Columbus Rides Bikes!

PHOTO BY DAVID BUTOW Jorge Diaz turned his BMX bike (shown without cart) into a convenience store. This article first appeared in the July 2006 issue of Bicycling magazine. Francisco Orellano wakes  before sunrise. His mornings, sometimes for weeks on end, are nearly always the same. He carries his bike from his apartment to the street. Then he pedals into the dawn. He passes among other riders, who sit upright and silent, moving almost nothing but their legs, which revolve not in spinning cadences but in slow-motion circles. The riders roll forward, determined, toward some unseen destination. Francisco looks elegant on his bike. His grey hair and moustache are neat; his striped, button-down shirt is pressed. He is proud of his appearance. He travels the wide boulevards that lead to the shipping terminals at  Long Beach, California . He passes unopened supermarkets, unilluminated car lots. Occasionally he pedals through the glow from an all-night filling station. Sometimes

Evidently the Internet is not ready for this jelly.  This Instagram post by Beyoncé, appearing in all her Foxxy Cleopatra glory astride a bicycle, made some tremors in the cycling community after  Momentum Mag  reposted the image with the simple comment “Guess who’s riding a city bike?” After a maelstrom of backlash, the magazine  defended its post  with the following statement. “Our main goal at Momentum is to get more people riding bikes, and a large part of that work is making bicycling seem practical, stylish, fun, and yes, sexy… There is nothing inherently objectifying about sexuality. Sexism tends to come into play when women are automatically perceived as victims or morally dubious just because they did something explicitly sexual. Beyoncé is a feminist, and as part of that has chosen to embrace her own sexuality. What she chooses to do with her body, her brand, her clothes or lack thereof are all her choices, and it isn’t up to us to decide how she should feel about th

Before you change everything all over again, consider this... By:  Vernon Felton I’m a hater. At the risk of sounding egotistical, I am quite good at hating. I see something new–something I haven’t tried, something that strikes me as useless or, simply, something I can’t possibly afford–and I hate it with a passion. True, I don’t go online and chat about it on forums with other haters, but it’s probably only because I have alternative opportunities, like this one, to showcase my loathing for that which is new. By now, you might be asking yourself what exactly it is that I hate. Bleepy-bloopy music completely lacking in electric guitars, a beginning and an end? Hate that shit. Skinny pants, neck beards, people typing or (worse yet)  saying  “lol”? My vision narrows and goes a shade of red every time I encounter these things.  [Keep reading at Bike Mag]