Cycle Chic Moscow

Been a while since we've been in Moscow. Luckily, one of our Russian readers, Ivan Ivanov, is on hand to fill us in on the urban cycling scene in the city. Thanks, Ivan!

Cycle Chic Goes to St. Petersburg

Cycle Chic is off to St. Petersburg, Russia this Friday. For the opening of the Dreams on Wheels exhibition, some other business-related activities and a groovy Cycle Chic bike ride on Saturday, hosted by the Danish Consulate General.

What a perfect opportunity to re-post the Cycle Chic Goes to Moscow vid from last year. Music by the always cool PocoCox. Moscow is a tough act to follow but I'm looking forward to visiting St. P for the first time in ... oh... 20 years.

And do check out our Cycle Chic bike gang homies in St. Petersburg! St. Petersburg Cycle Chic.

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.

Copenhagen Cycle Chic Goes To Moscow

Moscow was mad crazy. The business end of the stick was lecturing at the conference in conjunction with the Dreams on Wheels Exhibition and the Instants of Architecture, followed by a meeting with the Moscow Duma, or City Council. It was all part of Danish Day at ARCH Moscow ’09, Central House of Artists.

I lectured about Marketing the Bicycle to the Sub-Conscious Environmentalists, with emphasis on the necessity of selling cycling as sexy, cool and something with status. Making it a 'hero brand'.

After that, it was Cycle Chic Party Time. At a cool little gallery 'Mel', a cycle chic bash was arranged by the Royal Danish Embassy, Theory & Practice and streetstyle site Lookatme.ru. We met up and went for a bike ride with a hundred or so Muscovites on their bikes. Crazy cool.

Then there was a party. It... um... kind of lasted 48 hours, but what the hell. Moscow knows how to party.

It's a tough job being the Daddy of the Cycle Chic Movement, but hey... somebody has to do it.
Thanks to the Moscow DJ Poko Cox for his track which I used in the music video.

After having lectured about marketing cycling, I was presented with this poster for a local bike rental company. Totally 80's kitsch, on purpose of course. Making cycling look cool, funky and sexy. Well done.


It was brilliant to see how everyone was so geared for the conference and the party. There is really a need for the bicycle in Moscow. The number of cars in the city has exploded over the past 15 years. It was my fourth visit to the city and I lived there for a month or so back in 1990. It's a different world now. The city is choking on automobile culture. Fortunately there are many people who are working to turn the tide.

At the party I met Peter who announced that he would start Moscow Cycle Chic. He did so the very next day. So welcome to the family, Moscow!

Thanks to Richard and Galina at the Royal Danish Embassy, Askar & Valentina and the others from Theory & Practice and the good people at Lookatme.ru. Not to mention all the cool Muscovites I met along the way.

I shall return.