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10/17/2022
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Pearland, TX
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kxrider85
10/17/2022 12:23am
10/17/2022 12:23am
I am nearing in the end of college, and trying to rank places I'd like to live. One place on my radar is New York City. There is Walden MX a little over an hour outside the city, and there are a few more tracks near Albany, so places to ride are not a major issue. However, I'm not sure how one would go about owning a dirt bike in NYC. It seems like, at a minimum, one would need a way to store/haul the bikes (e.g. a truck and garage), but space in NYC is hard enough to come by as it is.
A cursory search tells me parking spots are about $400/month, but then again, I don't really know what it is like to live in NYC, so I was just curious if anyone has a better idea of what options are available for people interested in having dirt bikes. For example: is a garage necessary? Is a truck necessary? My guess is yes, but I am just curious if I am missing any better options, or if the idea is completely bankrupt (literally/figuratively lol).
A cursory search tells me parking spots are about $400/month, but then again, I don't really know what it is like to live in NYC, so I was just curious if anyone has a better idea of what options are available for people interested in having dirt bikes. For example: is a garage necessary? Is a truck necessary? My guess is yes, but I am just curious if I am missing any better options, or if the idea is completely bankrupt (literally/figuratively lol).
https://www.rydersalley.com/
The real issue is parking a truck. Depending on how often you ride, might make sense to rent one. You’ll pay a ton to park it.
You could also buy a van and park it somewhere safe and keep your bike in there. I did that for a bit. I’d just wash the bike at a self serve and do any maintenance in the parking lot.
NYC is great besides how much everything costs. Amazing food, beautiful women everywhere, tons of career opportunities. Have fun man.
1 you could buy a sprinter (with no windows in the back) and keep your bike and riding stuff in there.
2 you could live outside the city and take the metro north to work every day like half the people who work in the city do. This would be what I do for one your cost of living will drop by over half and two you can get a place with a garage and three you would be closer to the tracks you would actually ride. The metro north goes from Poughkeepsie to grand central and is about $10 to ride round trip.
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You will much more enjoy your time in the city by letting go of the idea of riding on any regular basis. Simply getting out and in of NYC is a stressful schlep by car or rail. Add in getting out to Walden or Englishtown (there are some city folks that do ride Etown here and there) and you're looking at some serious time on the road. If it's at rush hour...have fun!
I'm assuming you'll plan to have a car/truck/van wherever you end up. Mike Lawlor's suggestion for the sprinter is sound, but there's no way I would ever keep a bike in a van as a permanent solution for storage. That's just a stolen bike that doesn't know its inevitable fate.
I wound up doing a lot of cycling to get my fix. NYC is becoming a more and more bike friendly city and it's also just a great way to get around, see/learn the city, and get that adrenaline fix (Manhattan and Brooklyn are pretty safe to bike around generally as they're very much pedestrian culture, but the closest I've ever come to getting hit by a car while biking was in Queens... car culture).
Moto is great and so is NYC. Unfortunately it is really difficult to have both.
It sounds like a place that would consume you so much, you wouldn’t have time to ride. If you decide to do it though, I’d love to get updates lol
NYC is cool because it's really the only true city in the US. The idea of moving there and expecting to ride moto seems absolutely ludacris to me.
There are so many places around NYC that are much cheaper to live, safer, and easier to access tracks.
Also, there is a huge "wheelie boy" scene out there so unless your bike is locked up like for Knox you probably will get your bike stolen.
I have quite a few fellow enduro club members from Brooklyn, although most seem to be moving out of the city this past year. They rent garage space to store the bikes and mostly have sprinters. Bike thefts are somewhat of an issue so you want to keep your bike's location a secret to the best of your abilities. It takes hours to leave the city on a Friday night for them to go ride with us in PA on the weekends.
Depending on where in NY you are working you could live in Jersey City or Hoboken to get a break on rental prices. My street bike and track day buddy has been renting apartments with garages in Jersey City for several years and takes the rail into Manhattan for work (since Covid he mostly works from home now). For several years he drove a Cobalt and Ford Escape with trailer hitches and would rent a trailer from U-haul for ~$20 once or twice a month to go to the track, although he now has a Colorado to make it easier. Living by I-95 and I-78 gives great freedom to get away from the city (plus you don't have to pay the crazy NY tolls).
Another friend lives near Suffern NY and takes the rail to the city for work. He has woods riding right out his back door and is able to own a house with a decently large shed. He has an Express van for moto transport and heads out to PA, NJ, or NY for racing/riding every weekend. The train ride is over an hour for him but he works hybrid now so he only goes into the office like twice a week.
Remember that you're mostly going opposite of traffic if you live in NYC and go riding, but yeah, traffic can suck.
As far as the bike being stolen, I had a van, parked it in a lot with security, and always backed it up against a concrete wall. I had insurance for the bike, but no way someone was getting that bike out of there without sawing through the side of the van.
The tracks in Northeast, really any within a 3-4 hour drive of the city - are an absolute joke compared to the DFW area. I've also been to 3 palms a few times.
I'm not knocking our tracks here , I like them because its what we've got and I support them - But the dirt is trash, there are rocks everywhere, your seat time is severely limited on a public Open practice day compared to TX. Just something to keep in mind....
As for moto and NYC, I have done it, kinda.
Lived on 30th and Park for 6 years and 76th and 2nd for two. Rode MX whenever I could, but it was a hassle.
Closest track to NYC is an outlaw sand track in New Jersey that is literally right at the intersection Rt 3 and the jersey Turnpike. If you are heading north on the Turnpike towards the GW, it is off to right just as the road goes up to the Rt 3 Exit Ramp. Blink and you miss it.
It is literally around a 1/2 mile as the crow flies from Met Life Stadium. You gotta park a ways a away and then ride alongside train tracks to get in. Getting in is super sketch, but it is a fun little whooped out track and awesome after it rains. Maybe 3-4 miles from the Lincoln Tunnel.
Used to be a track at the Whitestone bridge years ago, but now it’s a Trump Golf Course.
The closest legal track is Englishtown, which, depending on where you are coming from, is 45 minutes-ish from the Holland Tunnel. Walden is a good 90 minutes. There are a few options on Long Island, but you gotta push way towards the Hampton's.
But, you should clarify a few things - where in NYC are you looking to live? Big difference between Manhattan (apartment buildings) and say, Staten Island (houses) or the ‘burbs. Clarify that detail and I think you will get better info.
As for me, I lived in the city and kept bikes at the family house out in CT. So that was easy, but a lot of driving around.
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There are also not any living with private garage options. So you’ll have to find storage for everything.
I get the appeal of cities. They are fun. I live in SF now and I have a house with a garage and I can drive to 3 tracks in an hour, another 4 more in two hours, and I can find an open track year round 6 days a week generally. Plus I can drive to SoCal for all the cool stuff that happens down there.
The weather is also super harsh in NYC. I talk to a lot of ex-NYC people here and they all don’t want to go back there. I was from Florida, so it was a struggle from me.
I love my California climate now and don’t think I could change it.
Let’s us know what we’re working with. There’s a big difference between working as a machinist in Yonkers or an actuary in Manhattan.
Put the manufactures safety and break in stickers back on it to make it look like you stole it from a dealership.
Just make sure you look cool and then fit in.
If after a year or two you have had your fill, move out of Manhattan and pick up riding again. Unless you are a pro prospect, you have your whole life to ride. Being young, with a good job, in a big city, in a desirable neighborhood is an amazing experience in itself. I took a few years away from dirt bikes after college and loved living in a city.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6bXQqmjomKRRGcsU6?g_st=ic
Anyway, here's what I'd do. I'd store my bike in a small storage place somewhere nearby (in NJ), and on the days I'd want to ride, I'd rent a Uhaul van and get to the track that way. I owned a car when I lived there, and it was not easy. Pricey to store and a hassle to get it in/out of the facility, and all I had was tiny little sports car. A full size truck would be a tremendous challenge, as very few people in the city drive/store them, so the parking facilities aren't used to dealing with them.
Best of luck, and for what it's worth, I'd say do it.
The biggest thing is tolls and traffic but that's the nature of the Northeast and there's really nothing you can do about it if you want to live here. In Brooklyn at least parking is easier for a truck or van and I would go the shared garage route as well like Ryders alley. Plus that will give you built-in motorcycle friends because they are few and far between in Manhatten.
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