Company & Staff Blogs

What is a cyclist?

   Posted June 26, 2012 - Permalink
   to: General Bike

This blog came about for several reasons. The first is a song The Lounge by Asher Roth that keeps popping up on my commute to and from work. The second was a conversation at work that did not start off being about cycling, in fact didn’t ever really turn to cycling...but being a cyclist was talked about. And finally all of our wonderful customers that we get to interact with on a daily basis and all of the people out on their bikes. And it was sort of a perfect storm of all three of these aspects that made me sit down to write this.

So in the song Asher is basically asking what makes a rapper, as he does not fit into the typical mold for a rapper....and that just got me thinking about all of the amazing people that I see on bikes every day - let it be noted that this all happened during Pedalpalooza month here in Portland. A short side note Pedalpalooza is described the following way - “Pedalpalooza is 3+ weeks of bikey fun. With 298 different events, most organized by individuals, bikers of all persuasions are likely to find many events of interest. Nearly all events are free.” Then the conversation at work...again not talking at all about cycling, but it was brought up....and on that same day we had a customer that said to me - “I am not a cyclist” - even though they had road into the shop. So it all just got me thinking about “What makes a person a cyclist?”

And I really think that Portland answers that question every single day. Daily you will see riders in full team kits on race bikes next to the person on the used bike in jeans and a hoody and right behind them is the rider on the dirt jumper and then the rider on the mixte who just got finished getting groceries after work. And it just goes on and on.

So when I think about what makes a person a cyclist....the only real answer that I can come up with is that they ride a bike. And I truly think that is all that is really needed....just to get out and ride and have a good time while doing it. Do you agree or do you think that there is something more needed? What do you think makes a cyclist?