So, I had a great ride ready to post this weekend but it looks like a soggy one, so here are some thoughts on riding in the rain and some alternate activities if you’re not ready to make the leap to wet-weather riding.

Riding in the rain is more fun if you have:
a) fenders
b) decent, brightly colored rain clothes (and rain boots)
c) a waterproof bag to carry a change of clothes in if you’re going somewhere nice
d) a chamois to wipe down your bike once it gets all the rain gunk kicked up on it from the road

After five years of riding around NYC I still do not have fenders. This is masochistic and also just plain silly. If it wasn’t for the Five Borough Bike Tour this weekend I’d go buy some.

For those of you doing the 5BBT (oh, sorry the TD Bank Five Borough Bike Tour), some tips on how to survive:

It's Saturday in New York and you want to enjoy the city. What better way than to ride a bike, right? Well, if you don't have one, don't worry. You can always rent a one, and beginning on Saturday, August 9th, you'll have a great opportunity to rent a bike and ride the city in safety! NYC DOT is closing an entire avenue nearly 7 miles long in Manhattan to allow people to enjoy the city without honking and without dangerous cars during Summer Streets.

There will be a ton of activities, from what we can tell, including music, yoga, walking, dance and bike riding (and rentals). Ride the city in safety during Summer Streets.

It's official, the Danes are coming.

Copenhagen-based bicycle company Velorbis is launching "wave urban cycling concept in the US." Not sure exactly what that means, but they're partnering with Boston's importer of European-style bikes, the Dutch Bicycle Company, to expand into our growing market:

"It has been predicted that urban cycling will be the next big consumer movement in commuting – a focus on healthy living plus green ‘carbon conscious’ attitudes has increased the desire for travelling by two wheels. Increasing numbers of people are choosing to cycle to and from work, around the city or for a leisurely cruise during the weekend. Cycling is no longer limited to sport only – it’s now a lifestyle requirement/choice/state of mind."

The number of cyclists in NYC is growing; you can see them in masses on the streets. The NYC Department of Transportation estimates the number of bike commuters has grown by 75 percent since 2000. That's great news!

You can never be too safe on the bike. Last Sunday I (Vaidila) was stopped at a red light in Manhattan (at Broadway/Spring) waiting for the green (like a good cyclist). All of a sudden, a yellow cab fails to stop in time and tags me from behind, smashing my wheel.

The moral of the story: You might be doing everything right on your bike, but drivers aren't always paying attention. Ride with caution.

Check out our interview with Richard Hake on WNYC. This is what happens when you put two urban planning nerds in front of a microphone!

Here's the piece: Ride the City on WNYC.

Ever need to park your bike at a bike shop to pick up a patch kit, a tube, or get a quick front brake check?

In addition to suggesting a safe route from start to finish, Ride the City shows you where bike shops are located along your route. Click on a bike shop icon (it looks like a sprocket, or gear) and you can see its address, phone number, hours and website. (If you aren't seeing the bike shops, trying zooming in a little closer.)

If you know of bike shops that aren't on the map or if you have a correction for us, please use the feedback form to let us know.

Welcome to Ride the City, a website that helps you find the safest bike route between any two points in New York City.

The concept is pretty simple. Just like MapQuest, Google, Microsoft, and other mapping programs, Ride the City finds the shortest distance between two points. But there are two major differences. First, RTC excludes roads that aren't meant for biking, like the BQE and the Queens Midtown tunnel. Second, RTC tries to locate routes that maximize the use of bike lanes and greenways.

Here are a few things you might be interested to know:

1. It's pretty fast! Ride the City searches through more than 125,000 rows in a database of New York City streets every time you run a routing query. We use Dijkstra's shortest-path algorithm with custom weighting based on based on whether a bike lane or greenway exists on a street segment.