In April, I invited the Bike Snob, also known as Eben Weiss for a ride around Vancouver and an On Bicycles TV Interview. Weiss was in town to promote his latest book with a BRA (Book Related Appearance) and bike ride. I discovered that The Bike Snob isn’t nearly as frighteningly acerbic in person as he seems on his blog, though he’s still very funny, and it was a thrill to have a rare sunny day (we prayed heavily) to show him around on his first trip to Vancouver. Here’s a little taste from that day and we’ll have a longer video up soon.
If you haven’t heard of him yet, Bike Snob NYC is the wise-cracking blogger persona of Eben Weiss, who developed a cult following of devoted fans in cycling circles as an anonymous and somewhat mysterious online figure from 2007- 2010. In May, 2010, with the publication of his first book, Bike Snob — Systematically & Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling, Weiss unmasked himself and also started writing a column for Bicycling magazine and making public appearances in addition to his blog. Popular with those who enjoy curmudgeonly smart-assery, Weiss pokes fun at anyone who does anything the least bit silly on or near a bike (that includes pretty much all of us, including Bike Snob, himself), but he also genuinely loves and appreciates cycling – and this is patently clear once you have read him a little and found your way around all his sneering at hipsters, absurd Craigslist ads, road racing superstars and the “Freds” in spandex who wannabe like them. Weiss has a foot firmly clipped into the racing world, so for someone like me, who does not, the racing references can cause me to lose interest.
His latest book, The Enlightened Cyclist — Commuter Angst, Dangerous Drivers, and Other Obstacles on the Path to Two-Wheeled Transcendence, steers clear of racing and focuses on how practical (transportation) riding is perceived, marketed and celebrated. Weiss’s style alternates between entertainingly clever and laugh-out-loud funny. I’m so glad Weiss cares enough about the subject of utility cycling to use his considerable talent to make it fun and accessible, while still covering a lot of important and useful ground in a transportation dialogue that at this point in time has still only penetrated a disappointingly narrow swath of public consciousness. As he humourously describes in the chapter, “Reviled: the Backlash Against Cycling,” people who ride bikes are usually perceived by the public / portrayed in media as one of the following stereotypes: the hapless wussbag, the homoerotic fitness dork, the self-important, tree-humping enviro-douche Luddite, or the freakish man-child.
In this book Weiss employs the theme of religiousity with well-recognized biblical metaphors and language (Adam and Eve, Revelation, Communion, Genesis, Leviticus, Transcendence, Confession) to illustrate his point that cyclists are, in his words, “the Chosen Commuters – not because we’re better but because we have an important perspective and occupy a crucial vantage point…”
As a female reader and someone who has created media for and about female cyclists, I feel that Weiss reflects on women’s part in and perspective on cycling too infrequently. Naturally, Weiss is a guy, in a male-dominated cycling population, sport and industry, so this is not unusual. But given Weiss’ intelligence plus his obvious care and concern for the future of cycling, I expect him to see a little further than all the other “Bros.” I realize that asking Bike Snob NYC to look more closely at anything is an invitation for razzing and ridicule, but I hope he’ll at least try to study the psyche and behaviours of female cyclists a little more in the future. I’m sure the results would be amusing at least and most likely enlightening for all concerned.
Those of us who ride bikes, and especially those of us who proselytize about it can be overly earnest and Weiss characterizes this general attitude as smugness (and even provides a formula by which one can calculate one’s smugness quotient!). If you’ve traveled within any major North American city by bike in recent years, you’ll recognize the ring of truth in this lampooning, even if it stings to watch someone kicking your sacred cow. What I love about the Bike Snob is that his writing persona is equally crabby and critical toward everyone. Whether intentionally or not, Weiss alerts bike riders of the dangers of hubris, an eternal threat to eager heroes and heroines. In our passionate and sometimes missionary fervour, we can sometimes be our own worst enemy. Thankfully the Bike Snob has his work cut out for him keeping things in perspective and reminding us to laugh at ourselves.
