(soft music) - Hi, I'm Anne Ishii and welcome to "Movers and Makers" special about people, places and popular stuff to help you enjoy your pedaling experience.

We'll visit a bike shop and cafe in Conshohocken, working to diversify the cycling community.

And we'll meet a woman who found her inspiration there to create an organization that empowers women and girls.

(upbeat music) (sewing machine whirring) We'll introduce you to a handmade messenger bag made in Philadelphia that's become indispensable to cyclists around the world.

(upbeat music) We'll travel to Camden to visit a section of the Delaware River Heritage Trail where cyclists can experience miles of scenic natural resources.

And we begin with a local business that's been building custom bike frames for over 40 years.

And in 2010, founded an annual event viewed as a celebration of cycling.

(upbeat music) - This is Bilenky Cycleworks world headquarters.

We fabricate custom bikes and we do restorations and modifications.

So we mostly cater to the enthusiast, hobbyist, the hard to fit or hard to please cyclist.

We don't sell standard bikes out the door.

We don't really put on training wheels or fix many flats or do that kinda thing.

We've been doing this in this location since 1992.

I've been building bikes since 1984.

As a fabricator, I see us as a continuation of like Philly that used to be a manufacturing tam.

We're sort of continuing this idea of like making a quality product in the United States.

We try to combine like modern manufacturing techniques with hand techniques and we do what's called filet brazing and we do some very special joinery that's not done in production.

It makes the frame special and they feel different and they have a different performance.

And so we're able to use high-end high tech steels and make really high performance bicycles that are tailored to particular people.

In the mid 90s, we were like the third biggest tandem maker.

We made the first tandem that has these couplers that allows the bike to come apart and fit in a small suitcase.

We supplied these all over the world and before then tandems were, they're really big and they're hard to travel.

And we take other people's bikes that they send us and we put these couplers in and make the bikes travel worthy.

We make a special tandem where the captain sits in the back and there's like a recumbent chair in the front.

But because it's a recumbent, it's good for people who have like back or neck issues or even stroke.

Also families with kids with special needs.

And we have one in the back that we're working on and has an electric motor.

Now every once in a while something happens big, like we built the bike that Joe Biden ordered for Boris Johnson.

That was a couple years ago, that gave us a lot of publicity.

I don't know the exact number, but we're definitely up in the top 10 of like bikeable cities and like good for bike culture.

We have the Wissahickon and the Fairmount Park.

So like even though we're like an urban area, there's actually quite a bit of off-road riding because we have this gigantic park system and so that makes Philly quite different.

- We used to travel around myself and him and do bike shows for Bilenky Cycleworks and we always thought like, you know, Philly's such a great city.

We love Philly.

We should have a show here.

- Yeah, bikes right?

Yeah.

- Bikes, yeah.

- [Bina] We started the show in 2010.

It is the largest independent bike expo on the east coast.

We started in the 23rd Street Armory with I think 68 exhibitors.

By 2013 we were here in the convention center and we've been here since.

- [Speaker 1] Hi.

- Hey, how are you?

Hey.

- Good to see you.

- Good to see you.

- Yeah.

- Are you guys all set?

- I think so.

I'm about to find out.

- Okay.

We have the full spectrum of the cycling industry from large manufacturers down to the smallest artisanal bag and accessory makers.

It's a consumer show.

That's how it was started.

That's the focus over the years as it's grown, it's become the place for industry to come as well because so many folks are launching products and introducing new lines in Philly.

(upbeat music) - You've been in this business for a while.

What are you excited about these days?

- I'm excited about bikes like this.

Bicycles being used as more than just business sport equipment.

- Mhhm.

- Being used as transport so you can move more stuff, more donuts on a bicycle designed like the bikes we have in the shop now.

So the advances in design of cargo bikes and transport bikes and just the way people are using bikes nowadays, instead of them just being a kid's toy or a piece of sport equipment, they're an everyday part of people's lives.

To make it easier to get around the city, the more bicycles there are, the better.

And the people in Philadelphia are chill.

(Anne and Simon chuckling) It seems.

- Is that true?

(Anne laughing) - Now look around.

- Well you sound like a native, so I'm gonna take your word.

(Anne and Simon laughing) - I came here and I stayed for the last 28 years, so I guess I like it.

- I just saw maybe 20 people come through and just high five you guys, you're very popular.

What's your connection to the bike scene in Philly?

- Well Stewart, who's also my dad, he's been a lawyer for over 30 years and I've been working with him as a lawyer for seven years and I've been in his office since I was 16, so about half my life.

- Wow.

- We work for bicycle crash victims and we work as advocates to get the streets and bike lanes and situations in Philadelphia safer for bicycle riders so they can get to and from work safely, not have to worry about getting run over by trucks.

We're riding into excavated plumbing ditches that are left in bike lanes, but we work only for bicycle crash victims and only as advocates to get the streets safer.

- One of the things that's really special about the expo is the family vibe.

We have tons of kids programming.

That's the future of cycling.

We want people to get into cycling as a sport, as a transportation alternative from an early age.

- Balance bikes were introduced actually in 1997, so 25 years ago in Europe, started by KOKUA LIKEaBIKE.

People are getting the clue that the best way to learn is actually straight on a balanced bike without the training wheels.

Training wheels are teaching the wrong muscle memory and we end up having to correct some of that with what we're doing with the balance bikes.

- [Anne] My son Dario is four and he decided to give the balance bikes a try.

- [Brian] We're having the parents sit on the sideline and the kids are learning from the other kids what to do.

And if you check out the small ramps that we have, they're the perfect height.

They're only seven inches off the ground, so lower than a step in someone's house.

So if they fall off the ramp, it's not a big deal.

But what that does is the kids can push to the top of the ramp, they get some butterflies in their belly and then they can pick up their feet and roll down.

- [Anne] While Dario continued to try to master the balance bike, I couldn't resist checking out the bicycle bells on display.

(bell ringing) - Ooh.

- And I thought I'd put the exhibitor Nori's knowledge of his products to the test.

Can you do a blind test and hear the difference?

- Yeah.

- You know the difference?

- Okay.

- Okay.

All right.

Close your eyes.

- [Nori] Okay.

- [Anne] Okay.

(bell ringing) - Oh I think this.

(Anne and Nori laughing) Is it correct?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, good job.

You know your own bells very well.

- Yeah, of course.

- People said that they really felt that the Philly Bike Expo represented Philly and the cycling community.

I think whereas like it used to be like you were a roadie or you were a commuter, you know, now it's like I ride bikes.

Some of the biggest changes are the inclusivity and diversity of the community.

- How you doing?

I'm Curran J. I'm the founder of K.R.T/Q.R.T.

We're based out of Philadelphia.

We are a cycling club as well as a cycling brand.

We have over 350 members of a diverse group of individuals in 19 states, but we started off in Philadelphia.

So it's amazing to see whenever you're traveling somewhere, you can hit up somebody in our network and say, "Hey, I'm riding my bike.

Who's in LA?

Who's in Atlanta?

Who's in Virginia?"

And you can essentially ride with other people in other places so.

- That's great.

Why is that important?

- It's important because you feel a sense of community, comradery.

It's also hard when you're out there riding by yourself.

- I started riding my bike in 2013 seriously, and by the end of that summer I realized that there weren't any women who looked like me on bikes, but I was benefiting from riding my bike mentally, emotionally and physically.

So I wanted to find other women and engage them and that's how Black Girls Do Bikes started and we've grown to over 100 chapters in the last 10 years.

We're growing, which means there's a need that we're filling.

- We sell a lot of original artwork.

It's a collage medium and it's basically found gift wrap.

You know the types of tissue that you would layer into your box for a gift or I collect paper from Tosato in Italy.

That's what's used in the backgrounds of the work.

The event draws, people really enjoy the culture of the sport as well as the activity.

- Philadelphia Bike Expo is a celebration of cycling.

We wanna show people, you know, the city, the cycling culture, the community we have here.

- We hope to go, you know, more national and more international as time goes on.

(upbeat music) - Our next stop is a place that can fill all of your cycling needs from an array of bikes and cycling gear to the perfect latte.

- The Tricycle Cafe and Bicycle Shop was established in 2021.

My partners and I, Michael Brown and Isaiah Urbino decided to open the space because my husband and I would ride our bikes on the Schuylkill River Trail and we would take our kids and this was a place where you could stop previously because there was a bike shopping cafe here.

And we realized and recognized that the trail did need a space, but we also wanted a space to be inclusive of all who were riding bikes, especially being minorities and kind of integrating ourself into cycling.

We really didn't see a lot of people who looked like us.

I grew up in North Philadelphia, not far from Kelly Drive.

As a child, I would ride my bike on Kelly Drive.

It was something that I enjoy.

And so when I became an adult, I hadn't ridden a bike in such a long time and I finally got on a bike again.

And when I finally did I said, "Oh my gosh, what have I been missing?"

Because we're on a Schuylkill River Trail you can get to so many different areas.

You know, Philadelphia, outside of Philadelphia, Conshohocken, Potstown.

So we bring in people from all across the surrounding area.

So we do rent bikes for people who want to just come and enjoy the trail for the day.

But even when you talk about professional cyclists, most of our clientele are not professional cyclists.

They're cyclists who are doing it for leisure, enjoying time with their family.

We wanted a space that was going to be welcome for all, but also to be able to provide a watering hole for people who were riding their bikes or who are active on the trail.

- Can I do a scoop of trail with protein.

- [Bartender] Scoop of trail with protein?

- [Client] Can I have two scoops?

- There you go bud.

- Thank you.

- We try to just meet the needs of our community.

So if you are someone who's looking into purchasing a bike, sometimes even if you can't afford to purchase a bike from us, we always are open to Facebook marketplace, Craigslist.

If you find a bike, you can have someone meet you here who you are buying it from.

We can say, okay, like these are the parts you need.

This really needs a tuneup, to be able to walk you through some of those things.

Sometimes we're doing not-for-profit events.

Sometimes we're doing events for bicycling clubs.

So we really want this to be a destination for people to come to to understand that they can enjoy the space in so many different ways.

- I support the cafe and bike shop.

It's a friend's business but also what it represents.

I was going through a transformative experience and I needed a community.

I needed a space to provide security and support.

So I'm thinking what could I do that I love to do?

It had to be something that was natural to me.

I'm from North Philadelphia.

I am really connected to community.

My background is in public health and I'm connected to trying to figure out how we can create space and opportunities for people to have a good quality of life.

So She Is Focused lends itself to just creating space for women to engage in self-development, integrate some level of physical activity and focusing on health and wellness and then also building community amongst women.

And once I thought about the benefits of that, I'm like okay, this can transfer over to young girls.

So under my nonprofit She Is Focused Community Inc I decided to start Philly Focused and Fit for now I'm pre-teen and teenage girls.

Unfortunately, when I started cycling it was a challenge for me to find apparel that I could wear in the summer that would still allow me to be modest as a Muslim woman.

I wanted to ride the bike.

I wanted to be safe in riding the bike and make sure that I had on the proper apparel.

So I created my own apparel line.

If you would've asked me 2, 3, 4 years ago if this would be a part of my regular lifestyle, I would've definitely said no.

- I just want people to know that The Tricycle Cafe and Bicycle Shop is just a very inclusive space.

We're here to serve the community.

We really want the best for those who support us, we wanna give that energy back to them.

(upbeat music) - Our next segment is about a bike messenger bag that energized the industry when two of its own decided to take things into their own hands and create a more reliable user-friendly messenger bag.

(upbeat music) - I think that's gonna fall.

Stay.

- Ah.

Sorry.

- You know, whaa.

- So I've been using this since probably about 97.

It's like my huge band purse.

- I wore it every day for over four years.

Only had to give her a bath once.

(speaker laughing) It was gross.

But yeah, she's my ride or die.

First messenger bag is the best.

(sewing machine whirring) - We always sign and date every bag that we make just 'cause it's cool to know who made your bag, but also just for quality control if anything comes back or if anybody has problems, we know how old the bag is and we know who made it.

That goes in the seam.

- Our thing has always been color and what color is more colorful than neon, right?

That said, we do a lot of all black bags still.

Like that'll never not be popular.

(upbeat music) - A good messenger bag for me is one that's large enough to carry a whole variety of things.

I like sling bags.

They work well with the kinds of things that I'm transporting.

The kind of jobs that I do mostly are legal documents, subpoenas, blueprints, kind of varies from day to day.

Sometimes there like could be 15 jobs, sometimes there can be 25 to 30.

I got this bag made by RELoad bags here in Philadelphia.

Roland did a custom design of something that I wanted.

They're our ride or die messenger bag company.

- This is one of our earliest messenger bags from back when we only made one size, which was called The Courier.

And this is our first real logo here and it's just a cannon riding a track bike, shooting out a package that says rush on it.

And this bag is made out of canvas and not a great weight of canvas 'cause we were still learning about what materials to use.

So there was a lot of trial and error with the first bags.

(upbeat music) I grew up in New York and I had a bag from a company called Manhattan Portage that I bought at Canal Jeans.

And it was not meant to be a actual working messenger bag, it was a messenger style bag, but it didn't have like no weatherproof line or no features.

So I had recently met Ellie, who wound up founding the company with me and I knew she knew how to sew, so I just asked her, "Hey, could we add this thing, that thing to this bag?

And she said, "You know, it's gonna be just easier.

Let's just make bags for ourselves."

We made a couple bags, they were pretty bad.

But just out of Philadelphia community love and the timing and everything.

Once people learned that we could make bags and we could kinda do whatever they wanted, they started asking us if we can make stuff.

So that kinda turned into the beginning of RELoad.

- For me personally, this is good for the one side to have like your passport, your wallet, and then this one's something else that's like my camera.

Then the big one, you can just move around with whatever.

If you're gonna buy like a bag out of a catalog, it has like 30 compartments you're never gonna use.

- This other bag I brought with me was like my party bag.

I would put six packs of beer in here, I would put my dog in here and it was just a little bit easier to carry around than my big work bag.

- The further you go and the heavier the load, the more money you make.

So like I always tried to pack myself as full as I could get it and that padding always super helped.

- The top of the bag is where most of the stuff goes.

You just unroll these, which keeps it waterproof.

I mean, I've climbed in here a few times.

I didn't fit all the way, but you can see it goes pretty much all the way to the top of the chair.

- This one I wish I had had when I was a messenger because one strap isn't really that great, especially when you're like middle aged and it's just really useful.

You can tell they put like a lot of thought into it and been in Philly since 2006.

So everyone here was just kind of like RELoad land.

- They've always been innovative and I know that for a fact because they always are making stuff for themselves first.

- This bag that I'm cutting right now, I wanted a smaller roll top bag.

So started designing it up, made a few prototypes.

Next thing you know we're like, all right, let's clean it up.

Let's figure out the little production, things that make it a little easier.

And now it's a product.

A lot of customers send us Instagram pics of hoagies in these.

It goes onto the handlebars in the stem of the bag with Velcro loops and you can put anything in it from a water bottle to loose snacks, a camera.

So it works for anybody from a recreational cyclist or commuter who's just riding around the city to somebody who's doing a 100 mile gravel ride.

- [Speaker 2] Time cycle who's calling?

Hey Isaiah, what's going on?

What do you have for us?

- We're kinda going the way of the carriage horses around Independence Hall.

You can come visit us, put out to the children.

What are they?

It's a carrier and it's a carriage.

- [Speaker 2] Pick it up from you.

And where's it going to?

And how many boxes?

All right, and what's your job number?

(upbeat music) - No day is ever the same.

We definitely take pride in being artisans and craftspeople.

We love just seeing the pile of things that we've made that day and interacting with the people that use it.

- It's really cool having something that a friend, you can call them a friend made and you get to wear it around and it does a job for you.

- Like people like know what a RELoad bag is.

Like you could see it from a mile away.

It's like record collecting or collecting skateboards.

It's just you fall in love with something.

And for us, most of us is bags.

(upbeat music) - Unfortunately, RELoad decided to end their successful 25 year run and closed shop at the end of 2023.

The good news is their messenger bags last forever.

Next up, access to green space is important to the natural environment, but also to the quality of life it provides.

And here in Camden, New Jersey, this new park and trail are definitely impacting the surrounding community.

Do you see e-bikes out here on the trails?

- Yeah, actually they're getting a lot more popular, particularly with seniors.

- Oh sure.

- You know?

- Yeah.

- Climbing hills and just going that little extra mile.

- Yeah.

- [Corey] It's really kind of transforming people's access to a lot of these trails.

- Tell us where we are now and why is this important to the community?

- We're at Peter Kramer Waterfront Park.

It is at the confluence of the Cooper River and the Delaware River.

It's right near Crock Community Center in Camden.

And when you think about Camden, you might not imagine something as, you know, lush as this.

And that's really what's so important about this project is it borders a public housing initiative, Camden Lutheran Housing, it's near a community center.

It's accessible via local streets.

So you know, a lot of Camden residents don't have access to a car.

They can't drive to a state park.

So bringing the park to them really helps them access the waterfront, access open space, take a breath and really get in touch with, you know, the ecology and the region that they live in.

You can see the Philly skyline right over the river there.

And you know, we're really close to Walter Ranch Transportation Center, so it's very easy to either drive over the bridge or take a bus or a putco and then it's just a short walk or cycle here.

- How many miles of trails do we have in this region?

And what are some locations?

- So today there's roughly 490 miles either funded or fully constructed.

This park is actually part of a longer planned trail called the Delaware River Heritage Trail, which is intended to go all the way from Trenton to Camden and further beyond.

It's part of the Regional Circuit Trails network, which is this 800 mile region.

So you can visit circuittrails.org, that has an interactive web map where you can find the trails near you, check their status, and you can also get involved and help advocate for more trails like this.

Tri-state is also part of the Vision Zero NJ Alliance, which is a statewide group advocating for a state level vision zero plan with the goal of reducing all fatalities and serious injuries to zero by 2040.

- This might be a little obvious, but what are some of the benefits of cycling?

- First of all, it doesn't require any gas and it's very accessible.

You know, you can purchase a used bike for much less than the cost of a car.

And getting out on these trails, you know, you're locomoting, you're pedaling.

It's really, really good for mental health.

And importantly, it's accessible in the fact that it doesn't require a driver's license so kids can move around their own neighborhoods independently.

This park is very new.

Actually this area used to be a landfill and it was transformed using injury payouts from industrial polluters in the area.

So actually not a single tax dollar went into the construction of this park.

- So what is a tidal wetland?

- It's a riverfront that has a sea tide, right?

It comes up and comes down.

The actual water level will change and the waterfront can kind of come inland.

And so there's a very unique kind of ecology that grows there.

It's kinda difficult to see in a lot of urbanized areas like the Philly area.

But the beauty of these projects is they dovetail so nicely with bike trails because you only need, you know, a 10 foot paved path and the rest can be preserved open space and you can really get that kind of sponge infrastructure effect.

So you get this beautiful green space and it absorbs flood water and helps prevent it from, you know, surging into communities.

- Wow that's great.

And you get a bike trail out of it.

- Right?

What could be better.

- Whatever role bicycling plays in your life, you should be ready to put pedal to the metal and hit the streets or trails of the Delaware Valley.

I'm Anne Ishii and thanks for watching.

(upbeat music)