Nicely done. More please. Check out http://transportationnation.org/

I think this is the downside to taking your license plate and hiding the VIN is that technically, from what I understand, without identification your bike can be considered abandoned, the same as a box left on the street, so the police probably didn’t need a warrant or special orders to break into the storage compartments and look for some kind of ID.  But having plates and VIN numbers won’t save your bike against the NYPD’s relentless crusade against gas-saving congestion-reducing two wheeled vehicles… Because everyone knows drug dealers and gun runners like to hide their stash in their Vespas.

Thanks to Dave for posting this in the Parking Alert comments!  If you park on Vanderbilt and 47th and can’t find your bike today…well, I’m sorry to hear that.

So you go take a look at a bike and decide to buy it, how do you get it home?  Before you ride it you’ll need to get plates and registration at the DMV.  Not only that, even if you have plates, you’ll need someone to go with you to drop you off.  If you’re around NY, the easiest way to get a bike home is probably to get a tow.  ”But aren’t these tow services expensive?”  Depending on the distance and availability, a good private tow service (in a pickup truck or van) can cost you just a bit more than cab fare…

So here’s my Bike Tow story: we were riding along Northern State Parkway when I lost the shift rod that connects the gear shift lever to the transmission [full disclosure, I was adjusting the lever and never fully tightened the bolts...the vibration while cruising the parkway managed to unscrew it...so it was my dumb mistake.] It’s an easy fix, so from the side of the road we called around all the Honda dealers we could find within 50 miles – no joy.  No one had the part in stock.  That means not only will I not be riding home, my bike will be out of commission for a few days until I get the part.

So I pushed my bike to a safe spot and gave Tony from TLT Towing a call.  His fees start at $30 for a local pickup.  I was about 20 miles from home, and it was an emergency tow so it was about three times that…  Yes money doesn’t grow on trees, but it was actually cheaper than if I took a cab back home (to grab my tools) and come back.  Not only did Tony tow my bike back, he made a couple of calls and found someone who had the part I needed… So twenty minutes later I was good to go.  Thanks Tony!

Now from what I understand it’s the wild west out there for local towing and moving services.  And not everyone can load and unload a bike safely (it’s easier to drop your bike walking it than it is to drop it riding).  So do yourself a favor and find a decent tow service in your area.  If you’re in NYC, jot this number down (TLT Towing, 212-300-7666) and keep it with your registration.  Or if you’re thinking about picking up a bike, give them a call and see what it would cost you in advance so you know your options.

Do you have a tow service you recommend in your area?  Share the wealth in the comments section!

Related posts:

1. Clutchless Shifting
2. NYPD Hard on Bikers?
3. Tips on Braking and Downshifting

Some people have the street parking gene, and some people don’t.  It’s a combination of patience, timing, and incredible cheapness (a visceral unwillingness to pay for a lot).  Mainly the ones who don’t have this gene move to places like Jersey or Staten Island and park their cars in garages.  However, if you do have the street-parking gene, and you know how to park your car in the city, then parking a motorcycle in the city is MUCH easier than parking your Beemer…

Yes parking in Manhattan is a pain, and the rules are unfair, and enforcement varies from street to street, month to month…  But on a normal day I can ride past 50-100 parked motorcycles and scooters between the 59th Street bridge and Times Square.

[I've been debating whether I should put up pictures - but I decided against taking pics of other people's bikes...I don't want to give thieves a map to the nice ones, and for bikes parked not-so-legally I don't want some City Council person pressuring parking enforcement to take action.]

Now I’m sure there are Manhattan neighborhoods that are just impossible to park in where you can’t find a spot within walking distance… Fortunately there are parking garages that take motorcycles (acc. to one forum poster, the Hippodrome on East 44 bet 5th and 6th has monthly parking for $100.  There’s also expensive motorcycle parking available thru these guys – but I think you’re better off doing the foot work of asking the garages near you).  But if you just need to park for the day, I think you can park in most parts of Manhattan if you’re willing to walk a bit.

So here are some tips to finding decent parking in Manhattan…

• Look in residential neighborhoods – walk over a couple of blocks east or west and you usually have a residential neighborhood in midtown.
• Look for non-commercial-only muni meter parking.  I’m sure this depends on the neighborhood, but in many parts of the city they don’t write tickets for motorcycles and scooters at street muni meters.  * They will give you a ticket however, in most places, if it’s during a “Commercial Only Parking” time…  The picture above is my Buddy Scooter at 57th and Broadway…  I park there whenever I have to be in the area.  There are a few bikes around the corner that park at commercial-only muni-spots without plates.
• Ask the parking ticket people.  In busy areas (which most of Manhattan is) you can find a Traffic Enforcement Officer every other block.  If you plan to park somewhere regularly, ask the ticket officer if THAT spot is okay…  You can also ask things like “do I need to feed this meter?”  Because enforcement varies in different parts of the city – I often find that the ticket people don’t care to write tickets for bikes in many areas.  (Union Square is NOT one of them, if you’re parked at a meter there, remember to feed the meter – but non-commercial muni-meters are okay).
• Look for blocks where there are already two or more motorcycles parked.  If you see bikes parked, there’s probably a way to scooch yours in also.
• Check alternate parking schedules for the best parking spots.  If you know you’re going to get there before alternate side is over – you can nab the space at the front of the block near the crosswalk…  Or right in front of the first car next to a fire hydrant or No Parking zone.  You can make sure you’re parking someplace where the cars are not likely to run into your bike.  An added bonus is that cars parked after alternate side tend not to move for the rest of the day.
• Can’t remember what the Alternate Side times were for a particular block?  You can check it HERE on the DOT site… Very handy!

Do you have the street-parking gene?  Pass on your tips to the rest of us in the comments section!

Related posts:

1. Top 5 Sidewalk Parking Tips
2. How to Park Your Motorcycle on the Street, in NY
3. Bikes and the Muni-Meter…

Here’s a heads up for those of you who sometimes park on the sidewalk in the city…it appears the NYPD is on a ticket blitz.  But with a twist this time.  Not only are bikes that are parked on sidewalks being ticketed, chains cut, towed, and impounded, but the NYPD is arresting scooter riders on felony charges for not having external VIN plates. 

The VIN number on a motorcycle is usually etched onto the frame near the forks and difficult to obscure (if you see a motorcycle without a VIN it’s probably stolen); but scooters have a cheap plastic or metal plate for the VIN, attached by 2 easy to damage rivets.  If you buy a second hand scooter, it probably didn’t come with the external VIN plate.  Not only that, but if you were the mischievous type, you could easily take someone else’s VIN and attach it to your scoot (so that they’d get the tickets).

Now obviously I’m biased, but I think there’s a problem when the city does not address the reasonable needs of its citizens (in this case, safe parking spaces where bikes won’t be knocked over by cars and can be chained to something to hinder thieves); and then criminalizes non-criminal behavior… The NYPD should have better things to do than go after scooter riders and motorcyclists.  You can read more about it the current situation on NYScooterClub.

Related posts:

1. NYPD Hard on Bikers?
2. Top 5 Sidewalk Parking Tips

Want to ride for the weekend but don’t have a bike in the city? Places like LA and San Diego have had motorcycle rentals for years now, and you can rent a cruiser in over a dozen cities across the country… But how about in NYC?  Now NY has its very own in Brooklyn, and another one across the river in NJ.

I haven’t tried these myself so this isn’t a review of any kind.  If you check it out, come back and let us know what your experience was like.  There’s a review of JuptersNYC on the NYTimes site from a couple of weeks ago.

From what I can tell these rental companies are a tad less organized than large car rental companies, and the rates generally run in the $150-$200 per day range (compared to $49/day at Enterprise in Astoria).  But in return you should get a clean mid range bike, and good customer service.

So if you were sitting there thinking “I wish I had a bike to ride this weekend” get out your Class M license and head over to Brooklyn or Jersey and see you on the road!  Cheers!

Related posts:

1. What’s Up in LA?
2. Let’s Talk Motorcycle Jackets
3. How to Park Your Motorcycle on the Street, in NY

What would happen if one of those more obnoxiously driven cabs bumped you from behind?  Or turned into your lane right along side you?  Most cabbie’s are reasonably cool, and predictable, but a few of them are working long shifts and driving distracted (with phones in their ears).

Some older traditional riders are fans of “laying down the bike” in emergencies, but I say the first goal of emergency maneuvers is to stay off the ground…  Trust me, you don’t want to be laying on the ground anywhere on the road in NY traffic.  Someone once told me: Fortunately your bike is equipped with a vertical stabilizer mechanism that can keep it upright under any emergency situation.  As long as you’re starting off pretty much upright you can remain upright no matter what runs into you… If you’re a regular reader, you know what I’m talking about. It’s called the throttle.  Now this came in handy one day. I mentioned this a while back and said I’d write about it, so here it is:

My First Run-in with a Cab

A few years back I was riding down Lexington Ave on a Friday night, two up, when a taxi slams into my left side.  It was slightly behind me in the lane to my left, and making a sudden lane change.  In hindsight I knew the cabs were driving wildly that night, in that area – and to make things worse, there were no lanes painted on the newly resurfaced road.  So the cabs were really squeezing through every part of the road in a chaotic fashion.  If I knew better, I would have taken a different road…

So there I was bouncing off the side of a cab, my wife (who’s a really good sport about these things) was struggling to stay on the back after pushing off the side of the cab.  We were going to fall when I remembered someone telling me “your bike has a built in stabilizer, it’s your throttle stupid.”  I rolled on the throttle straightened up the bike and pulled over to assess the damage.

I was so glad that it didn’t turn out worse that I wasn’t even upset at that point, just a little dazed.  The cab had a couple of foot-long scrapes down the side from where the footpegs hit the side, along with a dent where the left handlebar hit the side.  My bike had a broken turn signal, and the left clipon got knocked loose so it was wobbly, but the clutch still worked and I could steer with the right handle bar to get home.  My wife developed a bruise on her knee, but fortunately nothing serious.

So here’s the deal: I hope this never happens to you.  And if you’re careful it probably won’t.  But if it does, keep your head, keep it upright, a little throttle and being light on the bars can help you straighten out just about anything.  Do you have a collision story where the car runs into you?  Tell us about it, and anything you might have learned from it.

[PS - most accidents involving cars happen the other way around: when cars pull into the path of a bike that is going too fast to stop...so cars making left turns out of driveways, u-turns, oncoming cars making sudden left turns, etc.  The only thing you can do for those types of accidents is to plan beforehand by watching your speed, keeping it in line with your braking abilities...]

Related posts:

1. Riding Skills: An Exit Strategy
2. Riding Skills: What to do?
3. The Problem with Trucks…

Yesterday was a good day for this country.  And hopefully it might encourage you to believe in our system of government.  I hope so.  I wrote about Proposition 416A a while back. Well it turns out that many people in law enforcement think this is a done-deal.  They think this law will surely pass sometime this summer.  Motorcycles and scooters without “DOT approved” exhausts can be ticketed (first offense $1000) and towed. 

This law unfairly targets the minority of the NY population that rides motorcycles and scooters.  Although it claims to enforce local noise ordinances it does not stop those who like loud pipes from drilling holes in their baffles, or removing the packing of their stock exhausts. Instead of targeting vehicles that exceed the noise limit, it targets any anyone who no longer has a stock “DOT approved” exhaust. Proposition 416A has been embraced by City Council members who do not ride motorcycles or scooter, and who resent those who do. It is an example of how people often misunderstand and oppress those who are in the minority.

Now some of you CityBikers started writing City Council members, and have started to get responses.  What I want to do is compile a list of our “friends.”  People in City Council who are willing to listen to our concerns and oppose 416.

Friends of CityBikers (City Council Members who oppose 416A):

• Tony Avella - representing North Eastern parts of Queens, such as Bayside, College Point, Whitestone, and parts of Flushing – initially sent out a letter saying he was willing to listen to the concerns of motorcyclists (January 6).  But recently decided, after hearing our concerns, to oppose Prop 416A.  He is also open to ideas and suggestions to help with motorcycle parking.  Thank you Mr Avella!!
• Help us get this list going… Contact your City Council people, let them know what you think, and let us know where they stand.

Related posts:

1. Anti-Motorcycle Legislation in NYC
2. Save Motorcycle Parking
3. How Many Miles Per Gallon?

So according to Google Maps, my wife’s commute to work is only 4.2 miles:

• By subway this costs $2 and usually takes around 45 minutes during rush hour.
• By cab this costs around $16 (at night) but it takes around 20-30 minutes.
• I suppose if I were to drive gas guzzler that gets 12 miles a gallon, this commute would use 1/3 gallons, around $0.70 right now (my Corolla get around 35 mpg, so it costs around 30 cents of gas).
• On a scooter the commute takes less than 15 minutes (in good weather with lots of rush hour traffic) and costs around 10 cents worth of gas…(assuming gas is a little over $2 a gallon)

If public transportation is the most efficient, then why does it cost so darn much?  Even if I add in the cost of buying the scooter (and the insurance) over 4 years, it brings the one way cost of the commute up to $1.10.  Whereas the subway is going to go up to $2.50 and still relies on additional taxes and tolls in order to maintain it’s multi-billion dollar deficit.    I used to think it was because not enough people took public transportation, but the subway and bus system in NY has maxed out in the past several years and is running at capacity.

I’m not complaining, I’m really wondering why we’re not seeing the economies of scale that one would expect to find in mass transportation.

The cheapest, the funnest (I know it’s not a word), the most scalable, and the fastest way to get around a crowded city has got to be scooters and motorcycles (smaller motorcycles anyway).  European cities know this, Asian cities know this, and you knew this.  So why don’t U.S. cities want to encourage two wheeled vehicles?

Related posts:

1. The Greenest Alternative
2. Repost: Commuter pain index…
3. Reponsible Motorcycles

The New York City Council is considering “Proposed Int 416″ a new law that would make it illegal to park a motorcycle with an exhaust that does not have an EPA sticker on it.  The fine for the first offense will be $1000 and the police would tow your motorcycle until you paid your fine.  The fine for a second offense would be $2500 and you could lose your motorcycle for good. (Some details from another website) – Update: here’s a link from the Daily News…

Why haven’t I heard of this before? This was originally proposed in 2006 and sat in a committee for two years with no movement until just a few days ago when the ‘Committee on Public Safety’ (which has been sitting on the proposal for two years) approved it and recommended that it go to a full vote on December 18, 2008.

What is this proposed law trying to accomplish? It’s trying to stamp down on loud motorcycles and reckless riding.  I happen to be against these things too.  They think this law will make it easier to enforce noise violations in motorcycles.

Then what’s wrong with this proposal? To start with:

1. There are already laws on the books concerning loud pipes and excessive noise in general
2. This would not ticket loud pipes, just pipes that don’t come from the factory with an EPA sticker
3. Those who want loud pipes can simply drill or remove the baffle on their stock exhausts as people have been doing for ages
4. This specifically targets motorcyclists rather than addressing noise violations in all vehicles
5. The penalty is too severe: A missing sticker can result in a $1000 ticket and/or forfeiture of your motorcycle

Where can I read more about the proposal? You can read the proposal and the committee reports (1,2) by clicking on the links.

What can I do to stop this? Whether you live in NYC or commute here, you can contact members of the city council by phone or email. Manhattan City Council members, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island.

I suggest you write respectfully and personalize your letter, but here’s a template to get you started:

Dear Respected Council Members,

I am a resident of ______________________ (OR I commute to) _____________________ and I am deeply concerned about Proposed Int. No. 416-A concerning the parking or standing of motorcycles without EPA stickers on the exhaust. I have two reasons for this concern:

1. My motorcycle has a manufacturers factory exhaust that conforms to the legal sound limits for motorcycles in NYC. It does not, however, have an EPA sticker. 416 would allow my main means of transportation to be towed and I would be fined in excess of $1000, and the motorcycle sold at an auction if I am unable to pay . This would be an unfair financial burden to me in this economy.

2. The law requiring EPA stickers would also not address the problem of excessive noise because a “modification” for motorcycles is to either remove the internal baffles or drill holes in them to increase air flow. This would allow for loud motorcycles with sound levels similar to “straight pipes” but with EPA stickers.

I understand public dislike of loud motorcycles being operated recklessly; but I have similar concerns about automobiles being operated recklessly and with loud aftermarket exhausts and stereos and I am concerned over the unfair way in which this law would single out motorcyclists in NYC.

Thank you for taking the time to here my concerns. Would you please reconsider this proposal or at least refine it so that it does not discriminate against law abiding motorcyclists?

Sincerely,

Name + telephone number

***UPDATE: According to an email by Jeff Hennie of the Motorcycle Rider’s Foundation (MRF):

“The Motorcycle Riders Foundation is pleased to report that for now the bill has been pulled from the schedule for December 18th, when it was to be voted upon by the full council.  The MRF thanks Speaker Christine Quinn for realizing that this issue requires much more than one week worth of consideration.”

The proposal will most likely come to a vote at some point in 2009 unless there is strong likelihood that it will not pass, so for New Yorkers now is a good time to contact your local council person and express your concerns.

Related posts:

1. Support our City Council!
2. Opinion: Good Bikes, Loud Pipes
3. NYPD Hard on Bikers?