Goodbye Portland

Today I had brunch with my hosts before I left Portland. It was at a place called Bear Dinner and was a true American Dinner where we managed to get an American parking, only five steps from the entrance.
The brunch consisted of 2 sausages, 2 bacon strips a oversized piece of ham, 3 eggs and hash-browns and 2 pancakes. We got stuffed, not a problem for me but someone else was going to teach jiujitsu 40 minutes later. Tough shit.

Flight was on time and on my way to LA I went to Phoenix, AZ. That was warm although I only stayed for an hour. I had some great company: I met the CEO of a start-up bike company. They seem to have an interesting product in a fold-able bike with an electric engine for commuters. It can be viewed here.

In retrospect Portland was lush, flat and very nice but lacked character. Everyone (almost) was friendly and nice, but except from my friends I do not know what I will remember of the city?

Bike is gone

"He will buy it for a hundred dollars" she says. And she also says that he does not speak English. She tells me  many things on an unusually good phone line. She asks what brand the bike is but does not listen to the answer I never give. That was just a lead up to trying to lower the price. Haggling. Over the phone. Over a product that the buyer has not seen, in a language that the buyer does not command. Haggling through an interpreter. I momentarily hate Craigs list and emotionally do not want to sell. But I know that I have no leverage and no reason not to sell. I say yes.
Sure we can meet tomorrow in Washington Square park. Yes yes, I make all the faults and give away everything, even stated that I was relocating in the classified. I have not sold the bike yet but I have sold everything else just to sell it. I am in the lowest and worst position for a salesman leaving tomorrow.

Today, sunshine, in the park, just took the bike for my last ride, walking through the park looking for my buyer. There he is. He speaks English, although broken; we can communicate easily. The only thing in our way is my insecurity.

Then it comes, the question: "What is the lowest price". Today I am strong, I am not backing any further, then I could as well just give it away to my friend. I say a hundred dollars, and explain that I thought 150 was a fair price. He has tried looking on the bike and testing the brakes but all that charade is not meaningful any more. I have decided it is a hundred or nothing.

I walk away, he bikes the same direction, I shout to him: is it working well? He smiles and says yes. It is a sunny afternoon in the village, my last day in NY.

Bike sales

I have been trying to sell my bike through Craigslist and it is now looking up. We will see tomorrow. But it seems to be a full time occupation. You really need to be on it if you are to make the sales or buys going by on Craigslist. The pace is high.

Ghost biker

Going home on my bike just before midnight along broadway wearing a ghost mask and helmet was of course a sight for tourists and taxi drivers alike. I am generous like that. But the guy who had the best reaction was a guy in Morning side who where hanging out with the buddies outside a cornerstone. The sound he made can not be written with these letters. I hailed him with some other unwritable sound and headed of in the night.

the biking lane... where I walk.

In Central park for instance, or actually that is where this is most specific it is common practise among pedestrians of all sorts to use the biking lane to transport themselves. I might add: slower than your grandmother on her bike from the stone age sometimes. Yes you read me correctly: I am more than a bit frustrated. For the readers who has not visited the park I can tell you that the Park Drive is an one way road with 2 car lanes, a bike track and a walking area sometimes in the form of a sidewalk and sometimes as a extra asphalt road on the side separated by a thin stretch of grass.
Now there are plenty of other walkways in the park that are not open to bikes, but as a rider you have the bike track along the Park Drive. Or so you thought. Some runners, actually most runners think that they run so fast that they should rather run in the biking lane. I might add that I have yet to be run passed by any of the runners in Central Park. Then there are some people out power walking. They also think that they walk about as fast as a bike. And then there are the dog owners who seem to think that their dogs makes them as fast as a bike. And then there are slow fuckers who just do not care that they are not using the walking path, which is usually completely empty. No there is more things going on and people hanging out in the bike lane than anywhere else in the park. I just do not get it.

the streets of NY

When you are out in NY going far and wide on all streets and avenues you soon get very aware of the poor shape of the tarmac and asphalt of the streets. At times you long for Sörmlandish wood roads which in comparison seem flat and even although they still have more patches. I think it is the heavy vehicles that make the wave like ridges, the potholes on the other hand probably has something to do with the heavy rains that drench the city from time to time. But it is the practise to use blocks of concrete and sharp edged metal well lids and such that hurts me and my bike the worst. Right now Madison Avenue has new and very nice asphalt, how ling will it last?

Biker NY IV

Yesterday I rode my bike far and wide over NYC. Going home I covered somewhere around 23 km. I was kind of bored after 75% of that ride. Even so I spotted four live rats and almost ran over a dead one. Quite the nature experience in the city. To amuse myself I also did the NY high-five with unsuspecting taxi-hailers. Twice, once in the morning going to work and once on the long ride home just to try to make it less boring. It was also one of the things I wanted to check on my NY-to-do-list. Like this.

Central Park, I like.

I hear many New Yorkers, and people here visiting express their love for the park. It is such a symbol for the city, such an ambassador for the good of NY. Now, being Swedish, and a naturist I must object to this admiration of the park. It is big, and it is green yes. But it is also dirty in a garbage-everywhere kind of way. And it has cars inside it and it does not have the tranquillity I associate with a green area. Nothing in NY does really.
But I like the park at ten in the evening, when the park way is empty, when I can let my bike go as fast as it was made for, when I can take the curves in the right angle, when it is only me, pedals and the road. That is a NY-moment. And maybe one of the reasons I like to work late.

williamsburg bridge

Yesterday I crossed the Williamsburg bridge on my bike and it was a NY moment. The view is spectacular and the ride mostly easy. It wasn't the best of my moments but still one for this blog.

Biker NY III

Yesterday I went to fencing practise on the lower east side about 65 streets from work or so. Took the bike of course. It took maybe 30 minutes to get there. But it was on my way home I realized what I had done: from Broom Street on the east side to 145th on the west on my bike. Well I checked it: it is 17 kilometres. I probably took an hour or so. But it was a NY moment to ride my bike in the nightly traffic all over the place, passing many different places and starting to lay the puzzle in my brain of how everything connects. I am not done yet. Especially the southern part of Manhattan is hard to map out. But I look forward to do some more riding in the city.

United States of Who Gives a Shit

I had to quote Dave Wyndorf for this posting. And in this instance it is not all bad: The united States of Who Gives a Shit is really pleasant to ride your bike in.
Compared to Sweden where the least you get for riding your bike on the pavement is a dirty look, if not someone screaming at you or worse chasing you, trying to grab you and stop you. Just to set you straight! Committing an even harsher crime in the process of stopping a minor one. Here no one cares if you ride on the pavement, in the wrong direction on a one way street. To prove my point to you dear reader I even tried it in front of a cop. I even stopped in front of him and adjusted my tier. Not a change in his facial expression. Ok I did not actually try to get arrested, rather happened to stop while breaking the law (?) in front of a officer and adjusting my tier. It does not matter. The policeman had no intention to even tell me to do the right thing. Quite remarkably. I do not know if I think it is good or bad. For me trying to learn how to bike to work I think it is very easy, but then again I sometimes think we should care about our society and our shared space...

Biker NY II

The day after my bike purchase I went back to the Phone Doctor to get some adjustments done and Michail, my new Russian bike dealer helped me out in a most professional and nice manner. I good store in my opinion.
It might lie a bit off the beaten path for you Brooklyn dwellers but I must recommend it for anyone here on the upper side. on 143rd street and 6th Avenue. Some really nice Russian guys and the sell cell phones and computers also...

Biker NY

Yesterday I bought a bike. It is small, 26" tiers, has to many gears (21!?) no lights, no package holder and manually disposable tiers and saddle. But still I am kind of proud to be it's owner. We will see for how long it will last. I bought it from a store at 143rd Str and 7th avenue called Phone Doctor. There where a big bunch of Slavic people who run the store; buying and selling phones, computers and bicycles and probably some other stuff. They where very helpful and have a return within 30 days guarantee that I do not know if I believe in. But that remains to be seen. Not I need to get me a helmet and some lights. I will try to find my way to work on the bike today.

Rainy days

Today it really poured down. But that did not matter since we have a roof and window walls. Ok so we could not go out and have lunch at the Taco-truck. But if that was my biggest concern I would be a happy man. Both my bosses where out today so I got to help Pricsilla make a few comps for a project she is working on. Of the things discussed this Friday about my work this far nothing has happened. As I am writing this at my window my nose tells me someone just light up something illegal in the street. This one smells bad. The rain stopped before I went home so now it is all clear if you want to stand in the street and do illegal things including paper, a lighter and roasted so called herbs.
This has been a slow day and my futile attempts at getting my self a bike has lead nowhere. There is a kind of cool 50thies bike waiting for me in Hobroken... But really? I do not feel the urge to get over to NJ. Before moving here I could not really wrap my head around that fact that the New Yorkers did not like to go to NJ. But now I know why: your MTA-card does not take you there. Simple as that.
It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. I have no clue what I shall be working with.
I think that I will go to Martinez Fencing Academy again and buy myself a bike on Thursday. That is the plan.