The first thing you notice about the Rapha City Cycling guides is that they look good. Even the little box they come snugly ensconced
in is pretty. They are a series of bright pastel colours and feature a
different illustrator for each city, so each one has an air of
distinctiveness whilst also fitting nicely into the set.
There are eight guides, taking in nine cities in Europe, most of them good for citizen cyclists: Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Milan and Antwerp & Ghent sharing one guide. They are initially only available as a full set of eight and
feel a little like extended blogs, in that they give you little snapshots of
local knowledge – they don’t concentrate on well-known tourist spots, indeed
they barely mention them. Instead they give the low down on the latest
hip places to hang out.
They contain maps for nice cycling routes, which is handy for anyone trying to get from A to B. But there are also sections on ‘racing and training’ that seem to be aimed at the lycra-wearing market, rather than chic citizen cyclists. Of course in an ideal world, ‘city cycling’ guides wouldn’t
be a thing, there would just be city guides.
The recommendations for what to do in Copenhagen are a fairly solid spread of decent bars, restaurants and shops, though of course the nature of cities is that they are always going to miss something out. And the danger is that being enshrined in the permanency of ink they will
soon get out of date. One
solution to this is of course making sure you get on your bike and get visiting all these cities as soon as
possible, and these attractive-looking guides certainly make visiting enticing.
In T-5 hours, Mikael is presenting at Chelsea's Old Town Hall in London. Until he returns to CC HQ, here are a few of the ladies and gentlemen from our London archives.
Designed in London, I'd argue there are just as many Bromptons on any given street as there are tea shops.
The Bicycle Renaissance rolls on. Bicycle featured in this catwalk show at the London Fashion Week. The bicycles are from Rule Bikes.
The fashion industry embraced Cycle Chic shortly after the blog started and it's reassuring to see that they aren't tiring of them after over four years. Good for returning the bicycle to the urban landscape.
As our runway to street style posts typically go, we've got the designer's designs on the left, and our translation on the right. This time, with a big thank you to EcoSalon for the photos, we've got the Tour de Fashion designer bikes. Bicycles that we think the models on the left would look stunning on. White feathers at Ralph Lauren and Kaelen.
I was only in London for the day last Tuesday, but managed to capture some urban cycling action on the streets. Here are some of London's bike share bicycles on the streets. Citizen Cyclists using the bicycles to get around the city centre.
I must admit, however, that I didn't spot hardly any people on bicycles who looked relaxed. London is a black hole for bicycle infrastructure so most of the cyclists looked like they were being hunted down like dogs. Compared to Paris, where safe bicycle infrastructure has brought amazing numbers of regular citizens onto bicycles - private bikes and/or Vélib bike share bicycles - cycling in London is a fringe activity. There were women out there on the streets, but very few compared to the men.
All the same, seeing bicycles in the city is a positive sign and I'll happily record it. It's baby steps for London, but the bicycle is back and it's not going anywhere.
I spent the day in London yesterday, for a meeting with my publisher - Thames & Hudson - about the upcoming Cycle Chic book. It was a great meeting and we're muscling our way towards publication.
The hardest part is choosing a short list of photos from the thousands and thousands in the Cycle Chic archives. I narrowed it down to 1300 photos from 26 cities. From there we have to cut it down even further but it's been great so far revisiting so many photos from the past four years - since that "Photo That Launched a Million Bicycles".
I'm so looking forward to seeing 'the best of' in a lovely, printed volume.
Cycle Chic is off to London for a meeting today. No idea if there will be time for photography but we live in hope... Here are some shots from an earlier visit.
Here we have the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson promoting the upcoming Skyride in the city with Kelly Brooks. Ms Brooks has clearly understood the very simple concept of Cycle Chic, as has Boris.
I saw a great film on a flight recently, called Wild Target and starring Emily Blunt and Bill Nighy. It's a comedy about a con artist and a hitman but there is a brilliant Cycle Chic sequence where Blunt's character rides a lovely bicycle in a smashing ensemble. I found the photo of her, above, on this website.
Our reader Yvette sent us the link to this trailer for a new Canadian indiefilm that also features bicycles in cracking Cycle Chic style.
I was asked in an interview recently what the best cities for Cycle Chic are and it was a good question. I figured I'd whip up a Top 5 List of the Cycle Chic'est Cities on the planet. I limited the list to larger metropolises. Being a Cycle Chic Metropolis requires, basically, two elements. A high fashion bar among the population and... bicycles. It requires that a city has a developed bicycle culture, meaning that the bicycle is an important and respected transport option that is used by regular citizens. Citizens who don't identify themselves as being 'cyclists' or members of a sub-culture but who merely use a bicycle to get around. In many ways, Cycle Chic is synonomous with Mainstraim Bicycle Culture.
1. COPENHAGEN,DENMARK This probably doesn't surprise you, but we're going with Copenhagen at #1. The reason, apart from the fact that bicycles are an integral part of life in the world's cycling capital, is that the fashion bar is frightfully high in Copenhagen.
Copenhageners are simply an incredibly well-dressed bunch. You'll see well-dressed people in every city but in the Danish capital style and textile æsthetics are a fabric extension of the Danish design tradition. If we measure the procentage of a city's population who are well-dressed, Copenhagen is way ahead.
Whatever they're wearing, Copenhageners just hop onto bicycles to get around. Crappy, squeaky bicycles, fancy bicycles, cargo bikes, whatever. The city gets extra bonus points for the rather recent development of investing in cooler bicycles. For over a century bicycles were black and heavy. With the economic boom of the last decade, bicycles were all of a sudden available in all sorts of colours and styles. Now Copenhageners can accessorize with their bicycles. Chic. Cycles. Cycle Chic.
2. TOKYO, JAPAN At #2, Tokyo. Fashion capital of the planet. Sure, we look to the catwalks of Milano and Paris to see what's coming, but it is in Tokyo that the clothes make an impact. Even the greeters who bow at customers inside the doors of department stores are wearing ensembles worth more than annual salary.
As far as bicycles go, Japan is third only to Denmark and Holland regarding mainstream bicycle culture. Bicycles abound in this major car-producing nation. You'll see more bicycles in the racks around Shibuya Station on any day of the week than you'll see on the streets of New York and London combined in the course of a year.
In the 'Well-Dressed Sweepstakes' Tokyo nudges ahead of Copenhagen but loses points on the bicycle front. There is less separated infrastructure for bikes than in Copenhagen and, say, Osaka or Kyoto. Cyclists often ride on the sidewalks, which is great for Style over Speed, but the city would be that much more Cycle Chic friendly with bike lane catwalks for the impeccably-dressed citizens.
3. AMSTERDAM, THENETHERLANDS To be completely honest, it's a tight race in the top three. Amsterdam breathes down Tokyo and Copenhagen's neck on the Cycle Chic Cities list. The bicycle is king in Amsterdam, no doubt about that. Amsterdam and Copenhagen are the Romulus and Remus of modern bicycle culture.
One thing that always strikes us about Amsterdammers is their fantastic individual style. They are so cool, unique and relaxed, with a high level of 'urban funk' in their style.
We find the Amsterdam affection for clunky old bicycles to be fantastically charming. They compliment their non-chalant attitude brilliantly.
4.PARIS,FRANCE Basically, if you don't include Paris on any list that has anything to do with fashion or style, they send a stiletto clad task force after you to blow cigarette smoke in your face and to shrug in your general direction.
Fortunately, including Paris at #4 wasn't a difficult choice. Ever since the Vélib bike share programme showed up in the city, the French capital has been under a constant and brilliant transformation to a much more liveable city. Here's a previous Cycle Chic article about the Vélib system's influence on the city.
Since Vélib started, 2 million private bicycles have been sold in the city and it shows. So... the city is virtually bicycle-friendly, which certainly counts on the Cycle Chic scale. Fashion-wise... well... it's Paris. The fashion bar is high and the people who are using the Vélib bicycles and private bicycles are people who you would otherwise ride the Metro with. Impeccably-dressed gents and fabulously-fab fashionistas.
If the city keeps up it's push for a more bicycle-friendly future, you'll see Paris muscling it's way up this list.
5. LONDON,UNITEDKINGDOM We had to think about #5 for a while, but London ended up rolling away with the honours. Cycling is up and coming in the city and there are a lot of positive players promoting it. Much of our decision for the #5 spot is based on a two-day photo gig in the city back in June last year. Sitting outside Lock 7 Café in Hackney and watching the morning bicycle traffic roll past was like sitting in Copenhagen or Amsterdam. It blew us away.
Sure, most are fairweather cyclists and sure, there is a lot of lycra about, but hey... it's London, innit. Global city and all that. Fashion centre supreme. "Get on with it, mate" attitude. If there's one global city that has the potential to follow in Paris' footsteps, it's London. From the Swinging Sixties to the Two-Wheeled Teens.
Waiting in the Wings So who's coming up fast from behind? What cities are - hopefully - soon reaching a level of mainstream urban cycling and therewith glorious Cycle Chicaliciousness? Three come to mind right off the bat.
TORONTO There is a great deal of effort being made in Toronto to push cycling over into the mainstream realm and already the streets are graced with chic cyclists of both sexes. MONTREAL With the success of the BIXI bikes share system Montreal is following in the footsteps of many French cities by bringing cycling as transport back to the people.
SAN FRANCISCO If there is an American city that has the will and the style to reach the heights of Cycle Chic, it's San Francisco. It's where I left my heart.
They contain maps for nice cycling routes, which is handy for anyone trying to get from A to B. But there are also sections on ‘racing and training’ that seem to be aimed at the lycra-wearing market, rather than chic citizen cyclists. Of course in an ideal world, ‘city cycling’ guides wouldn’t
be a thing, there would just be city guides.
