Marty's Bicycle Chronicles Volumes I & II - Put Some Fun Between Your Legs &, The Beginning.

Bicycle riding has been a passion of mine for most of my life. I have fused it with my love of photography. I got a Schwinn Varsity Ten Speed road bike & a Minolta SRT 101 single lens reflex camera in 1972. Beer, coffee, camaraderie & a desire to explore on a bicycle are also part of the mix.

This blog series was inspired by “Cycle Chic” by Mikael Colville-Andersen, a book by a female bicyclist/photographer, with cardboard pages of bicycles, that I had in my office but don't know what happened to it, & the photographic work of Bill Cunningham. Cunningham’s work I was familiar with from his photographic column in the NY Times & photographic shows at the New York Historical Society. When I looked through Cycle Chic, it was like Colville-Andersen was channeling Cunningham; but with bicycles as the main theme; sometimes he grouped photos with a theme, like winter or the color red.

I have been intrigued by bicycling history, paraphernalia, photographs, posters, books, design & fashion & people on bikes, bicycle infrastructure, bike shops, watching races… The passion began at a young age on a NYC Parks Dept. playground in Arverne (Rockaway Beach), Queens, N.Y. If you flew into JFK from the Atlantic, you went over my housing project, which still exists. At about ten years of age I read a LIFE Magazine article about Davis, California. I thought “I want to live in a place like that” & I do. Marin County, California has some of the finest bicycling in the world available to me by just rolling out my front door. It even has a world-class bicycle museum! From my garage I can be on the trails of Mt. Tamalpais, birthplace of mountain biking in 20 minutes, on wonderful roads, like around the Tiburon Peninsula, & with a little more effort on the Golden Gate Bridge in about 45 minutes. I dreamed of being able to use a bicycle to commute to work, around my community & explore places near & far away. I have bicycled all around California, in Italy, Germany, the coast of Oregon & NYC.

I have been privileged to contribute to my two sons & nephew becoming dedicated bicyclists.

I remain inspired & awed by some of my pals on the mountain with the Bicycle Buddies or on the road with the Old Spokes. We range in age from the youngest in the mid forties to 89 years of age.

If you would like to, please comment at the end of the blog post.

Can you find the Sapporo can?

On a bike path along the Rhine River in Germany. This guy & pals had ridden Ordinarys from England. He doesn't look too happy but then he had just gotten up on the Ordinary; not an easy feat.

Jamie Redford (May 1962- October 2020), said about his film PLAYING FOR KEEPS, “As it turns out, adults who engage in enjoyable pastimes, hobbies, and various forms of play are effectively inoculating themselves against the dark side of the modern era.”

Jamie continued, "Our goal in making PLAYING FOR KEEPS is to remind us all of the enjoyable and healthy benefits of having more fun."

That's putting some gasoline powered fun there! V'room!

It's not always fun.

Nomi doesn't ever want another call from Marin General's E.R. saying I was there.

My son Nate & I staged this for my lecture on pediatric dental trauma. I had many an afterhours visit to the office to restore broken front teeth from bike accidents.

Signs we would rather see.

April 2020, fire danger closed Fairfax-Bolinas Road to motor vehicles, BUT NOT bicycles!

A rare image in 2005 Holland, a cyclist in spandex with a helmet.

Photographer unknown.

From "Bill Cunningham: On the Street: Five Decades of Iconic Photography."

It's fun but on the road it can sometimes be challenging.

Sometimes you have to ride in the rain. We once got caught in a rain squall along the Starnberger See {sic] in Bavaria. We had no choice but to go on & find lodgings. If you have the correct gear, it’s not so bad.

You do have to stop for things bigger than you.

July 1974. My first bike tour. I was hooked.

Riding in a pace line is a skill that’s so much fun. When I did the Team In Training century ride (100 miles around Lake Tahoe to raise money for leukemia research), we had a pace line of about 18 folks. On the flats, we could go almost 30 mph. On the hills, you were on your own.

You need to be even closer than this when drafting. Getting the Old Spokes into a draft line is like herding cats.

When I figured out how to safely attach a bike rack on my MG TD, I combined playing with two toys.

Navigating Brooklyn sidewalks vs. ...

...Kentfield.

Just a way of life.

Robin Williams once lived in this home.

Sofia Hamilton at USA Championships 2010. Sofia was a patient of mine & biked for the Drake H.S. team.

A happy bicyclist in the New Forest Preserve, England.

Happy bikeshop owner along the Mosel River, Germany

Yee hah! And, check out this jersey & in previous & next photos. More later in another installment.

In German, “radler” translates to “cyclist.” The term Radler originated with a drink called Radlermass (literally “cyclist liter”) that was created by Innkeeper Franz Kugler in a small town named Deisenhofen, just outside Munich. During the great cycling boom of the Roaring Twenties, Kugler created a bicycle trail from Munich, through the woods, which led directly to his drinking establishment. On a beautiful June day in 1922, a reported “13,000 cyclists” crashed Kugler’s party…

...Fast running out of beer, he blended it 50/50 with a lemon soda he could never seem to get rid of, and the rest is history. With an ABV about 2.5% it will indeed get you drunk, if you drink, like, 40 of them.

Dreaming.

This blog series was inspired by Mikael Colville-Andersen’s “Cycle Chic”, a book by a female bicyclist/photographer, with cardboard pages of bicycles, that I had in my office but don't know what happened to it, &...

...the photographic work of Bill Cunningham.

Seeing this spread of red in CYCLE CHIC (below) was reminiscent of Bill Cunningham's columns in the NY Times (above).

I love CYCLE CHIC's slogan: "Style over speed. Elegance over exertion." That fits me to a "T."

I've often told my bicycle pals that I won’t be one of the first ones there, but I'll meet you at the destination.

I have also enjoyed these other two books on cycling styles.

I learned to ride in the playground of our middle income NYC housing project off Beach 54th Street in Arverne (on the Rockaway Peninsula) NYC. I persisted, and after quite a few scrapes was able to ride with no hands on the handlebars.

My sister & I would ride on the boardwalk, from Beach 54th St., up to the food concessions in the 90's. Just loved those grilled Kosher dogs, French fries & a Dr. Browns Orange soda.

Also, SkeeBall!

Moving to Kew Gardens Hills, I bicycled to Hebrew School on a fat tire cruiser.

I graduated to a 3 speed English racer style bicycle. Our moms would pack us lunches & with friends, I spent many a day...

...cycling around the 1939 World’s Fair Grounds of Flushing Meadow Park. They had kept the asphalt layout from the '39 Fair. At Billy Rose's Aquacade we left our bikes in front & could go in & swim for a dime. There was also a NIKE missle site to visit. This NYS Pavilion was not there yet… You might remember it from the movie “The Wiz.” It was also the backdrop when we were at Paul Simon’s farewell concert on 9/22/18.

We would even bike down to Idlewild Airport (JFK). When SAC grounded commercial airplanes, the airport would have an open house. We’d park our bikes leaning against the control tower & go in the terminal & walk on airplanes. For some reason, they kept Eero Saarinen's abandoned TWA terminal intact. It's now been revitalized as a hotel. See my blog Up, Up & Away With TWA on this site.

Queens College was up the block from my home, so I walked to classes. I had abandoned bicycling for a few years & my dad sold the English racer. Years later when I told a Dutchman that my dad sold the bike, he was appalled that we had sold a bike!

When at NYU College of Dentistry, on Sundays, I would often bike around the deserted Manhattan streets & visit South St. Seaport. Pete Seeger would often be there just sitting on a barrel & singing in front of the Hudson River sloop, Clearwater.

During my two year residency at B'klyn Jewish Hospital I didn’t walk around the 'hood much less bike. This view from a dental clinic window is now an empty lot ripe for development.

Now I have a Bridgestone road bike there.

Prospect Park would be safe bicycling but...

...my family is wary of my biking the streets of NYC like this intersection at Grand Army Plaza..

I got a lime green Schwinn Varsity ten speed road bike when I graduated dental school. Our graduation dance was atop this Port Authority Heliport. I remember the ride up in the elevator & nothing else of the evening. Such was 1971. I lived in Forest Hills on the other side of & a few blocks from Flushing Meadow Park. Since I had last biked there, there had been another World's Fair, in 1964. Robert Moses had kept all the asphalt pathways from '39 & after the '64 fair, they were still there. After work friends & I would bike around for miles & miles. Best were the months when I had general anesthesia rotation & I’d be home at 3:30. But, no more Aquacade nor Nike missile site to visit.

In 1973, I began commuting to work the days I worked in Queens. Soon, my bike was stolen. I replaced it with a lemon yellow Schwinn Varsity. When I recovered the green one (that’s another story), I sold it to a friend & had a new bicycle buddy.

I continued to bicycle commute in Queens, NY, San Francisco & Marin County, CA until I retired in June 2018.

But, I didn't bicycle commute to my teaching job at NYU. Too dangerous. Now it can be done more safely. There wasn't a dedicated bike lane on nor safe, bicycle approaches to the 59th St. Bridge (“…slow down you move too fast…”) back then.

I was planning a Vermont Bicycle Tour. I mentioned it to a dental student who led AYH (American Youth Hostel) tours. He asked me a few questions then told me of a bike shop to go to & what to purchase.

He liked what I had taught him & wanted to reciprocate. He took me on a ride & taught me how to use the tools he had me buy to fix a flat tire & change brake & gear cables. I had to go to PARAGON Sports in Manhattan to find this jersey. This cannon is at Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain in New York. The roads & roadsides were so clean in Vermont. That was the result of an early payment for recyclable cans & bottles law. I fell in love with bicycle touring.

I flew out to California with a suitcase, an Allen bicycle car rack & my Schwinn Varsity. No extra charge for the bike on American Airlines in 1974! The Allen rack was one of the first bike car racks. It fit perfectly on my new Karmann-Ghia. The next week I joined the Santa Clara Wheelmen on a ride around Lake Tahoe. I only made it to Zephyr Cove. After a year of bicycling San Francisco hills & on my new Nishiki with mountain gearing, I made it around Lake Tahoe on the next try.

I moved to Noe Valley in San Francisco. I realized that I’d have a really hard time biking the hills or to my teaching position at the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry in Pacific Hts. unless I got a bike with mountain climbing gearing.

Bicycling Magazine was published in San Rafael & Frank Berto wrote about gearing. I had to go to San Mateo to get the Nishiki International & have a mechanic put on Berto’s suggested mountain gearing for a ten speed. This enabled me to bike around Lake Tahoe.

Holland, at my bike shop on Fulton St. sold Fuji’s that I didn't want. He said no matter, "Just come here for repairs & parts. That's where I make money, not from the tiny mark-up in bikes." The Minolta with an extra lens or two, nestled nicely into the handlebar bag.

We went screaming down San Francisco hills without helmets. As some places we'd fly up in the air & on landing, one of my friends broke an axle. I finally got one of the 1st helmets made for bicycling, an MSR. Holland handed it to me across the counter & said "It works if you wear it." I used his line when dispensing mouth guards & orthodontic appliances to patients.

The NISHIKI had a long life even being repainted (that's why I have the head badge; never put it back on!) & braze-ons for a water bottle cage put on. It was my San Francisco & for a while Marin commute bike.

It even lived in Brooklyn, being used by my son Elliot, until it was recently sold. Here he had just ridden across the Williamsburg Bridge to meet us for dinner on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Early on in my San Francisco bicycling, I almost broke a wrist falling after getting my tire caught in a street-car track.

Eugene V. Sloane's 1970 book that I bought in Spring of 1973 while still living in NYC.

I was off on Thursdays & would bike to all the green areas on the San Francisco CSAA map. I quickly learned that most of them required an often steep climb up. Time to bike outside of SF...

This book gave suggestions of where to go & I did many of the rides. I discovered Marin...

...& fell in love with the Paradise Drive loop around Tiburon.

After seeing a freshly stabbed body on Webster & Haight Streets on my commute home one evening, I knew it was time to move out of San Francisco to a more friendly bicycle commuting environment. Also, my last few blocks home were uphill & against the wind.

In 45 years of bicycle commuting to work, only two citations, both for running stop signs. This one was costly.

And, only two flats. One was on the way to work & one on the way home.

I loved being able to participate in the annual Bike to Work Day event. I have quite a collection of musette bags now.

Nate, who bicycle commutes in N.Y.C. has this fancy helmet that allows vehicles to be aware of his intentions; turning, stopping...

After Eloïse was born in a hospital on the Upper West Side (10th Ave. & 59th St.) of Manhattan, we were going to their apartment in Brooklyn to get it ready for her to come home with her mom. We departed at the same time, us in a taxi & Nate on his bike. He beat us there & wasn't even breathing hard when he opened the door to let us in.

My bicycle commute was just lovely. This is the path as I approached home.

I'd sometimes go through this tunnel. We have a marvelous bicycle infrastructure in Marin County due to...

...the Marin County Bicycle Coalition.

When it was under the direction of Deb Hubsmith, in August 2005, the county was one of four communities nationwide tapped to receive $25 million for bicycle & pedestrian projects.

Holland 2010 & below.

We are gradually having what's been available in the Netherlands for decades.

This is the Nordzeeroute in Holland that has separate paths for bikes, pedestrians, & horses. We're not there yet here in Marin or the USA, per se.

After 45 years of commuting by bicycle to my dental offices, meetings & chores, this is me riding home from my retirement party in June 2018. No, I haven't stopped riding. Volume II will make assertions & answer questions like...