The Cyclist? My name is Michael J. Morel and I’ve been a Buffalonian for 19 years and counting. I reside in the wonderful village of Elmwood and I am a professional actor working in theatre and film.
The Bicycle? My bike is a 1970s Schwinn Caliente that I’ve worked to restore with a number of people. I’m all about legacies so when giving it a new paint job I decided to keep the original paint on a section of the seat tube to honor it’s story before it became my bike. Another thing worth noting is that the fork is a replacement; I had a wipeout which resulted in a S-shaped fork and 1/4th of my front wheel’s spokes ripped apart – my right foot being the cause of the damage, haha. You might be able to find the fork hung up in Go Bike Buffalo’s Community Workshop!
Commute? My commute varies a lot and I go everywhere on my bike, in the greatest and worst of weather (Thunderstorms with strong winds and a lot of uphills are fun!). I ride to and from work nowadays but during the peak of the season I was doing 100+ miles on my bike weekly. I sometimes ride through Buffalo just for the fun of it, which is great because I love seeing how the world around me evolves while on wheels.
My Other Bike is a…? No car for me, and I made a vow to never use public transportation ever again since getting my bike (I have two times for emergency situations -sigh-) so I either bike to a friends house to carpool or I run/walk to places. My favorite way of movement is Parkour, though. It’s the art of movement that me and my brother practice and we teach a bunch of people at Hoyt Lake/Delaware Park, we do it for free and it gives me a lot of satisfaction knowing we are impacting lives in such a positive way.
Bicycling in Buffalo? It’s not the best, but I’m sure it’s not the worst. We have our share of reckless drivers but I always see it as an adventure, haha. I wish Elmwood and Delaware had bike lanes, first time I experienced riding in a bike lane it was like Christmas to the extreme – it was great. I’d love to see more being done to promote bicycling and I want there to be more awareness and acceptance of this growing trend; we’re out there drivers, and we aren’t going away.