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Not sure how the London letting scene is nowadays, but NYC is a very tough nut to crack. I've just moved here after two years in LA, and finding a place was a proper pain in the arse. The below advice contains a bunch of stuff I wish I'd known two months ago.

It's all about your credit history here, and if you're fresh off the boat you won't have any. However, zero credit is much better than 'bad credit'!
You will also need to prove your income - as a guideline, your gross annual income should be 40-50 times the amount of monthly rent you want to pay. Any less and the landlord will think you won't be able to keep up with the rent.

Depending on your situation (age, employment, etc) it might be advisable to start searching amongst NY friends if you have any, and be open to the idea of initially sharing an apartment with somebody you know (or a friend of a friend) whilst you build up a credit rating.

The Broker thing is typical Estate-Agent bullshit. You DO NOT need your own Broker, as the majority of properties advertised on the web are repped by a Broker of their own anyway.
If you show up with your own Broker in tow (as we did), the Broker repping the property will immediately realise that they're going to have to split their fee 50/50 with your Broker if your lease application is accepted - they call this a 'co-brokering' situation. This, along with a lack of credit history will put you WAY down the desirability list.
Broker fees are typically 10-15% of the annual rent of the apartment you're looking at. An effing big chunk of money. Can be avoided if you move into a spare room at a mate's place, or find a 'No Fee' listing on sites like the aforementioned Padmapper or StreetEasy.
Also worth asking around the coffee shops in neighbourhoods you want to live in about where to find no-fee apartments for rent.

Open-house viewings are probably the most unpleasant thing - 40 or so people trying to view the same apartment at the same time. Usually on a Saturday. I fucking hated those.

To give you a little perspective on what it was like for us just two months ago;

• Wife works for a major American company, on a good wage.
  
• No US credit history as we spent the two years previous living debt-free in LA, owned our (cheap) car outright, no credit cards, etc.
  
• Lived in same apartment for 2 years in LA, had glowing written recommendation from old landlady.
  
• Wife's company assigned a Broker to us. Unfortunately he wasn't even vaguely familiar with the areas we wanted to look at, and we ended up feeding him listings most nights of the week.
  
• In 11 days we viewed 29 apartments, and on just two occasions we met the owners. The rest of the time, it was just us and Brokers.
  
• Applied for 4 apartments and were rejected from 3. We never found out why we were rejected from any of them, and our Broker couldn't tell us either. The application that was accepted was from a viewing where we met the owner (and more importantly, they met us).
  
  

If you go down the road of finding your own apartment and paying a Broker Fee, be certain that you're getting into a place you really want.
A few days of NY apartment-hunting should be enough to convince you that you sure-as-shit don't want to be looking for a new apartment again in a year's time.

HTH

In the flesh (and especially with those chainsets), those black Enve-equipped 'dales look fucking awesome (imo). A real antidote to the shower of shit that is OTP high-end road bike graphic design right now.

rusty cassette.

That would be fresh grease, not rust.

It's not a matter of preference or aesthetics, it's a matter of those projecting skewer ends snagging people's tights as they walk past.

Rear mech protrusion covers the rear skewer, handlebar width largely covers the front one.
Picking such tiny holes in a bike this nice is pretty amusing, I have to hand it to you.

^Featuring weightless pedals and see-thru bottle cages for those longer trailer rides to the next show......

Considering who it was built for, I'd say that might not be entirely accurate.
Builder photos, not rider.

Lovely Rock Lobster.

Didnt someone earlier say that it was to stop the spray coming up at your face?

Your chin would likely have to be on your stem for that to be the case.

Only hashtagairmax I've owned. They don't look as clean as this no more though.

Probably a repost, but...

Emerica MADE Chapter One Westgate B-Side on Vimeo

Complete absence of music is the icing on the cake. Immense.

My intention in blocking the holes was to prevent water ingres.

Also prevents egress. Frame needs to 'breathe', just open the holes back up.

That fluro!

Reminds me of MBK bikes circa 1989!

stuff

Jeez. Get on a plane to LA, go to any beach south of LAX and see how it's done every damn day. Short-board riders mostly walk to the beach (what with them having such small light boards), the cyclists are usually rocking longboards. Those riders do about 8mph max, friends of mine have those bike adapters they just fucking work. Don't overthink it - Surfers sure as hell don't.

So we're past the chainring thing, yeah?
I like it a lot. Would reduce the total number of ENVE logos to 1 though, placed on NDS of fork.

$25,000 Raleigh
Not a typo. Twenty-five grand.

I'll be honest, I think Clement Freud did a better job on the delivery.

Clement Freud - The £20 Joke - YouTube

"This is how we wished it looked."

Prospect Park in Brooklyn, yesterday.

Most important question : Will this be ridden at Red Hook this weekend?

This Is a Generic Brand Video on Vimeo

https://24.media.tumblr.com/300bda7c15aca914368b7a7f3824ec8c/tumblr_mpbhn8uHJX1rk6u99o1_1280.png

GP4000S2 comes in a clear-wall version, although it's much darker than Open Corsa SC or other cotton tyres.

Only offered in 23c though, shame.
Are Grand Prix Classics worth a look for those of us fixated on 25c?

Excellent, one less RR Sport.

Flash NYC pub bike

Flash NYC grocery-getter

split your pour. You should always bloom your coffee.

Alchemy also say that with the AeroPress there's "no need to bloom here."
Confused, but will try splitting the pour anyway. All good fun.

Sweet bike.
Stan's NoTubes need a new graphic designer who preferably isn't addicted to shit RPGs.

There is a guy round here who keeps having to get his Porsche Cayenne monstrosity wrapped as every one of his neighbours is taking turns to draw on it with chalk.

ftfy. Sounds like a twat.