Sex & Bikes

Porn, underpants, homoerotica, and bicycle parts are, far and away, the most commonly searched for items here at YMA. My stats page reads like a bike store catalog or fetish site (which, yes, is probably redundant). It’s also interesting to see that a lot of people check out the “Fixie Porn” post to get a look at the rides, rather than the boys.

 Bike messenger from… well, could be anywhere

Another common search is for “bike messenger style”. Odd that those people end up at my site, with all the other stuff out there. Not that long ago, I ran across a good article at PingMag about a designer who is inspired by bike messenger style in Finland. Finland! It’s everywhere else; Why come here? But they do.

Recently, an article at, you guessed it, the New York Times described the latest fashion trend sweeping the country: bike messenger style. Where did it come from and why did it happen so fast? the author asks, aparently unaware of the Kevin Bacon movie Quicksilver about a stockbroker who becomes a messenger in New York City. That movie was released in 1986. Eighty-six. Twenty years ago. I remember cutting out a photo essay about bike messenger style from a fashion magazine all the way back in the eighties. As a trend, it’s is nothing new.

The rather worshipful article begins by repeating the popular myth about messengers, that they have a culture all their own and that they are mavericks existing outside the normal laws of society. Basically, they are the new cowboys, or maybe it would be more accurate to describe them as the new cowboy archetype for young urban liberal creatives (the “real” cowboy myth being old, rural, conservative, and now latently homosexual). To his credit, the author does go on to point out that the men who do this job — and it is a job — are usually unskilled laborers who have few other marketable talents and are just trying to pay the bills with menial, low-wage employment.

Messenger “culture” amounts to dressing mostly alike (while calling it “individuality”) and hanging out together, just like any other group who have similar experiences and endure similar hardships. By that standard, the average Pizza Hut employee is a member of his own culture as well, it just isn’t as romantic or marketable.

 Portland bike scenesters, with Timbuk2 bag in evidence

And that’s the real gist of the article, which was printed in the Business section. Biker chic has become marketable on a large scale. Timbukt2, maker of those most popluar of all messenger bags, is now a huge company with new owners who are turning it into an “urban-lifestyle brand.” Already, fixie fashionistas are choosing other labels to distinguish themselves from the crowd, since that is the real goal, after all. Be different… in exactly the same way as the people you immitate. That’s what gets you laid.

It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out when fixed-gear bikes are on sale at Wal-Mart; they’re already being manufactured on a larger scale. Rememeber how mountain bikes used to be all the rage, then shocks, and then disk brakes? When the fixie fad fades, what’ll be next?

This whole fixed-gear thing obviously sticks in my craw. In the first place it’s a big fad with legions of mindless adherants. But whatever, so are iPods. Fads, while irritating, are mostly harmless. It just annoys me that fixed-gear bikes are really bad for your knees — really really bad — and all these cute young kids trying to look hip are going to be fat cripples who can’t exercise at all by the time they’re thirty-five. It’s just like smoking to look cool. Sure, it works, but…

On a more adorable note

I discovered The Sartorialist, the number one fashion blog on the web, according to itself. It’s this professional photographer who also does a blog where he snaps pics of stylish people on the street, mostly in New York. Old concept, but it still works. It’s a fun browse.

 Fashionable Parisian woman on a bike from The Sartorialist

One thing that I think is charming about it in particular is that he likes to take pictures of well-dressed people on bikes. It’s a preoccupation, if not an obsession. I’ve uploaded a bunch of them to my flickr page with the tag “fashionable people on bikes.”