Miss Emily's School for Lady Cyclists

AFP reports that there is a rash of cycling cafes in London–cafes where cyclists can get a tune up, grab a coffee, hit on a fellow cylist–and that these cafes are doing brisk business thanks to sunny weather and some big bike race a bit further south than London that people are fond of watching in groups.

Look Mum No Hands!, one of several bike shop/cafes in London. Thank you AFP for the pic.

I would love to such an establishment in Boston. There is, in fact, a cyclist cafe in the much greater Boston area, the Ride Studio Cafe in Lexington. However, the town’s distance from Boston, lack of public transportation, size of houses and lawns, and number of spandexed cyclists makes me think the cafe is geared toward upper middle class, middle-aged men who ride $2,000 road bikes, and not urban bike commuters such as your School Mistress. I’d love to actually go see the shop myself but since that would take me at least 3 hours to do, I haven’t managed to make the visit. Perhaps when I do finally make it out there I’ll be pleasantly surprised and find that there is an undiscovered pocket of ladies and gentleman in Lexington who commute and otherwise move about on bikes in an orderly and stylish manner. My hopes are kept low by the location page of the Ride Studio website, where they highlight driving directions and car parking rather than the Minute Man Trail outside their door (though if you scroll down for a bit,  you’ll see it at the bottom of the page).

From their special parking map page:

We’re fortunate to be located in the heart of Lexington Center for many reasons. One such reason is that there is so much parking; the Studio has 5 parking lots within a couple hundred yards. And, there is endless street metered parking.

Oh joy!