Worst of NYC Craigslist SPECIAL EDITION: L'Amour du Velo

Williamsburg, Brooklyn*. Bikes are important here. If you live in a large city chances are you have a neighborhood like it in your town. It is a place where young men and women dressed in the height of fashion walk their bicycles (also dressed in the height of fashion) up and down the sidewalks like Afghan hounds. A college town without a college, it is a land where the new residents while away the increasingly large number of years between childhood and adulthood by desperately seeking things to have in common with one-another. It is also the place where I saw the only Specialized city-edition Langster I’ve ever seen outside a bike shop. (It was a Seattle edition, by the way.) Depending on your disposition or your demographic, it is either heaven or hell. Regardless, as a person interested in the increasingly important role bicycles play in this segment of society, I like to check into Craigslist Missed Connections every so often and search out the bike-related posts. It’s like seeing bike trends with bat sonar, and I’m surprised bike companies aren’t doing the same.


*[now incorporating Greenpoint and Bushwick]

bike accident on corner of nassau/mannhattan [original URL: http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/mis/415226820.html]

Reply to: [deleted]
Date: 2007-09-06, 6:00AM EDT


When i was hit by that car last night. You came to my aid! I cannot say thank-you enough to the guy who called the police and who picked me up off the ground, to the lady who gave me water, to the little crazy man who drank that water (and offered me beer) and even to the motorist who stayed behind, who was cordial, even though his freind proclaimed me as drunk and without brakes.
It was an adventure, and after several hours in the hosptial to luckly have no broken bones, all I can say, is thank-you to those who stopped thier day to help out a stranger.
cheers brooklyn!
and if that was you e-mail me so I can buy you a beer!

Location: williamsburg/greenpoint

There’s nothing funny about a car/bike collision, but this one proves a suspicion many of us have had for some time now, which is that all these new brakeless riders must be hitting something. When coupled with actual statistical evidence (as linked to in the comments section of this site some time ago by an astute reader), the evidence is nigh incontrovertible. Alas, who will save our nation’s young? Who will affix a simple caliper to the front (yes I said front) of their fixies? Who will convince them that added stopping power is more important than the ability to do bar-spins unfettered? (And who will convince them bar-spins are stupid anyway?) And who will remind them that they’re no longer covered under Mom and Dad’s insurance policy, and that one day their parents will refuse to pay for both their rent and their medical bills while they wait for their bands to become famous?


saw you with a cute track bike.... - m4w – 35 [original URL: http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/mis/415085357.html]

Reply to: [deleted]
Date: 2007-09-05, 11:25PM EDT

This was a few months ago, but I remember you. My friend and I were walking back to his house when we stopped to get beer. I waited outside and I saw you with this cute little Bianchi track bike. I commented on needing a good lock and you said that your ex took it from you when you broke up. If that was an "I'm available" then I don't know what is. Anyhow, I think you're really cute and would love to take you out for dinner or something. I might be too old for you but I will leave that up to you.

Location: willie b

Ah, yes, the aged interloper. Upon getting dumped by his wife he immediately thinks back to the hot girl with the studded belt and the track bike he saw in Williamsburg six months ago and posts this gambit. If that was an “I’m available” then why didn’t you say something? When she said she didn’t have a lock, why didn’t you reply with, “Why don’t I lock your bike to a pole for you with my manhood?” She’d doubtless have replied, “Why, your manhood would have to be tremendous in order to do that!” You then could have confirmed, “Indeed.” Instead, here you are months later, writing a lame message, putting it in a bottle, and throwing it into the sea of desperation. I have a bad feeling the next step will be buying a Pista and riding it slowly through the ‘Burg, trolling for young fixie chicks like a dorkier Gordon’s fisherman.


so what color bike did you wind up getting..? [original URL: http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/mis/410819190.html]

Reply to: [deleted]
Date: 2007-08-31, 3:02PM EDT


me - apple guy from bushwick with the beard getting my handlebars looked at (in the name of safety)..
you - cute redhead wearing glasses, said that you worked at cafe grumpy, getting ready to buy a new bike...
we had some really nice small-talk about riding single speeds, coasting, commuting to work in the city, and your friend who is a chef-turned-messenger (and loving it).

i'm kicking myself for not introducing myself.

drop a line, if you wanna pick up where we left off.

Location: williamsburg/greenpoint

Flopping-and-chopping your bars is one thing. Screwing up, going to a bike shop, and asking them if they’re OK to ride is quite another. This post does prove one thing, though: coasting is the new fixed.