Phillip Barron
The Herald Sun
September 1st, 2005
CARRBORO — Apart from the iPod powered boombox blasting acid jazz from the back of Matthew Lee’s bike, last Tuesday night’s cruiser ride around Carrboro and Chapel Hill was a display of retro-technology over high-technology. It was not your typical group bike ride.
Lee, of Carrboro, who organized the ride says, “cruiser rides are something that have been going on [for a while now ] in cities around the country that have a strong bike culture.” He had a hunch that the time may be right for the Triangle.
I’d say that the turnout for the “funky formal” themed ride confirms his hunch.
(photo by Jack Edinger)
Fifty people strong, the riders’ outfits were as eclectic as their aging bikes. There were more fenders, chain guards, and kick stands than I’ve seen at other group rides. And I’ve never before seen cyclists wearing feather boas, sport coats, and prom dresses. There was even a gaucho on a unicycle.
Any other time cyclists get together, we ogle the well-machined parts or the lightweight feel of each others’ bikes. Desirable bikes on a cruiser ride are heavy and have a lot of rust or chrome.
When it comes to how much money folks are willing to spend on cruisers, it’s an amusing race to the bottom. Emily Buehler of Carrboro says she “found [her bike] in a dumpster, and the guys at the Clean Machine fixed it up for $20.” She’s got a basket full of flowers hanging from the handlebars, and the bike has an old internally geared three speed hub… but only one gear works right now.
Seth Elliott’s riding his wife’s bike. “I put these tall handlebars on it so that she’d be more comfortable,” he says. “I thought I’d do something just a little different. For tonight, I put one of my daughter’s stroller wheels on the front.” The stroller wheel is so small the brake pads don’t even make contact with the rim.
I made a note to myself to stay out of his way.
“This is a dress I wore in high school, I haven’t had an opportunity to wear it since, but tonight seemed like the appropriate night,” Melissa Kenney of Durham says with a sarcastic smile. “There are so few occasions that you get to do a formal dress bike ride, I had to bring out the very best for it.”
While Kenney stopped to get her dress un-stuck from her brakes, I talked with Natalie Nagalingen, also of Durham. “It’s a friend’s,” Nagalingen says about the feather boa she’s wearing. “We swapped because my feather boa actually coordinates with her outfit.”
Charlie Hileman, a member of the Transportation Advisory Board of Carrboro, joined the ride towing in a trailer his daughter Stella. The flames painted on the frame of his bike made it look like we were moving faster than the 5 mph pace we were keeping.
I asked Carl Salk, a Duke student, why he’s wearing a hot suit on an August night. It “looks better than his swim shorts,” shouted Arielle Cooley. Cooley and Michelle Hersh, fellow Duke students, fashionably sported more feather boas loaned to them by a friend.
Hersh said she didn’t think she’d “leave a trail of feathers down Franklin Street” when she got up Tuesday morning.
Lee and others want to “try to make [a cruiser ride] a monthly occurrence.” Although the date is not yet set, next month’s theme is “Space Wrangler.”
“Funky formal” I understood. I can’t help you interpret this new one.
The success of the cruiser ride just goes to show that not all cycling has to be about fitness. What was the point of this ride, you might ask. The flier encouraged folks to leave politics, spandex, and any competitiveness behind. “The idea is to pedal in good fun,” it reads.
Rob Noti, a mechanic at the Clean Machine, says the ride’s purpose is to be “laid back; to have a fun group ride.” The only thing he had to say about his bike is that “it was free.”
–See more images from the inaugural Cruiser Tuesday over here.–