Welcome to non binary bike club!

Next ride is May 13: K-Town

Another week of staring at the Wednesday forecast, but I think we’re good to ride! We’re going to K-Town, probably Food Gallery 32. Apart from the tasty food and fun on Manhattan’s Thirty-second Street, I picked K-Town because our little group basically never goes to Midtown. Let’s explore! Our 14km route takes us over the Williamsburg Bridge, then winding our way through the more passable streets of Work Island.

It may rain, but that didn’t stop us last week and it turned out to be a lovely evening. Come on by!

A few housekeeping matters

You may have noticed we’re starting to ride almost every week again. Instead of committing to a weekly schedule for the next six months (which honestly might happen, we all like bikes here!), I’d like to propose something else. We’ll announce rides earlier, like Thursday or Friday. If we haven’t announced by then, chances are good we’re not riding that week. We’ll give as much notice as possible if we need to cancel for weather or other reasons.

After reading a recent Leg Day missive (hi Daniel!), I want to paint a better picture of our little club. As is stands today, we bill our rides as "moderate pace, no-drop." That description is always accurate, but it’s not precise. So, I have a question for you all: What do you want to know about our rides? What do your friends want to know? Some possibilities:

• Am I fast enough? Yes. "No drop" means we don’t drop anyone.

• Is my bike cool enough? Yes!

• Can I ride a Citibike? Probably not. E-bikes don’t mix well with group rides because they’re too fast, and normal Citibikes are probably too slow. But hey, the Citi Bike Boyz do it.

• Will you roll through red lights? It depends, but only when it’s safe.

• Will I make friends? We sincerely hope so! that’s what this ride is for!

• What’s with the kilometers? One day, my friend, you’ll be distracting yourself on a long ride by calculating the average remaining grade. You’ll estimate the remaining ascent in meters (and you’ll purposely over-estimate), then divide that by the remaining distance in kilometers, and you will be satisfied because you know you can definitely climb a 1% average grade no matter how jello your legs feel at present. As the grin stretches across your face, your enlightenment deepens when you think of the folly of imperial units. 1% is so much nicer than 52.8 feet per mile.