Sorry for the gap in posts, but the project that I am working on, and this great city, is sucking up most of my time. I am constantly in contact with bikes, since you can't walk down a single street here in New York without seeing a cyclist ride by or see bikes chained up to racks. Unfortunately for me, my apartment and work building can only allow bikes on their freight elevators and those only run from 9am-4pm. This would mean that my bike would sit outside day and night and I just can't gamble with it getting stolen, vandalized, or weathered.
This one thing is the only thing that is keeping me from buying a cheap bike on Craigslist, but in doing so I would have to buy a $75+ bike lock and pray every day that my bike is still there when I go out to ride it. As you can see in the photo, thieves here will apparently steal everything that isn't locked down, so I would hate to invest the money in something that is temporary, only for it to get jacked in the first week.
All of that being said, this city is great for cycling. The roads are comfortable to ride on, there are enough cyclists out that people are looking for them, and the culture seems to be biker friendly. All that they would need is a few bike stations to allow people to lock their bikes in an indoor facility and provide a locker room/showers, and this place would be on its way to being perfect. I plan on trying to hit their Critical Mass tonight, so I am sure I will learn some more about their biking situation there.