I was already 2 espressos in for the day.  Instead, we sat on a comfy couch and rested.

I tried making a google map of all of the places visited but am having a hard time embedding that onto this site.  So, here’s a list of places that I visited (thanks again to Brooklyn by Bike and the New York Times Interactive Coffee Map! and the people who helped me along the way)

Part 1:

• recycleabicycle
• cafe grumpy
• b’s bike shop
• king kog
• blue bottle coffee

Part 2:

• oslo coffee
• nycbikes
• gimme! coffee
• affinity cycles
• velo brooklyn (bushwick bike shop)
• lit fuse cyclery

Part 3:

• recycleabicycle
• stumptown roasters
• conrad’s bike shop

Part 4:

• abraco
• busy bee bikes
• bike works
• bicycle station
• bespoke bicycles
• dixon’s bike shop
• tea lounge

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bike and coffee shops in new york (part 3)

This is part 3 of the bike and coffee tour.

(part 1 of the tour and part 2)

my time for the rental was running out and I was meeting friends at pacifico for dinner.  I left lit fuse and rode through downtown brooklyn to get back to recycle a bicycle.

chris at recycleabicycle invited me in to take more pictures.

I took the subway back to my sister’s place in manhattan.  It was kind of sad to leave the cruiser behind.

I caught this before the end of the night:

your brake levers overlap!  but I suppose it’s good to at least have brakes.

I had to work the next day but continued the bike shop and coffee tour the day after that, on foot with my friend sam.

first stop: stumptown.

I was really impressed with stumptown (18 West 27th Street New York, NY).  It’s a really well done little spot attached to the swank ace hotel.

the line was about 8-10 deep, which was a bit long but manageable.

there was lots of fun stuff, coffee and not coffee related on the walls.

stumptown’s espresso was my favorite of the tour by far.

saw this guy parked outside stumptown:

has anyone ridden a no-nose saddle before?

next stop: conrad’s in tudor city.

conrad’s bike shop (25 Tudor City Place New York, NY) looked like they got pretty serious with the bike fitting:

there was a decent selection of apparel and accessories as well as many fancy bikes on the floor.

sam and I walked down to the east village next, to hit abraco.

this guy had a good look:

and this note, hilarious:

“Don’t come crying when we cut your chain and remove your bicycle from the fence!  THAT’S A BIG SIGN!”

one more to go.  part 4 comes next.

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