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19 Signs You're Riding Your Bike Like a Boss in NYC

New York City Cycling
by Vanessa Nirode Sep 3, 2015

1. You can successfully navigate the 2nd avenue and 1st avenue obstacle courses through the East Village, dodging delivery trucks, meandering (often drunk) pedestrians, opening car doors, and left turning drivers with ease and grace.

2. Your morning commute includes at least three instances of yelling at a car driver that is about to run into you.

3. Your morning commute includes at least four instances of yelling at a pedestrian that is standing in a bike lane on their cell phone.

4. Your morning commute includes at least two instances of yelling at another cyclist that is salmoning.

5. No matter how often you say you won’t, you always end up racing some dude on a fixie over the Manhattan Bridge.

6. You are not afraid of multi lanes of moving, honking traffic and can weave your way through it all to get to the entrance of the 59th St Bridge.

7. You never cycle across the Brooklyn Bridge unless it’s 5am. Only tourists do that.

8. You know that sometimes it’s safer to ride in traffic than in one of the cities ‘protected’ bike lanes.

9. You know exactly when the bike lanes on 2nd Ave and 8th Ave are going to switch sides.

10. You know when to make a complete stop at a red light in Central Park and when it’s ok to slow, look, then coast through it.

11. You’ve attended the Red Hook Crit and you know somebody who raced it.

12. You have at least four horror stories of either you or someone you know getting hit by a car. You still maintain that bike commuting is the best way to get around the city.

13. You’ve ridden the New York City Century a few times. The first time you probably paid for it.

14. You’ve gotten up at 4am on a Saturday to be in Central Park by 5am to race with a bunch of other crazies. These are your people.

15. You’ve rode 9W to Piermont or Nyack more times that you can count.

16. You’ve gone to Bicycle Roots in Crown Heights to have Joe fix your bike. Because he rocks.

17. You carry your bike up four flights of stairs to your 5th floor walkup apartment. Most of the time, you don’t think twice about it.

18. You know that as a cyclist you get to experience some of the city’s best views, especially when crossing a bridge during sunset or sunrise. You’ve Instagrammed a photo from the Manhattan Bridge looking northeast during sunrise. One of the best photos you ever took was from the Pulaski Bridge looking west to Manhattan at sunset.

19. You own three or four bikes: an all black matte Trek or Cervelo all carbon racing bike that may or may not have Di2 shifting, an old grey or yellow steel framed Bianchi, a Piranello or Focus cyclocross bike, and a Specialized hybrid with panniers and fat tires for Trader Joe’s excursions. You’d choose any one of your bikes over the subway or a taxi any day — even when it’s raining. That’s what rain gear is for.

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