It was love at first sight. I fell in love the moment we met. “Where should I go next with this one?” I find myself thinking. When was the last time I felt this excited? But it’s not a person I’m talking about. It’s a Brompton. And now, I’m truly enjoying life and travel with my Brompton. I’ve always been interested in folding bikes. But compared to road bikes, I thought small-wheeled bikes might be unsatisfying. I believed they wouldn’t reach the speeds of road bikes or be suitable for long distances. In my mind, road bikes were the “King of Bicycles.” That was my fixed idea. But even road bikes have their weaknesses. One of them i […]

Bike New York, to be held on Sunday, May 3, 2020, is a ride event that will take cyclists around the five boroughs(boro) of New York State: Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. This is why it is called the “Five Boro Bike Tour” in the U.S. mainland. Although little known to the Japanese, the event is of a very large scale with more than 30,000 participants from all over the world. The course is 40 miles (about 64 km). The course is closed to traffic, allowing visitors to drive at a leisurely pace. This article introduces the highlights of the course, which is full of attractions that New York City has to offer.

I headed to New York with my Brompton in tow.However, I had some trepidation about cycling in NY. After all, New York is a pioneering city in cycling, known for its messenger culture. Unlike Japan, cycling on the road is strictly enforced. Additionally, bikes follow the opposite rule of riding on the left side. I had ridden a road bike in Hawaii before, but this is New York, the greatest city in the world. It would be strange not to feel a bit nervous. This time, accompanying me to New York are Karen-chan, the runner and cyclist Karen Maruyama, and a friend who was a renowned cyclist during his university days. Originally, Osamu Suzuki was supposed to be part of this group as well, but for s […]