Tuesday, June 4, 2019

On The Air

Yesterday morning I made my radio debut and overall I think it went fairly well, all things considered:
As I mentioned, I had no plans at all to be on the radio until this past Thursday, when the station said, "Do you want a radio show?" and I said, "Yes."  Anyway, if you missed it you can listen now thanks to the miracle of streaming technology; just go to the archives and choose "Bike Snob" from the pull-down menu.  And if you don't have an hour to waste listening to me bloviate, just skip to 11:47, which is when I take a call from an "avid cyclist:"
I'm fairly sure it's the same person who left the comment above.

Of course, the real reason I agreed to do a radio show was that it provides me with a ready-made excuse to take a long ride on a Monday morning, even if that ride is through the heart of the city at rush hour.  If you'd like to see some of the highlights, I shared them on this morning's Bike Forecast:


Not only that, but this morning I ended up cutting a swath through Manhattan yet again, for I headed out early to take a bucolic ride on so-called "River Road" in New Jersey, only to find it closed:
River Road is often "closed" and I usually ignore the signs, though I figured I might as well take the "pesticide spraying" warning seriously--even though I suspect it was a ploy like in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" when the government says there's toxic nerve gas in the area in order to deter people from the alien landing sight.  In fact, I highly suspect there was an alien landing this morning on the New Jersey Palisades, and I'm going to start riding with a handlebar-mounted canary so that I can test the veracity of these so-called "pesticide sprayings" in the future.

This time however I just said "fuck it," hopped back on the Greenway, and did a little slingshot around Central Park and back home.

Finally, you may recall that I got a sweet new fixie:


Well, the reason I got it was because Bicycling asked me to write about it in the context of cycling subcultures:

The headline is Bicycling's, and everybody knows the epitome of cycling's rebellion is the recumbent:


(Photo: Grant Petersen)

Otherwise, I stand by it.

33 comments:

Pbateman said...

Radio is a tender medium indeed...especially after your mom beats it.

I thought the show really came into it's own around the 47 min mark.

I'm stunned no one else prank called.

Anonymous said...

everyone does hate bikes!!!

good show!

theEel said...

Weed.

Anonymous said...

this is a good radio show - it does take determination to ride every day - but once I'm rolling - wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee - also, fk the haters

JLRB said...

Glad to see you and Bicycling kissed and made up after the NYC is #1 rift ...

Do you ride the Core-Line fixed or single-speed?

Looking forward to listening to your radio show after I pretend to do pretend work

dnk said...

"Avid cyclist." Radio gold, Snob!

Anonymous said...

Listened from Sicilia where you are ironic pre drive-time 4pm slot. Good choice sir! I salute with too much beers.

not the avid cyclist said...

I liked the comment on the radio show about cycling being the closest thing to flying. True dat!

dan said...

Speaking of fixies, this bike made me think of the olden days of fixies with handlebars narrower than the riders's shoulders -- though it may not be 100% deliberate in this case:

https://imgur.com/a/RSw8InI

Also, the lock the Bicycling article used in their lead photo is not very secure if the thief has, say, some tin snips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D15QH72xfPA

Pist Off said...

Perfect. Avid guy apparently is a statistical outlier- a true magnet for bicycle-bicycle collisions, yet he’s still alive and bitter about it. He wouldn’t be saying “most cars follow laws” if he actually, you know, rode a bike in traffic, much less in NYC.

Skidmark said...

You can’t use All Things Considered referring to your new radio wave show, Maybe - Small Things Considered?

hellbelly said...

Congrats on the show! The Damned FTW!

Die free... Bird said...

Nice shoutout to our forebears in the bicycling text.

Sheldon Brown. That guy made great use of the internet, he was the bike wiki before there was a wiki. Since then all we do is complain AND I haven't built one bike from parts.

I'll have to stream that radio show tomorrow at work...

Beck the biker said...

Caught the first half hour, nice work! Yah, that first caller came in loaded, within 10 seconds or so it was obvious he was going to show his hand and start yammering like those cranks who profess their love of cycling out the window of the car after squeeze playing you to the curb, in their interest of sharing the rules of the road with you. You know, because they're an avid cyclist too.

LuisGee said...

Good music.

Did you get to choose the playlist?


Dave said...

Well, that was great. Hearing you voice after more than a decade of reading your ramblings made them all new.

Also, the captcha for this comment made me identify bicycles.

Anonymous said...

Fine, fine work on the radio show, Mr Snob. I look forward to the next installment. We here in Australia seem to be getting blocked from downloading or streaming the show from WBAI archive site though. While I was able to beat a path through the undergrowth and get what I came for anyway, others may not be inclined to be so persistent which would be a shame because we need all the help we can get over here when it comes to biking in cities. Anyway, if you have some friends in high places at WBAI who could turn some knobs and and pull some levers to allow us to listen easily that would be great.

All the best and congrats.

Chazu said...

"Americans have an awkward relationship with practicality."

Yes we do.

mikeweb said...

The last time that pesticide sign appeared at River Rd. I just went for it. It doesn't make sense to me that they would even need to spray pesticide. The road doesn't exactly turn into a dense thicket during the warm months.

wle said...

somehow i clicked on "Black Seinfeld.. Hosted By: Giovanni Anglin and Sebashtin Louizare
Topics: ..."

harsh!

wle said...

it doesn;t seem to be there today , snob.radio..

wle said...

"ebben"?

i thought it was ""ee-ben""

BikeSnobNYC said...

wle,

WHY??? WHY WOULD IT BE "EEE-BEN???"

--Tan Tenovo

wle said...

"ee-ben" because one "B" usually means long vowel before

and i'm from alabama, i never hearda no eebens ner ebbens afore now, anywho

wle

wle said...

funny - (to the whiner) "..yes yes, the carnage.. .. ok you're right, we have another call" -- wle

Anonymous said...

alien landing _site_ not sight...

Anonymous said...

BOOOOORRRRINGGGG... get some midget strippers on the program, or some callers with learning disabilities or SOMETHING

BamaPhred said...

If I had not heard you speak your name before (via some electronic medium) I would have embarrassed myself by calling you “eeben” if we ever met. Why? Why do you not? Respect muh culture. Lol. Shout out to wle.

JLRB said...

Finally had a chance to listen to the radio show (laughing to myself on the train). Well done. Your responses to the callers showed considerable patience. Even beyond the "Avid" predictable screed types.

Trivial? Having an hour radio slot somehow requires to become Ghandi/ feed the hungry/ house the homeless/shoe the children, with no shoes on their feet?
Your response did a great job of bringing it back to the inefficiency of car centric infrastructure.

(And now I learned about Alabama-speak)

Anonymous said...

Didn't you fuckers ever watch a "christmas carol"? Eben is short for Ebenezer.

Anonymous said...

Hi there, long time ee-bener, first time ebener.

wle said...


If you don't behave - we might start calling in to your "New York City" radio hootenanny, from Alabama and Georgia.

Don't make us come over there!

wle

wle said...

Is Eben a short form of Ebenezer and is it in the Old testa-thing?

A:
They're both proper Hebrew names, but I don't think that Eben is a shortened form of Ebenezer. The opposite actually. Ebenezer is probably a lengthened form of Eben. In Hebrew, Eben means stone, and Ebenezer means "stone of help". I don't know if those names appear in the Old Testament.