Cycling From Murray Hill: Bike Storage, Routes & City Riding

Whether you ride in New York has less to do with your enthusiasm for cycling than with where the bike lives. A bike behind a locked door on your floor gets ridden. A bike chained to a signpost, hauled up stairs, or wedged behind the sofa gets ridden twice and then becomes furniture.

Storage Decides Everything

The friction is the whole story. If retrieving your bike means moving three things and navigating a hallway, the subway wins every time, no matter how nice the weather is. If it means walking to a bike room and rolling out the door, you ride.

Street parking is the other problem. Bike theft in New York is persistent and unsentimental, and a bike locked outside overnight in Manhattan is a bike you're slowly donating. Riders who leave bikes on the street generally end up owning something cheap they don't enjoy riding, which defeats the purpose.

Indoor building storage solves both. The Anthem includes bike storage among its amenities — worth asking the concierge about current availability and how space is assigned, since arrangements vary and can have a waitlist.

Riding From the East 30s

The East 30s sit close to one of the best pieces of cycling infrastructure in the city. The East River Greenway runs along the waterfront a few blocks east, a protected path separated from traffic where you can ride a real distance without stopping at a light or negotiating with a delivery truck. It connects south toward the Lower East Side and north along the river, and it turns an ordinary ride into something genuinely pleasant.

For crosstown and north-south trips, Manhattan's protected avenue lanes have expanded considerably over the past decade. First and Second Avenues carry protected lanes running uptown and downtown respectively, putting a substantial share of the East Side within a comfortable ride.

Riding in Manhattan traffic is still riding in Manhattan traffic. Take the lane where it's safer than hugging parked cars, watch for opening doors, and assume a delivery vehicle will stop in the bike lane, because one will.

Bike vs Subway, Honestly

For trips under roughly three miles, a bike is frequently faster door to door than the subway once you count stairs, waiting, and the walk at both ends. It's also predictable in a way transit isn't during service changes.

The tradeoffs are real: weather, arriving somewhere warm, and needing to leave the bike safely once you're there. Most regular riders end up mixing — bike when it's pleasant and the destination is secure, subway when it isn't.

Citi Bike fills the gap nicely. Docks are dense in Midtown East, and for one-way trips, nights out, or days when you don't want to worry about locking anything, it's the sensible complement to owning a bike rather than a replacement for it.

Winter and Maintenance

Riding thins out from January through March, and that's when indoor storage earns its keep — a bike stored inside doesn't rust through a season of salt and slush. Before it goes away, clean the chain and check the tires. Come spring, a basic tune-up at a neighborhood shop is cheaper than replacing a drivetrain you neglected.

If secure bike storage is on your list, ask about it directly. Browse available residences at The Anthem or schedule a tour at (212) 684-3222.