Photography: Kathleen Hay

In the past five years, there has been an explosion of brightly colored, highly individualized fixed gear bicycles hitting the streets, bringing with them a whole new style and culture of urban riding. Bicycles of all sorts have been popping up around town, as people become aware and mobilize around the merits of a transportation option as beneficial for the environment as it is for our bodies.

There is, however, more to riding than the simple logic of self-propulsion, something that prompts people to ride not only for transportation, but also for pleasure. Riding is fun, and the bicycle is a brilliantly simple tool to interact more intimately with our immediate environment. It also brings an added element of beauty and expression to an otherwise bleak and concrete landscape.

Look at the downtown of any major city and you will find artists of all “mediums.” With local designers bringing their culture of expression into our daily lives through fashion, music, film, furniture and food, it is no wonder that this has come to include our hand-crafted tools of transportation. In choosing to ride a more beautiful bicycle, we become a part of a larger movement, dispelling the myths of car culture, modeling a truly elegant and intelligent archetype for living.

Jeff Mitchell is the owner of Capital City Cycles in downtown Victoria, a shop that caters to the everyday urban rider. Jeff has certainly seen the positive effects of bicycles as a modern aesthetic for urban living. The single-speed bike has achieved the success of increasing the sheer number of riders on the streets due to the unmistakable appeal of riding a sexy bicycle around town.

“I think people have a lot more fun on bikes that look good. It gets people who might not normally be riding a bike more into it if it’s something that looks nice,” said Mitchell, who sees people getting into cycling through fixed gears, and can only consider this a positive thing. Many of those riding these bikes had previously not experienced the real value and beauty of the bicycle, at least not the way designing and building these fancier, flashier bikes gives rise to.

Capital City Cycles caters to those living and working in the downtown core. They carry stylish bikes that can be ridden in any kind of clothing and in any kind of weather, providing an option for those who wouldn’t necessarily consider themselves cyclists by nature. The mayor himself frequents Capital City as a welcoming and relaxed shop to enjoy a cup of coffee and chat with those who share a similar vision for the resiliency of our downtown core. If we look at the bicycle as a technology that can outlive the auto-saurus many times over, the forward-thinking move is to ride a bike. While we’re at it, we can make our revolution beautiful, and see our bicycles as the stunning artful craftsmanship they truly are.