CULTUrE | bikes “the f---ing end,” continued...
JULY 31ST - AUGUST 11TH
When Everett started the club, he spent the first four rides showing up to an empty bar. “I would ride around the neighborhood, have a drink, go home and call it a fiasco,” he says. On the fifth ride, when a handful of people actually showed up, Everett didn’t even have a destination in mind because he expected to be on his own again. These days, the “Full Moon Fiasco” rides often attract more than 100 riders. Today, looking back on the club’s six-year run, Everett and regular riders credit it with something bigger than creating a social scene. It’s made cycling more accessible, they say, showing people “you can be a bike rider” instead of a “cyclist” and use two wheels as often as four on a daily basis. It’s also, they hope, changed the way drivers see bikes. “I think it’s brought to light cycling in a positive way,” Everett says. “We can prove to those people in cars that we’re not really in your way. We’re not a big problem for you. … If 100 people are not in your way, one guy is not in your way.” The whole premise of the group — a swarm of cyclists, many who are already close friends, getting together for beers — can seem cliquish, but FBC veterans are eager to prove the opposite. Anyone is welcome on the ride, and experienced riders stop along the route to make sure no one’s lost, having bike trouble or breaking the club’s only rule (“don’t be an asshole”). Spokane native Will Zobrist, who met Everett
at a South Hill bakery, says he barely rode before he started going to FBC rides back in 2009. Once he got a car in high school, he says, he just didn’t think about biking. But when he could use riding as a way to meet new people — and have a beer — he started going to almost every ride and inviting his friends. “It’s a lot of fun; it’s low pressure,” he says. “During the summer you see a lot of people out for the first time. They just got a bike or their friend got them into biking.” Moreover, FBC was at the root of a rise in bike culture in Spokane over the last decade, says Ken Paulman, who rode in some of the earliest FBC rides and has since moved to Minneapolis. When it started, nothing else like it existed, he says, so it drew a diverse group of people who kept coming back. For the people who’ll miss FBC when it’s gone next month, that’s what they’re losing: the chance to get together with a group of like-minded people, have drinks and happen to ride a bike along the way. “That’s the really unique thing about a city of Spokane’s size,” Paulman says. “You can convene your whole cycling community once a month.” n heidig@inlander.com FBC Final Fiasco • Sat, July 27, meeting at 7 pm, ride at 9 pm • Swamp Tavern • 1904 W. 5th Ave. • fbcspokane.blogspot.com
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21 and Over Event
Wednesday • July 31, 2013 • 7pm Wednesday • August 7, 2013 • 7pm Grab your picnic basket and blanket and let the Symphony serenade you as the sun sets over the city. Exciting wines. Exciting music.
$40 for table seating under the tent • $20 for general admission on the lawn
Tickets on sale now at 624-1200 or visit www.spokanesymphony.org
When Spokane Was Modern Extended through January 12, 2014
It’s kitsch. It’s cool. OPEN ON SUNDAYS Wed - Sun 10am to 5pm 2316 W First Avenue, Spokane
sponsored by
28 INLANDER JULY 25, 2013
(509) 456-3931
www.northwestmuseum.org An Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution
Lead Sponsors: Integrus Architecture Joel E. Ferris Foundation Lydig Construction, Inc. Curators and design :