Never Retire: What Is Bike Culture And Why It Matters To Cities

And why you should support and care about it

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I will launch a Substack focused on bikes, bike culture and urban planning. Expect this puppy to launch by, if not before the end of April.

Thank you for supporting Friki de Bici (Bike Geek).

To get Friki de Bici off the ground, I need support to free up my time and resources.

So I appreciate every penny.

Thanks to the generous—and super cool—subscribers who have already contributed. Of course, an upgraded Never Retire newsletter subscription (free to paid or paid to founding/lifetime) also does the trick.

In the most straightforward terms, your backing helps support my livelihood and ensures I can work on the projects that—yes—I enjoy working on most, but deliver the greatest (and, I hope, most unique) value.

For additional context about what I just said there and to see the Never Retire newsletter story where I introduced Friki de Bici, check the links at the bottom of today’s post.

In that introductory story, I explained that:

My larger goals with this project are—

• To help bring bicycle culture to life for people who might not know such a thing exists.

• To promote the bicycle as transportation and promote, detail and discuss how the built environment can help facilitate cycling.

• To highlight the people in Valencia and—maybe—elsewhere in Spain, Europe and—who knows—the world who play small and not-so-small roles in their local bike cultures. Along the way, I hope this endeavor will help me learn Spanish and better connect with people during this refreshingly challenging time in my life.

To achieve these goals—

• I will feature a cool bike around once per week. There are tons of super cool bikes around Valencia. I like to take pictures of them. Now I will post them and say a few things about them.

• I will interview people who are part of bike culture. People like Fernando, who own bike shops. While he’s Spanish, lots of the people in bike shops here are from Argentina. So, we’ll get various perspectives.

• I will ride my bike. And take videos as I do it throughout this city, which is wonderfully set up for urban cycling. This is why I am asking you to sign up for my YouTube channel, where I will post the videos. If you sign up, I can hopefully make a few pennies over there and keep my bicycle Substack free forever.

To help illustrate bike culture—

Fernando is the guy I bought my bike from. I plan to go see him again to say hi and see if he would like to be part of Friki de Bici.

The other day on Instagram, I noticed that he—via his shop’s (Good Bike Valencia) account—liked a post by the legendary Southern California punk band Social Distortion.

Social D is in my top five: (#1 Springsteen, #2 Petty, #3 Elliott Smith, #4 Social Distortion, #5 Dylan).

So I sent Fernando a WhatsApp message and asked if he is a fan of Social Distortion.

His response—

Mi grupo favorito

I wasn’t surprised. There are elements of music culture and bike culture that overlap. At least in my experience. Lots of people into urban cycling are into Social Distortion and similar flavors of rock and roll.

After I mentioned Springsteen, Fernando noted that Bruce and Social D’s lead—Mike Ness—have collaborated.

So I sent him this—

As I said to Fernando—

Si no lo has visto, disfrutalo de nuevo. If you haven’t seen it, enjoy it again.

Like many cultures, bike culture—thanks, in part, to its overlaps with other cultures—helps people connect. People with different backgrounds who speak different languages or whatever. When I go back into that shop with my shitty, but slowly-evolving Spanish, Fernando and I will likely understand each other a little bit better.

To help illustrate why bike culture matters—

If you want to get a good sense of a city, see how it and its people treat cyclists. Almost everywhere, this serves as an indicator for a city’s overall vibe. While super busy and vibrant, Valencia manages to maintain a laid back feel. People are generally patient and the non-car infrastructure is excellent. It’s a great place to ride a bike.

So, it comes as no shock that Valencia is also a good place to live. It’s an urban planning jewel.

For me, the bike-urban planning-quality of life connection could not be more clear. Add some Social D playing from a bike mechanic’s pit and Dylan a staple in many cafes and bars and I’m living in heaven on Earth. If I succeed, Friki de Bici will help make these connections clear for you and others around the world.

To get more specific about my plans and goals for Friki de Bici—

• I intend for Friki de Bici to be more than a Substack. I have already purchased the domain. And I plan to develop a website after I get the Substack newsletter running.

• I plan to have merch. I am not sure exactly what, but I think the Friki de Bici name and larger concept lends itself to merch!

• I definitely plan to produce stickers with a QR code that I will plaster throughout cities around the world, starting in Valencia and, then, when we travel to San Francisco, Barcelona, Paris and Amsterdam between mid-May and mid-June.

• While I am still developing how to structure and execute this, I would like to help support local Valencia bike shops by generating exposure for them—for free. All they need to do is take a few stickers! If I can grow Friki de Bici to a meaningful enough scale, I hope to extend this beyond Valencia, but as a potential, even if modest source of revenue.

This is where I am at right now.

Working hard to get Friki de Bici further conceptualized and launched. And looking forward to doing one of my favorite things—spending hours on my bike, taking pictures and, now, taking videos and talking to fellow urban cyclists and bike geeks!

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Never Retire: Unexpectedly Rediscovering An Old Passion In Valencia, Spain