Riding suits downtown living and keeps bike courier fit
By EDWARD M. EVELD
The Kansas City Star
A fixed-gear bike and some satchels are all Rudy Gonzalez needs to get around town for his work as a courier. “It becomes part of your day to hop on your bike and get going,” says the 23-year-old, who also enjoys photography and cycling events.
A fixed-gear bike and some satchels are all Rudy Gonzalez needs to get around town for his work as a courier. “It becomes part of your day to hop on your bike and get going,” says the 23-year-old, who also enjoys photography and cycling events.
Drawbacks to cycling, according to Rudy Gonzalez of Cowtown Couriers: Drivers who are texting and shouts to Rudy Gonzalez doesn’t have a car, and he doesn’t want one. Weird, huh?
No, he’s one of these people you see zipping around downtown, midtown and beyond, in any weather, on his bike. It has transformed his body, now a lean machine, and his wardrobe, now full of sleek pieces that slice the wind and wick the moisture.
This interview wasn’t the first time he had heard the question: “Why don’t you just get a car?”
He had a car. But several years ago the Smithville High graduate living in the Northland decided he was ready to try urban living. He found he couldn’t afford a loft apartment in downtown Kansas City and a car, so he got on Craigslist and traded an old guitar for an old bicycle.
They clicked, he and the bike. Gonzalez, 23, had never felt a close connection with team sports or traditional exercise.
“Now I don’t think of it as exercise at all,” he says. “It becomes part of your day to hop on your bike and get going.”
To work. To the grocery store. He has sacks and satchels in a variety of sizes — and a good idea of how much he can carry. He moved on from his first bike to a fixed-gear model, the kind favored by many urban riders. It calibrates to a single, comfortable speed and doesn’t coast — the pedals always turn.
“I like it because it’s reliable and super-low maintenance,” he says. “And it’s good in bad weather because you have more control.”
He’s not complaining about this year’s mild winter, but he considers snow-biking an adventure. He has outerwear for all kinds of weather and in the winter attaches “Bar Mitts” to his bike for extra hand protection.
“I ride every day, so my body’s used to the weather changes,” he says.
Gonzalez doesn’t have one 9-to-5 gig but several part-time endeavors. He photographs and participates in an array of cycling events, including cyclo-cross, a mix of road racing and mountain biking with obstacles and dismounts, and alley cat races, in which racers are given a manifest and must rush from checkpoint to checkpoint. Gonzalez posts photos at flickr.com/photos/artasamurderweapon.
Art as a Murder Weapon? Just a phrase he heard from the Talking Heads drummer on a live album: “It’s harmless.”
Gonzalez’s latest venture, which he calls Cowtown Couriers, is seriously all about the bike. In January he put the word out that he was launching a bicycle delivery service, and soon enough the owner of Tamale Wizard in the River Market contacted him about lunch deliveries.
He found he could load up insulated, waterproof bags and hit any downtown office in a matter of minutes, more reliably on time than if he had a car to deal with.
Gonzalez has a logo and fliers and is hiring independent couriers. He sees bicycle package and food delivery as an unfilled niche here. And he already has about all the overhead he needs.
“This is probably the cheapest business you can start,” he says.
The big challenge for street cyclists here is jockeying with a sometimes hostile motoring public. Area drivers have long had a reputation for bicycle intolerance. But surely it’s getting better, right?
A little better, Gonzalez allows, but hardly friendly. One wrinkle: More than a few motorists are texting-while-turning-while-driving, which means they’re blind to bicycles at intersections. And Gonzalez continues to hear shouts of “get on the sidewalk,” which is particularly galling. Bicycles have as much right to city thoroughfares as motorized vehicles.
None of that makes him want to give up bicycling for driving. Count on seeing him and a growing number of like-minded cyclists in the lane next to you.
“I’m healthier,” he says. “I’m having more fun. I do my thing. You can do yours.”
No comments:
Post a Comment