As my friends and readers know, I love my bike. My ride is a Brooklyn Cruiser, which not only gets me around town, but it also turns heads. When someone attractive looks my way, my excitement quickly subsides when I realize they’re admiring the bike.
But the bike is more than just a slick way to get around town. It’s also an amazing money and time saver. I only take a taxi under unusual circumstances, and I can’t remember the last time I bought a MetroCard. And I will confess to acute schadenfreude when I breeze through traffic jams as drivers get more and more frustrated in the congestion. And let’s not discount the calories burned when getting from A to B. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the sexiest way to get around town.
For years, I rode hunched over my bikes, attacking the road with clenched teeth as if I were engaged in a competitive high-speed contact sport. While I sported earbuds mainlining a fantasy chase soundtrack thumping into my ears, a modified scuba suit with ass pads hugging my aerodynamic form and a helmet that looked like it housed an alien brain, the roads were something to be conquered with fervent velocity and aggression. Pedestrians were targets and cars were slalom course obstacles. Patrick Bateman on a bicycle, essentially.
After I got the cruiser, which is a modern ride inspired by vintage Dutch commuter bikes, I became enlightened to a different kind of bicycling in the city. I sat upright and relaxed my shoulders. I slowed down. I stopped wearing the headphones and started to enjoy taking in the city around me. I got it: this was city cycling.
It was precisely this city cycling that stopped me at Hudson Urban Bicycles (HUB) in Greenwich Village several weeks ago. When you’re riding upright on a Dutch city bike with raised handlebars, you can notice things around you. Cruising west along Charles Street, my eye was caught on the NE corner of Charles and Washington by what can only be described as “bike porn”, I better just clarify that bike porn is nothing like the porn you find on hd porn video xxx, it’s just great photos of great bikes. Two full garage doors and a tiny adjacent parking lot full of commuter bikes, most new, but many of which were lovingly restored vintage bikes from Schwinn and Raleigh.
On the sidewalk lined with bikes in front of the shop stood George Bliss, the owner. He was talking with a customer as he watched me slowly ride by. More accurately… he watched my bike with its signature double-top frame and Brooklyn Cruiser-branded box on the back. I had to stop and take in the exquisite selection at this orgy of city bikes. George and I struck up a conversation about my cruiser and the culture of bike riding in NYC. It was the first time I had met someone who perfectly articulated my newfound thoughts about city cycling, going even further with wiser and more experienced thoughts and ideas on the subject.
Henry David Thoreau famously said “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.” I don’t have a separate set of clothes for bike riding. I ride in suits, chinos, t-shirts, dress shirts, jeans, wingtips or Chuck Taylors. I love wearing a jacket because it has pockets for my phone, a pen and other stuff. In other words… when I ride my bike, I dress like I would anywhere else. Though I often ride for mere pleasure or exercise, my bike also happens to be my main mode of transportation, weather-permitting (above 45ºF and no precipitation). I ride it to business meetings when I’m in a suit and tie. I ride it for exercise in a t-shirt, old chinos and sneakers. (I don’t do shorts in the city. But that’s another story.)
I don’t remember what I was wearing the day I met George in front of HUB, but I must have looked okay since he asked me if I’d be interested in modeling for the bike fashion show at the 2012 New Amsterdam Bicycle Show. It caught me off-guard, but I was flattered and delighted that he asked.
Having never been to the New Amsterdam Bike Show (or any bike show, for that matter), I had no idea what to expect. Under the influence of my Brooklyn Cruiser, its creator Ryan, and George from HUB, I’ve grown to appreciate the benefits and details of the stylish form and the cost/time/calorie cutting function inherent in riding a city bike. The frames, wheels, fenders, saddles, grips and other bike accoutrement at the bike show made for a whole new level of bike porn. I’m thrilled I went and honored to have been asked to participate in the small way I did.
If you’re looking for a life-changing, cost-cutting, time-saving, fat-burning way to get around town in great style, I would encourage you to check out a city bike. Racing and other speedier and more athletic modes of cycling have their place, but I’m not convinced that that place is on city pavement shared by unsuspecting pedestrians and two-ton four-wheel killing machines driven by entitled personalities that are also texting. I would urge you to check out the New Amsterdam Bicycle Show next year. And in the mean time, check out Brooklyn Cruiser (http://www.brooklyncruiser.com/) and the fine offerings for sale and for rent down at Hudson Urban Bicycles (http://hudsonurbanbicycles.com/).
Some of my favorite things at the 2012 New Amsterdam Bicycle Show:
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