Motorcycles in New York City

[jmillheiser]

as a displaced new yorker myself I remember how bad the traffic in the city was.

Lane splitting would definately be a must out on the LIE or belt parkway during rush hour.

on the upside your craziest drivers are typically in nice bright yellow cars, the ones that were hard to spot were the damn livery drivers (for the non NYers imagine lincoln town cars flying down the left lane of any highway at 100+ mph)

[JC Viper]

Just stay away from Flushing and Corona sections of Queens, being asian even my family comments on those bad asian immigrant drivers.

[Bx RedBull]

Top 5 WORST places to drive/ride motorcycle in New York City.

5. Gotta agree with you JCViper. Both Flushing and Corono are pretty rough areas of Queens to ride in. Though Brooklyn's got a few areas that would rival them quite evenly.

4. Long Island Expressway (LIE) on any major holiday or weekend there is something going on worth going out to Long Island. Simply stated: Try transporting a quarter of each borough's population to one destination using only one road to get there. Have fun working out that clutch hand.

3. The Village and lower New York. By far the worst city streets known to man. I'm sure many New Yorkers have their own notoriously crappy streets they avoid at all costs, but the village, especially the closer you get to the West Side Highway have craters as big as 3 feet in diameter. If the MSF ever wanted to practice intermediate evasive manuevers, all they would need is to drop the students dead center of West 4th street and tell them to make it uptown. Start softening up those suspensions.

2. Cross Bronx Expressway (portion of I-95 that runs through the Bronx and leads to the George Washington Bridge). Even at 3 in the morning, this sections is backed up from trucks and an endless flow of cars traveling to and from New Jersey. While you can easily lane split and get away with it here, the over abundance of trucks and frustrated/azzhole drivers can make your ride a living hell.

1. Times Square and surrounding avenues/streets. Add awed and amazed tourists (all with heads back and looking up while the cross the streets mind you) to frenzied midtown business execs, throw in a few thousand cars, cabs, and buses per mile, and top it off with a little bit of "Welcome to NY, now get the #@$%! out" NYC attitude and you've got yourself the worst spot to be in on two wheels. You'll sit at red lights so long you're bike will shed pounds its so overheated. You'll have to hold your breath everytime you attempt to lane split, as cabs, buses, and people will have no problem cutting you off....of course without ever looking to see if you were coming. It's the worst for sure. I honestly don't think I've gone over 20mph when down in this part of the city.

Best of all, after braving any of these routes, you've now got to play roulette with the meter maids, traffic violation police, and elderly drivers who don't care about hitting a parked bike in order to fit into a space obviously too small. Fair warning: Just be prepared to come out to a bike with a few more beauty marks on it, a bike that decided to lay down and take a nap while waiting for you, or a nice bright orange "Welcome to NYC" keepsake.
Man, do I love New York!

[ElektraSpitfire]

i work in Manhattan but I live out in Jersey City and commute by subway. I haven't ridden the bike in even at night because I wouldn't know where to park the baby. Where do you guys park your bikes? Is it illegal to just park on the sidewalk in some random alley? Where else would you park it? And what do you lock it to, lamp post (which would require parking on the sidewalk in the first place, right)? And if it's illegal to park on the sidewalk, then you can't lock the bike to anything if it's on the street....??

[FlyerPhil]

i work in Manhattan but I live out in Jersey City and commute by subway. I haven't ridden the bike in even at night because I wouldn't know where to park the baby. Where do you guys park your bikes? Is it illegal to just park on the sidewalk in some random alley? Where else would you park it? And what do you lock it to, lamp post (which would require parking on the sidewalk in the first place, right)? And if it's illegal to park on the sidewalk, then you can't lock the bike to anything if it's on the street....??

I park it on the street with a cover, disc lock, and chain. And hope that the bastards will steal the Goldwing, C50, V-Star, Triumph Thruxton, or F4i before they come for my 3k '97.

Beats paying nearly the bike's value in yearly garage rental.

[JC Viper]

I go to school at John Jay College and park in the side streets with a few other bikes if it's warm or just any other empty space. I haven't found a ticket on my bike for parking but thats because I either park in between huge gaps left by parked cars or on a wide sidewalk where there are other bikes parked up or down near-by.

Many of the holes have gotten patched or are mainly in the middle of the road so stay towards the sides whenever. Or join the blind tourists and take the train.
And yeah those cabbies really don't observe where there going and the ones that do are always cursing at the ones that don't. THe woman that runs the cabbie union say that they can't do anything about cause they're hard working but they will let them know (yeah right).