References.
We're always looking for more literature out there, and thank you for
your pointers. Bike culture in America has been pretty hard to find
since the golden age, except in certain niches like racing and
messengering. Whatever your focus, it's helpful to experience what
makes others excited about bikes.
What's the difference between a zine and a magazine? Who
knows, but here the zines are mainly coordinated by an individual and
low-budget,
while the magazines are done by a group.
- Zines. Pardon the lukewarm reviews - it's just not our thing.
These are all worth the money.
- Mudflap. The bike
zine and that's it, the end, and it isn't just a bike
zine, really, it's a zine about bikes and San Francisco
and being a
girl and being a punk or not being any of those things, but
somehow all of the elements have that bikey feeling
anyway, as if the narrator pedaled up just before the
story began. Articles, stories, comics, pictorials, etc.
Last seen late 1997.
Greta Shred, PO Box 410894, SF CA 94141. $1 and 2 stamps.
- The Multiplier. Wordy essay zine about
bike politics, messengerisms, bike tech. low and high (but
with an obvious love for the tried, true, and less-hyped),
and the sucky things that happen while riding in car
traffic that have been said a million times but will have
to be said a lot more anyway. With a lot of silly fiction
and some rants about how the editor doesn't like people
who wear ties. Last seen late 1997.
Sam Tracy, Box 2275, Minneapolis MN 55402. $3.
- Fierce Femme. Extra-friendly zine into
supporting women, bikes, and women on bikes. Interviews
with women who play music, reviews of music & pubs. put
out by women, you get the idea. Secret connection: issue
#2 mentions a
bike which has since been
assimilated into the Chunk fleet, altho nobody knew it at
the time. Last seen late 1997.
Betho, 1388 Haight St., Box 8, San Francisco, CA 94117.
$2.
- Out Your
Backdoor.
Slick, homey, and huge,
firmly based in bike geekdom, but will ramble on about just
about anything related to homegrown culture and cheap
adventure. Bikes, bows, boats, travel, hiking, sledding,
whatever. Last seen early 1998.
Out Your Backdoor, 4686 Meridian Rd., Williamston, MI
48895. $3.
- Magazines, etc.
- Critical Mass 5th Birthday Rag. One-shot
newspaper to commemorate the amazing evolution of Critical
Mass in San Francisco. Amazing and not afraid to
criticize. Published August 1997, don't know how long
they'll be printing it for. No ads.
CM 5 B-day, c/o 41 Sutter St. #1829, SF CA 94104.
Donation ($2-$3?).
-
Auto-Free Times.
Transportation advocacy magazine published by the
Alliance for a Paving Moratorium.
Very good at what it does, even if it sometimes lapses
into Earth First!yness. Good news shorts.
No ads.
Alliance for a Paving Moratorium, P.O. Box 4347, Arcata,
CA 95518. $3.
- Rain. General livability and sustainable
culture magazine. No ads.
Rain, PO Box 30097, Eugene, Oregon 97403. $5.
-
Bike Culture Quarterly. A beautifully
done, full-color magazine dedicated to human-powered
vehicles of all kinds, but especially excited about
recumbents and folders. No ads.
Open Road USA, PO Box 291010, Los Angeles, CA 90029. $10
(in the USA, other prices & addresses elsewhere).
- Books.
- Whitt, Frank Rowland and Gordon, David.
Bicycling Science.
The MIT press, Cambridge, MA 1994.
An extensive volume on human-powered land vehicles.
Includes sections on human power, bicycle physics, and
mechanics. Each section is a thorough if crammed
overview of its subject; the information can be
somewhat confusing, but is followed up with a full
bibliography, so that the book serves as an excellent
guide and reference for library research.
- Lindholm, Steven.
The Fantastic Bicycles Book.
Consumers Union, USA 1981 (orig. pub. Houghton Miffin).
Subtitled For Kids Who Like To Build Things,
this is an essential volume for young mad scientists and
adults alike. Projects include a tandem, reversed trike,
sidecar rig, and ski bike, with sections on mechanics,
scrounging, haggling, and "A Warning About Adults". Many
innovative ways to avoid welding by hammering and bending
pipes. Please, please, if you know any children, get them
this book before it is too late.
- Wiley, Jack. The Bicycle Builder's Bible.
Tab books, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 1990.
A typical Tab book - shallow and filled with wordy fluff.
Get it from the library to look at the pictures, but don't
expect to learn much. Uninspiring mentions of
tallbikes, swingbikes, choppers, freestyle bikes, and
bronco bikes.
What about low-riders?
It is not our intention to alienate the entirety of low-rider bicycle
culture, but there are certain annoying aspects to the scene which
can't be ignored.
How many defenders of the low-rider canon think that they are
hot shit because they have made (or bought! bought!!!) some
snazzy bicycle which more or less looks exactly like every other
low-rider bicycle around (except that the shag is blue instead of pink)?
How many spend hundreds of dollars on these things, and then parade them
at fucking conventions? And how many never ride them,
either because they are afraid to get oil on the gold-plated
chains, or because their bike can't even be ridden, because the cranks
won't clear the ground?
Lots, that's how many.
There are many beautiful low-riders out there which have clearly
received lots of love from their builders, and low-rider-riders can be
found that aren't mindless fashion drones. If you are a
low-rider-rider, ask yourself a few questions. Did you buy all of
your shit from some catalog? Did you blow way too much money on your
bike? Do you ever go anywhere on your bike, or do you just
spin around the block occasionally because you think that it gives you
status? Does your bike look like all of the other low-rider clones
out there? Are you going to dump your bike as soon as you can afford
a low-rider truck?
The choice between good and evil is yours.
The amount of flame mail that we get from the above rant is amazing.
Apparently some people are hurt that we don't like certain types of
low-rider-riders.
Look, ride your low-rider, have fun, leave us alone. There are
plenty of low-rider resources on the net - start at
Yahoo and look at the bikes
section, or read Low Rider Bicycle magazine.
(Return to C.H.U.N.K. 666)
