Joe Schumacher reminds us with a great photo set that we are currently in the midst of Bike Month, and could be doing a little more about it.

However, he did have two opportunities to catch a photo of me on the west side bike path this past Saturday, and Sunday too. And later this month, I'll be riding to Montauk, but have not decided if I will do the full 147 miles, or wimp out and go for only 100.

So, in preparing my bike for this year's Montauk ride, I took it for the first time to Harlem's New York Cyclist on Cathedral Parkway between Manhattan Avenue and Frederick Douglass Boulevard. They have a spring tune up special for $39.99, which I will post a review of when my bike comes back later this week.

Taking my bike in for a tune up is part of a yearly dance I do where I hem and haw over whether or not I should buy a new bike, or keep riding the one I have, which is a now ten year old mountain bike with road slicks. One side of the argument is that if I actually had a road bike, I might do more long distance rides. The other side is that ten years ago I bought the mountain bike because I broke two forks on a different bike in one month, and since riding the mountain bike, I have not broken one. (The first fork was broke hitting a curb, and the second was broke hitting a cyclist going the wrong way on a bike path- at least I bent his frame in the collision. Dumbass.)

Plus, there is always the extra ego boost of doing what other people do on much lighter bikes and making it look easy. On the 2005 Montauk ride someone rode alongside of me and said that I must be using 20 percent more energy riding my mountain bike. "Good," was my response, "that means I'm stronger."