Intro Lesson:
What use is a bicycle? Today we discussed the differences between riding a bicycle, walking and driving. The kids noted that when they ride in a car, the things they notice most are what’s inside of the car-like driving around in a bubble. When we walk, we see a lot more of our surroundings, but we go much slower than when we drive. Biking is a happy medium, you are able to go much faster than walking, but you also are more engaged with your environment
We learned that a bicycle is three times more efficient than walking, so riding a bike gives us the power of three people walking! We also learned that a gallon of gas takes a car about 25 miles, but that same gallon of gas when converted into food energy would take a cyclist 1000 miles!
Word of the Day: bicycle
(from Greek bi = two + kýklos = wheel)
East River:
Today the Ruff Ryders headed out to take on the East River! They knew that they had a tough act to follow after the Speed Dusters’ successful first ride, and they did awesome!
It was an all-boys crew of cyclists (except for Emma, Jenne, and Meghan) that headed out today after Emma and Jenne went over the lesson. We had some eager participants, and everyone volunteered answers when asked what they saw when walking, biking, and riding in a car.
The Ruff Ryders had a hot day for their first ride! Today was a scorcher in the 100’s! The boys changed into their pennies and we headed off. Two new riders joined us today, and so Emma, Sebastian, and Ethan sprinted ahead of the group to do a quick time trial before meeting back at Pier CVII to meet up with the rest of the crew. The time trial went great and both boys posted a speedy mile time with only a slight mishap as Sebastian toppled over in an attempt to avoid pedestrians blocking the path. However, he got up and kept pedaling to the finish! Good job Sebastian!
Back at Pier CVII the boys received their cameras and began taking some pictures as they sipped on water. Estuardo’s goal was to document “life itself” a lofty goal for our 3-hour trip.
On we moved until we reached the bottom of the Triborough bridge, where Cappy tossed oranges around for the boys to catch and eat! We took some more pictures of our mascot—the Cormorant. And stayed in the shade to avoid the scorching heat.
Since we had reached the northern most point of our ride, there was only one direction to head… SOUTH! So South we went. After climbing our first hill of the day we were on the East River Esplanade, and we saw Gracie’s mansion, the historical home for the Mayor of New York City. Justice said he “wouldn’t mind living there.”
We continued on the Esplanade until we reached the dreaded staircase. The boys placed their bikes on the ramp and we steadily and safely made it to the bottom where we rode all the way to the southern most point of our trip. The Ruff Ryders took one look at the big hill in ahead of us and said… “Are we going to ride up that hill? COOL!” They powered to the top where we took a break and ate some granola bars before heading back to the Stanley Isaacs Center to document our extremely successful ride!
I want to give the Ruff Ryders a lot of credit for staying upbeat and positive even though we had a super sweaty ride! They were really “on fire!” Can’t wait for next week when we tackle the Queensboro Bridge to check out some great artwork at 5 Points!
After the Ruff Ryders’ first ride, they have 1367.5 points! Great job!
This trip was on July 19, 2013
Programming time: 4 hours
Ride time: 2 hours, 40 minutes
Ride Distance: 7.1 Miles
Walk Distance: 1.1 Miles
Calories Burned: About 547 Calories
Participants:
Estuardo Bustamante |
Michael Romero |
Justice Burgos |
Ethan Cuevas |
Sebastian Betancourt |
Leaders: Cappy Collins, Justin Downes, Torin Barnes, Emma Bick, Jenne Ingrassia, Meghan Rowe
View RR: East River Ride in a larger map
What I like about this picture is that The Bicyclists can see these birds and think it’s worth bike riding. But what I love the most is that this bird was worth 25 points and the best parts where that it was breezy and hot at the same time.And what was most challenging is when I myself started falling but I got back on not feeling anything but It was challenging because gears,shifting, and turning but the best part was I get to come again !
That photos was making me think about fishing in the river. 🙂 I want to go fishing but never went fishing but my dad said one day i will go fishing.In a hot day we was so hot we have to drink water and it was hot water .The hill was hard to go up because the gear was miss up . 🙂
i chose this picture because its like a train but it is much,much higher. Its a tram this is where people can go on it and can see everything from there. The tram takes 15 minutes and it would be fun to ride while it was hot outside. The most challenging part was when i had to go all the way up into a hill for a granola bar and when i had ride my bike with holding the brakes while walking the bike down the ramp.
i liked it because it was fun and that was so fun and that was my farthest I’ve ever went but the challenge was going up the hill that we had to go up to but i made the hill was hard because it was steep and i kind of messed up at the top. . this picture was when we were close to the randall’s island and we rode for seven miles we went up hills and down hills especially when we changed the gears to 1st but we still did a good job and had a good time and made it so far.
what those 2 photos mean to is that without the sources of nature water, food we would not be able to live in this planet. my most favorite part of the day was when we went down the last hill, because we were able speed down the hill, but the most difficult part of the day was when we had to ride up the hill.
Today was very successful with the Ruff Ryders. We went all the way up to the Tri-Borough bridge and then we made it all the way downtown to the 59th street bridge. The most challenging part of the day was when we went up the hill in the scorching heat. it was hard but the Ruff Ryders and I made it! Can’t wait until next week.