There are four bicycling movies, that I hold above other much better movies, for the simple reason that these four feature bicycles. There are many other, much better movies that I like, but these four I love. They are Breaking Away (1979), Quicksilver (1986), American Flyers (1985) and 2 Seconds (1998). To this quartet of movies, I would like to add a TV series, Double Rush (1995). I can’t believe that I only became aware of its existence this week.

All four movies plus the TV series, exercise the theme of speed on a bicycle. In the coming of age movie, Breaking Away, speed is equated with freedom, breaking out of a small town, with its narrow range of options. In Quicksilver, the Kevin Bacon bicycle messenger movie, speed was necessary to perform the job. It soon becomes necessary to stay alive. American Flyers rolls out slowly from Saint Louis and as the opening credits roll, so does the protagonist, along Leonor Sullivan, in front of the Arch. Flyers is a bicycling racing movie, so the need for speed is self-evident. 2 Seconds is another bike messenger movie, set in Montreal and uniquely about a girl, instead of one of the guys. It is my favorite of this fab four. Double Rush is another messenger based show. It is a sitcom, set in NYC and a product of its time.

I learned of Double Rush from reading Bike Snob NYC. This blog is popular and its title gives you fair warning of the New York attitude that you’ll encounter. Bike Snob’s post was in part motivated by the new reality TV show, Triple Rush. In bike messenger parlance, rush, double rush and triple rush are successively faster and more expensive grades of package delivery. I have no interest in reality TV, so Triple Rush holds no interest for me, but Bike Snob had a YouTube link to the pilot episode of Double Rush. This hooked my interest and I watched all three YouTube segments. This is the IMdB synopsis:

Johnny Verona is trying to hold together his struggling bike messenger service. Standing in the way of success are his smart-ass slacker riders, cutthroat competitors, and a whiny executive-wannabe constantly telling everyone within earshot that she shouldn’t really be doing this job because she’s a Harvard graduate.

Double Rush was both a spinoff series and a derivative TV series. The cast’s anchor, Robert Pastorelli, and head writer, Diane English were spun off from Murphy Brown. Though well written, this show is also rather derivative. Similarities to the TV series, Taxi and Cheers are self-evident. The show only lasted once season and the title of one of its later episodes says it all, “The Show We Wrote, the Day We Found Out, We Were Going on Opposite Roseanne”. Here are the YouTube links to the series pilot episode segments, one, two and three. Watch them and enjoy them, before the censors rot them.

The above photo shows the brand new drive train on Anne’s bicycle. In the picture, it glitters in the morning sun, all shiny and new. Friend and Team Kaldi’s member, Phil, overhauled it for and did an excellent job. It looks like new, rides like new and propels Anne faster than ever before. I just hope to keep her in sight, when she races ahead on it. I also hope that she will eventually wait for me. Of course, all those fixies, with their fixation with fixed gears, would abhor Anne’s shiny new cog. More is pity for them, and more the gears for Anne and I. Maybe next this Luddite subculture will give up pneumatic, for solid tires?