Riverwest is almost situated in a perfect place for a biking community because it’s just far enough from other major parts of the city that it would be difficult for one to walk every where, but yet not far enough for the necessity to own a car.

Hipsters, hippies, artists and punks; yes, I understand many consider these the main inhabitants of Riverwest. I’m not necessarily going to disagree, but there is one more group many people forget about, the bikers.

By bikers, I of course mean bicycle riding folk. They’re not really a separate class, but more the unifying quality that ties the other four classes of the neighborhood together. Bikes are really more of an agreed upon mode of transportation for the community.

It is more environmentally minded, which is an obvious argument for it, but I feel the community thinks it’s also easier to get around town this way. They know it doesn’t pollute like a car, but also there is no waiting around or running after it like a bus, and it’s quite a bit cheaper than a taxi.

Riverwest is almost situated in a perfect place for a biking community because it’s just far enough from other major parts of the city that it would be difficult for one to walk everywhere, but yet not far enough for the necessity to own a car. Plus bicycles have the added benefit of being the perfect “short cut” device, it seems so much easier to cut through a parking lot, go down an ally, or take a side walk when the road ends.

This kind of ingenuity is something bikers pride themselves on, that and a great sense of direction. There is also a sort of untouchable, impenetrableness to a Riverwest biker.

They are the crazy folk you see in the middle of January waiting at an intersection to turn left during the season’s worst snow storm. They will ride their bikes through any type of weather during any season. Their determination would even make a mail carrier proud. It’s easy to spot one of these people, the only separating detail they have from the masses is that they always have their right pant leg rolled up slightly past mid-calf.

What really separates them is their care for, and the quality of, their bicycles.

Each bike tells a tail of its owner. Bikes are customized like cars or MySpace pages and each one is unique. It would, in fact, be quite hard to find two similar bikes in the area because all of them seem to be customized to fit the individual rider.

In the neighborhood, one can see restored bikes from the ’50s and ’60s, fixed gears and banana seats. They are the moving art work of the area. They can make statements or be as invisible as the leaves in the street. You won’t find the department store Huffys you‘d find in your garage being ridden in this area.

When I first moved to Milwaukee I planted myself firmly in the Riverwest neighborhood and instantly broke out my bike and went out to search the area. I was fairly surprised how many other bicycle riders there were in the neighborhood. On every street there seemed to be a bike chained to a porch or another person riding in the opposite direction.

I later came to find out that a fair amount of the city’s biker elite also live in Riverwest, the city’s bike messengers, who are more or less the gods of bike riding.

Although bike riding isn’t exclusively a Riverwest occurrence, of all the communities in the city, it seems like Riverwest could claim it more theirs than any other.

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