Cruising Along

Nobody knew if this was a good idea. The invitation to the official summer party of the Young New Yorkers for the Philharmonic had arrived a month earlier, around the time that Citi Bike rolled out its fleet of 6,000 bikes around New York City. We were always planning to attend. But in an editorial meeting a week before, a senior editor, in a typical blend of sadism and journalistic instinct, suggested that the two of us should use the opportunity to test the new bike sharing service. We agreed. Perhaps we had a choice.

Our nervousness grew when the weather forecasters called for a high of 90 degrees and possible thunderstorms. But we have never wimped out on any of these duties before (cocktails, assignments, exercise, dressing up), so we sallied out to face our fate.

Click through to see a timeline of our commute.

7 p.m.

We walk half a block from the Hearst Tower to the Citi Bike station at 58th and Broadway. We pull out credit cards to borrow a bike. A 24-hour pass, more than adequate for our plans, is $9.95 and the system places a $101 security hold on credit for each rental.

To our dismay, the machine doesn't seem to like us. Micaela's first attempt takes her all the way to the final screen, then displays an error message indicating that it couldn't process our request. Sam tries, with similar results.

So we walk to the next closest station, at 56th and Broadway, where only two bikes (out of the 56 based there) remain. Micaela goes first again, sailing through with no problems this time. The final screen displays a code that she types into a bike dock to retrieve her wheels. Sam follows suit.

7:15 p.m.

We turn left onto West 54th Street, taking care to stay in the bike lanes. Micaela has a bit of trouble with this, sideswiping a parked Lincoln Town Car (don't worry— no visible damage is done, to the car or to Micaela).

There are barricades and tents set up between Sixth and Fifth Avenue, and as we get closer to the middle of the block, we notice a crowd of onlookers with camera phones out and at the ready. The familiar face of Andrew Saffir, the founder of the Cinema Society, presents itself as we cycle by. "Hi, Andrew!" we say as he does a double-take (we always dress up when we are lucky enough to be invited to a Cinema Society film screening, but then again, we've never before arrived on a bicycle). This screening, we later discover, celebrates the premiere of "White House Down."

7:25 p.m.

We reach Park Avenue after another heart-pounding 10 minutes.

Nobody pays any attention to the presence of two dressed-up partygoers on bicycles. Perhaps we owe this state of relatively serene anonymity to Cycle Chic, the Copenhagen-based blog that chronicles stylish people riding bicycles.

7:30 p.m.

A block away from our destination, a private club on the East Side, we get off our Citi Bikes and prepare to return them. The only known damage? A three-inch hole in Micaela's MILLY dress.

7:35 p.m.

We return the bikes to their new home, for who knows how long, at 53rd and Madison.

7:40 p.m.

Looking only slightly worse for the wear, we make it into the party, a fabulous fête with performances by Philharmonic musicians Sumire Kudo, a cellist, and Max Zeugner, a bassist. The dinner, which we are in desperate need of after our mile-long ride in the heat, includes a fresh caprese salad and veal chop with wild mushrooms.