February 07 2007

Text By Greg Fallis

Here is a True Thing: a bicycle is the Fountain of Youth. Everybody who puts their bottom on a bicycle saddle automagically becomes twelve years old again. It can't be helped, it can't be resisted. A smile grows organically on the face and if there is a bell on the handlebars, it must be rung.

Here is a True Thing: after the levered corkscrew, the bicycle is the most perfectly devised mechanical instrument ever invented. It is not just an assemblage of bars, gears, chains and wheels; it is a marvel of design, it is innocent simplicity that manifests itself in simple innocence. It is the only apparatus with spokes capable of producing pure, unimpeachable delight.

Here is a True Thing: there has never existed another mode of transportation that is as ubiquitous, as interchangeable and yet as easily individualized as the bicycle. Remove a fender, add a bookbag, attach tassles to the handlebars, change the saddle, and the personality of the bike changes. Sherlock Holmes claimed he could identify the impressions of forty-two distinct types of bicycle tyres...and who can doubt him? Over time, a bicycle becomes as unique as a fingerprint.

Here is a True Thing: I want to ride this bicycle.