MAY JUNE 2017

National Bike Month with
Purple Machine’s Steve Galvin
By Selena Clingan
What are you “riding” in May? What soundtrack are
you riding to? May is National Bike Month. It was
established in 1956 and is sponsored by The League
of American Bicyclists. Conventionally, National Bike
Month is promoted to entice Bay Area residents to
consider the benefits of bicycling. Not a bad thought.
Avoiding bumper to bumper traffic, feeling sunshine
on your face, wind in your hair, with a soundtrack on
your mind. And, if you take a good look around the
community, you can see how Tampa Bay has adapted
quite well to bicycling.
can also be accessed with convenient apps for participant’s
mobile devices, making it even easier for the
up and coming generations to access and explore
Tampa Bay.
Making bicycling a mainstream daily ritual for some
residents, the Tampa Bay area is thriving with “bikeshare”
programs, like “The Coast Bike Share Program”
(www.coastbikeshare.com), located in St. Petersburg
and Tampa. Bike-share programs offer
participants “social bicycles” which can be reserved,
rented and returned at convenient locations throughout
the community. Bike-share program information
Millennial's are taking over the downtown area, riding
trendy bicycles to access the local arts and entertainment
districts. And while Bay Area residents are
encouraged to ride their bicycle into work and/or
school during the month of May, you won’t see Steve
Galvin, guitarist for Purple Machine, on anything less
than one of his sexy, two-wheeled, custom creations.
They are works of art that capture the essence of a
bicycle and goes a little faster.
Steve Galvin is a Bay Area resident, and left-handed
musician, who builds custom bikes. A custom bike
is a motorcycle that has been modified with unique
styling and structure changes, based on the designer.
Unlike their manufactured counterparts (i.e.,
Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, etc.) produced in mass
quantity, custom bikes are created one at a time. A
10 BUZZ Magazine My-June 2017