More More More Barcelona!

Just can't get enough of this town.

Stand and deliver, in style.

Lovin' the sunglasses.

Visca Lleida Cycle Chic

Before the Barcelona escapades, there was the business end of the stick in the second largest city in Catalonia, Lleida. A bicycle conference where I was speaking. As well as a Cycle Chic party, bien sur, and a good-old fashioned bike ride. Where Soledad, above, took part in classic cycle chic style.

The chap on the left is a Dutchman who lives in Lleida with his wife and daughter and they know how to make it work. Brilliant.

Barcelona Bicycle Passengers

Barcelona is a city that has remembraced the bicycle in so many ways, and in such a short amount of time. The citizens are hopping onto bicycles and using them like bicycles were intended for. As transport, claro, but also as enjoyable machines. Either by yourself, riding with a friend or two or three or, as this post attests, letting the wheels carry you and someone you know and quite possibly love on your way from A to B.

This is a sure sign of a healthy and thriving bicycle culture. People enjoying - it's that simple - the bicycle. Sights like this are increasingly common in many emerging bicycle cultures - France, Italy, Spain/Catalonia, Mexico and well-known in countries like the Netherlands and Denmark. Just look at that smile, above. It's the smile of someone who is having fun, enjoying time with friends/loved ones AND going from A to B.

These are not 'commodity fetishists' (as the bicycle historian Iain Boal calls them) who roll about like strutting like peacocks, hoping desperately that you'll notice their carbon fibre wonderbike, fancy 'cycling clothes', shiny helmet and all the other gadgets that a frightfully out-of-date/finger-off-the-pulse bicycle industry wants you to spend money on.

These are people who have been given the tool for quicker and more direct A to B transport through their city and who have realised - often sub-consciously - that it is enjoyable. Society will reap the benefits in the form of more liveable cities and a boom in better public health. It's a win-win-win-win situation. And damn, it looks fine. The bicycle is poetry. The city is the stage.

I like how this couple on the Bicing bike share bike resembles the couple on the bus in the advert, which was for holidays to Cuba.


Here's some fine examples of doubling, at top, and below it's French family making last minute adjustments before heading into the city and a supermum heading home from daycare.

And here at the end, a loving couple and a father and son. Visca Barcelona. Visca la bici.

If you don't see sights like this where you live, something is wrong with your bicycle culture.

Barcelona Cycle Chictastique

Barcelona. Oh, goodness me, Barcelona.

I'm still not quite sure what hit me. I'm still reeling, dizzily, after my extended visit to the city. A certain Icelandic volcano extended my stay in the Catalan capital, for which I am grateful. Not a bad place to be stuck in a four star hotel. I finally returned home late last night, six days late, after a stop in Prague to speak at the National Cycle Conference about Cycle Chic and marketing bicycle culture.

But Barcelona. What has happened to this city with regards to the bicycle returning - stylishly and effortlessly - to the urban landscape is extraordinary. Ten years ago there were none. Five years ago there were some. Now the bicycle is everywhere, not least thanks to the implementation of the city's Bicing bike share system.


But while you see Barcelonans of all ages on Bicing bikes at all hours, the city is completely saturated by private bicycles. I fear I must revise the Cycle Chic Top 5 Cycle Cities list and cast Barcelona headlong into the mid-table.

Bicycles abound in the city. In the narrow neighbourhood streets, along the busy throughfares, outside cafés and shops, soaking up sun on balconies.

Being stuck in a such a bicycle capital certainly meant that I missed Copenhagen so much less. Many more photos to come. You have to see this cycling city.