Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2012 10:25:37 GMT -5
On any given day, you might see Jake Gyllenhaal. Or Matthew Broderick or David Byrne. David Beckham has been said to swing by, just for some much-needed air.
This particular celebrity haunt is not some chic restaurant or new-age health spa in New York; it is, of all places, a bicycle shop in SoHo, where John Mayer bought a Langster, and David Lee Roth got his red Bianchi repaired.
But unlike some other celebrity haunts, fame has few privileges at the shop, Bicycle Habitat. Its owner, Charlie McCorkell, would not know Lady Gaga if she wrapped a tire rim around his neck. (Actually, Lady Gaga has been to the store, and true to form, Mr. McCorkell did not know who she was — even though she was dressed in little more than spike heels and a tissue-thin leotard.)
“I’m sort of face blind,” Mr. McCorkell chuckled.
He is so unlikely to recognize boldface names that whenever one enters the store, his staff plays a game with him called “Do you know who that is?”
Mr. McCorkell generally loses.
In its 35 years in operation, Bicycle Habitat, on Lafayette Street, has not merely ridden the ebb and flow of New York City’s complicated relationship with bicyclists, it has tried to change the culture — its advocacy evolving from street protests in the 1980s to recent trips to Washington to lobby Congress.
Along the way, the store has picked up a core of loyal customers, from the hard-core cyclists to the Hollywood types who spend time in SoHo. Mr. McCorkell has found that his better-known customers have brought more attention to a sport and lifestyle he has been promoting since 1969, when he started riding his bike from Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, to Cooper Union.
City officials have sought to capitalize on celebrity tie-ins to bicycling as the city continues its bike-friendly agenda. The Transportation Department enlisted celebrities like the chef Mario Batali and the former model Paulina Porizkova in its “Don’t Be a Jerk” campaign to encourage more polite cycling. It invited David Byrne to a fund-raiser last year for its bike-share program, which is beginning in the summer.
The actor Matthew Modine, who started Bicycle for a Day, a nonprofit group to promote cycling, said that he was ready to help the city’s efforts, recalling how he used an abandoned Raleigh orange beach cruiser to get to auditions when he was starting out as an actor.
“It was my gem; it kept me in shape,” he said. “That orange beach cruiser was like a gift from the gods.”
The relationship between film stars and bicycling has been well established. Steven Rea, author of “Hollywood Rides a Bike: Cycling with the Stars” said that in the 1940s and 1950s, movie studios “essentially had bike-share programs up and running that would make Toronto or Paris envious.” He said workers used bicycles to “wheel from one side of the lot to another, from dressing room to cafeteria to soundstage.” He said many actors also cycled between takes, like Jimmy Stewart, who took breaks from filming “Rear Window” on a bike.
“The idea of cutting loose and cruising around the studio was liberating, fun,” Mr. Rea said.
Many studios continue to keep bikes around their lots even though they have added scooters and skateboards to the mix. Doug Steiner, chairman of Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, said that he had installed bike racks. He said when Brad Pitt and George Clooney filmed “Burn After Reading,” they rode around on their bicycles during breaks. He said that so many workers at Steiner Studios rode bicycles that he was hoping the city would put a bike-sharing stand nearby.
Attracting celebrities to bike riding was far from Mr. McCorkell’s mind when he opened his SoHo bike shop in 1978. Back then, he just wanted to make a living from his passion for bicycles, and he thought SoHo was the best spot to attract cyclists coming over the Brooklyn Bridge, and at the time, it was affordable. The only celebrity who stumbled in was Sid Vicious, who passed by en route to his nearby methadone clinic.
In more recent years, you might have seen Sheryl Crow, who once asked to borrow bicycle equipment to record sounds for an album. Katy Perry appeared in celebrity magazines riding a bike she purchased from the shop. Mr. Byrne mentioned Hal Ruzal, a co-founder of Bicycle Habitat who is now the shop’s head mechanic, in his book “Bicycle Diaries.”
“It’s something celebrities like to be seen doing. It’s a healthy choice and a human choice,” Mr. McCorkell said. “It’s not them going to clubs or looking like bag ladies.”
Mr. Ruzal’s background as a guitarist and a one-time regular at CBGB helped draw a musically oriented crowd, who he said tended to ride bikes because they had unconventional work schedules and had the time to cycle to work.
There has been the rare occasion when even Mr. McCorkell can get star-struck. A dozen years ago, a woman came into his shop to purchase a child’s bike helmet. When Mr. McCorkell heard her speak, he blurted out, “I know your work,” and pressed her to say who she was.
The celebrity customer was Betty Aberlin, better known to some as Lady Aberlin from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” which Mr. McCorkell watched faithfully with his two sons when they were young. Ms. Aberlin bought a bike helmet to ship to Minneapolis to a boy who had undergone brain surgery and whose family could not afford to buy him one.
“That kind of haunted me,” he said. “I think she was amazed to be recognized by an adult.”
This particular celebrity haunt is not some chic restaurant or new-age health spa in New York; it is, of all places, a bicycle shop in SoHo, where John Mayer bought a Langster, and David Lee Roth got his red Bianchi repaired.
But unlike some other celebrity haunts, fame has few privileges at the shop, Bicycle Habitat. Its owner, Charlie McCorkell, would not know Lady Gaga if she wrapped a tire rim around his neck. (Actually, Lady Gaga has been to the store, and true to form, Mr. McCorkell did not know who she was — even though she was dressed in little more than spike heels and a tissue-thin leotard.)
“I’m sort of face blind,” Mr. McCorkell chuckled.
He is so unlikely to recognize boldface names that whenever one enters the store, his staff plays a game with him called “Do you know who that is?”
Mr. McCorkell generally loses.
In its 35 years in operation, Bicycle Habitat, on Lafayette Street, has not merely ridden the ebb and flow of New York City’s complicated relationship with bicyclists, it has tried to change the culture — its advocacy evolving from street protests in the 1980s to recent trips to Washington to lobby Congress.
Along the way, the store has picked up a core of loyal customers, from the hard-core cyclists to the Hollywood types who spend time in SoHo. Mr. McCorkell has found that his better-known customers have brought more attention to a sport and lifestyle he has been promoting since 1969, when he started riding his bike from Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, to Cooper Union.
City officials have sought to capitalize on celebrity tie-ins to bicycling as the city continues its bike-friendly agenda. The Transportation Department enlisted celebrities like the chef Mario Batali and the former model Paulina Porizkova in its “Don’t Be a Jerk” campaign to encourage more polite cycling. It invited David Byrne to a fund-raiser last year for its bike-share program, which is beginning in the summer.
The actor Matthew Modine, who started Bicycle for a Day, a nonprofit group to promote cycling, said that he was ready to help the city’s efforts, recalling how he used an abandoned Raleigh orange beach cruiser to get to auditions when he was starting out as an actor.
“It was my gem; it kept me in shape,” he said. “That orange beach cruiser was like a gift from the gods.”
The relationship between film stars and bicycling has been well established. Steven Rea, author of “Hollywood Rides a Bike: Cycling with the Stars” said that in the 1940s and 1950s, movie studios “essentially had bike-share programs up and running that would make Toronto or Paris envious.” He said workers used bicycles to “wheel from one side of the lot to another, from dressing room to cafeteria to soundstage.” He said many actors also cycled between takes, like Jimmy Stewart, who took breaks from filming “Rear Window” on a bike.
“The idea of cutting loose and cruising around the studio was liberating, fun,” Mr. Rea said.
Many studios continue to keep bikes around their lots even though they have added scooters and skateboards to the mix. Doug Steiner, chairman of Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, said that he had installed bike racks. He said when Brad Pitt and George Clooney filmed “Burn After Reading,” they rode around on their bicycles during breaks. He said that so many workers at Steiner Studios rode bicycles that he was hoping the city would put a bike-sharing stand nearby.
Attracting celebrities to bike riding was far from Mr. McCorkell’s mind when he opened his SoHo bike shop in 1978. Back then, he just wanted to make a living from his passion for bicycles, and he thought SoHo was the best spot to attract cyclists coming over the Brooklyn Bridge, and at the time, it was affordable. The only celebrity who stumbled in was Sid Vicious, who passed by en route to his nearby methadone clinic.
In more recent years, you might have seen Sheryl Crow, who once asked to borrow bicycle equipment to record sounds for an album. Katy Perry appeared in celebrity magazines riding a bike she purchased from the shop. Mr. Byrne mentioned Hal Ruzal, a co-founder of Bicycle Habitat who is now the shop’s head mechanic, in his book “Bicycle Diaries.”
“It’s something celebrities like to be seen doing. It’s a healthy choice and a human choice,” Mr. McCorkell said. “It’s not them going to clubs or looking like bag ladies.”
Mr. Ruzal’s background as a guitarist and a one-time regular at CBGB helped draw a musically oriented crowd, who he said tended to ride bikes because they had unconventional work schedules and had the time to cycle to work.
There has been the rare occasion when even Mr. McCorkell can get star-struck. A dozen years ago, a woman came into his shop to purchase a child’s bike helmet. When Mr. McCorkell heard her speak, he blurted out, “I know your work,” and pressed her to say who she was.
The celebrity customer was Betty Aberlin, better known to some as Lady Aberlin from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” which Mr. McCorkell watched faithfully with his two sons when they were young. Ms. Aberlin bought a bike helmet to ship to Minneapolis to a boy who had undergone brain surgery and whose family could not afford to buy him one.
“That kind of haunted me,” he said. “I think she was amazed to be recognized by an adult.”