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5 Boro Tour Bike-Spotting

Cycles Seen on the 5 Boro Tour

Cycle-spotting was excellent on the 5 Boro Tour.  I didn’t get many pictures, though, as it naturally seemed more important to avoid collisions than to catalogue the encounters.

I can’t prove it, but I suspect this was the first interesting 5 Boro bike-spotting: It’s a full-sized folding Montague, on Amtrak, in the compartment next to the one in which Basil and I were riding. The cyclist was not in the compartment, so my suspicions remained unconfirmed; I can’t be certain that this folder was on the way, specifically, to the 5 Boro Tour.

I’m not positive this bike is a folder; it’s most distinctive feature is the single axle on the right side of the front wheel — but those look like some kind of heavy-duty shocks on the rear. Here’s a close-up of the front wheel:

The cyclist told me the name of the bike, but I had trouble understanding him.  He was very clear that this was the best bike ever! He added that they aren’t made any longer, and that he had to bring his over from England.

The logo shows a stick-like cyclist with a light dot for a head, a red or orange  dot for handlebars, and a green or blue dot for a rear wheel. The angle of the rides and cycle suggest stunt-riding.  I know I’ve seen this logo somewhere, but I can’t remember whose it is or read the text written next to it. Searching the innerwebs hasn’t solved the problem yet, so it’s driving me crazy that I don’t know who makes this critter.

This bike is definitely not a folder [I am sooo wrong — see *note below]  just a small-wheeled model. It’s really industrial-looking; the cyclist said that he had gotten it in Germany. I’d never seen this one before, either.

Folding bikes I saw, but didn’t photograph, included a Citizen in an attractive shade of darker sage green; a blue Bike Friday; a lot of Dahons; two Terns; and two different bright red Bike Friday tandems (one may even have been this one).  There were a slew of recumbents, some so low that I was afraid that I’d trip over them as they made it through the starting gate, while we were still essentially walking.  And there was a family on two tandems I didn’t recognize (the tandems may have had chrome fenders?), every member of which was fully kitted-out in this year’s 5 Boro jerseys, shorts or leggings, socks and gloves.  Quite the vision, that was!

*Commenter Thorsten (comment visible when you click on the image directly above) points out that this is most certainly a folder, a Birdy, invented by Heiko Müller and Markus Riese. Blame the mistake on a huge language barrier between your Diarist and the owner — and your Diarist’s ignorance! Thanks, Thorsten!