Issue link: http://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25240
bikes or anything else that has been mass marketed in the last 20 years. I'm just talking about the thing with two wheels that sits in everybody's hallways and has been underneath just about every ass across America . The bicycle, the one we all have ridden in all of its many shapes, is a timeless piece of cool. It has endured. The one place in America where bikes can thrive and reach their full potential is in urban centers. If you look in the city streets you'll see the bicycle in it's purest state. It's an act of personal expression, it's transportation, it's green and, above all else, it is so damn right. Cycling in the cities has got more f lavor than anything in sports that I've seen in the last several years. Not only is it the best thing to happen to the bicycle, but urban cycling also has a backbone of passion inspired from a true creative sense-and individualism. To leave the car at home and cruise through the city streets is strength. And in today's over-hyped world of action sports that strength is more extreme that any freakin' bungee cord or mobile snowboard exhibition travelling through Pensacola . Deciding to ride that two-wheeled piece of shit rusting in the garage to get downtown is the most prolific piece of performance art I can ever hope to witness or experience. Take five years of higher education, 20 years of swimming upstream and 30 years of thinking how a person can leave their mark in the world: it all comes together and makes sense when you decide to ride. And not only is urban cycling unique, it's also diverse. Take, for example, the bike-messenger scene. Not known to many people, there is a global underground racing circuit called Alley Cat racing. They're illegal. They're aerobic punk rock. They happen right downtown with no street closures, no support vehicles, no fat endorsements and, more importantly, no uptight self-proclaimed experts. When you take a look at what's going on, it's urban sport in one of its purest forms. It's a racing format that can be found in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Berlin, London and every other major metropolis around the world. It's a scene run by bike messengers in places where most sanctioned bike racers wouldn't have the guts to show up. What's even more impressive is that these guys pull off events with the organizational finesse of Martha Stewart coupled with the passion of Ali. It's something to see. Last 4th of July there was an Alley Cat race in NYC that drew riders from up and down the Eastern seaboard, and even as far away as San Francisco. The format runs like this: At the beginning