Baby blue at cold dusk

My bus was rerouted this afternoon because of some street fair, and I had to walk home a different way. What happened then was this --



Isn't that beautiful? The cold with leaves crunching underfoot and the day turning to dusk made this blue piercing, and not just visually (not sure how to explain). It looks like a Globe Roll but I can't be sure. All I'm sure of is that I've gone back and re-looked at this picture a few times tonight, which hasn't happened with a bike photo in a long while.

Green.

I saw this pretty green bike in a neighborhood I don't visit nearly as much as I should. After buying a computer battery, and before going to a fun Saturday of drawing trains and drinking cocktails.



The last day of summer was last Thursday. Inevitably, posting will slow a bit in the fall and winter. I'll try my very best to be extra bikevigilant.

Bicycle Film Festival: Street Party

Saturday was full of riding around NYC. After riding to a friend's art exhibit in Bushwick, we rode over the Williamsburg Bridge and into the East Village for the Bicycle Film Festival's block party. It was full of vendors, food, BMX tricks, some great short films, and of course, bikes.



There was a bike valet, which was great for a multicolored tangle of frames; an actual penny farthing; and the license to eat pizza, after riding so many miles ;)









The day was exhausting and fulfilling and hot and delicious. Perfect summer.

A bright end to a fryup

I traveled to a faraway place to have this (amazing) English breakfast yesterday:



And saw this when I walked outside...



There was no great angle from which to take that, but I'm sure you can see it was stunning. The most accurate yellow in this picture to how brilliant this bike was is on the top tube, toward the seat. Went so, so well with those hot pink grips.

Pink Peugeot

I was walking around with my friend Mike after brunch a few weekends ago; I'm sure you can imagine why this bike caught my eye:



Look at the little pink orange and yellow diagonal stripes on the seat tube. So sunny.

Bike Directions from HopStop

Alexandra from HopStop emailed me a week or two ago to let me know of their new bike directions feature. Exciting! The feature is in beta right now, and I fully aim to try it out this summer. It was launched in collaboration with Equinox Gyms (they also brought us the new "calories burned" feature to the service) - pretty smart, yes? There are some mapped routes on the site, and the directions have little labels showing where the bike paths are.



When I asked how the routes were calculated (safest, most direct, bike lanes vs. not, etc.), Alexandra responded with, "We prioritize bike lanes, and highlight them within the contextual route itself and on the overview map. We also consider the fastest trip in our routes in terms of routing bikers from point-A to point-B in the most efficient way possible." Efficient sounds familiar, it is HopStop after all. Their public transit directions have been scarily to-the-minute accurate (way more so than Google Maps) over the years. So I'm excited to see what this is like. You can still use the "send to your phone" option as well, which has always been a nice nod to the whole mobility thing. Happy (and safe) riding!

Safari bikes

This was a rare moment of brilliance - leopard and tiger striped bikes, locked next to each other.



I hope their owners are friends.

Eastery Feather

Saw two stunners on the way to brunch last weekend...

I saw a bunch of these Fujis last spring when i was shopping for my bike; I may have even ridden one. And almost wiped out.



These beautiful wheels were on the diagonal corner. Same color scheme as this one.

Oh, it's definitely Spring

My boyfriend's parents were in town this weekend, and we all went for a long walk after getting plates heaped with cheeseburgers and fries for lunch. It was the most bike-ful day of the year, and I went camera happy. I was still a bit fuzzy from the previous night until I saw this:





Here's a white one with seafoam wire basket and back fender:



I'm going to get mine tuned up soon so I can start zooming to noodle shops at dusk with friends. So excited.

Hints of spring

And an apropos color, too -



I saw this one while walking around a friend's new neighborhood, and stopped in my tracks to take a picture. It made me want to search Etsy for an enamel hair comb, or find a gray cardigan with shiny green buttons in this exact color.

You guys will be seeing more and more posts here soon, the weather is finally beginning to un-stubborn itself. I think. Strange that I never did a post about the poor bikes up to their handlebars in piles of snow this winter - I mostly just felt badly when I'd walk by them.

Also, I may have written about this blog for the first time on cellar door just now. Strange, no?