Roll Model: Marty Mannering

Mannering and Irish Rover at the Iron Column by Phil Proctor on the Eastside Trail

Schmidt and Mannering at the Saint Patrick's Day Parade

Paul Mannering and his father in Piedmont Park
A Sturmey-Archer internal gear hub nut that went missing between Shannon and Hartsfield-Jackson Airports became the link from High Nelly Irish Vintage Bicycles to Houndstooth Road. Limerick entrepreneur Marty Mannering and his son Paul were en route to meet with investors in Atlanta. In their luggage were two Irish Rovers, one a vintage bike they had restored as a prototype and the other a first in production model based upon it. Their web search for a spare led them to Decatur where they found a kindred spirit in Jae Schmidt, whose inventory of European city bikes supplied the small but all important part.

One senses that Marty Mannering never met a stranger. This veteran of RTÉ Dragons’ Den also negotiated the lease for a pioneering segment of the Great Southern Trail and leads e-bike tours of the Irish countryside. Now he was the guest, riding with Schmidt and others from the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition in our Saint Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday. Tuesday he and Paul joined the Decatur group of Georgia Rides to the Capitol. Their return itinerary became an impromptu tour of Sweet Auburn, the Eastside BeltLine Trail and Piedmont Park led by another Roll Model, Amber Raley.

Back home, Mannering looks forward to the May 30 release of Jimmy’s Hall, a film set in the 1930’s for which his restoration business provided a fleet of HighNelly bicycles. Such traditional Irish bikes were a mainstay of daily life then. As the sole bicycle manufacturer in Ireland today, he draws from a proud heritage while looking to a future of renewable resources.

Roll Model: Sharif Hassan

Kirkwood resident Sharif Hassan wears many hats, from mixologist at TOP FLR and Argosy to doorman at the Tabernacle. His photographs from the streets of Cairo during the Arab Spring are a tribute to both his eye and daring. Now he has partnered with his brother, Ezz-Eldin, to test and market clothing for commuter cyclists. Called The Spindle, their venture began “in April 2013 as a blog, a pre-interview, to become a resource for community and manufactures to give them feedback for what works and what doesn’t, like the placement of a seam.” A former bike messenger, he knows from frequently blowing through pants and once took five pairs of jeans to bag maker Dustin Morado for stitching.

Hassan relishes riding in bad weather because “We test all the clothing we carry. Here it’s snowing one day and 70 the next, so I just dive into the bad weather when we get it. It’s nice to see how other people are decked out and what works for them. There’s no such thing as foul weather. There are only unprepared people.”

“Swerve makes a pair of jeans I pretty much live in,” he says of today’s outfit, which includes a jacket from Mission Workshop and DZR all weather clip-in shoes for his “urban assault vehicle”. Of its fixed 52x15 gearing, fat tires for the potholes and no brakes, he explains, “I like to build up death traps. I like to ride things other people won’t.”

The rest of us benefit from his hard won knowledge. “The whole idea is to create a new community of riders who are not hardcore. Introducing them to commuting apparel opens that door as a viable option for a new category of people who bike to festivals, art shows and bars.”

Roll Model: Amber Raley

Amber Raley likens bicycles to tattoos. "The ideal number is one more than you now have, with a limit of the number at which your partner will leave you, minus one," she hastens to add. As someone about to donate her car to NPR, she retains many transportation options.

"Aubrey was my first bike in Atlanta, a blue 1980's Ross with orange wheels." Invited to ride in North Georgia with Sorella, she looked to Kirkwood ReCycle for something sportier: a red Schwinn ten-speed from the 1960's, its drop bars wrapped in the original tape now faded to her favored color. She proudly remembers hanging tough with the B+ riders, all the while mastering Cinnamon's derailleur gears. When friends sent her the same link to a CraigsList for sale ad, the orange and white fixed gear mixte (aka chixie) became her Tango. Christmas brought a yet to be named vintage mountain bike. "I haven't ridden it yet and gotten a sense of its spirit."

Lari is the suborder of sea birds that includes terns and the name given to the Tern folding bicycle she won from the silent auction at last year's ABC Blinkie Awards. This versatile bike goes with her on MARTA and into conference rooms, where it plays a role in advocacy on behalf of BeltLine Speakers Bureau. Her winning ways and wits have disarmed guards in the Atlanta Financial Center and the less than bike friendly Hurt Building, who watched as the dreaded, two wheeled machine became...luggage!

This "crucial part of my BeltLine narrative also shapped my choice of neighborhood, Adair Park." She first explored those streets of SW Atlanta in a 'wheel estate' tour with EcoBroker Burke Sisco. Subsequent rides, including one to her house inspection, "proved to me I could do that." Commuting by bicycle finds her "energized and ready to start the day. Riding straight up Peachtree Street every day makes me a tourist in my own city."