a Carry-On
Bike.....by www.gaerlan.com With my girlfriend's upcoming
conference, I decided to tag along for a short trip to New
York. This would be an inexpensive trip. We can use our
"soon to expire" airline mileage and stay with my aunt who
lived in the city. It would be nice to have a bike to
move around the city. Bringing a full sized bike is out of
the question. The extra charge is at least $75 each way. I
could bring one of my travel bikes which fit in a suitcase.
But I wanted to bring a bike you could handcarry into the
plane - the ultimate challenge for a bike designer. After a
few days of building, I had a bike small enough. Read more
about this bike on the opposite side bar. A few hours before the trip, I made
an $8 investment on a pocket sized "Let's Go Map Guide of
New York City". Aside from a laminated map of the city, it
also had brief descriptions of things to see and do. It
claimed you'll know the city like a native. Upon arrival at JFK, we had 3
options on how to get into the city. First is to take a cab.
That would cost a flat $30 plus toll and tip. Second option
would be a Super Shuttle bus for $25 for 2 persons plus tip.
We opted for the third - the Subway. Arriving at a 6:00 AM in the
morning, there was enough daylight to brave the underworld
of the subway. My previous impression of the subway was an
underground system strewn with graffitti and muggers.
The Let's Go guide has good
instructions on how to get to the city from the airport for
only $1.50 a person. As you exit the terminal, follow
the ground transportation signs that points to buses. Wait
at the bus stop that goes into the long term parking of JFK.
The sign physically says " Free buses to Long Term Parking".
The free buses takes you on a mile long ride to the parking
depot. The Howard Beach-JFK Subway Station is the last stop
inside the parking lot. After you buy your tokens from the
kiosk (exact change required), you board the train. You
can't miss the "A" train since it is the only one that
passes the station and only goes to Manhattan. Upon boarding the train, you know
that New York is a city of diversity. You could hear
passengers conversing in at least 5 foreign languages from
all continents of the world. English seems to be a minority
language. The train or subway ride is about
40 minutes. Since the JFK subway station is almost at the
beginning of the line, there are enough seats. Luggages are
OK. A group from the Middle East boarded the train with a
giant suitcase without any problem. A good strategy is to check the
subway map for the stops prior to your disembarkation point.
We were getting off on the W. 4th st station, the stop after
Canal st. Our handcarry luggage was no problem climbing up
the steep stairway to street level. After a 2 block walk
dragging our luggages with wheels, we were home. Not bad for
a $1.50 adventure. One interesting observation was the
lack of graffitti on the train. It seems that NY's stern
mayor (Julianni) may have done a good job. You see more
police presence and less of the undesirables. cconinued
next page............... I've always dreamt of building a bike small enough to fit
a hand carry case. Up to now, the closest I've come was a
doodle on a napkin. Learning that we had a trip coming soon,
I decided to drop everything I was doing and make this
doodle a reality. Building a bike this small has its compromises. Remember
a bike this portable will never go as fast a your road bike
nor will it tackle the off road like your full suspension
mountain bike. It will however stand out when you need a
bike that's extremely portable to explore city streets. The whole bike had to fit in a case 22" long, 14" wide
and 9" deep. That's the airline regulation being strictly
enforced for handcarry luggage. They have metal templates
positioned at X ray machines. If your luggage can't go
through a 14" x 9 " cutout, you're out of luck. You have to
check it in. The bike should also be geared low enough for the streets
of San Francisco. I stress the word LOW gearing. For a
travel bike designed for exporatory city rides, a low geared
bike works better than a bike geared for speed. The only way you could get a bike into this size is to
use extremely small wheels and all tubes to separate from
each other. My choice was the 16" wheel. To make tubes
separable, I used quick releases to make the top tube and
down tube separate from the rest of the bike. The rear
triangle stays as one unit while the fork and head tube as
another unit. coninued next page..........
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