Category: Miscellaneous

Encountered on a recent ride in an unfamiliar area:  It’s “The Hexagonal Schoolhouse”, dating, according the the sign out front, to 1837.

The building is lovely and light, but it’s hard to imagine more than four students and a teacher inside, at the most.  Apparently, though, the builder,a Quaker father named Richard Pim, built it for his own nine children.

Are the shutters original?  Maybe not, but the mechanisms might be. (I don’t know enough about early shutter hardware to be certain, one way or the other.)  The windows are modern, though, I’m sure. I don’t think double-hung panes existed in 1837.

According to this article, there was once a smoke-house above, and a spring-house below — but that was on the original site, a short distance from where it stands today.  When Pim’s property was eventually sold to a devloper, the schoolhouse was saved and moved to its present location.

Note: Basil and I will be traveling for about a week, beginning about now. Internet access will not be assured, so response to comments and emails may be spotty or absent until our return.

Yorkville, Upper East Side, New York City:

Seriously, if one were moving to NYC, wouldn’t this be tempting?  Such a bargain, too — a unit in the building is currently for sale for “WELL UNDER $3 MILLLION!” (plus maintenance fees approximately the cost of one super-equipped Brompton bicycle, per month). There’s a doorman, though.

(You know what they say: If you have to ask . . . )

Saul, cycling ride organizer/leader extraordinaire, alerted me to this beauty:

I’d seen it some time ago, but forgotten about it in the bliss that has followed Basil’s entry into my life.  It’s an S6L, gloriously customized with the perfect S bag included.

I may be wrong, but I think the front fender is orange, and the rear fork and fender red. That makes this custom Brompton the rarest kind of bird: a tri-color instead of a bi-color.  Even the logo is customized:

Tempted? NYCeWheels apparently has one in stock (or if not, they can get you one!)  After you pick it up, consider heading directly out to LaGuardia — Spain is only a hop, skip and jump away, and what better Brompton to take there? Barcelona has a reputation as a superb cycling town.

Bicycle Habitat, already in SOHO and Brooklyn, has opened a new store in Chelsea at 23rd and 7th; I happened across it the day after it opened, on my way elsewhere.

According to staff, this location will be primarily for accessories and shopwork.

Zen Bikes is close by at 134 W. 24th, and has responded to the new competition by shackling some shocking pink bicycles on either end of the block.

My favorite shop, NYCeWheels, is a world away on the Upper East Side, but I’ve got to believe that there’s enough business for most of these shops, at least right now, which is increasingly looking like a golden era in city cycling.

One of our local towns is far more inclusive than I’d realized. They’re apparently building a Wolf Park.

Wait, they’re even more progressive than I thought:  It’s a Wolf Park for wolves who’ve had their feet amputated!

But, apparently, it’s also for wolves with very, very good teeth. Just makes you want to go out and play, doesn’t it?!

(I kind of like the effort on display here, and, admittedly, it made me stop. But perhaps it’s wasn’t meant to be interesting for the reasons I found it so . . . )

Isn’t the Internet amazing? The first thing I thought of when I saw these

was The Legend of the Brompton Bumble Bee.

Actually, it’s the only thing I thought of.

The Legend is the best buddy of Andy, iCrazyBee, who rides with the London Brompton Club. Andy takes Brompton customization to an all-new level.  Beautiful, no?

If there were no Internet, would I have known about The Legend?  I think not.

On a recent trip to Manhattan, a crew showed up at 10 PM, blocked off the street where I stay, and proceeded to tear up the sidewalk and asphalt with jackhammers. The noisiest stuff stopped at 3 AM.  In the morning, they were all gone, and there were a bunch of steel plates where the jackhammers had played.

Several days later (this is a gauge of the urgency of the problem), this truck turned up.  A guy — possibly another annoyed resident among the many for whom sleep had been only a dream that night — walked by and saw me taking this picture.

He smiled and said “A detective, eh?”

“No”, I said, “I just like big red trucks.”

“Really!?” he asked, looking quite surprised.

It’s true.  Basil’s sometimes one of the neatest things on this block, but an enormous, commercial, long-base, red double-cab dump truck is nothing to sneer at.

Wonder if Mr. Diarist would go for this installation?

Two Bromptons for us, two loaners, and luggage.  Wall decor and transportation.  That’s the life!

(It’s the side wall at NYCeWheels.)

. . . or maybe not.  March 25:

Basil and I were going to cycle to the store yesterday so that I could fill his basket with vegetables.  One look out the window, and at our icy road, and I decided that this was not the day.