“Get comfortable. You’ll be spending a lot of time practicing.”

Roughly an hour after walking into the shop on the first day of class I had a welding torch in my hand, sloppily sticking thick pieces of metal together. I knew that building a frame within a normal work week wasn’t going to be easy, and this confirmed it loud and clear.

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NAME: Stoned Tone!
LOCATION: New York City, NY
OCCUPATION: Bike Messenger, Alleycat Organizer

Where do you live and what’s it like riding in your city?
I live in Brooklyn, but I spend 85% of my time riding in Manhattan, from Wall Street to Dyckman. There’s so much energy breathing off these evil NYC streets that you have to stay on point with everything… even dodging cops trying to get you for red lights.

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Last October I was invited to attend “Fijate,” which was a historical event for the Puerto Rican urban bicycle scene. The rider pictured to the left is Luis Rafael Robles, a native bicycle messenger who’s largely responsible for the fixed gear movement in Puerto Rico.

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Climbing up grueling mountain passes in China to reach the edge of Tibet. Communicating with smiles and sign language for food and shelter. Picking up strangers on the back of a tandem bike and touring new terrain in the company of newfound friends. For eight years, this was Jamie Bianchini’s life.

Touring the world on a bike is a dream for many, but few ever really get to hit more than a few countries in their lifetime. Jamie is one of those few, having pedaled his way through more than eighty. Perhaps his success is because he wasn’t doing it just for himself. From the very beginning—now more than a decade ago—Jamie wanted to send the world a message.

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Italy’s now legendary L’Eroica draws riders from all over the world eager to test themselves—and their vintage steeds—on the rough, gravel-shod roads of the Tuscan countryside.

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Money. It changes everything. It can’t buy you love. It’s the root of all evil. It doesn’t grow on trees. And a fool and his money… Well, we all know how that goes.

When it comes to bikes, unless you’re a sponsored pro or a member of the vilified 1%, money is seldom no object. It determines not only how many bikes you can own, but in many ways it factors in to how well they perform, how good they look and how long they’re likely to last.

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Where we call home in the northern hemisphere, we are more or less in the midst of the cycling off-season. Even the most die-hard commuter inevitably puts in fewer miles come the colder, darker months. Now is a good a time as ever to start making plans for the next year. Let your bicycle take you places you’ve never been.

Nearly every city has less populated roads within a long day’s ride, some more than others. We’re blessed to have seemingly endless rolling hills through progressively less populated suburbs—choose the right roads, and you can find farmland within an hour. If you’re looking to sleep under the stars we have direct access to the longest continuous trail system in the country connecting some 325 miles between Pittsburgh and Washington DC. Serious woodland and miles upon miles of crisscrossing forest roads are but a day trip in a car away.

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Antonio Bigarini – www.antoniobigarini.com
Takuya Sakamoto – www.newyorkbikedreams.com
Hugo Yoshikawa – www.luckyriverstudio.com
Roger Lootine – www.residuecomics.com
Brad Quartuccio – www.randomprecisionphoto.com
Jeff Guerrero – flickr.com/urbanjeff

Here’s a look at some of the I Love Riding in the City contributors for issue #29.

We want you to represent your city. Click here, and don’t forget to attach a high-res photo. A “high-res” photo, for those who don’t know, is typically 300dpi or greater at print size. If you’re not sure, try sending the unedited photo file that comes from a digital camera.