In the fall of 1997 Mark was enrolled as a first year student at William Paterson University majoring in Mass Communication. Among the most affordable Universities in New Jersey, WPU was known as a commuter school where many people went for a teaching degree. More world reknown was the Jazz program which attracted students from around the world. Nonetheless, it was the type of atmosphere where few people DIDN'T have a car. Mark was one of these people. So as his primary form of transportation, he brought his Mongoose mountainbike to campus.
Thus began the tradition of riding to most every class, as well as riding through any and all types of weather. Teachers and students alike grew to know Mark as, among other names, the guy who rides the bike everywhere. Frequently professors would refer to Mark when attempting to make some example in a discussion about the environment or something to that effect. As Yemane said on a few occasions during class "You could also be like Mark, who rides his cadillac to class every day.."
But the title of bicyclemark would come during his sophmore year, when Mark lived in Hillside Hall, the smaller scale student housing complex built around 1996. A 3 floor building located on the exact opposite side of campus from the communication department, Mark would routinely ride up to the front door and carry his bike up one flight of stairs to his room. This would usually involve chit-chat with security guards who had often become friends, and resident assistants who also became friends. On one particular occasion, an RA who would often share jokes with Mark, was sitting at the front desk with a group of people. As Mark passed with his bike on his shoulder, she smiled hello announcing "Here comes bicyclemark." The name stuck, several RA's adopted it, and as the internet world was booming, websites, screennames, email, in virtually every platform Mark joined online... bicyclemark became his nickname of choice.
Eventually even people who had nothing to do with William Paterson, who saw the email nickname of the geocities site that Mark launched under his new handle around 1998, would routinely refer to him as bicyclemark, "b-mark" or "bm".