Dylan Mitchell is not a campus celebrity. Instead, he is a campus enigma.
While his name may not immediately ring a bell, for Northeastern students and Ruggles commuters, his peculiar hobby might. For hours on end, the 24-year-old biker extraordinaire circles the Centennial Common roundabout blasting disco and funk classics through a speaker, all the while performing daring stunts.
“If I get hit, I get hit,” Mitchell said, shrugging. “Maybe I get a payout.”
Although Mitchell — a New Orleans native — has been biking for as long as he can remember, he said he didn’t use it as his main form of transportation until COVID-19. At the time he was studying political science and public policy at George Washington University, or GW, in Washington, where he also became a recognizable campus personality. His biking earned him a feature in The GW Hatchet, the university’s student-run newspaper.
After leaving Washington in 2022, Mitchell moved to Boston to work for The Boston Foundation, a nonprofit focusing on arts, culture and economic development in the greater Boston area.
But when he shipped up to Boston, he wasn’t prepared to give up biking. The roundabout outside Ruggles, halfway between work and his home, was the perfect location for cycling. Before he began working full-time, Mitchell said he would bike “300 [to] 500 miles a month just going in circles.”
Although he suspects passersby assume his hobby is performative and that people view him as “that crazy guy with the bike,” he said he has no intention of being seen.
“That’s usually why I’ll look at the ground, or look up,” Mitchell said. “I usually don’t give people eye contact.”
But it’s hard for passersby to miss the music that always accompanies Mitchell’s cycling. From a speaker attached to his bike, he often plays disco, R&B, jazz and funk tunes. He also finds himself stuck listening to the same songs on repeat, including the recent earworm “Any Love” by Rufus and Chaka Khan.
Entranced by the grooves, Mitchell dances while he bikes, often standing on the bike’s frame or going hands-free to maximize his movement. Despite his incredible balance, Mitchell has fallen off his bike multiple times, collecting “over 50 scars,” he said. In constant pursuit of risk, challenge and self-satisfaction, Mitchell considers his eccentric style of biking not just a hobby, but an “addiction.”
“I would never, ever recommend anybody else do it,” Mitchell said. “But it’s me, and I know the consequences.”
While in college, in January 2022, a car struck Mitchell as he was biking.
“I have no memory of it,” he said. “I woke up in the ambulance.”
Mitchell admits to not wearing a helmet and is grateful to have survived the collision with only a few scars and a totaled bike to show for it.
“It really was a canon moment,” Mitchell said. “Just not having any memory of it, and then realizing, ‘Oh s—. I could have f—— died.’”
Mitchell’s pastime not only takes a physical toll, but a financial one. Besides his second bike that was destroyed due to his life-threatening accident, he has had two other bikes stolen, the first of which he spent extra money on for its teal grips and advanced foldable technology. Mitchell had used his fourth bike, which he purchased in spring 2022, until the gear shifter fell off this January. Deciding to finally make an upgrade after years of maintenance, Mitchell is currently on his fifth bike.
Although Mitchell loves biking and the adrenaline it gives him, he is considering hanging up his helmet once he turns 26 — the age that he is no longer considered a dependent on his family’s health insurance. In the meantime, however, he wants to continue testing the limits of what someone can achieve on a bicycle.
“I really want to build something where I can have flames coming out the back, and then set my helmet on fire. But that’s a dangerous goal,” Mitchell said, laughing.
Coworkers and family members remind Mitchell constantly of the risks associated with his unique biking style. Tal Kamara, Mitchell’s close friend and current George Washington University junior, first noticed him because of his biking.
“When I was a freshman at GW, I would always see this shirtless, hippie-looking dude who was biking around blasting funk music,” Kamara said. “He seemed so at peace.”
The two became friends at George Washington University and went on multiple bike rides together around the city. While they cycled, Kamara noticed that Mitchell “seemed really unconcerned with how he looked to the world.”
Ultimately, Mitchell said, that’s his modus operandi: “I love being unorthodox. I don’t think there’s any other way.”
