01 June 2011

SoWa Bike


This bike was getting a lot of attention at the SoWa Open Market (Sundays in the South End). There was an Italian family touching it, I got to feeling a little bit uncomfortable with their enthusiastic appreciation - it seems that bike groping etiquette is different across cultures. Would you touch another person's bike? Most particularly, would you explore the firmness of their Brooks saddle?

9 comments:

  1. ha. No I have not touched another's bike! I have dropped a note inthe basket and taken a picture but even that felt very crossing of boundaries!

    Love SOWA.

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  2. Hah! I totally got up close to check out that bike this weekend. Normally touching I think is a bit taboo. Maybe just the handlebars . . .

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  3. Americans touch my bikes all the time, including testing the saddle's firmness! I sometimes work at cafes where I position myself at the window and keep an eye on my bike, so I get to see this. Who knows what's happening to your bike when you're not watching it : )

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  4. That bike is pretty!

    I don't touch bikes owned by people I don't know - in fact, I even hate shifting a bike over so I can lock mine to the same rack!

    Part of the thing for me is that I regularly have to chase people off of one of my bikes; it's partially because it is a cool looking bike, and partially because of drunks in the neighborhood where I work. But it still drives me crazy.

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  5. Touching someones saddle is just a bit "cheeky".

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  6. I've only ever taken a picture of someone's bike, but even then I felt a bit subversive!

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  7. Chocolate CrucifixJune 25, 2011 at 1:10 PM

    Saddles are for sniffing, not for touching, you plebeians.

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  8. Touching another person's saddle is just a boundary I cannot cross.

    And tell me about that bike basket?

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  9. love the Nantucket Bike Basket Co. Tuckernuck basket!

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