Free Ride

For all things Free Ride / Freedom Ride click here.

FREE RIDE is a feature length documentary focusing on a fun loving group of “kids on bikes.” Once a month this loose collective of bicycle enthusiasts gets together to peddle the streets of Los Angeles. The goal is simply to socialize, get a little exercise and most of all have fun.

Reading the above description, one might develop a nostalgic scenario of innocence and bliss, wind blown hair, smiles and sunshine. How does that picture change when it’s revealed that these “kids” ages 14-40, are Black? Racing from Compton to Beverly Hills, they call themselves the Freedom Riders, a name referencing the freedom movement of the 60’s. Emotions instantly surface among many inside and outside the circle, and a simple bike ride is made political. The question is why?

In what some are calling a “post racial” America, the “Obama generation,” isn’t taking kindly to reminders of its historical dirty laundry. A monthly gathering of Black people who may or may not otherwise socialize in lighter, whiter circles is considered a “threat.” Are the Freedom Riders peddling backwards or are “safe spaces” like these needed to find our way out of the silent velodrome?

The Los Angeles bicycle community is as vast and diverse as the people who make up this country. Some people use their bikes to commute to work and run errands. Others get suited up in matching, colorful spandex from head to toe, taking to the road every Saturday afternoon. Some cruise along the beach boardwalk taking in the sites while others whip past, interested only in speed. There are teens that do flips on ramps and men whose only motivation is to deliver them a pizza.

Every night, east side or west side, north or south somewhere in Los Angles, groups of enthusiasts, 15 to 500 deep take over the empty streets. These rides have personalities that are just as varied as the riders. There are costumed rides, cruiser rides, party rides, and super fast rides called ”hustles.” There’s the pizza ride, whose cyclist’s sole missions is to stop and get a “slice” at various pizza joints in town. Another ride, dubbed “friends of the friendless” seeks out someone, anyone, riding alone and escort them to their destination (like it or not). Although they are open to everyone the thing most of these rides have in common is they attract mostly young white men.

In reaction to the homogeneity of the rides, and the enthusiasts they attract, some women have opted to participate in rides like GOGA, which are explicitly for “girls only”. At the Bicycle Kitchen, Los Angeles’ most well known bike co-op, Monday nights are women only night. It is clear women feel they need to have time alone to mix, mingle, wrench and be women.

The inspiration for the Freedom Rides came about naturally. In January 2009, I was riding my bike down Melrose when I spotted a new bike shop, BikeStyler Customs. I stopped in and was please to find out it was black owned and operated. One of the owners, J Swift and I quickly came up with the idea of the Freedom Rides. Simply, we would start a monthly gathering of “black kids on bikes.”

Safe spaces like these are important for communities of color. They are often built around the black church or barbershop but for blacks involved in “alternative” or “underground” sub-cultures, these are not always welcomed options. Simply put, they wanted to provide a “safe space” for black cyclists to breathe, reset and just be “normal”. There was no analysis or dialogue about why this was necessary, important and over due, for them, it just made sense.

But a dialogue it became, actually an argument. We were called racists and websites forums “for the community” repeatedly blocked advertisements. Members of the homogeneous white male bicycle community and some of its female counterparts were hurt, enraged, and afraid. They questioned why we’d want to leave them out. They couldn’t see that the ride was not designed to exclude them, it’s purpose is to INCLUDE us. Racism is alive and well and sorry but even us black hipsters feel it. The mere concept of this ride, shatters the liberal hipster utopia so many of these cyclists are privileged to exist in.

Ironically the very same people, who opposed the Freedom Ride, support GoGA. In an online forum, one person wrote, “Women are different than men, black people aren’t different than white people…. are they?” Another wrote “Isn’t this furthering racism, by highlighting that there are differences?” Clearly we have some things to discuss.

And so comes my next documentary, FREE RIDE. Propelled by breath taking images of Rides and “Ridazz” sets the stage for questions, commentary, dialogue, and testimony. Enthusiasts and experts alike will offer opinion but perhaps the most important opinion will be that of the “kids” who make up the Freedom Ride. And who knows, their message just might spread; Freedom Ride Chicago, Atlanta, New York? It wouldn’t surprise me.

For all things Free Ride / Freedom Ride click here.