CLOCKWISE TOP LEFT: FLOATING SUBWAY MAP, FRANCOISE SCHEIN, 1985; CYCLING UP LAFAYETTE ST; METRONOME UNION SQUARE, KRISTIN JONES & ANDREW GINZEL, 1999; THE WALL, FORREST MYERS, 1973
While urban bike sharing programs are great for commuting and tooling around town, they are also the ideal sightseeing vehicle for both tourists and locals alike. Allowing you to go slow enough to take in the monuments, landmarks, and vistas of a city, and fast enough to cover some ground, you can get your exercise in along the way too. Plus with docking stations located all over the city, you never have to worry about locking your bike.
A few weeks ago, on a balmy summer’s eve, your STYLE of SPORT editor was invited by Rapha on a cycling art tour of Manhattan. Rapha is the posh English cycling apparel and accessory brand we happen to love and feature regularly for its blend of sophisticated style and performance. With a recently opened shop in Manhattans’s Soho called the Rapha Cycle Club, the store serves as a hub for the city’s cyclists and starting point for group road bike rides. On this evening, however, it would be an 8-mile city bike — or Citibike — ride through Soho, Chelsea, and a bit of midtown too.
RAPHA CYCLE CLUB, NYC
The Rapha Transmission Tour, as they call it, was lead by Derrick Lewis, Rapha Communications Manager for North America. Its mission was to show us New York from a new perspective. As a lifelong New Yorker myself, I always welcome this opportunity. This would be a tour of New York City public art — those architectural structures, installations, sculptures, and paintings we see everyday, perhaps never really notice, and often know nothing about.
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