Traveling can be bad for cycling, but it still can offer some great opportunities for bicycle-spotting that I don’t have when on my home turf. There are bicycles where I spend most of my time, but not many, and, except at events, the concentration tends to be light. This is not true of New York City, where biking is enjoying an astonishing renaissance.
For some reason, I find myself drawn to Linus bikes. There’s something about their lines that attract me; they’re retro, but a certain kind of retro mixed with something sleek and contemporary that in no way mitigates the vintage feel.
I was astonished to see this beautiful, matching Billykirk leather pouch left on the bike in a city where even the grottiest, most damaged, and filthiest bikes seem to require ten pound padlocks to ensure that their owners can reunite with them at the end of the day.
The basket is a wooden-based Wald. Wald has been making bike baskets for decades and decades and their classic styles are also enjoying new life on contemporary streets.
That brass bell is a classic, too, beautiful, and, I know well, possessed of a lovely, long-ringing tone.
The owner of this particular turned up shortly — no surprise, that — as I was snapping these photos, and said that, so far, leaving the pouch on the bike hadn’t been a problem. (I’m guessing she measures her time away from her Linus in nanoseconds.)
Then she looked at me suspiciously and asked me why I wasn’t riding my own bike, clearly having pegged me for the kind of wimp who wouldn’t ride in 32 degree weather and/or in NYC. (Do you think the camera was a clue?) I murmured that this particular trip was incompatible with traveling with Basil, and went on my way. She’s hardcore, and was clearly unconvinced . . .