NAME: Avril AVR (left) & Chv Chvasta (right)

LOCATION: Atlanta, GA

OCCUPATION: Designer, PALACES Bass Player

Where do you live and what’s it like riding in your city?

We live in the tiny little town of Atlanta, GA. Atlanta is pretty spotty, with lots of “surprise” hills, tons of hostile angry road raging drivers, drunks, and folks that openly hate bikes/bikers/bike culture in the local media. Despite the “goonery,” Atlanta is a fantastic place to ride! The traffic is insane, the sparse bike lanes are usually full of debris and unusable, but the streets are absolutely the place to be. Honking, revving engines, and death threats? Absolutely! We wouldn’t want it any other way. It’s what makes daily bike commuting and nightly stomps through town colorful.

What was your favorite city to ride in, and why?

Well, we have to give props to the Capital of The Dirty South, Atlanta! The urban bike culture here gets more awesome every year. We’re coming up on our huge yearly SOPO BIKE Co-op Broken Hearts and Bicycle Parts alleycat, alleycross, and goldsprints event. Folks come from all over the southeast region to participate. There seems to be an alleycat about every month here, not to mention monthly bike “Mobile Social” events sponsored by the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition.

Why do you love riding in the city?

As ugly as the streets can sometimes be during the day, night riding in Atlanta is a completely different animal. With some decent illumination, we own the streets after dark in this town! The dense traffic congestion thins out quite a bit after 8 PM, and Atlanta is sprawling! There are tons of great late-night bike destinations: coffee stops, beer stops, bike-friendly music venues, and a brand new paved trail that connects one side of town to the other if you want to avoid using roads.

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