New York Tour-de-Bronx

[Calzone]

The Sunday after PhotoPlusExpo/NYC October Meet-Up, October 27th, is the Tour-de-Bronx.

Last Year Ignacio invited me, and met his crew. There is a 25 mile route and the 40 mile route, and I will warn you that the hills of Riverdale are towards the end of the 40 mile ride.

I rode to and from the event from downtown SpaHa. The Bronx is not that big and I have walked much of it with John and Andre, but riding a bike allowed me to see everything in a different way, and in a ways I was able to connect the dots.

The t-shirt I highly recommend. It features shortened sleeves that give me that muscular tough guy look, and I happen to like the graphics.

Here is the link:

http://ilovethebronx.com/index.php/happenings/tour-de-bronx

Registration is free. Also know bike rentals are also available.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

I have a GoPro Hero 7 black as my bike cam, and I will be also bringing a Leica CL with 35 Cron-TL.

EZ-PZ.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

Last year I met this lanky Car-Rib-B-N-American who had a lean build like me, but who was much taller. He rode a cargo bike and claimed to be the 2018 Cargo Bike Champion.

The championships had been just held in Philly, and when I inquired about what that was like he mentioned that it was basically making deliveries on a route with some payloads weighing 300 pounds up hills, across bridges...

This skinny/lanky guy was basically a monster/machine on a bike. This is what he did for a living. Imagine his low resting pulse, his low blood pressure, and his level of fitness.

I hope to run into this champion again. Last year I did not sport any cameras.

Also one of Ignacio's crew was this wack-job on a recumbant that I called "the Pancake Machine" because it would be so easy to get "pancaked" on his bike.

It was an odd question, but I was asked when I was born, and basically we shared the same birthday. Although he was African-American and I'm a Chinese-American I mentioned that it is like in the film "Twins" that stared Arnold and Danny DeVito.

It was funny how we shared the same persona and personality. Part Elvis, part Jesus, part funny/goofy guy like Steve Buscemi. (Know that Steve Buscemi if he lived one house closer would of been my next door neighbor in Valley Stream). Also lots of strange stuff happens to us even though, "We mind our own business," All kinds of odd remarkable things happen to us.

At the finish you get a ticket for a slice of Domino's pizza, and another for the free T-shirt. I love mine, but "Maggie" hates it because it is a bit thuggy. The graphic has a half a BMX handlebar with a fist. Definitely promotes a tough guy look. While not a muscle shirt the short sleeves are ultra short to show off your "guns."

Also at the start of the event on the Grand Concourse I saw cops picking up discarded live 9mm rounds that someone had discarded. Not shell casings: live rounds. How urban and ghetto is that?

Cal

 

[giganova]

Bike riding through the Bronx, is that safe?? I once drive through the Bronx at night in my car and will never go there again. Super scary! 😱

Be safe!

 

[Calzone]

Bike riding through the Bronx, is that safe?? I once drive through the Bronx at night in my car and will never go there again. Super scary! 😱

Be safe!

G,

I did a lot of shooting (photography) in the Bronx and walked much of it, some times with John and Andre, and other times alone.

The key is to get up early and leave by say 2:00 PM. The neighborhoods kinda change around dusk, and basically I'm there shooting when the criminal elements are sleeping.

One time with John and Andre a local saw the three of us with cameras and the local asked, "Where is the crime scene?" LOL.

Cal

 

[ChrisPlatt]

If only Justin Fornal would bring back his Baron Ambrosia character...

Chris

 

[Calzone]

"Maggie" is not a cyclist. In fact 20 years ago I fixed up her old bike and got it road ready buying new tubes and tires. The old ones were dry rotted on a black and white Rollie (camera spelling) men's three speed. It was a very cool retro bike that went back decades.

She never used it. Oh-well. I won't cry. No hurt feelings...

So now I'm anxious because an electric bike is being delivered for a shoot.

Maggie mentioned that she will borrow my helmet. I took Joe's suggestion and waited last year to the end of the season to buy one online to save money (cheap-cheap-cheap), but I stopped by a store to see different models and to check the fit before ordering, that's what retail stores are good for.

New technology is MIPS that limit brain injuries. I always kinda knew I had a big brain so my helmet size is extra large. LOL. I threw away my old retro helmets that went back 25-30 years.

So it will be interesting while I'm Mister Big Head, Maggie, although she has a PhD, has a smaller head than me. Anyways out of the two of us I'm perhaps the more outgoing personality, although she is the celeb with 685K followers. Maggie openly says that she is kinda shy.

Then again although I'm kinda well-known, out going, I would also say I'm kinda social.

I'll have her try my helmet on tonight.

Cal

 

[Godfrey]

Heh, a thick skull accounts for my "large" hat size. It's proven useful over the years, like the teflon jacket. 😀

I learned to drive in the Bronx, yeah back when the dinosaurs still roamed the earth. Just as scary a place then as now, I suspect, and I'll drive there any time. Or cycle there too.

Wish I could make it there for the ride! Have a great time! Be safe! Have fun!

G

PS: ALWAYS wear a helmet when riding. And not some el cheapo piece of junk. A good quality helmet protects you better, is more comfortable, and keep your head cooler. My helmet was about a hundred and thirty bucks, good quality stuff if not the ultra fancy/light/whatever. I've only needed it once, but that once was well worth the price...!

 

[Calzone]

Heh, a thick skull accounts for my "large" hat size. It's proven useful over the years, like the teflon jacket. 😀

I learned to drive in the Bronx, yeah back when the dinosaurs still roamed the earth. Just as scary a place then as now, I suspect, and I'll drive there any time. Or cycle there too.

Wish I could make it there for the ride! Have a great time! Be safe! Have fun!

G

PS: ALWAYS wear a helmet when riding. And not some el cheapo piece of junk. A good quality helmet protects you better, is more comfortable, and keep your head cooler. My helmet was about a hundred and thirty bucks, good quality stuff if not the ultra fancy/light/whatever. I've only needed it once, but that once was well worth the price...!

Godfrey,

Back in the late 70's I was a NYC cab driver one summer. I remember being lost one night in the Bronx, and it seemed like the road to hell.

I was a pretty crazy and angry guy back then, and I remember this one night this guy wanted me to take to Yonkers. At some remote place in the Bronx at a light he decides to exit my cab to stiff me for the fare.

I too got out and ripped a pole out of the ground as a weapon. I got ready to swing with the pole cocked ready to strike, I extended my left hand, and I asked, "Do you want to pay me?"

I let him go without a beating after he paid me.

Another time in Madhattan this guy gets into my cab on the Upper Eastside and says, "Take me to the Bronx," somehow I know that this guy is going to rob me, and I already know that pretty much it will be gladiator mode when we get there.

I start heading uptown and eastward to get on the FDR, but this un-nerves the guy. Pullover he says, and I say, "The meter says $2.25."

At this point, it does not matter if I was getting robbed of all the money I had or the $2.25. He gave me $3.00, and before he left he said, "I was going to rob you, but you seemed too cool."

Like many angry people I had problems with depression back then. People forget that in High School we were getting ready to possibly get killed, maimed or butcher in the Vietnam War. Then the 1974 happened when we had double digit inflation and double digit unemployment. When I graduated High School in 1976 I couldn't even get a job for minimum wage.

I don't think the Bronx today is as bad as in the 70's, yet it remains the poorest borough, and a lot of stuff happens there. Today it seems what I should be afraid of most is the random violence that comes from nowhere that can happen anywhere.

The important lessons I learned was about my aggression, and how to control it in a positive manner. I had to stop being a cab driver after that one summer because I was getting too aggressive.

Another road to hell I experienced was driving through Washington D.C. at a time where Ronald Ray-Gun was President. I was driving from Los Alamos to New York. In Los Alamos I was working on a "Star Wars" project: a Neutral Partical Beam Space Based Weapon to shoot down Intercontinential Ballistic Missles.

I could see the White House, but a bon fire was in sight on a street corner with a group of people huddled around trying to stay warm. Reminded me of the destitution I saw in the Bronx of people just trying to survive. I found seeing this so close to the White House a disgrace. Pretty much people being abandoned.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

PS: ALWAYS wear a helmet when riding. And not some el cheapo piece of junk. A good quality helmet protects you better, is more comfortable, and keep your head cooler. My helmet was about a hundred and thirty bucks, good quality stuff if not the ultra fancy/light/whatever. I've only needed it once, but that once was well worth the price...!

Godfrey,

A good demonstration of what happens to your head without a helmet is hold a Honey Dew Mellon at chest height and drop it letting it crash and split open on the ground.

Brain injuries are bad. I bought a Giro that feature MPS technology. My old helmets were clearly obsolete.

Biking without a helmet is just plain dumb.

In a mountain bike crash I once did an endo at high speed. I was rolling on the ground, and my bike was doing cartwheels right behind me. I brushed the bike with my arm as I was tumbling.

When I caught up with my friends the only damage was one of my front teeth was a little loose, but my friends told me to take off my helmet which had a deep chain ring scar right above my ear. It I didn't wear a helmet the chainring likely would of shaved off my ear.

Bike crashes happen...

Cal

 

[Calzone]

Looks like the preliminary weather reports suggest rain at any tim on Sunday the day of the event.

Let's see...

Also know the famous staircase from the film "Joker" that Andre, John and I think Pro-Mone shot there about a decade ago before it became a tourist attraction.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

Got an e-mail yesterday about the possible sketchy weather for Sunday, the day of the event.

Close monitoring required. Unfortunately this event is rain or shine, and cancellation is even possible.

Meanwhile an electric bike is being delivered today for one of "Maggie's" shoots. I don't know where I will store this bike, but it likely will be an expensive luxury version of an electric bike that is the high-end.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

The Tour de Bronx was cancelled due to expected/predicted stormy weather.

BTW not only was this event free, it is a lot cooler than the 5 Boro Bike Tour. I did the 5 Boro 3-4 times, but that was back in the day when it was only about 30K bikers and it was to some extent a bike parade/freak show that was fun.

Cal