Wroclaw, Poland Cycling Promotion

Nothing like a bit of positive bicycle promotion to make our day.
This lovely video is produced by the Cycling Wroclaw organisation in Wroclaw, Poland. It's in collboration with the Do The Right Mix initiative and European Mobility Week.

Brilliant stuff. Although we noticed the opening shot is a cinematic nod to our very own video, produced for the City of Copenhagen back in 2009. We're flattered.

Polish Bloggers Cycle Chic

This is quite brilliant. Quite amazing. Quite humbling.
It's a collage from the cool Polish fashion blog Szafa Sztywniary. While our Polish friends in Krakow, Warsaw, Lodz, Torun and Wroclaw have been waving the Cycle Chic banner high and proud, this collage features Polish bloggers - by and large fashion bloggers - who have all taken a photo involving the bicycle.

What a splendid collection of photos. Szafa Sztywniary got the others to contribute to the collage. Cycle Chic is steadily moving into the mainstream. Thanks to you all. I'm humbled.

And here's a funky Polish animation film featuring a cool cat on a cool bike:

Warsaw Cycle Chic

Some great shots from Warsaw and the Warszawa Rowerowa website.

Poznan Stockholm

Cycle Chic continues to blossom and grow. The latest buds on the rose bush are Poznan Bicycle Chic, out of Poland. What is it with Poland?! Poznan's arrival on the scene puts the number of Cycle Chic blogs in Poland up to eight. Kocham Cię, Polska! Especially when you do stuff like this.

Dawid, from Poznan Bicycle Chic sent me these photos from the blog. Welcome!


Just across the Baltic Sea you have Sweden. While cities like Malmö and Lund in the south have inherited the Danish bicycle culture and embraced it, cities farther north like Gothenburg and Stockholm are still rising to the challenge. My friend Elin has decided to do something about that in the capital. She's launched Put The Fun Between Your Legs and is doing her utmost to capture Cycle Chic Stockholm. Wonderful!

Mexico Cycle Chic - Watch This Space

Viva Mexico.

Cycle Chic is off to Mexico next week for an event-filled calendar in the megaopolis. We'll be saying a few words at the opening of the Dreams on Wheels exhibition about Danish bicycle culture before Prince Joachim of Denmark cuts the ribbon. Then there's a lecture at a university before a wicked Cycle Chic party on March 6th where we'll launch Mexico Cycle Chic.

From Il Uqi on Flickr.
I found these brilliant photos from Mexico on Flickr and we're hoping they'll inspire a whole lot more as this cycle chic movement expands from Copenhagen to Mexico.


From Il Uqi on Flickr.
So, it's time to get the Mexican fashion bloggers activated. The Polish fashion bloggers got together to produce a brilliant montage of photos that melted our hearts here at Cycle Chic.

Let's see if Mexico can get rolling.

We're looking forward to some Mexican Cycle Chic on our visit. Watch this space.

Taunton Cycle Chic et al

Mrs Day's Green Leather Sling-backs.

A couple of cracking photos from the Taunton Tweed Cycle Chic website, one of newish cycle chic blogs gracing the internet.

Mr Sargeant on Raleigh Roadster.

Our little Cycle Chic movement keeps on expanding. Other new sites that have registered are:
Munich Cycle Chic
Aix-en-Provence Cycle Chic
St. Andrews Cycle Chic
Bandung Cycle Chic [Indonesia]
Sheffield Cycle Chic
Tucson Bike Beautiful
Buenos Aires Cycle Chic
Torun Cycle Chic [Poland]
ADDED:
I Dream of Cycling - Atlanta, USA
Did I miss anybody?!

As ever, we're honoured and flattered to have you all in the cycle chic family.

Style Over Speed Advert

Style over speed in best Copenhagen Cycle Chic style in this bottled water advert from... Poland, I believe.

It's classic Cycle Chic also in a historical perspective. From the very invention of the bicycle, women featured prominently in adverts for bike brands. Often gliding elegantly past exhausted men or men with punctures. It's bicycle advertising for dummies, with 120 years behind it. It's what we need more of instead of silly terminology and silly profiteering and overcomplicating a simple issue.

Here's a link to the tag The Cycling Girl - A Cultural Icon where we have a number of posts about that most Danish of icons - Cykelpigen or Cycling Girl.

Sisters Doin' It For Themselves

Yes, yes, we cycle about feeling chic'er than thou, off to cafés and dates and parties oh my. Chic, however, is undefinable. Chic in Copenhagen may be chic in Sevilla, and vice versa, but farther afield chic has other cultural definitions.

It's high time we blogged some chic photos from other bicycle cultures, of sisters doin' it for themselves. As they should and as they have since the dawn of the bicycle. Above is a Sister from the good people at Krakow Cycle Chic.

Classy and pregnant. Shot taken by Flickr user Meanest Indian.


This is just splendid, taken by Flickr user Rick Elkin.

Beautiful people on beautiful bicycles.

Round the World Cycle Chic

Thanks to Raquel from Gratis Total - the Spanish fashion blog, our intrepid correspondent, for her latest installment of Iberian Cycle Chic. This time from San Sebastian.

Thanks to Rhys, in Manly, Australia, for these photos of bicycle culture in his town. Featuring his Danish girlfriend on the left.

The very latest shots, hot off the bike lanes, from our friends Witold and HuBar at Lodz Cycle Chic in Poland.


Thanks to our reader, Will, for these cracking shots from Mardi Gras in New Orleans.


And thanks to Kristoffer for these great shots of our neighbours in Stockholm.

From Bergen to Poland via Austin and Vancouver

The Norwegian singer Silje Nes, from Bergen, has a wonderful press photo. Cycle Chic to the max, even though 'to the max' is a mad retro expression. Check out Silje's Myspace. Even though Myspace is rather last century, Silje is definately now.


Cracking delicious funkaliciousness from, believe it or not, Austin, Texas. From a travel article in the Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen.

As ever, you've seen it here first. Coming soon to other blogs near you. Thanks to one Norwegian, Per, who wrote about Silje in Dagens Næringsliv and another Norwegian, Morten, for the Austin photo. Morten is the head of the Icelandic Cyclists Federation.

Here's a shop window for a Canadian clothing company Le Chateau, as seen in Vancouver by Lisa:

A little splash of Cycle Chic on the West Coast of Canada. Every little bit helps towards normalizing urban cycling.

And on the booming Polish Cycle Chic front, Lodz Cycle Chic have a correspondant in Copenhagen at the moment. Check out the Lodz angle on Copenhagen Cycle Chic here. And a warm Cycle Chic welcome to another blossom on the Cycle Chic flower - Wroclaw Bicycle Chic. We're blowing you kisses across the Baltic Sea.

Add Wroclaw to Warsaw Cycle Chic and Krakow Cycle Chic.

Boy, do I ever need to set up a Cycle Chic blogger conference. Not so much chat, just a lot of good wine, cocktails and dancing. What a party that would be. Marc from Amsterdamize will foot the bill.

Global Cycle Chic Roundup

Lucy from Sydney Vintage Bikes sent us these lovely shots from Sydney of her niece at Mona Vale Beach. Lucy sells cool, restored vintage bicycles on Australian eBay. She's previously sent us some cool Cycle Chic Down Under shots.

Thanks to Buvös for sending in this classic "waiting for the drawbridge" pose from Utrecht.


Brendan in San Francisco sent this photo in, with this text: "After weeks of temperatures in the 40's (Fahrenheit) we finally got a few days of sun and temperatures in the mid 60's! Here's a picture of my girlfriend enjoying her new (old) bike on Golden Gate Park's JFK Drive, which is closed to auto traffic on Sundays." Thanks, Brendan!


And thanks to Gustar for this spot of Indonesian Cycle Chic. Beautiful outfit, beautiful bike. The photo was taken by Ben from Mahanagari.


Lavinka sent this photo in from Poland. Wonderful stuff.


Brian in New York spotted these shots on the always cool Refinery29 in a piece about Hot Wheels. The pair of photos above are from Teen Vogue.


These two shots are from an issue of Amelia's Magazine, photographed by the brilliant photographer Gemma Booth.

Cycle Chic rolls on across the planet.

Poland Cycle Chic

A big Cycle Chic witamy to two new members of the cycle chic family. Upstairs we have Warsaw Cycle Chic with a brilliant example of everyday European cycling.

Downstairs we have Krakow Cycle Chic, featuring all the everyday cycling news from... not surprisingly... Krakow. They're both newish so they'll be getting more content as the months pass.

Add to the Polish potpourri Lodz Cycle Chic and you're off rolling.

Which reminds me of a week I spent in Warsaw back in 1992. I had heard that the Soviet Intourist office in Warsaw, and only Warsaw, could be bribed to issue visas to parts of the Soviet Union that were previously impossible to get visas for.

I was working as a travel writer and journalist at the time so I was the first one to make the overland journey from Europe to China, travelling exclusively through the then Soviet republics, now countries in their own right, of Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakstan.

Travelling third class [illegal for foreigners] but armed with conversational Russian and the all important phrase, in Russian, "I'm from the Baltics" to explain why I didn't speak better Russian. Worked like a charm and it was an amazing journey.

Back to Warsaw... I stayed in a high-rise block of flats in a 'bed and breakfast' with a lovely older lady with whom I could barely communicate and remember watching reruns of Dallas dubbed into Polish, but dubbed with one, monotone male voice who merely recited the lines for the all the characters and with the original sound just audible enough to catch snippets of the real actors. All while drinking excessive amounts of tea and eating bread and sausage.

Okay, okay... back to the cycle chic...

Cycling Chic In Winter

Most of Central Europe has been in the grips of a cold snap this past week. Record low temperatures from Germany and Poland to Northern France and east to Italy as the mercury dropped to -20 to -30 in large swathes of the region. Here in Copenhagen we only got down to -10 but it still is chilly on a bicycle. Nevertheless, it doesn't deter the cyclists.

Jeremy took this shot of a Parisienne on a Vélib' bicycle braving the unusual cold in style.


My mate Marc from Amsterdamize.com has this great shot of Dutch chilly winter cycling with a smile.


Our friends at Lodz Cycle Chic in Poland have posted shots from the cold snap. The girl above effortlessly pedals through -17 degrees C.

This chap, while maybe not the peak of chic, gets Cycle Chic respect for cycling on a normal bike in his regular clothes at -20 below zero.

A cold snap is the best time to stop for lovely, warm Turkish take-away food to ride home with.


Let's do a little planet bouncing here and head over to Rhienna in Portland with this photo of her sister, Sara, and her bike in the unusual [for Portland] snow.

Jon, in Denver, sent us a link to his blog wherein he explains how he rides his bicycle as a gentleman, and dressed like one.

Imagine all those people who have been suckered into buying 'winter cycling clothes' when they have a closet filled with clothes right at home. Sheesh.

Copenhagen Cycle Chic Goes Global

Copenhagen Cycle Chic is spreading. Thanks for all the guest photos!

Another stellar shot from Lucy in Australia. Lucy sells restored vintage bikes on Ebay and this is one of her happy customers in Gold Coast. I love this shot, not least because I lived there for six months back in the day and have surfed that very break in the background. Ah, memories.


Cool shot from João in Portugal. Check out his cool blog about Portugal's bike capital, Ílhavo here.


Cool Cycle Chic in Poland from the streetstyle blog Kajakowo
A splash of Munich cycle chic from my mate G-fried.

This landed in the inbox from a reader. Classic bike, as seen by the thousands in Copenhagen.

A splash of New York Cycle Suit Chic from Bicyclesonly on Flickr.