The Guardian asks a number of cycling 'experts' [whatever that means] about their favourite bike routes in conjunction with National Bike Week. I describe the route from my flat to the centre of Copenhagen in the morning rush hour - it's on page three of the online article.
Many of the others describe cycling holiday routes but I don't do cycling holidays. When you ride your bicycle as transport every day, all you want out of a holiday is to walk a few metres down to a beach to build sandcastles with your kids, after which you promenade down to the harbour for dinner. But hey, that's me.
Great Pictures as always, Nice Relaxed easy going Style of Cycling. Not a care in the World, no need to look over your Right or Left Shoulder in case you get Creamed by a Passing Turd Brain in a Car.
ReplyDeleteWhy should there be with a Safe Cycling Infrastructure of CPH, and no Lycra anywhere Nothing but Beautiful Women on Bicycles.
Nice one Mikael.
ReplyDeleteJuliet Elliot's on page 4, riding through London, is also not to be missed :)
I can't wait for their series with ten expert pedestrians on their favourite footpaths. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhat a load of tosh 'Bike Week' is. Another excuse for people to go on about leisure cycling or sport and then feel like they have done their bit for promoting cycling.
ReplyDeleteI ride my bike every day, to work, for shopping, everywhere I go, it is just normal life. Mikael, you are voicing what I have always thought that cycling is just a normal civilized way to travel around. In the article yours is the one voice of normal cycling. The London ride (page 4) is some kind of fixie road warrior thing, not an everyday ride, and all the rest are just leisure cycling.
Thank you for Cycle Chic, it is a guiding light! Since reading this and similar blogs I have started to worry less about the nut jobs in cars and the dangerous roads and more about how cool the everyday cyclists in my town look. I have started encouraging everyone to jump on their bikes with 'cycle chic'.
Best
Nipper (Ukulele Revolutionary)
The image of a neighborly cycle sounds lovely! I'm so lonely on my commute sometimes. I enjoy the peacefulness, but sometimes it would be nice to see a fellow rider!
ReplyDeleteI live in Maryland on the border of DC and Virginia and while we have a plentitude of sport and leisure cyclers (and hoards of great trails!) I'm afraid the number of people that bike as transportation is close to nonexistant. In their defense, we're so built up with freeways around here there just aren't too many safe ways for a bicycle to get from Maryland to Virgina (DC is a little easier depending on where you live, but not so efficient) without some intervention despite it only being a few miles away. Trips to the shopping mall or even the grocery store are much the same way.
are you going to cycle chic fashion show in uk?
ReplyDeleteI just happened upon this website and I've been seeing that off-white/yellow-ish bike in the 2nd picture all over the place. Does anyone happen to know the make of that bike?
ReplyDeletethanks for the comments.
ReplyDeleteamanda: there are many brands here that sell this colour of bike. i can't read the name of it on this one, but it looks like a run-of-the-mill generic Danish brand.
unfortunately, most of our Danish brands are only available in denmark or scandinavia.
@Amanda: I have that bike in a different colour (the receit said 'Gucci colored') but I couldn't remember the name of the brand and I had to go down to the parking lot to check.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm pretty sure it's a MBK Classic Shop bike. http://www.sorens-cykler.dk/Producenter/MBK+-+2009/MBK+-+Classic+Shop+3+gear+'09.html
It's a great bike. I ride it everyday and besides from a few flat tyres I haven't had any problems in the last two years since I bought it.
Mikael and Lyvemaskine: Thanks for the help. Sigh. I wish these bikes were available in the US!
ReplyDelete@Nipper - the London ride is not some kind of 'road warrior' thing, that's just how you have to ride in London and many other cities that don't benefit from the cycling infrastructure of CPH! I've done parts of the route myself when I used to live in London (and was one of very few 'normal' people on bikes) and the allowance for cycles is minimal. But there you go, we make do with what we have and we try to learn from more developed countries. Thanks Mikael for helping bring it to the attention of the world!
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