Portraits of cyclists: 1976 SCO bike rider: “I came across a guy on the same bike. We looked at each other bike and said “hello”

"I'm on my way to the office. I work for a suit company called "Lasse".
I fell good when I'm riding my bike. It's quite easy to ride: single speed, back break, limited maintenance.

"You always have to wear nice clothes due to work. Do you think that cycling is compatible with it?"
"Not always. I have a winter bike as well, for the rainy days, with a mudguard."

"Do you have a good memory related to your bike?"
"Yes of course, especially in Copenhagen. It happens with my old SCO bike (a Danish brand), known to be the world champion bike from 76 and quite rare in Copenhagen. I came across a guy on the same bike, the frame was almost the same. We looked at each other bike and said "hello".


Mercier single-speed bike - French brand.

More pictures of CPH everyday on Byliv in CPH

Tour of Frederiksberg

Felix and his buddy Kasper get it on the action.

It was a friendly race.

That ended with ice cream.

Tour of Denmark

Last weekend the Tour of Denmark took over the streets of Frederiksberg.  The race is quite an entertaining one to watch as the riders whip past every seven to eight minutes, doing 10 laps before making a sprint for the finish.  Above, the peloton, and Lulu-Sophia cheering them on.

A few highlights from the day...



Champions of the bike lane :)

Team Love

Last weekend the annual Svajerløb - Danish Cargo Bike Championship was hosted at the old Carlsberg Brewery.  Along with the usual suspects, we had a few surprise guests.  Birte, the lovely bride-to-be, and her girlfriends were heading out, via cargo bike, for her bachelorette party.  The Svajerløb, traditionally a race for bragging rights among the city's most daring bicycle messengers, seemed like an obvious stop for them.

While Birte and her girlfriends didn't take home any medals for their speed, they took first place for Love.  And the lovely bride-to-be did the honors of presenting the medals - Tour de France style.
Congratulations Birte!

More on the history of Copenhagen's bike messengers from Copenhagenize.com

Rita Hayworth and a Dapper Athlete

Rita and friends.

Dapper chap taking it easy at night during a Six Day Race. Similar to the banner photo over at The Slow Bicycle Movement.

Tour de France for Cycle Chicsters

THE YELLOW JERSEY

The Tour de France started yesterday and while it's a thrilling three weeks of sport, it's a fashion nightmare. We here at Cycle Chic thought we'd present with the favourites for the different coloured jerseys that are up for grabs. Firstly, the all-important Maillot Jaune / Yellow Jersey that the race leader gets to wear.

Here are Cycle Chic's two favourites.

THE GREEN JERSEY

Then there is the Green Jersey, worn by the rider with the most points in sprints. It's a tough call between the flock from Mr Green here in Copenhagen...

... or this Copenhagener looking all summery in her green dress.

THE POLKA DOT JERSEY

The polka dot jersey is worn by The King of the Mountains and should, technically, be red with white dots. We're flexible.

Here are our two favourites for the polka dot jersey.

THE WHITE JERSEY

The white jersey is worn by the best youth rider. Youth is a relative term, of course. We've got our eyes on these two Citizen Cyclists for the white jersey this year.


LANTERNE ROUGE

The rider who is in last place at any given time during the Tour de France is called the Lanterne Rouge - The Red Lantern. Not very thrilling in the French race, but here at Cycle Chic, where our slogan is Style Over Speed, the Red Lantern can be an honour.

Old School Messenger Cool

Last Saturday the Danish Cargo Bike Championships were held here in Copenhagen and here's the Copenhagenize Red Rum Team posing with my Bullitt cargo bike, together with my son, Felix.

These cargo bike races were a regular event for decades and decades in the city, up until 1960. The bike messengers in Copenhagen would race for bragging rights and honour on old long john bikes, massive cargo bikes and short john delivery bikes.

Our team chose to dress for the occasion. The messengers back in the day were well-dressed, with ties and caps and pressed trousers [we didn't bother with those] and were a smashingly handsome addition to the urban landscape.

They were nicknamed 'svajere' or 'swayers', because of the movement they made when pedalling the massive bikes. Swaying through the streets.

You can read about the dapper history of the Svajere in this post at Copenhagenize and see how frightfully well-dressed they were, especially in the YouTube film at the end. Wouldn't it be brilliant to see bike messengers dressing in style?

The races were a load of fun and it was a great day out. There was the 2 wheeled cargo bike championships, the 3 wheeled championship and the team relay. Copenhagenize Red Rum Team took part in the latter. We stuck to tradition in the races. Basically, you do one lap [1.3 km] with an empty bike and then you load two car tires and a bundle of newspapers onto the bike. Then the remaining three riders do a lap with the heavy load.

The Copenhagenize Red Rum Team in action. Featuring me, Tiago from Brazil, Joel from Ottawa and Jeff from Washington, DC.

We won our heat and then finished fourth in the final. Although we clearly won the style championships... :-)

For more shots from the Cargo Bike Races, check this longer post over at Copenhagenize.com.