Bondi Beach Cruisers

This is brilliant. A cool film feat. Australian Cycle Chic for Bondi Beach Cruisers made by +61 Collective. Cycle Chic is lovin' this on this, the last day of summer in Copenhagen. So says the weather gurus, anyway.

It's Always Sunny in the Cycle Chic Republic

The internet is brilliant for many reasons. One of them isn't that in the midst of winter we can see instant images of people enjoying a brilliant summer on the bottom half of the planet - like this fantastic shot from our friends at Sydney Cycle Chic. But we shall wait patiently and strike back in about four months time when they're shivering. Hah.

At least the sun never sets on the Cycle Chic Republic and it's always sunny somewhere - and always cocktail time somewhere, too.

Summer Somewhere Else

It ain't summer here in Copenhagen. But it is, apparently, quite a lot of summer on Burleigh Beach in Gold Coast, Australia. Bastards.

Spotted on I Bike NZ's Flickr photostream via the Bike Friendly Northshore blog.


Where there is Yin, there must be Yang. Here's some Aerial Cycle Chic from the Copenhagen winter the other day. We've gotten the yang of this winter thang.

Climate Change - Australia Cycle Chic

Climate Change is a serious issue. It can also be quite depressing. When the climate changes to winter here in Copenhagen, it's changing to summer Down Under. Lucy from Sydney Vintage Bikes sent us these shots from a recent campaign in Sydney. Bondi, to be precise. They were taken by Lara Inc. - Sydney’s most respected fashion and lifestyle events agency and were in conjuction with an event for Switch Flops.

Lucy provided the vintage bikes for the event.

While we wouldn't want to live anywhere else but Copenhagen, we certainly wouldn't mind a little Australian holiday right about now.

Remember, you always have Sydney Cycle Chic for more photos from Down Under.


Meanwhile, back at Cycle Chic Headquarters in Copenhagen:

Cycle Chic Interview

On my recent visit to Melbourne for the State of Design Festival, the good people from Inframe.tv shoved me into a chair at Denmark House and engaged me in a chat about Cycle Chic. The origins and the philosophy and all that.

Dinking. Yes... dinking.

So I learned a new word whilst in Melbourne. Dinking. That's New World Antipodean for 'doubling'. Here's Lou and Emma (Creative Director and Marketing and Development Manager of the State of Design Festival, respectively) heading off to a party after a night out on the day of my keynote talk at the festival.

Dinking. Funny how that rhymes with drinking. :-)

Melbourne Cycle Chic - and a demonstration

I've now returned home to Copenhagen after giving a keynote speech at the brilliant State of Design festival in Melbourne. It was fantastic to meet so many wonderful people but especially fantastic to meet some Cycle Chicistas who made the trip to Melbourne for the talk. At left is Jenny - AKA Unity Finesmith - from Auckland Cycle Chic and, at right in the lovely green gloves, is Saskia from A Spirit of Place and Cycle Chic Sundays - Sydney.


Here's another friend, Dr Paul Martin, with his wife on the left and Jenny on the right. In addition to the State of Design keynote, there was a brilliantly, well-dressed bicycle-related protest on the Saturday. We all went for a bike ride on the new bike share bikes in Melbourne. Which sounds nice until you consider the fact that Melbourne has bike helmet laws. We were part of a protest/demonstration and you can read much more about it over at Copenhagenize.com


Here are some other chic cyclists enjoying the ride and the protest.


And a spot of Canine Demonstration Cycle Chic. His name is Bon Bon.

All in all it was quite possibly the chic'est demonstration I've ever been involved in.

Cycle Chic Art

A warm thank you to Genna Campton from Australia for her fine illustration inspired by Cycle Chic. Check out Genna's blog and her explanation for creating the illustration right here.

Australia Wedding Cycle Chic

From a snowy, sub-zero Copenhagen to a summery Australia. Thanks to Lucy from Sydney Vintage Bikes for some Australia Cycle Chic to warm us on these chilly days. Above and below you can see splendid engagement photography by Gemma Clarke.


Here are a couple more wedding shots from Down Under.

Absolutely brilliant stuff. Fantastic atmosphere.


And here's a lovely classic dog-in-basket shot.

Sydney Cycle Chic

Been awhile since we had a spot of Australia Cycle Chic. Here's a shot from the Cycle Chic group on Flickr by Velovotee taken in Sydney.

If you're down under and looking for restored vintage bicycles, check out our friend Lucy's eBay page to see if you can find your dream bicycle.

Sydney Cycle Chic

Here's a little splash of Cycle Chic from Down Under.

Sydney Cycle Chic, indeed. Nice. Thanks to Candycranks.

You may recall the story about Sue, the cyclist in New South Wales who is fighting a ticket for cycling without a helmet. She's getting ready for court and defending herself on the grounds of 'necessity'. You can see a little film about it here. Go Sue!

Russian Cycle Chic & Australian Rant

Welcome to Monday. Welcome to Cycle Chic, Russian Style. From the groovy Afisha.ru website.
Katya, 23 years
She bought a cheap toy bicycle by Stels, painted it and named it Joddy.


Masha, 23 years
She bought it for exactly one and a half thousand rubles. She uses the basket for books and all kinds of fruits and vegetables. She tried to carry her dog, Otiko, in it but he likes to run alongside. She notices that car drivers pass her winking and smiling more often than boys on the street. She dreams of a retro bike cruiser with a feminine frame.

And yes, Cycle Chic is itching to get back to Moscow.


On the other side of the globe, in Melbourne, a journalist is quite fed up with lycra and 'cyclists'. She just wishes she could cycle to work without having to put up with the 'hobby' cyclists:

I cycle to work on my poverty-pack hybrid in my work clothes, cruising along at a leisurely pace as the lycra brigade whizzes past with audible groans of disgust at my clear lack of cycling style.

If I dare get in their way with a wobbly start at the lights, the verbal abuse would make your hair curl.

I just smile politely and totter along like a happy little tortoise, invariably catching up to the lycra brigade at the many sets of lights between home and office.

But for maximum effect you really have to read her whole article right here. She certainly doesn't cut any corners but she is witty and sharp about it.

Interestingly, this is something we here at Cycle Chic are noticing more and more in the chatter on the internet. A kind of backlash by people who cycle in regular clothes on normal clothes against the fetish cyclists in their 'gear' who tend, in certain regions, to dominate the public image of 'cyclists'. And, in a way, shouldn't it be the general public who dominate the scene as it is them who are re-mainstreaming cycling after a break of 40 odd years? Nothing wrong with anyone who fancies joining a cycling club or anything like that. But cycling has always been a democratic pursuit and it is for the people at large - for the benefit of society.

Read more about how this is just History Repeating Itself on our sister site, Copenhagenize.com.

Here Comes The Bride

I've actually heard of many, many weddings in Denmark featuring a cargo bike, I've just never taken a photo of one. So thanks to Michelle, who attended a wedding a couple of weeks back and documented this Danish bicycle tradition for me... and, well... you.

She rented a cargo bike from the good people at Baisikeli [where you should rent your bicycles when YOU come to Copenhagen] and together with her daughter, they decorated it for the bride and groom and their daughter.

They rolled away from the church to the reception on three easy wheels.


I found this photo on Christiania Bikes website [under Photos on the menu], sent in by a customer in Australia, of another wedding Down Under.

Bicycles and weddings. A match made in heaven.

An Australian Cyclist

This lovely and stylish cyclist is Sue, from New South Wales, Australia. She always rides her bicycle and loves it.

What's more, Sue has become an inspiration to cyclists everywhere.

Global Cycle Chic Roundup

Lucy from Sydney Vintage Bikes sent us these lovely shots from Sydney of her niece at Mona Vale Beach. Lucy sells cool, restored vintage bicycles on Australian eBay. She's previously sent us some cool Cycle Chic Down Under shots.

Thanks to Buvös for sending in this classic "waiting for the drawbridge" pose from Utrecht.


Brendan in San Francisco sent this photo in, with this text: "After weeks of temperatures in the 40's (Fahrenheit) we finally got a few days of sun and temperatures in the mid 60's! Here's a picture of my girlfriend enjoying her new (old) bike on Golden Gate Park's JFK Drive, which is closed to auto traffic on Sundays." Thanks, Brendan!


And thanks to Gustar for this spot of Indonesian Cycle Chic. Beautiful outfit, beautiful bike. The photo was taken by Ben from Mahanagari.


Lavinka sent this photo in from Poland. Wonderful stuff.


Brian in New York spotted these shots on the always cool Refinery29 in a piece about Hot Wheels. The pair of photos above are from Teen Vogue.


These two shots are from an issue of Amelia's Magazine, photographed by the brilliant photographer Gemma Booth.

Cycle Chic rolls on across the planet.

Australia [Cargo] Cycle Chic

A little montage of photos featuring the iconic Christiania Bike in Australia. It's so iconic that i dare say if a Dane spots one abroad, a sense of nostalgia and homesickness will ensue.

Photos courtesy of Annie from Christiania Bikes and Peter who has a brilliant little bike shop in Melbourne - PS Bikes. 33 Peel Street in Collingwood, to be precise.

FACEBOOKISHNESS
If anyone is interested, be sure to join the Copenhagen Cycle Chic page on Facebook. And advocates of The Slow Bicycle Movement have a page on Facebook, too.

Dreams on Wheels, Sydney Festival and music

This popped into the Cycle Chic inbox today, from Sydney. It's a classic cycle chic poster advertisting the Sydney Festival First Night and encouraging people to cycle to and from the events. The festival night was held on 10 January. The poster lives on here at Cycle Chic.


The Dreams on Wheels exhibition of Danish bicycle culture was seen by a couple hundred thousand people in the main Australian cities through the last half of 2008 and now the exhibition has morphed into a bigger and better version 2.0. It has been given wheels and will be rolling into Edinburgh later this month.

You can see it at the Royal Botanical Gardens from 24 January to 21 March 2009. Here's some more info about the exhibition from Copenhagenize.com and here's some more info from the Danish Cultural Institute in Great Britain.

If you love the photos here on the Cycle Chic blog, you can see them up front and personal at the exhibition since I did the photography. You can see Danish bicycles and learn about how we developed our bicycle culture.

Dreams on Wheels will be visiting many cities around the world throughout 2009. I'll keep you posted.


Nothing to do with bikes this, but it's a radio plague at the moment. A cool radio plague. Since this is a streetstyle blog, the line about "I want loads of clothes and fuckloads of diamonds" may ring true for many.

Australia Cycle Chic

Cycle Chic exists all over the place, not least in Australia. Here's a combination of guest photos we've had seen in and other Australia Cycle chic photos. From Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast and Brisbane.

I've lived in Australia on two occasions and now, deep in a Copenhagnen December, I often remember the Australian summer. Playing cricket on the beach on Christmas Day, strapping my surfboard to the roof of my trashed Ford Falcon station car and bumping down rutted dirt roads to hidden beaches with splendid breaks and, not least, riding my bike to work from St. Kilda into downtown Melbourne. Long before Cycle Chic was born as a concept.

The two photos on the right side above are from Lucy, who sells wonderful vintage bikes on Australian eBay under the screen name SydneyVintageBikes. Get bidding!

There is a photo from PS Bikes in Melbourne, who sell Christiania cargo bikes and Velorbis and a couple of photos from a website called The Vine, who have a series of what they call Velo Chic. Then there's a photo from the lovely cycle nymph, Bicycle Pirate.

By all accounts, Cycle Chic is alive and well down under and that pleases us here, up yonder, in Copenhagen.

Sydney Cycle Chic.

Copenhagen Cycle Chic Goes Global

Copenhagen Cycle Chic is spreading. Thanks for all the guest photos!

Another stellar shot from Lucy in Australia. Lucy sells restored vintage bikes on Ebay and this is one of her happy customers in Gold Coast. I love this shot, not least because I lived there for six months back in the day and have surfed that very break in the background. Ah, memories.


Cool shot from João in Portugal. Check out his cool blog about Portugal's bike capital, Ílhavo here.


Cool Cycle Chic in Poland from the streetstyle blog Kajakowo
A splash of Munich cycle chic from my mate G-fried.

This landed in the inbox from a reader. Classic bike, as seen by the thousands in Copenhagen.

A splash of New York Cycle Suit Chic from Bicyclesonly on Flickr.

Guest Photo: Sydney, Australia

Urban Cyclist Project 32, originally uploaded by Velovotee.

This just in from Jake in Sydney.

Hello Copenhagen,

At last I think I have a photo that is worthy to be a guest on your
excellent Cycle Chic blog! Hope you like it.

Best regards
Jake
Oh, we like it, Jake. Thanks for thinking of us. Lovely to see a spot of cycle chic from your end of the planet!.