Lucille Goes Shopping!

If you are creative and have a bike, there's always something to discover. Today I wanted to see if it would be possible to shop with Lucille at Fairway.

For those of you who are not New Yorkers, Fairway is a GINORMOUS market on the Upper West Side with which many of us have a love-hate relationship. We love for example, that it is near us, or that it carries organic produce and supplements at decent prices. We hate that the carts are too big for the aisles, we hate the pushy population. 

For me, who used to live on the Fairway block, I had a particular love-hate feeling about the place (mostly hate, I confess). It was my neighborhood market, but the strollers, walkers, wheelchairs and marketing carts drove me NUTS! As did the general rudeness of the people - you could get run over for a stalk of broccoli! 

I developed a theory that Fairway trained the neighborhood in rudeness, and then they fanned out all over the Upper West and spread their bad behavior. That said, the way the place is set up invites rudeness, and ultimately I became an unwilling participant if only out of frustration. The flagship store where I shopped is on West 75th St (there are others now). Shopping at Fairway is what I will miss LEAST about leaving the Upper West. And now I get to cycle there! 

FIRST QUESTION: how would the empty Brompton shopping basket travel, going up Riverside Park? Answer: very well, but with a lot of wind resistance - these things are big as sails! Paper cup used to show scale:

I never made it up to top speed, but then again I had truly done my breathing for the day by West 54th Street.

SECOND QUESTION (different topic): Would I make it up Beasty Hill? That's what I have come to call this vicious hill at West 72nd. According to an architect friend of mine, the slope may not even be legal (though there have been some efforts to grade it more kindly). This is not a big hill, but it's a cruel one and I have yet to manage it. In addition, street scaffolding makes it narrower at the top - a particular challenge.

Today, I had a slow jogger in front of me to the right and a stroller coming towards me to the left - but thanks to my new found ability to stand on the pedals I made it - first time!!

THIRD QUESTION: would I be able to lift Lucille into one of those over-sized shopping carts (no way were they letting her inside otherwise) - and would she fit? Answer:

Handily! She was not too heavy. And for the first time, I was actually glad those carts are so big! This made the cart heavy to wheel around, which pretty much put me at the same speed as everyone else at Fairway(!).

We did our shopping and were soon headed home:

FOURTH QUESTION: was the weight of groceries going to affect my ability to navigate the bike? Actually the Brompton bags are brilliantly designed: they mount on the frame, not the handle bars. This means when I turn, the basket remains straight ahead; the balance never shifts on the bike.

This is a little disconcerting at first, because if you're used to the old fashioned baskets, you expect them to turn when you do. But ultimately it's a much more practical design.

We headed back down Beasty Hill. For situations like this, I just walk the bike. No sense in wearing out the brakes. And while I'm at it, some street etiquette:

Much as I have little respect for beleaguered (not to say terrified) pedestrians trying to navigate across a bike path, on sidewalks I give them full respect. If I'm approaching a stroller, a walker, a wheelchair I dismount right away (there but for fortune). There are times I ride on the sidewalk, but only when it is relatively empty.

Other things I've recently learned. How to deal with shoe laces: tuck them in!

Keep the weight of the bike at a minimum (especially if lifting is part of the ride). Wear one of these:

Home again! Never thought I'd EVER enjoy a visit to Fairway!!

And what a glorious day!