Cruiser Culture

Reports from Interbike 2009 were doused with fixie-this, fixie that, fixie culture, fixie bar spins, fixie color match combo charts and on and on. Ugh! Well another cycling "scene" dominates the city streets here in Denver......cruisers. While fixie hipster kids (fix-sters) are more than plentiful here as well......it is the kids on the cruisers that have the most fun.....as I found out last Wednesday night.



During the summer months, cruisers rule the streets of Denver on Wednesday nights. Denver Cruisers is a "brotherhood" of cruising culture. Think 50s era fun.......but instead of cars think bikes.....instead of driving.....think pedaling......instead of a malt at Arnold's drive in......think beer and numerous stops at local watering holes.


A stop for refreshments at LoDo Tavern and line of bikes a mile long.

With a different theme every week, hundreds and hundreds of cruisers take the streets and have a jolly good old time. Breezing through the Denver Cruiser's manifesto....one quickly realizes that this is no way near a critical mass ride. This is about having fun and riding bikes. No political agenda....just fun. No clogging up intersection and pissing off motorists. The night culminates with the "circle of death" at the final meeting point were hundreds of bikers ride clockwise and counterclockwise around a concrete circle at Civic Center Park in Denver. Everyone is laughing, smiling, high fiving and just taking it all in. Of course there is carnage. Wrecks abound......wobbly riders....head on collisions....rear end collisions....toppling tall bikes.....sidecar sideswipes. Truely a blast and a better ending to the night than a 1950s chicken race in suped up Ford Model As.


The circle of death and a lost soul looking out.

'You try to hang with me 'n' I'll have you pedalin' squares'

So if the Floyd was a little too old skool for you, bring it into the 'oughts' with this beauty from MC SpandeX:

I think that BikeSnobNYC might even approve of this. Naw, probably not. Still, the good MC manages to parody both racer-boyz and hipsters, which takes some rhetorical flexibility. I like it.

[Edit: Doh! As I'm not a regular reader of BikeSnob I wasn't aware of the fact that he'd actually posted about this video yesterday. So now rather than wondering whether or not he approves of 'Performance,' you can go to his post and read all about it. Sorry dudes!]

Dirt times two

Fueled by a little NaS and talk of other old school hip-hop, Chris and I headed out of town to find a trail neither of us had ridden for some time. As we were unloading our bikes we ran across someone we'd ridden with a couple of years ago: Chris (aka sennaster) was rocking out a big-wheeled Redline, and we eventually figured out that we knew each other from a ride at New Light. He was joined by his friend Josh, who scoffed at all of us on our overly trendy 29ers. (Not really, or at least not audibly.)

The four of us shoved off together at a nice easy pace meant to match the holiday weekend, as well as the good Professor's tired legs. (Uh, and mine too, but I blame it all on Chris.) Quickly confused on the winding trail, Oishi and I got separated from Chris and Josh, but not before we passed we got a pic of his blue bike in action.


Thoroughly turned around by this time, Chris and I continued plod along through the woods, all the while discussing an elaborate taxonomic system that could accurately categorize the various sub-populations of 20- and 30-somethings. Engendered by the question "what is a hipster?" and quickly digressing into attempts to quantify ironic distance as measured by the polo's popped collar, it's amazing that neither of us wrecked while pondering the difference between the hipster and the scenester. Clearly, the world will be a better place once we can resolve some of these weighty issues.

In honor of the philosophical nature of our ride, I present a photo with the effects all screwed with for no good reason other than I like playing around on iPhoto:


Needless to say this was more of a social ride than a training ride (something the meaning of which I've forgotten), but it was just enough to wash away any aftertaste of used car shopping. (If only I could find a '62 Ford Ranchero that got good gas mileage and had anti-lock brakes and airbags that whole search would be over, by the way. Anyone? Edit: Or this!)

We all wait with bated breath for the tales of woe and wonder that will accompany JD, Dave, and Brian back from the VA.