If you guys are like me, then you love a good bike. Not the cheap store-bought kind that’s a cookie cutter copy of every other bike on the market. You want a top-notch ride that stands out from the rest. That is why my newest obsession is Sleep Street Bicycles.

Yeah, as a man who loves a great bike as much as a cool story of opportunity and hard work meeting inspiration, I love the Sleep Street bikes. After all, each one of them is individually made. This means that everything you buy is one of a kind.

Now, we here at ChivCulture.com can get behind these bikes. They have everything we need. They are current. The company has only been around since 2010 and they know just what makes a hot bike now. They are expert. You won’t see any production lines where they are making them. It’s all hand-crafted and assembled by people with more experience making bikes than you or I have riding them.

What’s most important is they are a cut above the rest. Not just in style. Heck, style is nothing without substance and these bikes are tailor-made not just to look good, but also to ride well. However, if you want one of these machines, you are going to have to pull out the checkbook. These hand-crafted pieces of wheeled art will cost you well over a bill. If biking is your thing, then this is the bike for you. 

There is a new way to get from place to place. It requires no gas, no daily cash and runs on willpower alone. Still not sure? It’s the fixed gear bike. The idea of a bike conjures up a plethora of different images from baseball cards in the spokes to pegs on the back for friends, but the fixed gear bike is far too stylish for cards and far too fast and efficient for added weight.

Image via Wikipedia

Plenty of people get the fixed gear and the freewheel bike mistaken, but make no mistake: fixed gear is serious business and you best know how to ride it if you are planning on dishing out cash for it. Without a standard brake system, this stops and starts when you say. No coasting, cruising or sliding low around the corners. If you ain’t pedaling, your pedals keep moving.

Image via Wikipedia

The fixed gear is where biking is at because it’s no fuss, no muss moving. No extra parts. No extra maintenance. It’s style like ChivCulture.com brings. It is wheels, frames, handlebars and the open road. Finally a bike that can be had without giving an arm and a leg to pay for it.

Image via Wikipedia

Let’s be clear though: fixed gear bikes aren’t always cheap, but in comparison to the other road bikes on the market they are a steal. Not to mention you can get them for cheaper when you buy them second-hand.

It’s time to take your vacation old school. It’s time to travel in the spirit of the 1950s and 60s, where blue jeans and t-shirts were as popular as they are now. This is about cross-country travel by automobile: the road trip. Don’t think you and your friends are above it, because there is no better way to travel and experience the streets than by car.

Image by * Janice via Flickr

A journey by plane is a quick way to arrive at your destination but it’s like creating a picture and bypassing the paint. Your vacation lacks the color of run-down diners off the beaten path where the grease from the eggs is the only distinct taste. It’s where you meet people and really learn about the small places that make up the vast majority of the heart of America. It’s where you can really live the culture of the street.

With your friends giving each a fair share of the gas money, and learning to live cheap (which is necessary if you are going on a road trip), then you can cruise from state to state for less than it would cost you for a weekend in Las Vegas.

Image by ex_magician via Flickr

The open road is the cool and eclectic trip for the ChivCulture.com man. Fire up your ride and head to the badlands, the Grand Canyon or the Rocky Mountains. The world is yours to explore and you get to embrace every single moment.  

Image by * Janice via Flickr