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 […]

Everyone has a place they dream of visiting. For me, that place has always been New York. It’s the city where Andy Warhol and Lou Reed lived, where John Lennon was tragically shot, where breakdancing was born, and where countless films have been set. In that very city, there’s a long-distance cycling event: the Five Boro Bike Tour, commonly known as Bike New York. The course spans 64 kilometers, taking riders from Manhattan through the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and finally to Staten Island. With traffic restricted, the streets are cleared of cars. The tickets sell out instantly, and with over 30,000 participants, it’s the largest cycling event in the Northern Hemisphere. Jus […]

I took part in the TD Five Boro Bike Tour held in New York on May 5, 2024! The weather that day was far from ideal. At the start, the temperature was just 10°C, with winds around 20 km/h—freezing cold—and heavy gray clouds overhead. Still, considering the forecast had shown a 91% chance of rain up until the day before, it almost felt lucky that it wasn’t pouring from the morning. Even layered in long-sleeve jerseys, the cold was relentless, and I was still shivering despite wearing a rain jacket. Hoping the ride itself would eventually warm me up, I first headed to Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan to pick up my rental bike. As fierce sea winds swept through before sunrise, I cou […]