It's Like Herding Cattle, Man

I spoke with Dom Ware about building his own bikes, his experience with his Omnium cargo bike, and being a ride leader for NYC Bike N' Brew.

Dom’s cycling journey began in 2016 when he purchased a bike from a random man on the street. “I was doing freelance work down in Industry City. I went outside for something, and this bum was hanging out. He’s like, ‘Hey, you want to buy this bike?’ I wasn’t really interested, but he’s like, ‘Give me $50.’ I figured, ‘Why not?’ It was probably stolen. It was a piece of shit bike, but it was enough to get me to buy it. It was like the gateway drug to bikes in the city.” The bike was a Panasonic with double brake shifters. Dom admitted that he suffered flat tires on a weekly basis with this bike, but it was still better for him than commuting by subway.

For his first few years with a bike, Dom used it only for commuting. That changed when a coworker encouraged him to try Thursday Night Social Ride. Attending the ride showed him the social aspect to riding. It also motivated him to improve his bike situation. “I was like, ‘Oh shit. People take their bikes seriously. I knew so little. There was so much more to it that I didn’t understand. I really wanted to invest my time and effort into this.”

As a result of frequent flats on his first bike, Dom regularly brought it to his local Queens shop, Joy Ride Bikes. The shop’s owner, Josh, gave Dom a couple of options for improving the bike. The alternative was buying a new bike entirely. “He was such a great mechanic. He was like, ‘If you’re using it this much, maybe you should think about getting another bike because this isn’t tailored for your size. I ended up buying another bike for like 400 bucks. It was a substantial improvement, but it was still pretty shitty.”

Over time, Dom educated himself on how to upgrade bike parts to fix the problems he was having. “I learned about double-wall aluminum rims, and I paid to switch out my wheelset. That eliminated flats for me. Buying a halfway-decent pair of rims and tires made flats become few and far between. That’s when I was like, ‘Okay, now I can ride all the time.’ It stopped being stressful and it became more reliable.” Dom credits members of the NYC social cycling scene for providing him with the education he needed to upgrade his bikes. “I wanted to put money in this. I was like, ‘Let me learn.’ I started looking at people’s bikes and picking their brains. ‘What is this and how does it work?’ There’s an endless amount of knowledge amongst the bike community. I learned a lot through curiosity and asking the right questions.”

Dom’s college background in fine arts and his career in fabrication and production have given him a propensity for working with his hands. “In college, I did glass blowing and bronze casting. I did a bunch of jewelry. I did woodworking, welding, and sheet metal shaping. I did ceramics and plaster mold making. You name it, I tried it. I realized towards the end of high school that I had such an innate ability to create with my hands that is not common amongst other people.” Outside of his profession, Dom’s inclination to work with his hands has helped him pursue building bikes.

In the past few years, Dom has collaborated with Josh to build three different bikes. Josh has handled the building portion while Dom has tackled the paint job and picked the parts. The first bike he built started with a steel frame. “I took my entire road bike apart, sandblasted it, came up with a concept, and painted it. It was a Rick and Morty theme. It was baby blue and yellow. Then I got some newer parts, got a better crankset, got a better wheelset. I basically modernized this old steel frame, custom painted it myself, and got it rebuilt.” Josh completed the rebuilding portion. Dom felt a sense of pride once that bike was finally built. “A bike is a chance to show your personality, and that’s what I wanted to do. It was great.”

Dom initially found Joy Ride Bikes by searching Google for a local bike shop. The friendship he has developed with Josh has developed organically. “He’s an independent business owner. For the first half of the time I’ve known him, he was the only guy who worked in the shop. It’s a small shop run out of a two-car garage.” The shop is located in Ridgewood, a neighborhood Dom has lived in for most of his time in the city. “He does a great job of being able to read and understand his clients’ level of understanding of bikes, how much they care, and what they’re willing to spend. That’s why he’s found so much success. Unlike most shops, he’s not trying to sell you the most expensive fucking bike in the shop. He’s really trying to give you exactly what you need and nothing more, nothing less. If you’re trying for something that’s entry-level because you don’t want to spend a bunch of money, he can do that. If you want to spend more money, he can also do that.”

Sadly, the Rick and Morty bike is no longer with us as Dom totaled it in Midtown. “It was Sixth Avenue, near Macy’s. It was typical Macy’s BS. There were a bunch of tourists streaming out into the bike lane. I’m distracted by them, and I start to veer to the right. It has that sloped concrete barrier that divides the bike lane from the car lane. I hit that at full speed, like 20 miles an hour. Luckily, the fact that it was sloped, I basically just went up it, but the impact made my front rear wheel touch my down tube, so the fork was fucked. That was the first time I totaled a bike. I had fenders on it at the time. I took those off, and I was still able to ride it home. I took it to the bike shop. He wouldn’t look at it. He was like, ‘No, you can’t ride this anymore.’” After wrecking his first build, Dom built another bike using a steel frame Josh found for him. This one had a Road Runner theme.

In the last year, Dom purchased an Omnium cargo bike. The inspiration for the purchase came from Chris Martinez, a member of the NYC cycling community. Chris frequently rides his cargo bike with his dog, Apollo. “Apollo and Bella had a surprise litter of puppies. Chris was like, ‘Hey, you interested in a dog?’ I’ve wanted a dog for years now. I was like, ‘Absolutely.’ Then I thought, ‘Well, I’m getting this dog, and this dog’s father is a first-generation bike dog. Now I can get the cargo bike because I need it to bring the dog with me. The dog was the final justification for getting the cargo bike.”

Owning a cargo bike has made it incredibly convenient for Dom to lug items around a city where it’s typically challenging to transport goods without a vehicle. “On any given day, I can throw my tools on it to get them to and from work. If I’m riding around on trash day, I can find a sweet piece of furniture, boom, throw it on there.
If I got to go grocery shopping, ‘wham,’ I can fucking throw a week’s worth of groceries on there easily. If I’m going to take the dog somewhere, I can put the dog in the front.” Dom noted that he doesn’t see any downsides to riding a cargo bike, aside from a minimal speed reduction. “I’m notably slower, but I’m still going at a decent pace. It hasn’t affected me on any of the social rides. There are hardly any cons to riding that bike. It’s great in the winter because it has the widest tires on it. It’s got 55s on it, so it handles great in the winter instead of riding around on these tiny little road bike tires.”

The process to obtain the cargo bike took several months because Omnium bikes have soared in popularity over the last few years. Dom was able to buy his bike through Bike Plant, a shop in Bed Stuy. “If you go on their website to this day, almost everything says out of stock. I aggressively chased down the information for the U.S. distributor and made sure that I could get my hands on one as soon as possible.”

Since acquiring his Omnium, Dom has had several fun experiences that were made possible by its storage capabilities. “Before summer ended, I got a small charcoal grill. I went on a Nelson-led Bike N’ Brew ride to the Bronx.” This particular ride ended at Concrete Plant Park, a name that escaped Dom during the interview. “I grilled a bunch of hot dogs for everybody, and that was awesome.”

Beyond planned fun, the cargo bike has provided Dom with the ability to go on impulsive side quests. “I follow an Instagram page called Stooping NYC. I went and got this 36-inch wide, solid oak, beautiful, round table. I hauled that shit home on it.
That was sick. A couple weeks ago, I put a giant kerosene heater on it, and biked to work. The most memorable moments are when you find a new absurd thing to put on it.”

Dom explained that he hopes to participate in an annual cargo bike ride next year. The ride requires several cargo cyclists to climb Bear Mountain together with their dogs up front. “I got my bike two days after that ride. Oh, my God. I was trying to go this past year, but I got my bike too late. Next year, 100 percent doing the dog ride to Bear Mountain. It’s called tour de cargo.”

Although Dom began his social riding with Thursday Night Social Ride, he eventually pivoted to NYC Bike N’ Brew during its first year of operation in 2021. He found the ride’s structure more conducive to his lifestyle and schedule. “’I like the pace. There’s no break in the middle, which I was never a big fan of. It also ends earlier.” Bike N’ Brew typically rolls out at 7 P.M. and reaches the destination around 8:30. Thursday Night Social Ride leaves at 7:30 P.M. and has breaks in between, which delays the end time. “I start my days at 6 A.M. now. I walk the dog, do a handful of chores, and I’m out of the house by seven. Being out past midnight is a very rare occurrence for me now, because my day starts so early. I don’t have it in me.”

Dom started volunteering for Bike N’ Brew soon after joining. He spent years blocking intersections and sweeping for the ride. He explained that he soaked up information like a sponge when he volunteered to become better at it. Through years of experience, he eventually gained the confidence to approach the Bike N’ Brew founder, Justin Johnstone, and ask to start leading rides. “We had a good conversation about it. He had his concerns. In the beginning, there were a lot of people who were interested, and he was like, ‘I kind of want to keep my roster capped at a certain amount of leaders, so they lead frequently enough so that they don’t get rusty.’ He was like, ‘I hear you. I’ll keep you in mind, but we gotta wait. Table it, continue to volunteer, improve yourself, it’ll come in time.”

Dom’s opportunity finally came in January of 2025. “Justin texted me, and he was like, ‘Hey, are you still interested in leading a ride? We have an open spot coming up, and I’m trying to find someone to fill it.’ I had already planned my ride, test rode it, and figured it all out months ago. I was just sitting on it. Whenever the day came, I was ready.” This route began at Bridge and Tunnel Park in Long Island City and ended at Bridge and Tunnel Brewery in Ridgewood. “We ended up at B & T, which is not open on Tuesdays. It was a private opening just for us, because we know the bartenders. It’s kind of crazy how many people went. We had at least 50 people come out, even though it was fucking cold. It was the coldest day ever. It was in the teens with a real feel of zero, basically.” Dom said the pace of the ride was fast due to the cold. He added that there were, unsurprisingly, few newcomers, as it was extremely freezing.

NYC Bike N’ Brew leads consistent Tuesday rides, but occasionally, there are weekend rides as well. Dom led many weekend rides throughout 2025, which allowed him to work outside of a less stringent set of parameters. “I found myself leading a ride once or twice a month, which was crazy. It consumed my life for a minute. The weekend rides, they’re not standard format. That’s why I liked it. I could do anywhere from 10 to 50 miles, because it’s the weekend. I don’t have a structure that I need to follow.”

Leading weekend rides quickly became a great creative outlet for Dom. At the start of 2025, he planned on leading one weekend ride per month, culminating in a 12-ride series. “I loved the idea of spoke cards. I was like, ‘I don’t have a good creative outlet right now. People love and appreciate them, so I’m going to hand-collage it.’” Dom ended up leading nine weekend rides in 2025. His plan to do 12 ended up not happening due to a busy work season, where he needed to prioritize his job. “I still led a lot of great rides. The attendance has been great. I’ve seen anywhere from 20 to 50 people on the weekend rides.” When Dom initially planned the 12 weekend rides, he intended to give prizes for those who obtained all 12 spoke cards. “I still want to capitalize on that, so the 12 might get drawn out over more than a year. I think I’m going to do a raffle and for every spoke card that you can show up with, I’ll give you a ticket. Then I’ll raffle off something.”

With a year of leading rides under his belt, Dom said he relies on multiple sources for route inspiration. “I find inspiration through my daily commute and through other people’s rides. I’ll go back and look at another ride leader’s route that they did and be like, ‘I really like this one section.’ I mentally take note of it and try to include it in my ride.” In addition to route planning, a ride leader must be responsible for a lot.“Things that I focus on with planning routes are first and foremost, traffic and time of day. I rarely lead a ride in Manhattan because Manhattan’s traffic is shit. Some people find a way to navigate that. Nelson’s a great person in doing that. He’s planned some great rides in Manhattan, where he’s avoided the traffic.” Other aspects that Dom tends to avoid are narrow streets and creating routes with too many turns. One of his main focuses during rides is maintaining a steady pace. “Pacing goes a long way. There’s this certain Goldilocks speed that you can find and match with the flow of traffic, knowing when you should let the cars go versus bobbing and weaving with traffic.”

One of Dom’s biggest challenges as a ride leader has been having the confidence to set the tone for the ride. “It’s something that I’ve gotten really good at. The thing I’ve learned is that I’m the ride leader, and I own that shit. I’m not going to let the mass group control the ride. The last ride I led, I made a couple of unannounced, off script right turns because I had a bunch of people who thought they were gonna go faster than the ride leader. I’m not gonna let that fly. I’ll make the unannounced right turn after half the group is in front of me and be like, ‘What? What?’ It’s like herding cattle, man.”

Dom believes that his profession in production and fabrication has helped him as a ride leader. “I work in a high-stress industry, and I’m no stranger to dealing with high-stress situations. Ride leading felt pretty effortless to me.” He also credits his wife, Kelsey, for helping him as a ride leader. “She has a pretty substantial back injury. Learning to acknowledge her and her capabilities has helped me learn how to maintain and communicate as a ride leader and set a healthy pace that the general public can keep up with. That has been a big part of it.”

Dom explained that his relationship with his wife and his relationship with biking in the city roughly follow the same time frame. He explained that Kelsey is an all-season rider as well, which may have been originally influenced by Dom’s love for biking. “She had done it somewhat on her own, but I think through my passion, desire, and how much time it was taking up, she was like, ‘If I want more time with you, maybe I should get a better bike and we should start doing this together.” Dom said that now, Kelsey relies on bikes just as much as he does. He explained that his next bike-related adventure will be building a bike for his wife. “Through all the stuff that I’ve learned, I’ve helped her find a bike that is more accommodating for what she needs. She can’t ride a road bike because being in that position is too hard on her back. I individually picked out each part, starting with the frame. This has been the culmination of all the knowledge that I’ve learned in years of cycling.”