Weekly Cyco Gallery: Issue #1

From Ireland to South Carolina to West Virginia single track

Greetings, fellow cycopaths.

A little while ago, I sent an email to you all asking for photos of your bikes leaning up against stuff. I thought it could be interesting for us all to see where in the world our little Cycotherapy community has ridden.

Photos of bikes leaning up against stuff is — I’ve learned — just part of being a bike owner. I can’t quite put my finger on it, just like I can’t quite understand the impulse for snapping selfies and posting them all over social media.

To me, the selfie seems solipsistic — as if turning the camera onto ourselves is the ultimate ignorance of the rest of our surroundings. Yet, at the same time, selfies are proof of an experience’s worth and existence. A manifestation of FOMO (the Fear of Missing Out). If you didn’t take a picture with you in it during an experience, it didn’t happen.

And so I often scoff at selfie practitioners, even though I’ve posted some myself from time to time. (Though, usually I make an awkward face to display my discomfort with the activity.)

ANYWAY.

The bikie is the cyclist’s version of the selfie, in a way. But, since the person taking the photo is oft missing, the bikie is somehow nobler. It’s like the cyclist taking the picture is purposely bowing out of the moment to pay respect to the supreme bicycle, the star of the moment.

So, as homage to the bikie, here is our first installment of the Weekly Cyco Gallery: a gallery of photos featuring bicycles taken by cyclists. Each week I’ll post a handful of bike photos.

Then, I’ll ask you which is your favorite. The one with the most votes gets a short blurb in the following week’s installment. I’ll ask the photographer for more details about the bike and the adventure.

Thank you to our contributors this week: Mike, Tom, Emily.

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Singleton Swash Beach, South Carolina; circa September 2022. Pictured: 2014 Cannondale EVO Six leaning against a palm tree in the sand. Photographer: Tom Roepke

Mount Vernon, Ohio; circa September 2022. Pictured: A Schwinn MTB with a kickstand and spoke reflectors waiting for its owner on a sidewalk. Photographer: Emily Santamaria

Mountwood Park near Parkersburg, West Virginia; circa Spring 2015. Pictured: A mud-covered 2007 Grove Innovations X-Frame leaning against an old crude oil barrel. Photographer: Michael Jarosick

Mt. Gilead, Ohio, near Candlewood Lake; Oct. 9. Pictured: Merlin Light titanium frame (unknown year) leaning against a gate during a pitstop on the Fall N Leaf ride. Photographer: Me

Rural Ireland; circa 2016. Pictured: A 1996 Lombardo Venezia leaning up against a white stucco-type wall, featuring a Brooks saddle and a friction generator that powers the headlight and tail light. Photographer: Michael Jarosick

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That’s all for today, folks. Don’t forget to vote! The bike with the most get’s a blurb in next week’s installment.

If you have bikies, please submit them to brazdill.25@gmail.com. Include the location, the date of the photo and the year, make and model of the bike.

Look for installments of the Weekly Cyco Gallery to drop every Friday afternoon, around lunch time.