Issue # 273 Inspired Space
Inner city dwellers don’t always have access to motorcycle storage, shop space or camaraderie. For them a store like New York’s Ryders Alley might be just the ticket.
We all have grandiose ideas that involve motorcycles. Some plan epic rides. Others open bike shops. A few organize adventure tours. Creative types design clothing and gear. The list goes on. I recently discovered a place called Ryders Alley United that seems a role model. I can explain.
Ryders Alley is a place to store motorcycles. This would make no sense for those who live anywhere but a big city, because suburban and country dwellers tend to have garages, sometimes massive ones. But in the downtown core of any big city, there are challenges when it comes to bike storage.
It’s easy enough to imagine a few friends getting together to rent a garage. I just visited a place that houses 97 bikes, each with their own little slot to park in and a metal shelving unit for stuff like oil, rags, spare tires and more. I saw numerous Ducatis, one MV Agusta, BMWs, all sorts of Japanese bikes, KTMs for street and dirt, Triumphs and Aprilias, neatly lined up. This place in located down a very narrow alley in the financial district of New York City, a short walk from Wall Street. But it could work in any major city.
I found out about this place from Andrea Sears, a former freelancer for National Public Radio, currently a news editor for WBAI-Pacifica Radio, a lefty/progressive network of five listener sponsored stations. I met her when she started riding in 2006 and joined the NY Sirens. She was 55 years old at the time. That first season she put 12,000 miles on a 1984 Kawasaki ZN700, then moved up to her current 1999 ZRX1100.
Working near Wall Street, Andrea recently lost the last free motorcycle parking spot in Manhattan. She started paying $75 a month to park her street bike, and kept hunting for a better deal. She found one.
Now she pays $200 a month to store her track bike, and is grateful for a garage space that comes with a lift and tire changing machine. For an extra $20 a month, she also gets a key to a very well-stocked tool box.
Andrea made the discovery and the news has traveled from one friend to another. Something else happened. She’d been watching our friend Cheryl Steward head to the track and return each time with an infectious smile. Andrea decided to try it, and soon decided she wanted a dedicated track bike too. But she made the hard calculation that she could never afford one unless something changed. After 42 years she gave up tobacco, chanting “$300 a month” every time she had a craving. Within a year, she bought a 2004 Yamaha YZF-R6 that she transformed from a beat up street bike to a magnificent track only machine—all at Ryders Alley.
I visited the garage in April. What an amazing enclave of motorcycle enthusiasts nestled in the most unlikely of places. It’s on the ground floor parking lot of a tall building that owner Demian Neufeld’s partner found when hunting real estate to rent for her yoga studio. And it’s a block from their home! Demian had been sharing a rental garage in NJ with his friends, who spent countless hours in the couple’s living room. The gatherings now take place in a lounge area within the shop.
There are group outings. Demian has a Chevy Silverado 3500 6.6 L turbo diesel dually and a trailer. He takes a group of bikes—not people—to various tracks, and occasionally hosts his own track days. They’ve been to Laguna Seca in California, Mosport and Calabogie in Canada, and more. Last year they flew to Italy and rode two tracks there, and visited the Ducati and Vryus factories. You can’t be poor to join this group. But it costs $50 per bike to have it delivered to the track and returned, more for the long distance tracks—which turns out to be incredibly inexpensive.
Demian is 35, and for 12 years worked at a job he didn’t enjoy, selling cell phone accessories internationally. He lived in Paris, London, Hong Kong and Switzerland, which he says was good for a global perspective—and reaffirmed that NY is home for him. He now works about 45 days a year as a coach for Absolute Cycle, a track day organization, and manages Ryders Alley. He races the local amateur series for pleasure, and recently discovered dirt riding. Last winter, he found the ice, which he describes as “hooliganism.” Five guys share two bikes and two gallons of gas and the fun lasts the entire day. Don’t we all want to hear about people who find ways to make motorcycles a living and still find pleasure in them?
Ryders Alley feels like everyone’s living room—the kind many of us have in our garages. There are T-shirts for sale with a sign that says: take what you want and leave the money. And there are used riding suits hanging on the wall with prices on them, offered by individual owners. People drop $2 in the box when they take a beer out of the fridge to sit and watch motorcycle races on the tube in the lounge. Feels like a family, perhaps a new breed of club that sure isn’t outlaw, though the daredevils who ride the track know they’re not quite “normal.”
I learned a strange bit of history about Ryders Alley, which is what the 200 year old street is called. It’s located exactly where the American Revolution began. The Sons of Liberty fought the British Regulars, aka Redcoats, in defence of the Liberty Poles. (They were putting up colonial flags before the revolution.) Known as the Battle of Golden Hill, the first blood in the revolt against the British crown was shed on Jan 18, 1770 at Golden Hill, a field of golden grain, where Ryders Alley is located. Even the cobble stone is original, and historically landmarked.
Ryders Alley would be breaking even right now if it wasn’t for a second location recently opened in mid-town, but the first garage is full. If you want to be rich this isn’t how to do it, says Demian with a laugh. He rides around placing magnetic cards on every motorcycle in the area he sees, and chats up prospective riders directly. I can’t help but think it’s a brilliant idea, and a business plan worth investigating for those of us who live in other big cities and need storage, shop space, a trip to the track, and camaraderie. Ryders Alley was inspired by Rising Wolf Garage in the east village.
My question is, who’s next? Did you hear the gauntlet drop?
