photo via Takuya/New York Bike Dreams

As the Boston producers of the BFF, we wanted to make sure we caught all the meetings and got a sense of how Brendt Barbur and the NYC team put on a show.  We headed down Thursday eve to catch the end of the Producer’s Dinner AKA vegan Chinese food fight at the 88 Palace in Chinatown.  Somewhere around 4am, we  settled into our luxurious accommodations at the BFF’s Chelsea office floor after a late-night snack.

Friday saw us scrambling to get all the pieces  in order for Goldsprints at Clemente Solo Vélez on the Lower East Side.  Jamie, Mando, Jon, Jeremy, Vic and the boys at Affinity helped a ton as we worked to get all the bugs in the new Sprints software worked out- the races started a bit late and ran into the wee hours with Prolly MC’ing and the NYC kids tearing up the rollers on the custom Quiros Frames sprint bikes.

A beautiful Manhattan afternoon was in store for us at the BFF Street Fair on Saturday.  We passed the day hanging out with the crowd, seeing old and new friends, and watching people rock the ramps and street course.

Finkle from I Love my Bike Book.

Maurice and Abe from Outlier

Victor sez: "Don't take my pic, bro!"

Jeff from Continuum Cycles repping OPEN

Prolly making fun of Marty's moustache.

Following the fair, I caught the new Lucas Brunelle / Benny Zenga helmetcam / documentary mashup, Line of Sight:

It was a miracle that no one was creamed by a taxi after riding away from the screening- Brunelle’s films always get the crowd psyched to mash through the city.

Sunday was the hotly-anticipated premier of Empire.

Empire Premiere at Bicycle Film Festival 2010 NYC from Empire on Vimeo.

Over two years in the making, Empire was 45 minutes of some of the most exciting and well-shot & edited riding I’ve ever seen.  Luke and Crihs claim that the film isn’t at the final edit yet, but in my opinion, the version the sold-out screening saw this last weekend was superlatively done.

After missing the last bus back to Boston, I not-so-resignedly made my way across the Williamsburg Bridge to the East River Bar for the last BFF afterparty.  A relatively quiet evening was followed by an awesome ride back over the bridge and into Harlem to crash at Jeff from Continuum Cycles‘ sweet apartment.  After two nights of sleeping on Willis’ floor, the couch uptown was amazing.

Jeff made coffee in the morning and we rode down into the Village to check in on Fritz and the other boys at CC.

Waiting in line for the bus (finally) later on that day, I ran into Matt from Budd Bike Works.  We absconded to Noho for a couple quick drinks and I finally made my way out of the city and back to Boston.  Big thanks to Mando, Jamie, Jeremy, and Jon-Boy for all the transport and help, Willis for letting me crash on his floor, Victor for everything, and Jeff for the awesome accommodations and tour-guide service.

We’ve been hustling along all week getting ready for the Bicycle Film Festival’s 10th year anniversary in NYC- we’ll be running GoldSprints on Friday night and be in attendance at the Street Fair on Saturday.

The shop will be closed those days- come join us in New York and find us when we re-open on Sunday!

We’ve been running all over the Northeast arranging the final touches for the new shop.  Our socially-conscious design vision (and our long-since-over-budget build-out allowance) compel us to recycle and reuse as much as possible in our transformation a 40-year old barbershop to a clean and functional shop.  We found dozens of recycled steel shelves (from a now-defunct RAD Fabrications) up in New Hampshire to organize our stockroom and make room for all the new product coming.  A blisteringly fast shot down to south Connecticut scored us a few made-in-NYC vintage oak library ladders for our roomy upstairs (cool story on the Putnam Ladder Company last year in the NY Times) and a rush hour crawl back.

We dropped by Sean Milnes’ lovely house in New Haven to relax a bit and pick-up Sean’s wheels for repair.  Turns out doing this:

Leads to this:

(Photos via Ride Tyrant’s Flickr)

Sean’s off on a East Coast trip with Shop Cultur on what may be one of the first FGFS “pro” tours this June, and we spoke a bit about what the scene is shaping up to be.  Manufacturers are making new product to meet the evolving demands of riders like Sean and enterprises like Shop Cultur signal the rise of FGFS in the ‘burbs and smaller cities that don’t have shops like OPEN to cater to their needs.  Inevitable schlocky bandwagoning aside, it’s a win for everybody when a small group of committed pioneers create something that gains mass appeal and support, and we at OPEN are constantly looking in to new product, events, and education to encourage this growth.  Sean is a genuine, kind, and focused person and is exactly the kind of individual who personifies our philosophies and attitude.  We’re super happy to have him as part of the family.  Be sure to check him out on the tour (details TBD) and at the BFF 2010 in NYC this year (OPEN will be there for the films, races, comps, and street party, as well).

Last note / shameless plug:

Chorus Gallery, formerly adjacent to the old OPEN shop, is getting ready to occupy new (and larger) space down the street and is holding a pop-up gallery and live-painting fundraiser at  Trina’s Starlight Lounge, May 12th, 2010. Drink specials, good art, and fine people will be in abundance. Come out and support Chorus Collective as we move towards reopening in Union Square.

All that being said, keep an eye peeled on this site / RSS / word on the street as we rapidly approach our re-opening.  The shop is looking good, the weather is getting consistently clement, and we’re becoming terribly excited.

Clark here. Bike zombie apocalypse here at ground zero, Union Square. Send supplies. The UN denied our request for aid. I have seen the heart of darkness, it is cold. Tell my family I love them.

In Vienna, as well as many other cities with well-developed networks of bike lanes and paths – those lanes and paths are mandatory: In areas where such infrastructure exists, cyclists must use them and are not permitted to travel on the roads with motor vehicles.  The problem I experienced with this was two-fold: When using the paths (which are built on the sidewalks and are segregated from motorised traffic, à la Vassar Street in Cambidge), it is impossible to pick up speed due to the meandering pedestrians, strollers, dogs, and other obstacles.  Slow cycling can be nice, but not when one is late for work, and these paths give you no other option.

But the more serious problem is with the bike lanes on the side of the roads. Like in Boston, the lanes in Vienna are often in the “door zone”.  But unlike in Boston, cyclists are not permitted to cycle outside the lane or even on the leftmost edge of the lane in order to avoid being “doored”. This made me extremely nervous, and I am confused as to how such a layout could have been designed in good conscience. Some Europeans say that the door zone is not a problem if one practices “slow cycling”. But I just can’t get behind that line of reasoning. Personally, I would have to cycle barely above walking speed in order to notice an opening door in time to successfully stop for it.  And if I am forced to go that slowly, what is the point of cycling at all? I have also heard the argument that European motorists are more conscienscious than American motorists, and check carefully before opening the car door. But can I ever get comfortable with trusting my life to this idea? I don’t think I could. Out of the 12 persons I know in Vienna who are, or at some point were, cyclists, 9 have been involved in bicycle-vehicle collisions of varius degrees of seriousness, and that anecdotal statistic does not sit well with me.

My point here is not to deride the idea of cycling infrastructure, but simply to suggest that we must understand what we are asking for before we ask for it. I am not certain whether most Americans – when praising European systems with well developed networks of paths – realise that these systems do not permit vehicular cycling.  Cycling in Boston may seem more chaotic and “dangerous” at first glance, but my personal conclusion is that it is actually overall safer than Vienna, because it does not continuously force the cyclist into accident-prone situations.  I am interested in what others think of this subject – though please be courteous and polite in your comments.

This is my way of introducing myself as a new guest bloggerist at Open. I live in glorious Somerville, work in Europe, and love my 1972 Raleigh DL-1 Lady’s Tourist. I am also the author of Lovely Bicycle! and, apparently, a bike photographer. Hopefully my posts here will offer a novel – albeit slightly insane – perspective on bicycles, on bicycle-related products, and on cycling in the Boston area and abroad.

Despite above, most of Tom’s work is inspired by things in motion, such as his passion for cycling and the local kick-ball league.  He also portrays Montana in a very evocative, even almost mythical manor.  I’ve never been to Montana, however after flipping through his photo collections, paired with conversation with Ben, its climbed to the top of my lengthy places-to-visit list.  I spent a good amount of my childhood in Vermont, I’m thinking it might be similar in terms of the slower (than Boston) paced, relaxing lifestyle – I know Joshua and I could use a dose of that!  Here is another one of Tom’s photos from his Altered Cycling collection:

FIX PUSH

DEATH PEDAL trailer 2 By Kareem Shehab from Killa Kareem on Vimeo.

Bike to Work Pants from Cordarounds on Vimeo.

In the words of Lupe…

“We tryna go up in this club
Show a little love
Get a few drinks
Holla at some girls
Snatch up a pair
Leave outta there
Put some dro in tha air
And then go and get some grub.”

DEATH PEDAL Trailer by Kareem Shehab from Killa KAreem on Vimeo.

I saw this on Zlog… I want more…