No. But most are. There’s a guy from Connecticut. One from Jersey. Brothers from Manhattan. Almost half the Puerto Ricans in America live in two states, New York and Florida, so of course there’s also a small wing in Florida made up of ex-Bronxites.
While they look like boys with toys—old and very expensive toys—they take it very seriously.
When asked how many bikes he has, Benny, a superintendent of a bunch of buildings in the Bronx, laughs.
“Forget about it. You don’t wanna know. I could buy a house with the bikes I have,” he says.
He says he probably owns about 40 bikes and he stores them all over his building and at a place in Florida. He says he mostly buys them on eBay or through vintage bike forums online. He buys parts and builds bikes himself. Sometimes he finds them in the trash or for sale on the street because he says, “People don’t know what they have!”
The Code
In a year where the NYPD has been aggressively cracking down on bike rules in New York City and handing out tickets to cyclists for breaking a number of vague and, at least from the biker’s point of view, ridiculous laws, the Classics haven’t really been affected. Maybe it’s because they usually ride the Bronx and not Lower Manhattan or Williamsburg but it’s more that they have a good relationship with cops. They communicate with cops on the street through the sirens and chrome bullhorns attached to their bikes. The cops whistle back.
They do get tickets, though. Just not from cops. They ticket themselves.
Like any motorcycle club, the Classics have a code. They have rules.
To join, members must pay $80 annual dues and purchase a black leather