Open Bicycle

There was a time when wizened economists held court in the parliment houses and ivory towers and envisioned a world ripe with possibility.  The vast verdant forests, the broad rivers, uncharted lands; these were the raw-stuffs of fortunes and industries yet to come.  Built capital was the limiting factor for this pregnant growth- social and natural capital was abundant.

I hope I’m not stating the painfully obvious by suggesting that the world has changed dramatically.  We find ourselves in the midst of a dense human-made infrastructure- millions of miles of interstate highways, countless billions of tons of carefully shaped ferroconcrete structures, and extremely concentrated and socially stratified human populations- the (recently accelerated) urbanization of our civilization means that, in the contemporary situation, it is now precisely social and natural capital that are the limiting factors to economic development.

If there is anything that the “Great Economic Slowdown” has taught us, it is that top-down and international business and financial models only serve to fall longer and spread farther when they fail.  We look now for ways to build our local communities from within, be it locally farmed greens at the market, used books from the corner seller, or pints from the city brewery down at the bar in the Square.

The methods by which we, denizens of these recent megolithic people-piles, move around our own communally made density play an important role in the cybernetics (in the original sense: the language and design of control) of cities.  This effect on this control on our everyday lives, the vectors and future of our communites, and the less tangible element of our individual experiences is inherently tied to a sense of economic vitality, and unfortunately the measure of our economic health has been, since what seems like forever, been tied to this outmoded measure of infinite (and thus impossible) voracious growth.  We stand at a crossroads- we can reevaluate ourselves as social actors, rethink our cities, remake our habits.  In this way- bicycles can be revolutionary instruments, or not.  In this way- bike shops can be revolutionary points of social (inter)action, or not.

OPEN strives to be more than just another business doing the same thing and hawking the same stuff as everyone else.  We attempt to source as much as possible locally, and if not immediately local, made by companies committed to fair labor practices.  From hand-crafted steel straight out of Allston to LA-made cycling cut denim, OPEN strive to support small community-owned businesses and connect craftspeople, producers, and users on a real and human scale.  This isn’t some silly boutique concept- this is about building culture and creating sustainable relationships, communities, and cities.

Taking this one step further:  contemporary popular belief holds that custom bicycles are for the moneyed and trend-seeking.  We beg to differ:  riding a bike made by someone who lives down the street from you isn’t a new concept, and it’s not terribly expensive compared to buying off-the-shelf once the hidden costs of globalized consumption are taken into account.  Being able to interact in the process of designing and building a bicycle made expressly for for your body, riding style and habits affords a much richer user-producer experience that picking something out of a catalog, and the resulting machine is something that the rider will treasure forever.

This week, we’ll be interviewing three local framebuilders and showcasing their individual talents and visions here on the OPEN blog.  We support local builders because they are the future of Boston cycling-  we invite you all to share with us the wealth and history of their art and craft.  Together, we believe, we can create a unique, vital and enduring local bike culture.  Stay tuned- at the very least, we’ll have close-up pictures documenting the growth and development of Marty Walsh’s moustache.