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RIDE BIKES
HAVE FUN
FEEL GOOD
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| We're Staying Open! Here's Why.
In this springtime of social distancing, one of the best things we can do for ourselves and others is—as the mayor suggested—ride our bikes. If you have to go in to work, please considering taking your bike there instead of the subway. If you normally spend an hour in the gym or yoga studio, why not go out for an hour-long ride in the crisp March air?
We're doing our best to keep our stores clean by frequently sanitizing our hands and surfaces, so here's how you can help us help you:
- Please try to come in during a weekday if you possibly can, as the weekends are traditionally our busiest times—we love all our customers but it's better for everyone's health if we all do our best to avoid crowding, especially for our youngest and oldest friends.
- If you're bringing your bike in for a tune-up to get it ready for the spring, please call your local store ahead of time and make an appointment so we can let you know when best to bring it in and expect it to be done.
- If you're immunocompromised and need service but the store is more crowded than you're comfortable with when you get here, please don't be embarassed: call us when you're out front so we can send someone outside for you. We want to help!
- Please don't be offended if we don't shake your hands—fist bumps, elbow bumps, or Vulcan greetings only for now!
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Let's Commute Together!
For those of you considering starting to ride to work instead of taking the train (which is a LOT of you according to the New York Times) Here are some things to consider:
- If your bike hasn't been ridden in a while, please let us look it over first to make sure it's safe for you to ride! Every bike purchased from us gets free minor brake and gear adjustments for life, and we're always happy to look over any bike (whether you bought it from us or not) for free if anything ever feels weird or sounds weird—if it all possible we'd rather catch a problem while it's free/$5 for us to fix or just $30 versus a $300 fix.
- Rubber is porous so tires naturally lose air pressure over time so we recommend you put air in your tires at least once a week. We have a free airhose outside our stores for those of you with Schrader valves and free use of floor pumps inside for those of you with Presta (what's the difference between Presta and Schrader?) or you can buy a floor pump to keep at home. Keeping your tires at proper pressure means you're less likely to get pinch flats plus your bike will go a little bit faster!
- By law, we are required to have bells on our bicycles at all times and lights (white in the front, red in the back) when riding between dusk and dawn. As those of us who are prodigious bellers already know, you still have to yell—please don't be shy if you're yelling out of safety, but please also don't be jerks unless it's warranted.
- Please do not wear headphones in both ears, use your phone with your hand, or salmon (riding against the flow of traffic) while you're riding—you're putting other riders at risk as well as yourself! It's especially dangerous now that there are more riders sharing bike lanes and bridges, so please pull over if you need to take a call or look up directions, or take the next street over instead of salmoning.
- If you have to ride in traffic, please always take the lane, as it's the safest thing to do. It might feel counterintuitive at first, but riding right beside parked cars means you're both less visible to moving cars and more likely to get doored. It might annoy drivers but it's your legal ride to take the lane as well as the best thing for your safety.
- Haven't been riding in a while? It's completely normal for your, um, junk to be sore for a bit, as your body needs time to adjust and toughen up down there a little. Padded shorts help a lot when you're starting out (you probably won't need them later on) especially on a long commute, but if you're still experiencing pain after a week or two, stop by one of our stores so we can help you out by making some adjustments on your bike or maybe even finding a new saddle altogether. (Ladies especially are prone to just making do with uncomfortable saddles, but there are good ones out there—one of our staffers swears she's done ten miles on her Mimic saddle in a bikini with no pain.)
- If your knees are starting to hurt: for the vast majority of people we see, it's usually because your saddle is too low so you're not getting proper leg extension when pedalling. Stop by and we can adjust your saddle height (for free of course) to help you ride without pain and help prevent a repetitive stress injury.
- The best way to plan rides in the city, especially for neighborhoods you're unfamiliar with, has long been a free app/website called Citymapper. Put in your starting point and destination and it will give you three different options for bike rides: quiet, slow, and fast. We recommend the quiet option if you're just getting started commuting; when you're more comfortable, you'll find the streets you personally prefer and adapt accordingly.
Remember: we love riding in this city and we're here to help you, so feel free to call or drop by your nearest Bicycle Habitat if you need help figuring out any aspect of your commute to make it safer or more comfortable for you.
Via Streetsblog, here's a Streetsfilm featuring New York commuters on what they think about riding in the city and whether cycling is the way to beat coronavirus:
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If you'd like to share your experiences as a bike commuter with the community, whether it's as a seasoned veteran or a newbie, please email lia@bicyclehabitat.com to be featured in a future newsletter or our Instagram!
We're All In This Together
Last but not least: if you're having things delivered because of social distancing, please consider tipping your delivery person more than usual (and in cash if possible!) as they're putting their health at risk to help keep the rest of us safe. If you're ordering from a restaurant, please consider calling them up directly to order instead of using an app—the apps might make the delivery free to you, but they're still charging restaurants about 30% in fees, and since NYC restaurants are now effectively closed other than for delivery and takeout, they're very much hurting for business in what's already an extremely low-margin industry.
Bicycle Habitat is open and will remain open because we provide a service that's very much needed right now but our other small business neighbors are not so lucky, so please consider buying gift cards from your favorite small businesses that have had to close for health reasons to use once they're back open again.
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