Bicycle–that thing you rode as a kid and left in your parent’s garage, or wheeled into the pawn shop on the very day after you passed the driving test, never to be seen again. The machine you said was in the past along with the skate board and Razor scooter.
Until…
Until you reach a certain age or large digit on the scales, which for most people, happens at around the same time; somewhere around the middle whereby both the belly and time seem to expand in a continuum, the appeal of peddling to get somewhere takes on a new interest. Middle age is the abrupt realisation that the future is being squeezed little by little into an icky end. Knowing your bicycle, that simple yet efficient machine parked in the hallway of your apartment, or suspended from the wall of your garage, can take you on a daily commute across to the other side of town using just leg muscles and a good breakfast for propulsion, instils a feeling of power and self-righteousness.
Bicycles are much more than just a cheap means of transportation. They are products of vigorous imaginations—enter the world of bespoke cycling. The custom bike is as much a work of art as it is a contraption to pedal down the street, and like art of the modern kind is just as weird. The low riders with extended front forks and faux petrol tanks look uncannily like their chopper counterparts, except for one glaring omission—a large gap of air is where a smelly engine would normally be.
The owners–and they are always proud owners–of custom bikes dress the part with leather vests festooned with patches and obligatory tatts across each deltoid. While the low-rider owner looks out of place beside lycra clad, latte slurping road bike riders blocking the entrance to cafes with their Bianchis and Tour de France team colours, while flaunting man-bulges and misshaped bottoms made larger by ungainly padding, the low-rider owner seeks other riders of the same ilk. Mostly in pubs to enjoy a quiet ale while covetously eyeing the work and detail of their fellow owner’s machines.
The humble bicycle is not just a simple machine of ingenious design, but a means of acceptance to others of the tribe.
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