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BikeSnobNYC Unleashes Himself on the Pacific Northwest

By Robinson Cano

The inveterate urban-utilitarian cyclist-blogger BikeSnobNYC has taken his new eponymous book on tour this summer, bringing out his “real thorough scouring” of the world of cycling, first to Austin, Texas, and then north and west where it culminated in a signing at Powell’s Books in the bicycling mecca of Portland, Ore.

Spending his first Father’s Day away from his wife and son — the Snob has a new baby boy — he was greeted with the largest turnout of the tour. A motley compilation of local bicycle enthusiasts were presented with the “BSNYC Slidacular Showcase” (a slideshow), a rather self-effacing personal photo album of the guest of honor through the years — from him with his very first bicycle, to the old lady who’s red Buick mowed him down on a New York City street just before embarking on the tour.

“People should make fun of me,” he told the crowd, offering a glimpse into the man behind the blog, in exchange for the ways in which he’s carried on online, lambasting the current bike scene in Portland. Renowned for something of a cultural zeitgeist, he conceded that there is one primary reason he ridicules the city so: “It’s jealousy ... I’m sure you know why people make fun of you. It’s a great place to ride.”

Hailing from Brooklyn, N.Y., and unmasking himself [until recently his true identity was unknown] for the sake of the tour, the Snob has revealed himself to be Eben Weiss, former literary agent and a writer for Outside and Bicycling magazine. He began the blog a few years ago anonymously as a way to take all forms of cycling and “pick it apart and analyze and ridicule it,” he told Bicycle Paper. Having now spawned this book, the site has only gained in readership since its inception. Among the readers the blog has attracted is the ever-modest Lance Armstrong, who has become a friend and riding companion of the Snob (their rides through Central Park in NYC have been well-documented).

Eben Weiss, aka Bike Snob NYC.

But both the site’s and the book’s greatest appeal is its broad accessibility, in that any cyclist or urbanist can take pleasure in perusing the posts and pages — one needn’t be well-established or well-versed in the cycling community to enjoy it. Composed in a relatively selfless stream-of-consciousness style laced with biting humor and insight, what brings everything together is Weiss’ level-headed approach: “There are a lot of things so practical about [cycling] to work into one’s daily life ... I’m a big fan of using the right tools for the right job, and the bicycle is most often the right one to use. It’s fast and efficient, you can park it anywhere, and it’s enjoyable on a purely recreational level, too.”

The cornerstone of the Snob’s treatise is confronting the myth of “bike culture,” as he put it, as it grows into a cosmopolitan consciousness.

“There is a new emphasis on gearing toward a no-nonsense [form of] riding,” he said. “My idealized thoughts are that it’s good that a lot of this current bike boom we’re in is about mobility, where even the trendiest hipster is exploring how to get around the city by bicycle ... and cities are rising to meet these demands.”

Photo by Robinson Cano

Bike Snob showing photos of himself when he was younger.

Still, at the heart of it all is how personal the bicycle experience really is, for as he told the readers of Powell’s’ blog in closing out his stint ahead of the book signing, “I wanted to express how cycling, or really anything you love, can be a path to understanding yourself and the world, and ultimately to happiness.”