I’ve been listening to the bikescape podcast for a couple of years, and I finally managed to listen to last months podcast on Portland, OR. It really made me want to visit. Then, I watched the video on the bikescape website and it made me want to move there!
I’ve known Portland is a great place to live and work for some time and I’ve driven around the city going up and down the West coast, but I never stopped to visit. In the podcast, Jon (the amazing guy who has recorded over 60 of these hour long podcasts about cycling in San Francisco, New York, England, LA, etc.) narrates as he, his wife, and two kids cycle the neighborhoods of Portland and talk with local cyclists. I never realized how “Berkeleyesque” Portland was until I heard the local people talking about living there.
Bikescape is a great podcast. I’ve subscribed to a few “newsy” podcasts in the past, but got bored with them. Something about the “urban folksy” manner of Jon and the cool, laid back people he talks to really communicates a sense of “bike culture.” I listened to his podcast on fixed gear bikes a couple years ago and since then, I’ve become a fixie enthusiast myself. It is hard to explain to people why you would enjoy riding a bike with no shifting and no freewheel (no coasting; if the bike is moving, the pedals are moving your feet.) but when I listened to people talk about it, I found it infectious.
As I searched through his archives for a link to that Fetish for Fixies podcast, I realized the extraordinary memorability of so many of his conversations. I’m not really much of a part of the cycling community here, but listening to these people over the past couple years has helped me feel a bit connected to something larger.
The city of Boston is having a Bike Summit next week. If I can manage to take a few long lunches from work, I have to check it out and see what I can report back here.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Sounds like you are as much of an enthusiast as me.
I agree that until you have tried riding a fixie it’s hard to explain the fun, and how addictive it is.
Took my knees a while to get used to it though!