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Lower Haight resident Brian Brooks likes the looks he gets in traffic when he’s riding his custom single-speed commuter built by Santa Rosa’s SyCip Designs. “People look over and they know I’m on a SyCip—the penny-capped wishbone is a telltale sign. I can see it in their eyes, they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s a beautiful bike,’” says Brooks, a project manager at a small software company downtown. Even though he freely declares himself a “bike snob” (for the owner of three $4,000 custom bikes from SyCip, it’s a well-deserved distinction), Brooks does admit to building his own “$20 banger” specifically for the rainy season, and to owning seven other bikes, some of which have—gasp!—clunky, amateurish pedals; you know, the basic ones, without cages or those hard-core toe clips. “As you can see, I can’t be a snob about anyone else’s bike,” says the 37-year-old, who grew up in New Jersey and took up cycling in 1998 as a low-impact foil to his days as a knee-bashing skateboarder. In addition to the single-speed commuter, Brooks’ custom rides include a cyclocross with a steel-and-carbon-fiber frame and a mountain bike that’s recently been converted into a single-speed (it’s also Brooks’ favorite). Both of these are taken for regular spins in the Marin Headlands, China Camp and Annadel Park in Santa Rosa. “I love the concept of movement that’s powered by you, not 200 horses under the hood,” Brooks says. “In a car, everything whizzes by, and the road, the city, the view—it’s all lost.”
Lower Haight resident Brian Brooks likes the looks he gets in traffic when he’s riding his custom single-speed commuter built by Santa Rosa’s SyCip Designs. “People look over and they know I’m on a SyCip—the penny-capped wishbone is a telltale sign. I can see it in their eyes, they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s a beautiful bike,’” says Brooks, a project manager at a small software company downtown. Even though he freely declares himself a “bike snob” (for the owner of three $4,000 custom bikes from SyCip, it’s a well-deserved distinction), Brooks does admit to building his own “$20 banger” specifically for the rainy season, and to owning seven other bikes, some of which have—gasp!—clunky, amateurish pedals; you know, the basic ones, without cages or those hard-core toe clips. “As you can see, I can’t be a snob about anyone else’s bike,” says the 37-year-old, who grew up in New Jersey and took up cycling in 1998 as a low-impact foil to his days as a knee-bashing skateboarder. In addition to the single-speed commuter, Brooks’ custom rides include a cyclocross with a steel-and-carbon-fiber frame and a mountain bike that’s recently been converted into a single-speed (it’s also Brooks’ favorite). Both of these are taken for regular spins in the Marin Headlands, China Camp and Annadel Park in Santa Rosa. “I love the concept of movement that’s powered by you, not 200 horses under the hood,” Brooks says. “In a car, everything whizzes by, and the road, the city, the view—it’s all lost.”
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