Bicycle Culture...

The question as to what constitutes bike culture has popped up in a couple different places recently. Being at least a marginal anthropologist (BA '87) the question has captured my interest. I was taught, those many long years ago, that culture refers to the collection of learned and shared beliefs and experiences held in common by a group of people. Strictly speaking, one might think it would be difficult to describe bike culture using this definition. However, there are many, perhaps even most core, experiences that we as cyclists share no matter what type of riding we do; we ride for many of the same reasons, and our expectations are much the same.


The freedom, it keeps me feeling young, I feel energized when I get to the office, it's good for the earth, it is a good way to meet people in your community, the comaraderie, the challenge and adventure, are all typical of reasons for riding. Likewise, our expectations are also mostly shared - to be able to ride safely, to receive the same respect as any other road user, that we will experience the benefits of a healthy, physical lifestyle, etc. These shared experiences, concerns, and expectations define what it is to be a bicyclist and in turn, when taken as a collection, help to define bicycle culture.


Then there is a second aspect of the word culture, which relates to the arts and intelectual  achievements of a society. As a result, when Paul Newman and Katherine Ross ride across the screen to the accompaniment of "Raindrops Keep Falling", or when Moe, Larry and Curly enter a scene astride a bicycle built for three, these are examples of bike culture as well. Or, we can view a painting of a piazza in a small Italian town where, leaning against a wall to the side, the artist has painted a bicycle; another example of bike culture. We can relate to these images with a certain degree of mutual familiarity, itself enabled by common experience.


Images such as those mentioned above and others such as the song "My White Bicycle", or a ghost bike sitting forlornly at a street corner are a part of bike culture less for themselves as physical objects, than for what they represent - their greater meaning to the group of people listening, or viewing them, and the resulting shared experiences that such visual or auditory manifestations represent. 


So, how do these two different definitions tie together? Through shared experiences. An image on a piece of canvas would be simply that if not for the added meaning imbued in them by our shared experiences as bicyclists. Alright, enough for now, but I like the topic and will no doubt return.