On day 2 yesterday I thought it would be a good plan to ride around Manhattan. It wasn’t.
With record New York temperatures for this time of year, cars have it easy for one reason – air conditioning. On motorbikes, we rely on the wind from keeping moving to cool us down, but in Manhattan, with all of it’s traffic congestion, keeping moving is almost impossible, so in hot weather we fry. I certainly fried yesterday and it got to be so hot that I gave up and went back to the hotel to cool down. I was beginning to wonder why I didn’t see many bikes in NYC and now I know why!
I did however manage to get a short video of the ride....
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11 comments:
Very nice insights, thank you. Traffic yes, but it seems much less congested then London... compared to Picadilly or Trafalgar Square it must have been a walk in the park. For some years I drove a Pan European in Tokyo, that was bad, but worst city of all is Paris, as the cars just go very unpredictably just where they want when they want. Good luck on the 250 miles to Boston
Nice one and keep up the good work - and the next video I want some music instead of that washing machine sound of your bike!!
Super stuff and I did a post for you on http://7agescustommotorcycles.blogspot.com
the traffic you included was quite light. great video. the world trade center area still leaves me speechless...
This is just great Gary. So glad you took us around Manhattan. I'm being a little selfish because it was fun seeing the places I'd been. (I even think I saw the horse that took us for a ride!! hahaha!) You are far braver than I would be and I could just imagine the heat! Not at all fun. It will change when you get out on the open road...until you get to road work and have to come to a stand still. I hope that is not often. I've been to many of the New England places you are going as far as Portland, Maine. I have family in Gorham, Maine and on Long Island, Maine, just a 45 minute ferry ride from Portland's Casco Bay. I spent a few wonderful summers there. I'm so looking forward to your posts...ESPECIALLY if we get to ride along with you!!!! How fun is this! I will get even more excited when you get near my old home in Chaumont, NY between Alex Bay and Sackets Harbor!!! Fantastic!!! Thanks Gary! Safe Travels!
Just curious Gary... are you using a GPS to navigate through the big cities?
Axel – I have a lot of video showing congestion but I decided not to include it – that would be too boring. Believe me, it was awful, but the clearer roads show New York City better. It was far worse than London! The worse place I have been to for traffic is Moscow – way too many cars, bad driving and bad parking make it probably the most congested city in the world.
Ian – Yep, ok. I will include some music if I have time! The machine machine sound (as you so nicely put it) is due to the camera picking up the sounds from being near the front of the engine – it doesn’t pick up anything from the pipes. I agree, it does sound awful! Thanks muchly for the link.
Mq01 – See above – I left out the worse bits of the traffic. It really was so bad, I gave up! I agree about the WTC – still shocking even now.
Eve – I am glad that you liked it. Making and editing a video takes some time and I am not sure how often I will find the time to do this – I will try so that you and my other readers can ride with me, even if that means on a video! The last two days have been much easier as even though it has been very hot, at least we kept moving to cool us down. We even got rained on a little today which was quite refreshing.... Even though we just quickly rode north through Maine today, we back-track tomorrow and spend the next few days heading south along the coast – no doubt we will see a lot of places and I imagine the camera will be out a considerable amount.
Geoff – yes. I have a Garmin 660 Zumo for the big cities (and elsewhere).
Great to see where you are on the video clips Gary, makes it really come alive, and the occasional sounds (fire engine etc) make it come to life too - I was kind of hoping you would chase them through the city. It always surprises me how much NY looks the same as it does on the telly :-) I half expected Carrie Bradshaw or some other soap star to cross the street in front of you. One thing I never understood is why it is so hot in NY, but then just across the Atlantic, at more or less the same latitude (I think??), London is much cooler. More concrete?
BTW, did you get to watch the USA-Ghana game last night? Sorry for all the soccer fans in the US, but good that one African side is still in the cup. BTW2, don't mention the.... other game on Sunday! Have fun.
Really great video! NYC is such a non stop city. You are one brave person to have rode through it! WOW!
Tim – I hope to make more video clips but they are quite time intensive to make, so I will probably restrict how many I do. I think NYC is just like it is on the tv, but I am not sure what I would have done if I had met Carrie Bradshaw – buy her some food probably! I have wondered about the latitude as well – I think it is because the UK is an island and affected greatly be what is happening in the Atlantic, whereas NY is located on a huge land mass. Best not to mention the football....
IHG – I am glad you liked the video – I enjoy making them, so there will be more to follow. Riding in NYC was one of those things that just had to be done....
Gary, wonderful video! Just had a chance to peruse your trip so far. I've been busy myself just getting back from a 4-corners of Washington State ride of 1400 miles on my MP3-400. Looks like you're having a splendid trip!!
Curious ... I see the front end of your Road King bouncing, but see no corresponding motion from your video camera. Very smooth! How have you achieved this?
Hey, come to Washington and you can indeed go whale watching -:) Glad you enjoyed seeing those amazing orcas.
Rubber side down, my friend!
Chuck - Thanks! The 4 corners ride sounds fun and I susoect many photos were taken! I guess the lack of bouncing at the camera is due simply to the good front end suspension of my Harley Road King. The camera was mounted on the engine crash bar with a Cardellini clamp, which has a small amount of rubber in the mounting, but 90% of the cushioning must be through the forks. See this page http://garysusatour.blogspot.com/2010/04/rough-guide-to-camera-mounts-2.html for details about how I mount the camera to the bike(scroll down to near the bottom for the part about the Cardellini clamp).
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