[elegant music] ♪ ♪ - [Narrator] Welcome to Atlanta, where the streets aren't paved with gold, but the people are.

It's in our souls, how we walk, talk, love, ride, and to the outsiders looking in, we invite you to embrace our culture.

to understand what pushes us to push pedals, to pull clutches, to ride as wild as falcons fly, to risk our lives to truly feel alive.

We invite you to pop a wheelie with us, to ride this cycle we call life, to know what it feels like to know your next breath might be your last, and be liberated by that reality, to find freedom in that thought, to get loose, to get on, to let go.

Come ride with us.

[elegant music] - [Interviewer] When you hear the term "bike life," what do you think?

What do you think of?

- #*#*#*#*.

Just people riding bikes, man.

That's all it is to, you know, people.

It's a hobby.

To some people, it's a life style.

To some people, it's a hobby.

You know, we're all doing the same thing.

Some people just take it more serious.

That's bike life when you take it real serious, and, you know, it's a lifestyle.

- It make me feel free.

Whenever I'm riding, whenever I'm riding pedal bikes, whenever I'm riding dirt bikes, I just feel like I can do whatever I want to do, and I'm pretty sure that's how everybody else right here feel.

- Bike life is just all riding together, everybody riding as one, getting along.

It's a community.

It's tight-knit.

That's one thing I found out in the years of riding.

It's something like no other.

You have to be in it to experience it.

- Well, it keep me out of doing, like, bad turn stuff, just riding bikes.

It change your mind when you get on a bike though.

I ain't even gonna cap.

When you pick up a bike, and, like, you just start walking it, you're going to get a feeling like you're going to be like, "I could do this forever."

Then you might can do it forever.

[peaceful music] - Yeah, my son right here, Noah, he been riding a bike ever since his birthday, June 17th.

He just turned three, but he been riding this bike right here since 18 and 19 months, and he can ride right here in the skate park right here.

He can go up and down the little hills like that.

- [Interviewer] Wow.

- [Rasulu] But he a beast.

[peaceful music] - To be honest, my mama, she really told me that, she told me that I started riding a bike before I start walking, and I said, "How is that possible, Mama?"

She said, "You had the bike with no pedals."

You started from, you started from getting on, getting on, and rolling from this block, to this block, and you started rolling from this block, around, halfway, then you started going around the whole block, and, eventually, you started walking.

Like, you just pushed the bike like, "I don't need it no more," and started walking.

- Bike life means a lot to me.

Bike life, it's fun, it's a family, and you can meet new people and a lot of good people, a lot of good people.

I ride bikes to get my head off stuff when I got stuff going on, and, say, if, like, I'm going through something, I hop right on my bike, and then it'll go away for a minute while riding my bike.

I love riding bikes.

[peaceful music] - It gives us something positive to do, something where we can get out here and connect with each other, where there's no violence.

It's a little competitive, but it's all fun.

I've seen people change their whole lives about bikes, you know?

So, I think it's really important.

It's always been here in Atlanta.

It's growing stronger.

It's getting better.

- We was at the skate park, and the kid was like, "How do I wheelie?"

So, I was telling him, just keep your back brake pulled in, and push off with your foot, and lean back, but hold your back brake.

You gonna get the concept of how to wheelie.

but go home and practice over a broom.

If you put a broom in front of you, it's like a speed bump.

You go over that broom, it gonna lift your front tire up in the air.

Just keep your finger on your back brake, and just give it a good peddle.

You gonna be like, "Oh, Mama, look what I can do now."

"Where you learned that from?"

"This guy at the skate park named One Wheel Bandit, he told me to go home and practice over a broom, and look what I can do without the broom."

He can wheelie now.

- [Interviewer] Yeah, so, tell me, how long you've been riding, man?

- I've been riding for, like, three and a half years.

Yeah, three and a half years.

I was wheelie-ing in like two and a half months, and I was not doing it every day because I work.

So, you know, my priority is to save energy to go to work, 'cause, you know, I got kids and stuff, but it's up to you to put, like, it's more mental than anything.

It's not too difficult.

Anybody can do it.

I've seen people starting like 40 years old and they get it.

What, three, four months later, you be seeing like, "Oh, he just started yesterday," like literally.

But, yeah, it's easy.

Anybody can do it.

But, yeah.

It's just fun, just having fun.

[engine roaring] [engine continue roaring] - When I think of Atlanta bike culture, I think of young Black men doing wheelies on a dirt bike.

[imitates dirt bike engine revving] You know what I'm saying?

All packed out, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 deep.

To me, that's a dream come true.

Like, the city, I don't know if they're always happy about those guys, but I love it.

because it's the first time we have an African American Black presence in the sport of motocross, and now those guys are able to make an income and a living off of their trade and their sport.

An analogy I like to say is skate is the new basketball, motocross is the new football, and it's not changing any time soon.

So, it's one of these things where cities have to start adapting to what the youth want and their needs in terms of recreation, and we have the space.

People of color are involved now.

Black people are involved, Latin people are involved, and it's time to start getting kids what they need so they stay out of trouble, basically, you know?

Because one thing you need to know about bike life is wheels up, guns down.

It's a positive movement.

It's not a negative movement.

Kids just wanna have fun.

They're not violent.

They're not doing anything destructive.

The only thing they're doing is popping wheelies.

They might break traffic laws, but they're still having fun, and it's a positive movement, the whole entire movement.

If you don't listen anything I say in this interview, the whole movement is about wheels up, guns down.

[peaceful music] - There's a gap between where we take it from on the streets to making it a career, and, oftentimes, we don't know what those pathways are, and so we need to identify who can take young folks with these skills, with this athleticism, and put them on a track to possibly become professional.

Is there a coach?

Are there scholarships to go to camps?

How do we ensure that they don't get taken advantage of just by being in a commercial for a one-time fee, when they should be being compensated on an ongoing basis for anything that they're featured in, because the #*#*#*#* looks cool on TV, and so a ton of people are gonna wanna capture it, but how do we make sure that they can continue on that path?

And I wanna say it's the adults' responsibility to figure that out with them, because if they don't have the opportunity, they're not gonna know, and it's on us to do the research to figure out how to get them to where they might want to be in the near future, as far as a career is concerned with this.

- Okay, looking at bike life from a civic standpoint, a city standpoint, in terms of these young Black men having access to the resources that it takes to excel in motocross, A, in the city of Atlanta, these guys, they don't have access to these motocross tracks, and these motocross tracks are about an hour, hour and a half away outside the city, longer than that, so they use what they have access to, the streets.

and Atlanta has the space.

It's just a matter of being a little more open-minded.

- My name is Kenneth.

I am a co-owner of Clutch Bike Shop.

I started riding BMX when I was 13.

So, going from a bike shop employee to a bike shop owner, I spent 13 years at a shop just wrenching on bikes, talking to people, talking to customers, learning the ins and outs of the business.

Doing that for so long, it kind of becomes second nature to you, and, eventually, it was just time for me to leave that shop and do my own thing.

Clutch started as strictly a BMX, so just selling BMX parts.

So, it was a BMX company.

We started the idea in 2014.

In 2017, I moved to this side of town and I wanted a shop, and the BeltLine was across the street, so I was like, "This is a great location."

There's no shop in the area and the BeltLine was across the street.

It's a win-win.

So, I linked up with my business partner, who owns a shop in Stone Mountain.

We came together, collab'd, and opened Clutch in 2018.

This comes over time.

You don't start off with something this big.

You start small.

You can always start small and grow the business.

You know, it doesn't cost a whole lot to get a business license and start a business.

The bike life movement in Atlanta, it seems pretty small, but it's going in the right direction.

I'm seeing a lot of new faces getting on BMX bikes, which is cool.

Growing the scene.

A lot of people can't really afford to get into BMX.

It is, you know, a cost to get a bike, and to have a decent bike is a good bit of money.

So, I see that being a big hurdle as far as getting people on bikes.

One thing I think the bike life community can do is stick together, come together, do more rides, get more people together more often to be more seen.

Yeah, if you see a group of kids out riding in big groups, just give them space.

I mean, they're just out here trying to have fun.

They're not doing anything crazy, you know, not hurting anybody, and just out there having fun, enjoying themselves.

- We teaching you what we know, we giving you what we got, so that y'all can go further than we've ever been before.

So, me giving you this bike is all about the destination that I know that you gotta go as a young king.

For everything, for all the roads that we've seen, brother, this bike for you is to shoot you forward even further.

You know what I'm saying?

This is an abundant lifestyle.

Let's get it.

- I appreciate it.

- Do me a favor.

Hold this and pinch this tight.

Come over here and pinch it.

All right.

Stay there.

[peaceful music] [peaceful music continues] Yeah, so you follow this trail.

If you ever need something for the bicycle and you ain't got the money to go to Clutch, come to me.

I'll give you the tools.

[Shawn indistinctly murmurs] All right?

- Yeah.

[peaceful music] - [Cameraman] Yeah.

It match with the purple too.

[cameraman laughs] - Now, you're for real a real young king.

- Thank you.

- Take it easy, all right?

- All right.

- Take it.

It's yours.

[peaceful music] - Yeah.

- [Cameraman] New bike!

Yeah.

- All right, so if y'all fighting, y'all not gonna get these bikes now.

[group indistinctly chattering] All right, so y'all ready?

- [Cameraman] Yeah.

All right, so Invisible Army got one more bike out.

We getting rid of this bike.

That's what I'm talking about.

Let me see this bike, Dave, because you getting a new one.

This stuff gotta go.

See what I'm saying?

We getting them all stuff like that.

Like that.

Like that.

- [Biker] Like that and like that.

- [Cameraman] You know what I'm saying?

So, how you feeling, man?

- Good.

- Tuesday, you getting a new bike, all right?

What we say, y'all?

- [Group] Yer.

- [Cameraman] That ain't even loud enough!

That wasn't even loud enough!

What we say?

- [Group] Yer!

- [Cameraman] All right.

Yeah.

Congratulations, my guy.

I don't know what you're gonna do with that, man, but maybe give it to somebody else, 'cause you getting something new.

What you think?

- [Dave] It's good.

- [Cameraman] You know what you got?

- A Stranger.

- [Cameraman] Look at that bike.

Look at the bars.

Look at the handle bars.

Come out the gate with the four-piece.

What you think?

Look at the tires.

It already came with the thick tires.

Got the four-piece bars.

Got the good right there.

You on deck.

You got the short rear end, so it come right up.

Gotta say that.

Got the Fatboy tires.

So you don't need nothing except some cranks.

- Got my Kool-Stops right there.

- [Cameraman] Yeah, Kool-Stops all day.

Yeah, James the one who got you that bike, man.

- Oh, that's his bike?

- [Cameraman] Yeah, that's his bike.

He pulled up looking like Cross.

- Looking like Cross a little bit, boy.

[laughs] Yeah.

- Hey, that thing's smooth.

I pop a wheelie on that and it's just so smooth.

- [Cameraman] Did you want the 29 or the 26?

'Cause I got two 26s coming.

[group indistinctly murmurs] Yeah.

You want this, right?

It's so smooth, bro.

[group indistinctly murmurs] Aye, good looks, James.

- Man, for sure.

Hey.

- [Cameraman] Yeah, Dungeon Family pulling up.

- I'm always here for kids.

I always support my boy Chilly-O.

Man, I love the the kids, man.

Gotta do it.

BMX is a lifestyle.

The Mighty Dungeon.

[peaceful music] - [Narrator] This ain't a hood story.

It's a love story about a few boys and their bikes.

We decide who we're gonna be, kings or worms, geniuses or fools, loyal or disloyal.

It's all on us.

Either we overcome the streets or get consumed by them, so let's ride 'til the wheels fall off.

[peaceful music] ♪ ♪ ♪