It is also neat to see how many prominent CR list members have NYC roots.?
Dale
Dale (spent many summers at my maternal grandmother in Greenpoint, Brooklyn) Brown
Greensboro, NC?
-----Original Message----- From: Fred Rednor <fred_rednor@yahoo.com> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Sent: Sat, Aug 15, 2009 10:11 am Subject: Re: [CR] Juner's shop in City Island Bronx
> Under what circumstances would a business prosper if it's located > in a part of NYC that a born and bred New Yorker like myself never > even knew existed? In order to get to City Island one must take the > train to Pelham Bay and then take a bus. There are only > 4,000 residents there in a city of 8 million and almost no > foot traffic other than nautical...
Garth,
In days of yore, my friends and I actually did ride our bikes to City Island. I grew up in the shadows of the Throgs Neck and Whitestone Bridges, about 3 miles down Utopia Parkway from Kissena Bicycles and the Velodrome. (Which is why, before moving to the North American mainland, I mistakenly thought that lots of people were admirers of bicycle track racing. But that's another story...) In any event, it feels as though half our bike rides ended in one of the various parks on the shore where Long Island Sound meets the East River, staring across the water to City Island.
Also, we often made "pilgrimage rides" rides to the Avenia shop in Manhattan and to Junet's on City Island. Manhattan was a much shorter ride - over the Queensborough Bridge (in the outside lanes, which were "paved" with metal mesh), then up First Avenue. For Avenia's that was the extent of it - i.e. up 1st Ave. from 59th Street to 119th.
But the ride to Junet's seemed epic: continue uptown for a few more blocks, cross the Harlem River via the 3rd Ave. Bridge (or was it the Willis Ave. Bridge?) and wend your way through The Bronx. At some point we got onto Shore Road (which at that point is actually a highway and therefore very exciting!), rode across the causeway to the traffic circle, continued through what I remember to be marshland, and finally traversed the little bridge to City Island.
What then, you might ask? Well, first we'd make a quick visit to the bike shop, buy a patch kit or spare tube. Then we'd ride the length of City Island Avenue (is it about one mile?), take a look at Queens from this side of the water, buy a slice of pizza or some Italian water ices... and then return home.
What can I say? We were young, daring, and at the time it seemed epic. Sadly,
undertaking such a journey on a used Atala did not impress the young women.
Best regards,
Fred Rednor - now residing on the North American mainland
in Arlington, Virginia (USA)