NAME: Alex Wirth
LOCATION: Belfast, Northern Ireland (formerly Santa Cruz)
OCCUPATION: Youth Worker
Where do you live and what’s it like riding in your city?
Riding in Belfast is tricky. It’s sort of a perfect shit storm of crap riding conditions. You’ve got the typical urban UK problems: narrow streets, potholes, oblivious drivers, terrible weather, tons of trash and dirt. But you need an extra level of awareness riding in this town. Belfast is a divided city and if you look in to the history of Northern Ireland a wee bit you’ll learn about the tensions between Protestants and Catholics. From street to street you pass between these communities that don’t like each other for the most part and can be really violent with each other on occasion. This presents a challenge for bike riding in town. If you drive a car you just take the motorway that takes you straight through the city no problem. If I am on my bike and ride from the Catholic area where I live through the neighboring Protestant housing estate to the place I work, people get suspicious. You have to glance quickly at the boyos hanging about to see if they’ve got anything in their hands to throw at you as well as watching traffic. Several times I’ve had bottles or rocks thrown at me on my bike and one time a drunk tried to kick me. The trick is to just keep riding, flip them the Vs over your shoulder and make sure you run the next red light just in case.
What’s been your favorite city to ride in, and why?
Santa Cruz is still my favorite city to ride. I went to university there and the ride down the hill from the west entrance of campus down Empire Grade to High Street without stopping is pure joy every time, especially if there is tons of traffic coming from campus to blow by. They repaved that road last year. Butter!
Why do you love riding in the city?
I know I just did all that complaining about riding in Belfast but really I wouldn’t trade it. All the chaos on the streets on a typical day riding make living here worthwhile. I work with youth all day and that can drag you down pretty heavily day in day out. Being able to blast into city centre at the end of the day and race the bright pink double-decker buses they have here up and down Royal Ave. for a little while is my release. I’m pretty sure the only reason I don’t have a drinking problem is because of the beater Peugeot fixed gear conversion I ride. That’s a lot of responsibility for a bicycle if you think about it.
Or just say whatever you want about riding in the city.
City Centre totally clears out about 9pm and the nights tend to be warmer here. I’ve seen two other fixed gear bicycles since I’ve been here. I would love to ride with folks because I haven’t really made any bicycle friends since I moved here in September. Email me (ajrwirth@verizon.net) and we’ll tear this city up. Belfast is waiting for a fixed gear scene. Hey you Dublin messengers or anybody, hop on the train and come ride with me I’m lonely!