Calkins: Memphis needs more gang members. (The spandex kind.)
Participants in the sixth annual Major Taylor Juneteenth Freedom Ride celebrate at Wiseacre Brewery on Saturday, June 20, 2026. (Courtesy/Major Taylor Memphis Bicycle Club)
Geoff Calkins
Geoff Calkins has been chronicling Memphis and Memphis sports for more than two decades. Calkins has been named the best sports columnist in the country five times by the Associated Press sports editors, but still figures his best columns are about the people who make Memphis what it is.
Memphis needs more gang members. Well, spandex gang members.
I say that as a member of a spandex gang myself.
But it was Collierville Alderman Charles Hall who came up with the term. It was during a recent debate over new restrictions for electric bikes.
“The spandex gang, to me, is a lot worse than the kids on e-bikes,” he said.
And with that, Hall became only the latest person to make fun of/become irritated by cyclists in spandex.
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