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By Root 235 0

the world got acquainted with the automobile, but it hardly died. This is precisely because, as the writer also pointed out, it is “a wonder of convenience” and “healthy outdoor exercise.” And the fact that it involves “hard work” and “the limitation of the rider” proved to be advantages and not disadvantages, because hard work makes you stronger and learning your limitations allows you to overcome them. And best of all, it certainly is much harder to indulge “the love of display, the superiority purchasable by money” with a bicycle than it is with a car. That’s a good thing. Anything based on “the love of display” is fleeting. And can anyone honestly say that roads full of expensive automobiles with over-powered stereos and over-polished rims make the world a more beautiful place?

The very things that supposedly ended the first cycling boom are actually the reasons cycling’s not only still with us, but is currently more popular than it has been in a long, long time. I may not have seen any cyclists on the Rockaway Run, but that’s only because they were “running” elsewhere on different roads. Just like the riders in 1895 sought macadam, cyclists today still seek the best and most pleasant roads. They’re just farther out in the country. Everything about riding a bicycle compels you towards beauty. Moreover, while the automobile might have urbanized and suburbanized bucolic Long Island, in downtown Manhattan more and more people are riding. In New York and elsewhere in the country, cyclists are at home both on the periphery of the city and in the heart. The activity is simultaneously urban and pastoral, and both aspects of it are increasingly coming together today.

It’s tempting to look at Rockaway’s change from an upscale resort to an urban enclave and Merrick Road’s transition from a cycling paradise to an automotive thoroughfare as a “decline.” But it’s just change, and change is good. The rarified world of luxury and leisure inevitably yields to practicality and accessibility. And that’s where cycling is now. What started out as an indoor amusement for society folk has become increasingly democratized and more and more accessible. Merrick Road is not a great place to ride anymore, but the spirit of the Merrick Road is everywhere, and if you ride a bike you’re guaranteed to find it, both on the roads and in yourself.

WHAT IS A CYCLIST, AND WHY WOULD ANYBODY WANT TO BE ONE?

My father is the Hollywood equivalent of a clean, fillet-brazed frame. My brother is like one of those fat-tubed aluminum Cannondales. I’m more like one of those Taiwanese Masis.

—Emilio Estevez

Defining the Cyclist

Today, regardless of where you live, bicycles are everywhere. In fact, they’re so common you probably don’t even notice them most of the time. They’re chained to poles on city sidewalks, hanging from walls in suburban garages, strapped to the backs of RVs plying the interstate, and even for sale at discount prices alongside the thirty-pound bags of Cheetos at Wal-Mart. And sometimes you even see people riding them. The bicycle ranks right up there with the automobile, the sneaker, and the guitar as a ubiquitous cultural symbol. It’s one of those things that’s part of all of our lives at one time or another. Who doesn’t remember their first ride without training wheels? Your bicycle is the first vehicle you operate completely on your own, and it occasions the first time in your life you lay out your own route and choose your own destination. There’s hardly anybody who hasn’t owned or at least ridden a bicycle at some point in his or her life. I mean, sure, you do come across people occasionally who never learned how to ride a bike, but it’s rare and a little unsettling. It’s like meeting Someone who can’t operate a washing machine, or a thirty-two-year-old guy who never learned how to pee standing up. You smile politely, you pity them silently, and then you move on down to the other end of the bar.

Despite the ubiquity of the bicycle, though, it’s difficult to define a cyclist. Obviously you have to ride a bike to be a cyclist,