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bike culture and Brooklyn Industries — Brooklynian

bike culture and Brooklyn Industries

pitu
pitu
edited November -1 in Prospect Heights
Brooklyn Industries at Union and Fifth Ave has a franken-bike display in the big plate glass corner windows. Someone did a fine bit of graffitti over it
"bike culture is not for sale"

I like Bklyn Industries, but I really dig the defacement too . . .

anybody know if the bike theme is in all their windows, and have the radical biking forces struck the rest of the stores?

Comments

  • pompei
    pompei
    according to the BU website:

    "Brooklyn Industries is joining forces with community organization Recycle-A-Bicycle ...
    ...This collaboration is inspired by our Spring 06 collection, which involves bicycle imagery and the concept of better urban living. All Brooklyn Industries locations are currently hosting an artistic window displays constructed out of non-working bikes, tying together the themes between the sophisticated Spring ‘06 designs and the Recycle-A-Bicycle initiative."

    the type of bike they have on the site is definitely something we have seen at the past critical mass bike rides.
  • muteflute
    muteflute

    Subject: Re: bike culture and Brooklyn Industries

    pitu wrote: "bike culture is not for sale"
    oh, but it is. All these track-bike riders (and I am one of them), sporting their Sugino 75s and their thousand-dollar frames, shooting through traffic and acting all down and out....

    Indeed, some of bike culture is not and will never be for sale--and all the power to it! But most of it, sadly, is. And Brooklyn Industries doesn't really deserve the flack.
  • drano
    drano
    Bike culture, lol...please to explain.
  • tony balls
    tony balls
    I'm an avid bike rider and an equally avid grafitti hater. This has to be the most stupid shit i've read recently.
  • captain m
    captain m
    Businesses will jump on anything that they think will help them sell stuff to a certain market.

    Hell, "rap" was once something you could only find in the "streets and parks".

    Frakenbike makers might not like it now but when they have a show on discovery channel and their bikes sell for thousands I dont think they'll mind either.
  • rhodamine
    rhodamine

    Subject: Re: bike culture and Brooklyn Industries

    muteflute wrote: oh, but it is. All these track-bike riders (and I am one of them), sporting their Sugino 75s and their thousand-dollar frames, shooting through traffic and acting all down and out....
    heh. i have- bar none- the hottest custom trackbike in brooklyn. and it cost me around $375. and i dont act down and out. so, there are those of us who dont fit the stereotype 8)

    also: bicycle station (on vanderbilt) supplied many of the frames for that display from their backyard junkyard. bergdorf's in manhattan has a similar window display of old citybikes.
  • drano
    drano
    But like are there bike clubs and gangs and stuff or do you hang around at Starbux comparing helmets and spandex? I'm curious, I had never heard the term "bike culture" until today, what is it? How is it different from people who just own bikes, or simply like bikes, or whatever...
  • rhodamine
    rhodamine
    Drano wrote: But like are there bike clubs and gangs and stuff or do you hang around at Starbux comparing helmets and spandex? I'm curious, I had never heard the term "bike culture" until today, what is it? How is it different from people who just own bikes, or simply like bikes, or whatever...
    "bike culture" for me is... friends who come over and paint frames in my basement, who stay in touch on lots of non-spandex messageboards. who race in alleycats, who hang out in the bike shop... after hours.. and bring beer, talking about bikes, obsessing over configurations, joining transalt, fighting for cyclists rights, meeting for regular rides/races in the parks/streets, etc. and yes, there are bike clubs/gangs. im sure few to none hang at starbucks.

    just like scooter culture, fashion culture, car culture, pop culture.

    this is a good example: http://community.livejournal.com/bikepirates

    non pretentions bike punks/diy.

    see also:
    http://homepage.mac.com/rachelmeyrick/iMovieTheater8.html
    http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/9381/
    http://blacklabelbikeclub.tribe.net/
  • drano
    drano
    rhodamine wrote: [quote=Drano]But like are there bike clubs and gangs and stuff or do you hang around at Starbux comparing helmets and spandex? I'm curious, I had never heard the term "bike culture" until today, what is it? How is it different from people who just own bikes, or simply like bikes, or whatever...
    "bike culture" for me is... friends who come over and paint frames in my basement, who stay in touch on lots of non-spandex messageboards. who race in alleycats, who hang out in the bike shop... after hours.. and bring beer, talking about bikes, obsessing over configurations, joining transalt, fighting for cyclists rights, meeting for regular rides/races in the parks/streets, etc. and yes, there are bike clubs/gangs. im sure few to none hang at starbucks.

    just like scooter culture, fashion culture, car culture, pop culture.

    this is a good example: http://community.livejournal.com/bikepirates

    non pretentions bike punks/diy.

    see also:
    http://homepage.mac.com/rachelmeyrick/iMovieTheater8.html
    http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/9381/
    http://blacklabelbikeclub.tribe.net/

    Well, they say you learn something every day.

    Looks like I just met my quota.
  • vanilla
    vanilla
    right pant leg rolled. :wink:
  • steveo
    steveo

    Subject: Re: bike culture and Brooklyn Industries

    pitu wrote: Brooklyn Industries at Union and Fifth Ave has a franken-bike display in the big plate glass corner windows. Someone did a fine bit of graffitti over it
    "bike culture is not for sale"

    I like Bklyn Industries, but I really dig the defacement too . . .

    anybody know if the bike theme is in all their windows, and have the radical biking forces struck the rest of the stores?
    I have a couple of low-res photos here:
    http://www.panix.com/~steveo/hiptop/bike_culture_not_for_sale/

    I'm an avid cyclist, and think that the "commercialization" of bikes is a good thing. The more people who think biking is cool, the better off we'll be.

    Also, a long thread about this here:
    http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=176195
  • pompei
    pompei
    hhmm..i passed by BU on fifth and union in a bus today, and it seems like the bike displays are....gone.

    the grafitti, however remains...
  • qtrain
    qtrain
    pitu wrote: I like Bklyn Industries, but I really dig the defacement too . . .
    Wow, someone really etched the hell out of that window. That's a ridiculous amount of damage.

    The kid that did that must be very fragile to be so threatened by a bike display in a store... kind of sad.
  • rhodamine
    rhodamine
    qtrain wrote: The kid that did that must be very fragile to be so threatened by a bike display in a store... kind of sad.
    some people are just dying for a cause.

    and some people just love graffiti.

    put the two together, mix well, and voila! 8)
  • drano
    drano
    I would like to purchase some bike culture, who can hook me up?

    This incident is further evidence that we have waaaaaaay too much time on our hands in this country.
  • rhodamine
    rhodamine
    Drano wrote: I would like to purchase some bike culture, who can hook me up?
    apparently, brooklyn industries. didnt you read the thread? :lol:
  • drano
    drano
    I tried, but they said they had to pull it all off the shelves - cyclists were apparently riding back and forth in front of the joint with cards in their spokes and annoying the customers with all the noise.
  • sevenoneeighty
    sevenoneeighty
    In 25 words or less, can someone describe bike culture and why it is so sacred and cannot be bought and sold like everything else? :wink:
  • homeowner
    homeowner
    Everytime I see the words "bike culture" I think of an essay written on one of my favorite blogs www.tomatonation.com about the Girls Bike Club. Its basically a group of actors who fancy themselves to be bad-asses that ride around on girls bikes with the streamers and the flower baskets. Classic! :D
  • candicissima
    candicissima
    homeowner wrote: Everytime I see the words "bike culture" I think of an essay written on one of my favorite blogs www.tomatonation.com about the Girls Bike Club. Its basically a group of actors who fancy themselves to be bad-asses that ride around on girls bikes with the streamers and the flower baskets. Classic! :D
    Woo! TN and Sars rule! 8)
  • pitu
    pitu
    bike culture . . . made me think of you guys

    http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_066002543.html
  • drano
    drano
    All this bike talk makes me wanna dig out my old Redline BMX - now THAT was bike culture. If you don't know what I mean, immediately rent the movie "RAD" and watch repeatedly...

    Edited for movie title.
  • smokin joe
    smokin joe
    interesting side of cycling i was only vaguely aware of, and i'm a cyclist.

    so, at the risk of sounding pathetically unhip, i have a question for those in the know: what's the big attraction of track bikes? always seemed to me that gears were a useful technological improvement.
  • smokin joe
    smokin joe
    anyone?
  • qtrain
    qtrain
    Smokin' Joe wrote: interesting side of cycling i was only vaguely aware of, and i'm a cyclist.

    so, at the risk of sounding pathetically unhip, i have a question for those in the know: what's the big attraction of track bikes? always seemed to me that gears were a useful technological improvement.
    I have a friend who converted a trash bike into a fixed gear -- part of the appeal was the satisfaction of mastering the bike is its primitive form. This quote captures the ethos pretty well (actually discussing riding fixed-gears off-road (!)):
    While exploring earlier, simpler forms of cycling, you should always remember the Fixer's Mantra: 'Calm down.' Really. Riding a fixie off-road is pretty daunting at first, and you'll need a new set of skills to ride successfully. (By 'successfully' I mean: 'without hurting yourself'.) Stripping things to the bare essentials certainly makes them 'simpler'. It doesn't necessarily make them 'easier' or even 'better'. It takes patience and repetitive practice to bring an ethos of 'doing more with less' to fruition.

    So why bother to acquire those new skills?

    Fixers will tell you that a fix is more efficient than a geared bike. Well, that's true--up to a point. The fix certainly scores high in foul weather or icy conditions. As an everyday offroad machine, however, its simple setup often works out less than ideal from a performance perspective.

    So what? I'm not worried about performance. My own love of fixing comes from the fact that I like to cycle, and a quiet, basic machine appeals to me. My good memories of cycling have little to do with equipment and everything to do with experience.

    Ride your bike to ride your bike. Do it because you want to. If you approach riding with a relaxed, light disposition rather than with an aggressive mindset, you'll really enjoy yourself. If you enjoy yourself, you'll stick with it. Sticking with it is good.
    source: http://www.63xc.com/mattc/setup.htm
  • stuart
    stuart
    I don't ride a fixed-gear bike, but a lot of my friends do. The appeal is the simplicity, smoothness and quietness of the ride, and control the rider has over acceleration/deceleration. In NYC, there are so few hills that gears are pretty much unnecessary for people who are in shape (I ride a single-speed, with brakes). The top downside of fixed-gear bikes, I think, is that they seriously fuck up the riders' knees over the long-term due to the pressure of stopping short and so forth. Also, it's just easier for a lot of people to go faster knowing they can rely on brakes rather than knees. That said, watching the really talented and fast messengers ride fixed-gear bikes in races is incredible--they just don't stop.

    All that said, track bikes are ridiculously trendy right now, so I wouldn't say that what I've listed as the reasons they're appealing are true across the board.
  • smokin joe
    smokin joe
    got it, thanks. appreciate the ethos, but i'll stick with my derailleur.
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