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On Ezra’s card, it reads:  "ezra caldwell. designer.fabricator.janitor."  I asked him about the janitor part:

"I own the business, but I also take out the trash (and do the bookkeeping, ordering, marketing, etc..).  Maybe one day I'll get some help.  No. Probably not."

I asked him where he rides in the Manhattan area:

"Back when I was still teaching dance, I was riding from my place in Harlem down to Tribeca a handful of times a week for work. Now that I'm in business for myself and have a shop in the basement, I need to invent reasons to ride. I ride down to SoHo a couple times a week to pick my girlfriend up from work (at Patagonia.). I'm not really so interested in the bike as a way of exercising.  I've got no problem with folks who are, I'm just more interested in the bike as a replacement for your car.  But when the farthest you really need to go in your day to day life is the supermarket a half mile away, you need to get creative.

"Hillary and I have ridden out to City Island a few times.  She used to live there and we ride back to visit.  It's a pretty cool ride, that takes you places you might not go otherwise.  But to me it doesn't matter TOO much where I'm going..  when I'm on a bike, getting there, I'm with the one I love.  We spend some time in the summer at our place up in Nova Scotia. I think I'm going to build a trailer for my dog so we can do some touring up there.  It's SO beautiful."

Finally, I said, "So, Ezra, ever had a close-call in the city of New York?"

"I've been riding fixed gear bikes in cities for nearly 15 years now. I've never been knocked off my bike.  I'm really asking for it, I know.  I've been doored, side swiped, forced to the curb, run into by unpredictable pedestrians on the bike path, but somehow, never knocked down.  (I ride like a grandpa.  I'm never late, though!  OH..  and don't get me wrong.. Every time I've ever gone mountain biking, I've fallen off at least once) I did have a pretty funny one once, though.  I was riding in rush hour traffic on 8th Ave, I think.  I was behind a big truck with a lift gate. The truck was entirely blocking my view.  I decided to get around it.. looked over my left shoulder to see if I could get in that lane, and when I looked back the truck had stopped dead and I was already on top of it.  Magically, the lift gate was at JUST the right height so that my front tire wedged right under it.  So there I was completely stuck, but upright!, in the middle of rush hour.  It was such a good fit, that I was able to take my hands of the bars and just sit there.  Without ever getting off the bike, I reached forward and pushed myself back and rode off. I guess if the lift gate had been about six inches higher I could have been in real trouble."