Tag Archives: Bike

Cycle Killers

17 Mar

Cycle killers

With its own porn, polo, and personalities, bike culture in Boston isn’t just about getting to work any more

By TOM MEEK  |  April 30, 2010

From atop their mounts, the participants — some with helmets and gloves, many more in just T-shirts — jostle one another for a chance to whack the ball with their care-crafted mallets from one goal line to the other.

“I want to see some blood!” screams a spectator in fishnet stockings and glittering hot pants as others nod in degenerate agreement.

VIEW:Photos from Boston bike polo matches

Clearly, this isn’t the sport of gentlemen unfolding at, say, the Myopia Hunt Club in Hamilton, but rather urban bike polo at a street-hockey pit in Allston. Many are dressed in black and look like refugees from a club Goth night. Participants sometimes wear Mexican-wrestler masks, while others have no shirts on at all.  Continue reading →

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Pedal Promise

17 Mar

Pedal promise

The ongoing perils and recent improvements en route to a riding renaissance.

By TOM MEEK  |  May 13, 2010

Bike-safety-2010-main
FAST LANESince Mayor Menino reinstated Boston’s bike program in 2007, the city has added 15 miles of bike lanes, with another 20 miles to come this year.

Boston has its fair share of deserving bad reputations: the sports fans whined for some 86 years about a “curse” because the Red Sox couldn’t seal the deal; the drivers are terrible; and, thanks in no small part to those driving skills, the city’s streets were thrice voted by Bicycling Magazine as some of the worst in the country for cyclists.

But like the Sox’s dry spell, all bad things must eventually come to an end. So Boston set about to reform its bad bike behavior, because — well, for no other reason it seems than a few years ago someone bought Mayor Tom Menino a bike. For that, all local bikers should be thankful, even if there are still perilous intersections to cross. Continue reading →

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