Cycle Chic Global: St. Petersburg

Cycle Chic in Saint Petersburg, Russia from spitsbergen on Flickr.

Cycle Chic goodness from the Cycle Chic™ Flickr group.

St Copenburg / St Petershagen

The Dreams on Wheels exhibition in St. Petersburg was held in a cool old industrial building, home to Loft Project Etagi. A multi-floor, post-soviet building with a host of exhibitions. Super cool place.

The Royal Danish Consulate General, who brought the exhibition, and me, to the city also presented the city with 15 Copenhagen city bikes as a starter's pistol for a bike share programme. One of the bikes will be given to the Governor of the city and another is earmarked for the Russian president, Medvedev.

There were plans for a bike ride through the city with police escort, with just under a thousand people scheduled to show up but, in the best tradition of Russian bureaucracy, the City cancelled it at the last minute. The Russian president was in town. Which kind of trumps all other activities. The bike ride has now been rescheduled for this Sunday.

We still have a great time. I spoke about Danish bicycle culture and everyone tried out the bikes.

Here's hoping for a cracking turnout on the ride this Sunday.




I won't be there, unfortunately, but I certainly have great memories of the city from my visit.

Going Strong in St. Petersburg

It's brilliant that the banner of this worldwide boom in cycling is often carried by young people reembracing the bicycle in our cities, but it's just as lovely to see older people enjoying independent urban mobility on two wheels. I caught a few in motion in St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg Bicycle Nights

The life of bicycles in St. Petersburg explodes at night. During the day the city is a hellhole of Soviet traffic planning, but in the summer evenings, after the suburbans have driven their cars out to pasture, the bicycles really come out to play.

Above, classic Cycle Chic and, as an added bonus, rollerskate chic.

The weather was warm and lovely on the Friday evening I was there and what I found amazing was not just the number of bicycles but the number of people, in general, who spill out into the streets and keep them filled all night long. In front of the Winter Palace, on the massive square, there were groups of bike gangs, scooter gangs, rollerskate gangs and motorbike gangs, all hanging out and trying stunts and being sociable.


The bicycle was used in all the same ways as it is elsewhere, which was wonderful to behold. Friends riding together, couples doubling from one bar to the next, you name it.


There were many groups of four or five friends on a variety of bicycles, enjoying the summer nights and the freedom that the bicycle provides.





Here's a couple riding along the river, heading for what appeared to be the Main Event on Friday night in the city. At 01:26 in the morning the drawbridges on the river were scheduled to go up, in order to allow the big ships to enter and leave the port. Amazingly, there were thousands and thousands of people lining the river, waiting for it to happen. There were cheers when the bridges started to rise. Dozens and dozens of small boats bobbed on the river, as well, filled with summer revellers. Even though they didn't need a raised drawbridge to get past the bridge, when the bridges started rising, they all sped towards it and, symbolically, passed under.


It was wild to see so many people out on the streets at that time of night. The city was truly Dr Jekyl/Mr Hyde. On summer nights the people reclaim it as their own. All night long.

St. Petersburg Cycle Chic

Just returned from a killer weekend in Saint Petersburg. Goodness me, that is a city that knows how to party.

I was invited by the Royal Danish Consulate General for the opening of the Dreams on Wheels exhibition. This is the first of a series of three or four posts about St. Petersburg Cycle Chic.

These shots are from the streets of the city, showing the blossoming bicycle culture. Dottie, from Let's Go Ride a Bike, let me know that Trisha was there last year and we were interested to see if there is an increase in the number of bicycles in the city.

By all accounts, things are heading in the right direction. And then some.


Four bicycles all at once! Wonderful to see.

Bike boys cruisin'.

Sunset Ride.

I saw many more bikes than I was expecting and certainly more upright bikes than I would have hoped. Choppers and BMX's are quite popular in Russia and the mountain bike, dwindling in numbers among urban cyclists in the rest of the world, lives on in Eastern European and Russian cities. Simply because there is a lack of choice at bike shops, from what the locals tell me in every city in the region.

There is no bicycle infrastructure to speak of. I certainly never saw any on the streets. There were many bicycles in the traffic and many rolled casually along the sidewalks at a pedestrian pace.




Cool cat from a Reggae Bicycle Club.