Re-Cycling : Blazing Out of Our Garages and Childhoods, Bikes Haven’t Just Come Back; They’ve Taken Over

It must have been strange, at first, for the joggers on the Santa Ana River trail.

There they were, loping through the ‘70s, lulled into a Zen-like rhythm by the crunching of their high-tech shoes on the asphalt, luxuriating in the unencumbered freedom of wind in the hair and receding miles at the back.

But then, out of the ‘80s, came the mechanized legions, zipping past the joggers with a quick hiss of loose dirt and a well-oiled meshing of gears, ablaze in shocking pink, turquoise blue and ads for Italian liqueurs across their chests. Shocking blurs of bandy calves and pumping thighs, booming along on lean machines that looked like they were built by NASA.

Welcome to two-wheel heaven.

In the four years since dozens of Olympic cyclists in Mission Viejo electrified a nation largely ignorant of anything to do with modern cycling, Orange County has become the Valhalla of velocity, a kind of land of Gatorade and honey for anyone who thinks bliss is spinning along at 20 m.p.h. on a pair of tires about the width of an index finger.

As a result of a combination of good weather, Olympic history, accessibility to good trails, a huge pool of fashionable amateurs, sore knees and the never-ending trendiness of Southern California in general, Orange County has developed itself a reputation.

“It’s heaven for the cyclist here,” said Mike Wolk, president of Orange County Wheelmen, the county’s largest cycling club. “There are so many great places to ride. There are even a few Olympic hopefuls who train in the south county from time to time. And our club has grown tremendously. We started out 20 years ago with just a handful of people and there are close to 800 members now.”

The cycling boom in the county, Wolk said, can be thought of as almost Darwinian in that bicycles have shown up in so many garages through a sort of process of natural selection. Many former recreational runners, he said, whose hips and knees had begun to suffer the effects of repeated pounding, switched to cycling to relieve the pressure. Also, he said, many triathlon enthusiasts tired of the swimming and running aspects of the event and became full-time cyclists.

And, said Bev Plass, president of the Bicycle Club of Irvine, “it’s really great cardiovascular exercise, but it’s also social. People get started and they come out on rides and they get to talking to other cyclists about trails and equipment and mechanics and they end up wanting to do more and more. We have former runners who like being able to cover more territory in a ride and see more things. Some people I know do centuries (100-mile rides) every weekend in the springtime.”

Wolk said that “generally speaking, the beginning rider who comes to us is looking for the social aspect. That’s fine, because it’s certainly healthier to meet people on a bike ride than out in a bar somewhere.”

Not to say that the sole benefits of the increase in cycling have to do with health. With the ceaseless demand for tires, spokes, component groups, brake hoods, digital speedometers, saddles, valves, gears, cranks, bottle cages, lycra shorts, Campari jerseys, cleated shoes, mesh-back gloves, helmets, handlebar tape, patch kits, pumps, grease and trail maps, equipment dealers are turning a very tidy dollar.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Ken Hassen, the Southern California sales and promotion representative for Giro bicycle helmets. Two years ago, he said, his company had trouble selling one of the best-known helmets for $35. Now, he said, they sell without any problem for $70.

Hassen said the cycling trend is far more rampant in Orange County than anywhere else in California or even in the nation.

“It’s interesting,” he said, “but Southern California is really the forefront of any business. (Trends) start here and work their way east.”

For instance, he said, such innovations as aluminum and carbon fiber cycle frames were gobbled up here before they won wide acceptance elsewhere in the country.

It is also no accident that the nation’s largest bike shop is in Orange County. Two-Wheel Transit Authority, whose main location is in Fountain Valley, celebrated its 13th anniversary in May.

“When I opened my first store,” said owner Paul Moore, 41, “we pulled in $13,000 in eight months. Last year we were the largest single cycling store in the United States with sales volume in excess of $4 million.

“It really boomed in ’84 and ‘85,” he said. “We doubled in sales each year. There’s still a real boom, but it’s leveled off for us mostly because there is more competition.”

Two-Wheel’s closest competition--both geographically and fiscally--is Bike Tech, an up-and-coming franchise only a few feet away from Two-Wheel. According to Hassen, owner Bill McCready, riding the crest of the cycling wave, now operates five Bike Tech shops.

A visit to any cycling store today--especially for someone whose last bike may have been used on a paper route in the early ‘60s--can be an almost staggering experience. At a shop such as Two-Wheel, for instance, dozens of brightly colored bikes hang from the ceiling or are propped up in racks. Elsewhere, component parts and gadgets of every kind line display cases. And the prices generally range from $500 for a complete bike to nearly $1,000 for a single professional-caliber frame alone.

But perhaps the most colorful aspect of modern cycling involves clothing. The serious (or simply fashion-conscious) cyclist can pull on an array of duds that make Liberace’s wardrobe look like it came from Brooks Brothers. Skin-tight lycra shorts and body suits come in colors that nearly glow in the dark, and tight cycling jerseys can look like five or six French billboards squashed into a couple of yards of fabric. There are even color-coordinated helmet covers.

“Sure, there are a lot of people out there with outfits to match the color of their bikes,” Wolk said. “It’s an aspect of cycling a lot of people really enjoy. We have first-time riders decked out in all the fashion clothing and the expensive bike, but that’s not really advisable. Before you invest a whole ton of money, you should try the sport out to see if you like it.”

One way of testing the waters, said Henry Carstensen, the owner of Bikeland, an Anaheim cycling store, is to join a cycling club. A veteran member of the Velo bike club of Orange, Carstensen said there is a club for every level of experience.

“Back in the 1970s there were not that many bike clubs,” he said. “At that time the city of Paramount had a big club, so many people from Orange County went there. Velo of Orange was an offshoot of that club. It started in the mid-1970s and now puts on races twice a year and has training sessions and Sunday rides.”

Carstensen said there are clubs that are known primarily as racing organizations, while others attract cyclists interested in touring, family rides, long rides, track cycling and fun rides, as well as clubs such as Cal Vet for riders mostly age 40 and over.

Such a wellspring of activity is one reason Jake Steinman said he intends to move the base of operations of his City Sports Magazine from Marina del Rey to Long Beach. He said he wants to get nearer to Orange County and its cycling readers.

“I think moving to that location will allow us to be more sensitive to what’s happening in Orange County,” he said. “You have to be light on your feet when you’re in the fitness and recreation business like we are. People’s interests are like moving targets.”

Steinman’s 14-year-old publication--which is generally distributed at health clubs and sporting goods stores in Southern California--has built a reputation for having names, places, dates, times and results for everything related to jogging, aerobics, triathlons, biathlons and cycling. However, cycling has begun to predominate. Last year, 20% to 25% of City Sports’ revenue came from cycling-related advertising.

“The last three (issues) have had a cyclist on the cover in some way, shape or form,” Steinman said. “We’re trying to cover cycling from the right angle at the right time. I think people are trading up and taking old bikes out of their closets and buying new ones. From an economic standpoint, it’s a real rosy picture.”

The increasing number of riders on the road has also brought to the fore a sometimes touchy subject that cycling writers have called “cycling politics.” It can best be described as a sort of “we-versus-they” confrontation between cyclists and motorists (and those public officials who favor either group).

The confrontation often takes this form:

Avid cyclists, who usually are competent riders in traffic, maintain that the law allows them to operate in traffic as a true vehicle, entitled to share the road with automobiles. Many of them would like to see on-road bike lanes dedicated on most streets.

Their opponents assert that riders in traffic pose a hazard to motorists, and that bike lanes would not improve the situation.

“The more serious cyclists feel they don’t have to rely on a bicycle trail,” said Dan Gilchrist, the rides, programs and events coordinator at Two-Wheel Transit Authority. “They’ll use a trail if it’s there, but a more educated cyclist will take just about any road that’s available. They have the confidence to deal with traffic. Certainly, it’s a learned skill.”

But, he said, many motorists regard cyclists as intruders in traffic, and courses in bicycle riding and safety for schoolchildren often do little to change that perception.

“Some of the kids’ courses I’ve seen are grossly inadequate,” he said. “In a lot of cases, they’re half-hour seminars on how to avoid cars, not how to develop good cycling skills.”

For the learner, however, Orange County offers nearly 350 miles of bike trails, several of which are off-road. The longest of these, the Santa Ana River trail, is flat, paved, and 22 miles long. On weekends, it’s also a riot of club cyclists, individuals, knots of training riders and families out for a spin. Each month, an estimated 42,000 riders travel that trail.

By nearly any yardstick, it’s a phenomenon. And, in a county where the social, the athletic, the outdoor and the fashionable are de rigueur , their combination in one sport likely was inevitable.

“It’s the new thing to do,” said Jeanne Mitchell of Irvine, a 26-year-old cyclist in the thrall of the boom. “Everybody in this area is doing it. I’ve had friends who’ve been getting into cycling over the last three years. But now it’s a fad (with) the clothes and the colors. It doesn’t feel like exercise.”