Bike Snob - Anonymous [39]
Actually, things have already changed for the better. Sure, here in New York City you can no longer afford to live in gentrified neighborhoods which were cheap only ten years ago, but then again you can also ride your bike to, from, and in them much more easily. The Williamsburg Bridge bike path used to be like crossing a Himalayan rope bridge; now it’s been renovated and it’s a relative pleasure to ride. In fact, the entire city is vastly more bike-friendly than it ever was. This is because more and more people are discovering cycling, and they’re discovering that it’s probably the best way to get around a city.
While constantly strip-mining the popular culture in search of identities to appropriate and products to buy can be bad for the cultural environment, it can also yield a genuinely important discovery. And when the gentrifying hipsters discovered cycling, they hit pay dirt. Because unlike some of the other crap they’ve dredged up, cycling is actually practical. And if the cycling bug needs to be fashion-borne in order to infect the general populace, then I suppose that’s a relatively small price to pay.
LOOK AT ME, I’M ORIGINAL, TOO!
The myth of a “bike culture”
To prepare for a race there is nothing better than a good pheasant, some champagne, and a woman.
—Jacques Anquetil
If you read about cycling, you’ll often see the phrase “bike culture” mentioned. I have to admit, I’ve always been intrigued by the notion of a bike culture. Cycling is a major part of my life. In many ways, it is my life. So the idea that there’s an entire culture out there that I could be a part of always appealed to me. On some level, we all want to have a place where we’re comfortable and can be ourselves. We all want a metaphorical Cheers of the soul, where everybody knows our name.
After all, every alternative culture has a home, and a place where it came into its own. If bike culture has a home, that means that there’s not only a metaphorical Cheers of the soul, but also a more literal Cheers in some bike-friendly city where, no matter what city I’m from, I’ll feel welcomed by my wheeled siblings. Most importantly, I’ll also have that profoundly meaningful feeling that I’m part of something important and larger than myself.
Unfortunately, while I’ve searched intrepidly for bike culture, I haven’t really found it. What I have found are small groups of bike enthusiasts who call themselves the bike culture. And since there is no official governing body of cycling to regulate use of the term, they get away with it in the same way the “famous” pizzeria on the corner doesn’t have to prove it’s actually famous to use the word in its name. This can be misleading. It sucks to think you’re about to eat a slice of delicious “famous” pizza, only to discover it’s just a piece of wet, rubbery stale bread. Likewise, it’s discouraging to want to join the bike culture only to discover it’s a bunch of people with custom messenger bags sitting around in a bar watching videos of their buddy doing tricks. That’s not bike culture; that’s just stale bread. And if I feel this way as an experienced cyclist, it must be extremely frustrating for new cyclists, for whom the world of bikes must seem like a vast inscrutable world of cool.
The truth is, real cultures rarely call themselves cultures, just like famous things rarely call themselves famous. Being famous completely obviates the need to call yourself famous. Tom Cruise