Spitzel - The Handlebar iPhone Holder

The SPITZEL is really truly one of the products we've been waiting to see pop up on the market. An attachable iPhone holder- we were told it adapts brilliantly for nearly any activity and its equipment- shopping cart, baby carriage, golf bag, you name it. We, of course, promptly attached it to bicycle handlebars to give it the Cycle Chic test.

Just as promised, it is super quick and easy to install. Less than 30 seconds quick and easy. With the flexible holder, my phone was readily and snuggly perched on top of the handlebars, and we were heading toward our meeting in no time. This model was designed for an iPhone 4, but my 3G fit neatly in anyways.


One of the selling points is that it's better for safe cycling. While we are safe riding these streets as is, the SPITZEL certainly proved that it's better for social cycling. It held up to our expectations while sipping coffee and texting on the ride to work. In addition to texting, navigation ended up being the perfect use for the phone holder- and my favorite use.

No more taking gloves on and off, digging in my coat pocket for my phone to check the unpronounceable - and therefore impossible to remember - road name we'd be turning on. The phone was there, the map was there, and my fingers could be warm in their mittens (had I actually remembered them).


Oh and while we're at it, their cycling handbag is pretty cool too. It attaches to nearly any part of the frame and is big enough for your netbook or tablet.


As an added bonus the SPITZEL, and all other Fahrer products, are made out of recycled materials and in cooperation with sheltered workshops in Berlin. You can check out their online shop here.

Elvis Cycle Chic

We can't remember if we've blogged this classic shot of Elvis Presley on a bicycle whilst stationed in Germany with the military. Brilliant stuff.

Freiburg, Germany Junior Cycle Chic

One of our readers, Lee, sent us an email:

Greetings from Freiburg Germany. My family loves your site and I was wondering if you could post a photo of my daughter on her cool cruiser. She would get a kick out of it. Keep up the good work.

Our pleasure, Lee! Duly blogged! Thanks for sending us the shots.

Munich Cycle Chic

The City of Munich has being busy trying to promote urban cycling and the city as a Bicycle Capital. The city currently has about 20% of its population on bicycles but they want more.

One of their major projects over the summer has been Radlstar - or Bicycle Star. Inspired by a similar project in Toulouse called À vélo citoyens!, they sent a photographer out onto the streets to take photos of all kinds of cyclists from the city against a white backdrop. The photos went onto a website and visitors could vote for the true Radlstar. It's pop, a bit kitsch, but it's great for selling cycling positively. There were scores of photos so I just grabbed the ones that jumped out at me, appealing to my Cycle Chic aesthetics, and here they are:



Once they got down to 20 finalists, they did some video portraits of them. Here's Amelia.

And here's Sophie.


And here's the winner. Andy, aged 15. No doubt cascading to victory on the teenage girl vote. :-)

Berlin Cycle Chic

My good friend AK [you know her all too well from this blog post...] just got back from Berlin - the place Copenhageners go when they want to feel even cooler. This is the Cycle Chic goodness she spotted in the city. Fabulous.

The Bicycle Vase

Of course. Why not. Duh.

Ladies and Gentlemen... The Bicycle Vase. Cycle Chic in a ceramic nutshell. Really... what more is there to say? It's brilliant. A lovely ceramic vase attached to your rusty handlebars with elastic thingys. So simple. So lovely. Cycle Chic approves. Approves so much we have tears in our eyes.

From the website: "A view of the bicycle handlebars can offer more than cables and technical details. Why not shift down a gear and choose flowers over km/h?"

Someone get me a tissue, please. This is fantastic. Perfect for our other baby - The Slow Bicycle Movement, too.



The website for The Bicycle Vase is in German [and so very corny in a 1997 kind of way but it's kind of charming...] but we can reveal that the vase costs €14.90 plus postage, which depends on where you live, of course. The rest you can surely figure out with Google Translate.

Well... except that Google can't translate 'fahrradvase' but hey... that's just Bicycle Vase... :-)

Berlin Copenhagen

Here we have three visitors to Copenhagen, who I photographed outside of Baisikeli Bike Rental. Margherita, Luca and Katarina from Berlin. They had just rented a cargo bike and were heading out to explore Copenhagen.

Cycle Chic Approves: Bellaciao Bicycles

My friend Hans put me onto this smashing new German brand called Bellaciao. With their classic, hand-built frames, Bellaciao strides firmly onto the market in style.


Here's one of their Corva Citta' models for ladies. The way the top bar curves upwards to meet the rest of the frame is oh so Italian and Bellaciao makes no secret of their romantic love affair with Italian bicycle design and aesthetics.

Here's another Corva Citta' for ladies, looking lovely in the sunlight. (I see spring everywhere I look at the moment...) The name Bellaciao is undoubtably inspired by the Italian partisan song popular during the Second World War, which makes us even fonder of them. A friend of our Jason McNiff sings a version of the song which we used on our Cycle Chic Goes to Paris video.

And their gentleman's models are also quite smashing. Here's the Corvo Citta' Uomo. Sleek and gorgeous. If there was one parked outside my flat with my name on it, I'd raise the handlebars to sit up a bit straighter (like my mother taught me) but otherwise I'd thoroughly enjoy this sweet ride.

Prices start at €649 and Bellaciao is launching this spring. Keep your eyes peeled. Until then, the bicycles get a nod of approval from Cycle Chic.
http://www.bellaciao.de/

Beauty and the Bike

This brilliant documentary called Beauty and the Bike wanted to answer one simple question: "Why do British girls stop cycling?"

The film follows two groups of girls, one in Darlington, UK and the other in Bremen, Germany, looking for the answer and the solution to the problem.

Above is an 8 minute version of the film. What an inspiration.

Berlin - Die Mauer ist weg!

Twenty years today I was out surfing. The waves weren't particularly thrilling that day. I was living in Gold Coast, Australia at the time. The only reason I can remember what I was doing that day and can remember crappy swells is because when I returned to the youth hostel I was living at, a German couple - friends of mine - were glued to the television and signalled for me to hurry over and sit down.

The Berlin Wall had fallen and the streets of the city were filled with people witnessing this monumental event.

We sat in front of the television, sipping beer and talking in low, reverent tones as the images unfolded before us. Wishing we were there but hypnotised by witnessing it on BBC World.



A few photos of Berlin Cycle Chic are hardly monumental enough to match that day 20 years ago, but it's my own humble way of saluting the city.

Die Mauer ist weg!

Russian Cycle Chic in Europe

One of our readers, Elizabeth from Moscow, sent us a smashing series of photos of herself, taken by her husband on their travels around Europe. Travels which invariably involve bicycling around the cities they visit. Elizabeth is a musician and she has a website here.

We're grateful for the chance to post the photos here! Thanks, Elizabeth!

Design Ecology! Neo-Green Marketing Strategy

If you're interested in marketing, green issues and design [and can read German] there's a splendid book available called Design Ecology! - Neo-Green Marketing Strategy. Written by Jutta Nachwey and Judith Mair, the book covers the new wave of sustainable and enivironmental marketing here in the new millenium.

The Pitch
"Ecology and sustainability are moving increasingly into the focus of corporate communications. The old visual cliches of the eco-design have been exhausted. Communicating "Corporate Green" is important to many companies. With modern visual language and stylistic diversity, they have changed tactics to fit the modern world.

Design Ecology! presents 70 international brands, from small "self-made" labels to global brands, which exemplify the growing need for sustainability and enivironmental friendliness and the interest in social and ethical issues. All through communication and design strategies and listening to audience needs."

I'm pretty thrilled that Copenhagen Cycle Chic was chosen to be included in the book. The backbone of the blog is the photography, of course, but it has been fun developing a marketing strategy and visual identity. It's a rather unfinished work but a little design recognition warms the heart. And it's always fun to read a review of the design and the blog.

"Director Mikael Colville-Andersen refers to his streetstyle blog as 'Bike Advocacy' The photos, which incidentally are taken on the way to work, kindergarten or the supermarket, focus on the especially chic Copenhagen women on their bicycles.

Over 500,000 citizens cycle each day in the Nordic metropolis and clandestine bicycle capital of the world. Colville-Andersen exploits the wholly unpretentious and yet stylish coolness factor of the bicycle.

It is not a lyrca-clad Lance Armstrong imitation but rather cycling as a 'way of life'. Cozy, trendy and environmentally friendly.

One sees lively ladies in skirts and dresses with waving hair, high heels and together with her boyfriend, a dog in the basket or a child on the back. On an obesity list of 108 countries, Denmark tops the list with the fewest overweight people. Germany is at 61! If you ride to work each day, over a week the calories you have burned is the same as fasting for one day.

The blog has an historical angle, too, like the bicycle's role in the suffragette movement and it links to other witty sites like British Cycle Club 'Tweed', Fahrradsozialismus and there are guest photos of cool bicycle fashion from Berlin, Portland and Amsterdam.

The Cycle Chic concept is mainly communicated through photography and although the photos are often similar, devoted fans are never bored thanks to the diversity of the shots, different angles and the involvement of the urban environment. The main point of the flood of images: Cycling is a cult.

Mikael Colville-Andersen designed the logo [font: Gill Sans] and the entire blog, where he also uses Helvetica Condensed Bold. Since the photos are the primary focus, the logo should be simple and elegant, but as unobtrusive as possible. Nevertheless it is concise enough to be used in different variations on stickers, posters and t-shirts or on a mousepad featuring the Cycle Chic manifesto."

The book Design Ecology! is available on Amazon.de [Germany].

German Cycle Chic

Due to travel, computer problems and lots of work (yeah ok it's no excuse!), Velomama has been away from the blog for a while - physically, if not mentally!

This summer, Velomama went around Europe with an InterRail pass. It gives you free travel by train all over Europe for a given period of time and is good value for money if you have the time to spend hours and hours in trains! (Very environmentally friendly & slow travel-like).

First stop was Gera in Eastern Germany, where my good mate Sam Hopkins was artist-in-residence. Here on his bike with girlfriend Nina on the pedals.



Then on a train to Hamburg, where cycle chics crowded the area outside the Central Station..



Stay tuned for more pics from Amsterdam, Marseille and Serbia...

It's good to be back!
Love, Velomama