On a hot Saturday spring morning, Karabo Mashele urged a group of female cyclists up the hills of a plush Johannesburg suburb. \u201cCome on my ladybugs,\u201d the 32-year-old shouted over the sounds of 4X4 cars overtaking the riders. \u201cYou can do hard things!\u201d<\/p>\n
Twice a month, Mashele, who only learned to cycle aged 29, leads Girls on Bikes<\/a> casual rides for up to 25 women in their 20s and 30s, through Johannesburg or Pretoria. On other weekends, she and a core group join longer, mixed gender rides.<\/p>\n Johannesburg, with a population<\/a> of nearly 5 million, is not designed for cyclists or pedestrians, with dense townships and sprawling suburbs connected by highways. Less than 1.5% of the City of Gold\u2019s commuters cycle to work, the majority of them migrant workers from other southern African countries, according to Njogu Morganm who has studied transport in the city. Bikes are usually seen as either an elite hobby or a last resort for the poor.<\/p>\n South Africa\u2019s metropolitan areas haven\u2019t changed much since apartheid ended more than three decades ago, with poorer black workers commuting to wealthier areas from the townships into which the white minority regime forced their communities. However, the members of Girls on Bikes and other young cycling enthusiasts are reclaiming the streets of South Africa\u2019s largest city.<\/p>\n This dynamic is something Titi Mashele is acutely aware of. He launched Banditz Bicycle Club in 2018 to find a cycling community and now has a bike shop and runs weekly \u201cHomies Night Rides\u201d. He also encouraged his younger sister Karabo to start Girls on Bikes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a political statement to see people of colour on bikes, in suburbs. Like right now, in front of us, you see the eyes and how people are looking at us,\u201d Mashele said, as he drove a support vehicle ahead of the 10km Girls on Bikes ride.<\/p>\n Karabo Mashele said she wanted to change the perception of cycling among black South Africans, recalling how children in Soweto thought their group were tourists.<\/p>\n \u201cI spoke in Sotho or Zulu and said, \u2018Yes, I\u2019m from here. I\u2019m like you, I\u2019m the same colour as you,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a little sad, but at the same time I was like, \u2018OK, I\u2019ve got work to do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n At the other end of Johannesburg\u2019s cycling spectrum is spinning and \u201cStance culture\u201d. It started with cars \u2013 souped up BMWs spun in tyre-burning circles in Soweto in the 1980s, towards the end of white minority rule, often at gangsters\u2019 funerals. It is now a sport, attracting sponsors such as Red Bull<\/a>.<\/p>\n Percy Zimuto of the \u2018Sentech Croozers\u2019 bicycle club, named after the the Sentech tower in Brixton, Johannesburg.<\/p>\n In recent years, children in Soweto started spinning on modified bikes. Crews of mainly teenage boys, such as Soweto Street Fighters<\/a> and Bikerboyz<\/a>, took over township streets, battling each another<\/a> over their mastery of tricks including \u201cdoughnuts\u201d (spinning in multiple circles) and \u201cthe kitchen\u201d (pedalling quickly into a sharp 180-degree turn).<\/p>\n Often, two frames are welded together, with smaller wheels attached to make the bikes extra long and low-slung. Riders have to lean forwards to pedal in the lowrider stance that gives Stance culture its name.<\/p>\n Lesedi Musima, of the Sentech Croozers bicycle club, in Brixton, Johannesburg.<\/p>\n In Brixton, a mixed income neighbourhood popular with artists, Percy Zimuto, 20, and Lesedi Mosima, 18, of the Sentech Croozers crew (named after a local telecoms tower), showed off their creations.<\/p>\n They had lowered 20in frames on to 16in wheels, then added silver mudguards and huge forward-tilted handlebars shaped like antelope horns. Zimuto\u2019s bike was spraypainted bright red, while Mosima\u2019s was salmon pink with a grinning evil clown mask attached to a large boombox. While frames cost as little as 50 rand (\u00a32.15) at scrapyards, they can spend up to 3,000 rand on modifications.<\/p>\n Members of the Sentech Croozers show off their skills in Brixton, Johannesburg.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI saw Stance culture as a way to \u2026 have movement and art at the same time,\u201d said Zimuto, the crew\u2019s leader. \u201cI felt like this was a way of actually getting to engage with more people, because this \u2013 it\u2019s so different.\u201d<\/p>\n Zimuto, a freelance photographer, founded the crew in 2018 after seeing spinning in Soweto. Most members left once they finished school, so he recruited 14 new Croozers, now aged 12 to 20.<\/p>\n Recent rides<\/a> have included cycling 12 miles from Soweto\u2019s FNB Stadium, through the old Central Business District, to the new business district towers of Sandton, which styles itself<\/a> \u201cAfrica\u2019s richest square mile\u201d. The all-male crew has also featured in adverts for a bank, a telecoms company, clothing brands and KFC<\/a>.<\/p>\n Zimuto said: \u201cWhen I\u2019m actually walking in the streets without my bike I\u2019m just an ordinary person. But when I\u2019m in the street with a bike it\u2019s like, \u2018Who\u2019s that? Who are you?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n