TA has advised me that they are close to raising the funds  for it & hopes to have new tarmac this fall.  In the meantime take care descending--it is very shady there

Cyclists should avoid or exercise extreme caution over loose pebbles.  Fortuneately they waited until after R Rosenthal's ride this weekend.

NYDaily News, Aug. 19, 2011

Man dies after being crushed under cement truck

A man died Thursday after he lost control of his bicycle on a Manhattan street and was run over by a cement truck, police said.

The 52-year-old went through a red light and made a right turn on Delancey St. from Chrystie St. on the lower East Side about 5:30 p.m., cops and witnesses said.

The rider, who lived in Brooklyn, lost control of the bike, smacked the rear end of a moving tractor trailer and was pulled under the rear wheels, crushing him to death, cops and witnesses said.

if completely (or even partially) true, this is terrible:

http://bit.ly/qQx4xa

In anticipation of the all-class ride this sunday I wanted to start a thread to explain my plan for the Gimbel's/Beach ride. This should answer some questions, but if you have others please feel free to email me directly or to the thread. First off, here's the cue sheet from the ride library:

http://nycc.org/sites/default/files/not_gmbls_rd.pdf 

Anyone have experience with these vicious beasts?

I discovered what looked like a tiny brown critter in my forehead last night. (No, not head lice, smarty.) Yanked it off with some tweezers, partially but not entirely. Now there's a ring of depressed skin about 1" diameter around the spot. My last trip to the great outdoors on LI was 11 days earlier.

From what I understand, the tiny nymphs can be a mere speck when they latch on. The maps on the Net of tick distribution show our region as solid red.

I'm going to Calif. in a week, where I have no insurance coverage, and the last thing I want is to end up with Lyme disease. Good lord I have enough problems.

Advice appreciated.

Hi all. I'm gonna bike to Philly and back (over two days). No special reason, I just feel like doing it. Does anyone have any suggestion for routes?

Due to the unexpected bad weather this ride is canceled

Here I am still waffling between a custom steel build and a more traditional Italian frame for my next bike. Thought I had settled on a custom built compact light steel frame and then started reading about Gios compact pro.. made in Italy .. trouble is no one seems to sell them in this country. Anyone know anything about them..?? I have seen a guy from CRCA riding one in the park a couple of times but not had a chance to quiz him more than seeing the big smile on his face when he says how much he loves the bike..

etc  RB