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About Us · Est. 2004

Twenty years in one park

Most people see Central Park once. Cengiz Taskin has opened its gates almost every morning for two decades — and put more than 40,000 visitors a year onto its loops, lawns and bridle paths.

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Cengiz Taskin

Founder ·Cyclepark.nyc

Featured Experiences

He didn't set out to build a company. He set out to fix a bad first ride.

In 2004, renting a bike near Central Park meant one of two things: a folding table on 59th Street run by someone who’d be gone by October, or a rusted three-speed handed over with no helmet, no map and no idea which gate to use. Visitors paid twice what they should have, rode the loop the wrong way, and left thinking the park was exhausting rather than extraordinary. Cengiz had arrived in New York [FROM WHERE — country/city], arriving in [WHEN — year he arrived], and was working as [WHAT HE DID BEFORE — e.g. driving a cab, running a deli, in hospitality]. The park was the part of the city that made sense to him. He rode it before work. He learned which entrance was quiet at 8am, where the light hit Bow Bridge in October, which path a family with a five-year-old could actually manage. So he bought [HOW MANY] bikes, found a storefront, and started doing the obvious thing nobody else was doing: giving people a map, a working helmet, an honest price, and thirty seconds of advice about where to go.
So he bought [HOW MANY] bikes, found a storefront, and started doing the obvious thing nobody else was doing: giving people a map, a working helmet, an honest price, and thirty seconds of advice about where to go.
[CENGIZ’S OWN WORDS — Ask him: “What do you say when someone asks why you’re still doing this after 20 years?” Use his actual phrasing, even if the English is imperfect. It will read better than anything written for him.]

Twenty years later the fleet is Trek, the shop is at 240 West 56th Street — two minutes from the Columbus Circle gate — and the operation covers far more than bicycles. What hasn’t changed is the thing that started it: someone who actually knows this park, telling you the truth about how to spend a day in it.

The long version

How a rack of bikes became a park operation

Four moments that changed what we do[VERIFY EVERY YEAR AND MILESTONE BELOW WITH CENGIZ — these are structured]
placeholders, not confirmed history.]

2004

The start

A storefront, a stack of maps, and a rule

The first season ran on [N] bikes and one rule that still holds: nobody leaves without knowing where they’re going. Every rental came with a helmet, a lock and a route drawn on a paper map — standard now, unusual then.[ADD: the first location, if different from 240 W 56th, and roughly how many riders that first season.]

[YEAR]

Going legitimate

Licensed, insured, and off the sidewalk

While most of the competition stayed on folding tables, we moved indoors, took out full commercial insurance, and got properly licensed to operate inside the park. It cost more and it meant we could never be the cheapest sign on 59th Street. It also meant we were still here five winters later, when most of those tables weren’t.[CONFIRM: which licences/permits he actually holds — NYC DCWP sidewalk/vending, commercial GL insurance, park concession?]

[YEAR]

Beyond bikes

Guides, e-bikes, and the first tours

People kept asking the same question at the counter — where should we actually go? — so we started answering it properly, with guides. The first guided loop covered every landmark in a single ride. Then came pedal-assist e-bikes for riders who wanted the north end without the hills, then scooters, then a Spanish-language tour, then walking tours for people who’d rather not ride at all.

Today

Where it stands

One operator, twenty-eight ways to spend a day here

Bikes, e-bikes, scooters, tandems, carriage rides, pedicabs, rowboats, picnics, proposals, weddings, ice skating in winter and yoga on the lawn in summer. Not a listings site collecting a fee — an operation with staff, insurance, a shop you can walk into, and a phone number a real person answers.[CONFIRM which of these Cengiz operates directly vs. runs with partner operators — the copy should be honest about the difference.]

20+

Years operating in Central Park

40,000+

Riders and guests every year

3,400+

Five-star Google reviews

28

Experiences run year-round

The long version

We don't list other people's tours. We run them.

Every experience below is operated by our own staff or by an operator we’ve worked with for years and can vouch for by name.

01

Bikes, e-bikes & scooters

Lightweight Trek bicycles for adults and kids, pedal-assist e-bikes, electric scooters and tandems. Tuned daily. Helmet, lock, basket and route map included with every rental — no upsell at the counter.

02

Guided tours

Bike, e-bike, scooter and walking tours led by guides who live here. Private tours and Spanish-language departures available. Every landmark in one loop, plus the parts most visitors walk straight past.

03

Horse & carriage

Licensed, insured carriage drivers working legally inside the park. Fixed pricing agreed before you step in — not negotiated on the pavement at 59th Street.

04

Weddings & proposals

Ceremonies, elopements, engagement shoots and proposals at Bow Bridge, Bethesda Terrace, Cop Cot and the Ladies’ Pavilion. Permits, photographer and timing handled.[CONFIRM: do you handle the NYC Parks permit for clients?]

05

Picnics & groups

Set-up picnics on the Great Lawn and Sheep Meadow, plus group reservations for schools, corporate days and families.[CONFIRM max group size.]

06

Seasonal

Rowboats on the Lake from spring, ice skating from November, outdoor yoga through summer, and foliage routes timed to the week the colour actually turns.

How we work

Four things we've refused to change

The price you see is the price

Booking online costs less than walking in, and we publish both numbers side by side. No resort fee, no helmet surcharge, no “the cheap ones are all out” conversation at the counter.

Licensed people only

Every guide, driver and rental desk we put you with is vetted, insured and licensed to work inside the park. It’s the reason we’ve never had [INSERT A CONCRETE SAFETY OR CLAIMS STAT IF ONE EXISTS]

Real availability, not a waiting list

Every slot on this site comes off a live calendar. If it’s bookable, it exists — you’ll get instant confirmation, not a message the next morning saying that time has gone.

Cancel up to 24 hours before

Full refund, no argument, no form. New York weather changes its mind constantly. There’s no reason your booking shouldn’t be able to.

Come see us

240 West 56th Street

Between 8th Avenue and Broadway, next door to the McDonald’s. Not a kiosk, not a table — a shop, with staff, that you can walk into and ask a question.

2 min

Central Park at Columbus Circle (8th & 59th)

5 min

Hudson River Park & the Manhattan Greenway

Daily

8:30am – 7:30pm, seven days a week

Call

+1 (929) 483-7420

Come see us

Two minutes from the gate is the whole business model.

There are cheaper rentals in Manhattan. They’re also twenty minutes and two avenues away, which means forty minutes of your rental spent getting to the park and back. We’re close enough that you’re on the loop before most shops have finished the paperwork.

It also means we’re accountable in a way an online listing never is. If something’s wrong with your bike, you’re a two-minute walk from the person who can fix it.

Group bookings, schools and corporate days: call ahead and ask for [NAME — who handles group bookings?] We’ll hold the fleet.
Tours