With parades and parties, the UN is gearing up to mark its annual World Bicycle Day tomorrow - to promote the health and environmental benefits of getting on your bike.
But don't try cycling into the UN's headquarters in New York. Bikes are banned from the premises.
For a long time, this disconnect between word and deed has irked some UN personnel across the ranks, from ambassadors to mail handlers, for whom cycling is their chosen form of transport.
The issue came to a head earlier this year when a group of ambassadors got together to demand bike access.
And they got it, but only for themselves and their deputies.
Everyone else must park their bike outside the compound, some distance from the main gate.
On the inside, at the small but shiny new ambassadorial bike rack just outside the General Assembly building, I met the Romanian envoy to the UN, who spearheaded the campaign on social media.
"It’s about the statement we are making," Ambassador Cornel Feruță said.
"As ambassadors we can always access the compound through the main gate in our official cars, and I find it unfair, to say the minimum, to not be able to access the same gate by other means, environmentally-friendly means, like the bicycle," he said.
We discussed the certain irony of ambassadors, often associated with chauffeur-driven luxury, now fighting to use their own pedal power.
Meanwhile, several SUVs emerged from the multi-storey carpark underneath the UN compound, most likely to whisk diplomats off for lunch after the morning session.
In contrast, Ambassador Feruță folded his suit jacket and put it into his pannier bag, then attached his trouser clip.
"We should not act like we are hiding from using bicycles," he said, noting that the body's General Assembly has adopted many resolutions on mobility and bike use.
"This is not a stigma. It is the opposite – it is something very noble."
The UN headquarters bike ban is in place for security reasons, according to official statements. The scanning equipment designed for cars cannot be used for bicycles.
It's also a question of space.
A memo issued by the UN's security and safety department notes that the space outside the Secretariat and General Assembly buildings is "limited and required to be secured and cleared for movement and staging of motorcades, delegations and security personnel".
"From a safety perspective, it is not advised to have bicycles and motor vehicles mixing together," the memo states.
In the battle for tarmac at UN Headquarters, the car beats the bike.
Udo Fenchel, a member of the UN's advisory committee on administrative and budgetary questions, said that most UN bases provide easily accessible bike parking on site. Many also provide air pumps and tools to repair your bike.
"Only UN HQ seems so unresponsive," he said. "It remains unclear to me why."
But, this week, there were signs that cycling campaigners were gaining traction.
The UN announced a proposal for new bicycle parking closer to the gate to be included in next year's budget "in our effort to make the UN compound more bicycle-friendly".
In the future, bikes will be brought closer, but not quite inside.
The existing bike park is located beyond the northern perimeter fence, nearly half a kilometre from the car and pedestrian entrance. The gate opens by swiping a UN badge.
For research purposes, I got on my bike.
First, using the pedestrian crossing lights, I traversed five lanes of cars. Then, because there is no bike lane on the UN compound side of the road, I found myself in a hair-raising merge into heavy traffic filtering at speed onto New York's notorious busy FDR Highway access ramp.
Swinging into safety past some strategically placed traffic cones, I pulled my bike onto the pavement and swiped through the gate.
But, despite the challenge in getting there, the UN bike rack appeared to be well used, with several people arriving for work on bicycles and e-bikes.
"This parking is very convenient and comfortable," Soledad Sandler, of the Mission of Argentina to the UN, told RTÉ News.
But it would be better to be able to take bikes into the compound, she said. "Because, if cars can, why can't bikes?"
Andrew Brown, from the UN postal service department, said the car-parking garage underneath the UN had more than enough room for bicycles.
"They have a spot for motorcycles. They should have a spot for bikes," he added.
And how does he feel about ambassadors having recently been granted the right to take their bikes in?
"Oh, wow! I didn't know that," Mr Brown said. "That's kind of unfair."
Others can't see what the fuss is about.
"I think it's okay. We have enough parking here and it is covered," said another UN staffer who was locking up his bike.
"We can leave our bikes overnight if we need to. I mean, what else do we want? Valet parking?"
