quinonesm

Looking real good Matt! I'm really glad you were able to finish this one up in time for the slam and that I got to see it in person - awesome job!

I knew this one had to make it onto this thread!!! one of the best endo photos evah!!!

Wow...I'm seriously late to this party! Brian - I had a really great time this year and I can't even explain how quickly the day went! I felt like I was there for 40 minutes and then it was time to leave! That's how cool it was and how much fun I had. I got to chat with a bunch of guys (new and old friends), peep some sweet rides and had dome good brew! Thank you and Joann (love that shot of you two) again for hosting such a great event!!! Brian - (Britt) awesome pics once again! You did a fantastic job of documenting this event this year and I'm glad since I was just being too lazy to take pics this time! Definitely my fave non riding event of the year! Can't wait for SS7...

Almost there guys...looks like it will be a great turnout.

Thanks Scott. I had hoped to consult with you on the route, so I'm glad you approve. Brit says he's going to make it, but Jon has a DJ gig for a wedding! The more the merrier!

Okay, so I have good news and bad news. The good news is I plotted the route out today and it looks to be a good run. It's not exactly a 5 borough bike-a-thon, but it's not for the faint of heart either. However, that being said, I did it with my cousin Tony who is post surgery and still healing from his torn Achilles Tendon. He used his MTB for comfort, but it's definitely doable for pretty much everyone. It will be a nice run around lower manhattan with the start at South Street (near the Seaport) and then across Manhattan to the Manhattan Bridge into downtown Brooklyn. There will be a stop in a beautiful scenic park with the Manhattan skyline for a backdrop and a nice group shot. Then we will proceed through a bit of the downtown bklyn neighborhoods back to the famous Brooklyn bridge back into Manhattan with a proposed stop at the Brooklyn banks for some street ride/shredding sessions. Then finally we will stop at a nice watering hole to shoot the chit! It's a good amount of riding, but it's all through a beautiful scenic route mostly by the east and hudson rivers (with a nice breeze). The toughest part of the route will be the uphill portions of the bridges, but the downhill portions will be quite rewarding. The return to Manhattan over the Bklyn bridge is a more gentle slope than the trip into bklyn. Most of the time will be spent on dedicated bike paths so it should be suitable for those that want to bring kids. It is New York City, so I do recommend you consider the occassional city traffic (if you are considering kids). Kids under 12 must have a helmet by law and l recommend gloves and possibly elbow pads for them. If your noggin is kinda soft, like Louis' (ultrahive), I recommend a helmet for you adults too! There will be a few stops worked into the ride for some rest and a food beverage stop in the village (Grey's Papaya). Now for the bad news...the Brooklyn Banks has finally been closed off for that construction I mentioned earlier in this thread! :o Yep, the banks are off the itinerary for our NYC ride this year. I'm totally bummed, because this has long been a staple of NYC street riding and was the scene for many years and the choice for several competitions in the past. There has been a tall fence erected along the entire span of the area so there is no way of getting in and shredding there. I was just there about a week and half to two weeks ago and it was open, but such is our luck. None the less, we will still have a good time on this ride and I hope to see a bunch of museum members and their friends turn out for the ride. So, to reiterate the details: The ride is still scheduled for July 17th with a meet time of 10:30 AM to 11/11:15 AM. We will meet at South Street at the intersection of Peck Slip, near a bar called Paris Cafe. There are two parking lots located right along Peck Slip (see the attached pic) for those arriving by car, with the 2nd right between Pearl, Water, Peck Slip and Beekman Street. This location is also accessible by Subway (Chambers St. station for the J & Z line, Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall station for the 6 line are both the closest to the meet point, but there are others as well) and near Path Train stops for those coming from nearby Jersey City. As previously mentioned, the price for all day parking is around $25 at most of these lots. You can see the interstion of South St. & Peck Slip at the bottom right hand corner of the image. Satellite image with the parking lot and cars clearly visible Satellite/3D view Here it is zoomed in via Satellite view, where you can clearly see all of the cars from both lots (forming a backwards P): NYC Subway map Here is the proposed route for the day Since this is the densely populated NYC where even the parking lots can be bustling and busy, we are not planning a Swap meet. Let's plan to meet from 10:30 AM to 11 AM, with a plan for the ride to start at 11:15 AM. PM me if you want my cell number so that if you're arriving late, we can tell you where we are and you can catch up to the group. I did the ride in about 2.5 hours today, but Tony and I didn't stop at all of the locations for too long. We will stop long enough for those of you visiting the city for the first time to take it all in and then we'll continue on. It will be the middle of July, so dress for some hot weather as it could be in the mid 90's then, Today it was 90 here in the city and tomorrow it will be hotter. I had hoped to have a T-shirt design for this ride, but couldn't make it happen in time. It's no biggie really and I'm billing this as the NYC no-frills ride (no swap meet, no shirts, no bklyn banks, etc...)! To be honest, none of that is needed for us to have a great time. The goal of these rides is for us to get together and have some fun riding our BMX bikes, old school style, meeting new and old friends and talking trash! For some, it will be a treat to see the city for the first time in a way never experienced by them before. There will be beers, hugs, fun and riding that day! I really hope to see a lot of you previous NYC group ride attendees, as well as some new faces. If you are coming from some place out of the way and need some help figuring out the best way in, shoot me a PM and I'll try to help as best as I can. I'm born and raised here in the city, so I know it pretty well. ;) I think that about covers it, but I'm sure I left something out. Can't wait to see you all for the ride!!! Marcus

Looks fantastic and I wouldn't change a thing either!

You can count me in!

Lee, you are so right about the tires...I immediately thought Pro Class when I first saw it.

I think it's rather beautiful!

Thanks for the link Steve. I read the write up earlier today and thought it was pretty cool. Also glad Bob started shooting again - he belongs behind a camera!

Glad you got to see the film - I'm still dying to see it myself. I missed out on the NYC premier where they rode a half pipe and DMC, Hoffman and others got really crazy on it. Hopefully it will be available on disc or Cable soon.

Thanks for reviving this thread, so I can drool over all the dope bikes! For me, the 2 previously shown that I lust over are the black 26" VDC (WOW!) and the black GT 24" with matching bars and post. Something about a hot black cruiser that gets me excited. Plenty of incredible bikes posted thus far.

Man B, the shirts look very good!

They do Jimbo, but that would take at least an hour each way and then some time for riding...would need like a day of it's own. There's a decent little skate park in Bay Ridge Brooklyn but that's also a ways out. There is a new skatepark by Chelsea Piers (which should be on our route for this ride), but it's for Skaters only! I'm bummed about that because it's pretty nice. They have tall bars for a fence and a gated turnstile type entry that makes it almost impossible to get in with a bike. Not to worry though, we will have fun without either of these venues.