Life in the Bike Lane

We deeply appreciate all of our allies—from our brother brand Giant, to everyone who rides with us, roots for us and shares our belief that when more women and girls ride, we all win. Sean Armenta's "Life in the Bike Lane" project was born from the idea of highlighting Vancouver cyclists from all backgrounds and inspire more women to join them on the bike lane. The Giant Vancouver bike mechanic explains how it all started and came together. 

"While I was born in Vancouver, I never really lived here. I always lived someplace else, mostly in Manila and the Los Angeles area. In September of 2019 I decided to come back to Canada and make Vancouver my home. Then Covid hit, and for the next year and a half I felt pretty isolated in my own birthplace, not to mention really feeling like a stranger in my own home. I had kind of retired from photography and wanted to pursue a new venture while still doing something I was passionate about, and that was obviously something to do with cycling.

Back in LA, I had my group of usual friends I would ride with. Here in Vancouver I knew maybe two or three people but no one who rode bikes. At the same time I was actively pursuing finding work in the cycling industry and was extremely grateful I got a job at Giant Vancouver. It was so dreamy and I felt like things started to fall into place for me. Still, I was riding solo with the exception of maybe riding a couple of times with the shop owner Andrew.

Photography was and still a huge part of my life and identity, so it was natural for me to combine it with this new world of cycling. I wanted to find a cycling community somehow and thought what better way than to take advantage of our customer base as a shop and Giant and Liv as a brand to promote cycling and Giant/Liv bicycles.

By this time restrictions had relaxed and things were going back to somewhat normal. I made a post and story on my Instagram seeking anyone who was riding Giant or Liv bikes and offering to shoot their portrait. At that point I hadn’t really narrowed down the scope of the project - i just wanted to see if there would be any interest. I knew from the get go that I did not want my project to be one dimensional - I wanted to show cycling as inclusive and that it encompassed so much more than road racing or competitive riding. Vancouver is such a bike-centric city and every day, no matter what the weather, I saw people commuting by bike. I wanted to not only feature people crushing KOM’s/QOM’s on their TCR’s and Propels, but also the everyday rider who uses cycling as their main source of transportation, or the people who ride just for the pure enjoyment of it. It wasn’t necessarily about the bike itself - it was really about people’s unique relationships with their bicycles - what they used them for and how it affected their lives.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect, but I was so pleasantly surprised that most of the people who responded were women, and that’s why the majority of the features were of women on Liv bikes. I even got responses from people outside of Vancouver - a few from Oregon and as far south as Arizona. It was clear I piqued an interest that was there but no one had really thought of. The stories were sometimes quite poignant - one person from Oregon wanted to tell their story about how their Giant e-bike got them back on the saddle after an accident that prevented them from riding a normal bike. Others had stories about how cycling helped with their failing health.

While most of the people I photographed were of a competitive cycling background, I used the interview portion to try to find a more personal story within that. I didn’t want it to be about watts and data. I wanted to highlight the relationship. I wanted it to be about what makes them go out and spend their free time on the saddle, whether it be for 15 minutes or 5 hours. I was glad I was able to find a couple of riders who either rode for commuting purposes or rode gravel.

The project did not come without challenges however, and I soon realized some of the limitations. I tried to pattern each meeting in the same way, kind of how that Netflix show with Jerry Seinfeld “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee.” It was myself and the subject literally riding around Vancouver or wherever their favourite spot to ride was, having a conversation and taking photographs. Sometimes the limitation would be my own lack of fitness (Vancouver has way more elevation than I am used to riding around the mostly flat beach areas of LA) in keeping up with some very strong women riders while carrying camera equipment on me, other times it would be scheduling around both their work schedules and my own schedule at Giant Vancouver. A couple of times I was simply unable to follow the riding format because they would be on a full suspension mountain bike riding in the North Shore and my only bike is a Revolt. I also didn’t want to take up too much of their time, and funny enough I was able to do each feature in just about an hour. Sometimes we would do a cafe stop, but mostly it was meet up, ride to 2-4 locations and shoot.

Despite these challenges, I can honestly say this project has been so enjoyable to do, and I hope to continue doing them. I definitely want to feature a more diverse community, so I look forward to finding more people who ride flat bar commuters, or e-bikes. I still have yet to feature any MTB riders but I will have to figure out the logistics for that.