Earlier this year, we began offering a free bike tour of NYC on ten of our Brompton Bikes.
Brompton Bike Tours
Every Saturday, we take a group out on our ten yellow tour bikes, following one of a few routes— riding over to Central Park to do a loop, down the Hudson Bike path for the beautiful river vistas or, my personal favorite, taking a tour of Randall’s island.
The idea is to give people a chance to try out some great folding bikes, explore some great areas of NYC, and also to create a really fun event where people can enjoy themselves, meet people, and feel like they’re part of a community.
Taken at the first Bromtpon Bike tour
Evolution of the Brompton Tours
Over the course of the last few months, it’s been interesting to see how the brompton tours have changed. When we first started in April, it was cold, people were just learning about the rides and one or two attendees would trickle in on an afternoon to take the ride.
Now fast forward to this last Saturday. By 5:10pm five people were already waiting for the ride, 10 minutes later anther 6 showed up. By the time the free bike tour was to begin, we had 14 people, filling the shop, happy and excited for the tour.
Last week's Brompton Bike Tour
As the tour guide, I was excited to have such a great group, although the prospect of leading 14 bikers I have never met before through New York city can seem somewhat daunting, it’s also great to ride with a big group of people on a tour— always a great way to meet people, make some new friends and have a blast.
Nothing like riding in a group of 15 Brompton Bikes
As you might have guessed, more people showed up than we had anticipated. We only have 10 yellow Brompton Bikes, so I and my co-worker Alex, had to get creative to get enough bikes for everyone. But eventually everyone was helmeted, prepped, and set up with a Brompton Bike from the shop and so we mounted up set out for Randall’s island.
Brompton Bike Tour
The ride itself was gorgeous. Heading through Carl Schurtz park, we burst out onto east river waterfront and then headed north on the east river bike path with the FDR on our left and the river on our right.
We took the pedestrian bridge over to the island at 103rd street (great that its finally open again!) and then had a glorious hour and a half riding through the island, checking out the art installations on the southern end of the island, stopping by Icahn Stadium, riding underneath the famous hell’s gate bridge, and heading back towards home via the beautiful Randall’s island wet lands.
The future of Brompton Bike Tours
Head past the wetlands on our Brompton Bikes
After the ride we all hung out for a bit, laughing, talking about the Brompton tour and practicing folding up the Brompton Bikes. This ride definitely tops the list of tours this year, and it’s only going to get better. Coming soon, we will be offering a wide range of specialty bike tours of nyc, including rides focusing on outdoor art, rides previewing famous monuments, and much more. Check out the NYCeWheels Website to check out some of these new rides, or to beat the crowds and get your place on one of our upcoming free bike tours!
Jack
