Bird's Eye View & Turning Signals

The blue, blue bike lanes of Copenhagen go with any colour.


He's not part of the traffic. He IS the traffic.


Are we turning?


She's turning.

Cycle Chic Guide to Bike Commuting #2 - Cycle Clothing

Right then. Here we go. The second, long-awaited installment in the Copenhagen Cycle Chic to Bike Commuting. On today's programme: Choosing your cycling clothing. A follow up to Choosing your Bike.

It's not a complicated post, from a Copenhagen perspective. But believe us when we say that we know what you're up against in North America and the UK, among other places.

Just look at the website for The League of American Bicyclists. Click on Clothing Materials. This organisation is, on paper, one of the prominent bicycle advocates for cycling in the US. Under Clothing Materials they highlight five 'fabrics'; Lycra/Spandex, Coolmax [what the fuck is THAT?], wool, goretex, nylon. This is what the 'League' recommends for cyclists. Silly gits.

Seriously, I don't own anything with four of those, except for ski trousers and gloves. I have a handsome longcoat and a couple of sweaters in wool, though. You'd think that this 'League' were slightly more on the ball, wouldn't you? Fuhgetaboutit. Let's ditch this bike geek / sports nerd mentality, leave them in the dust of their mountain bike trail and move on to the issue at hand.

Namely, Selecting Suitable Cycling Clothing for Urban Cycling - Copenhagen Style.


A cyclist shopping for important accessories.


Cyclist trying on newly-purchased cycling boots outside department store.


One of my favourite cycling clothing shops in my neighbourhood. Zornig.


Another favourite cycling clothing specialist - Tiger of Sweden. Although I prefer Day Birger et Mikkelsen at the moment.


Wifealiciousness shopping for cycling clothing one evening in Paris.


Funky cycling clothing at a second-hand shop in Copenhagen. Carmen & Fantasio.


Sale on cycling clothing in the Vesterbro neighbourhood of Copenhagen.


My favourite store for cycling shoes when in Tokyo. Commes des Garcons.

You get the point. And this post doesn't suggest that you MUST dress as we do. Buy your clothes at Walmart for all we care. We're just saying that you already own cycling clothing. Just open your closet. It's NOT difficult. It's normal for millions of people around the world each and every day. Buy the clothes you like. Just don't buy the bike geek hype.

Thankfully, there are good role models [I know, I know... we were the first] who are getting media attention. This article in the New York Post by Kirsten Fleming shows that The Normalisation of Urban Cycling is underway. [Can't believe I just linked to the Post...]


These designs are actually on sale on the internet. To the first one we say, "Bullshit", unless you're referring to John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. To the second we say, "Chic, not Cheek. Choose Style over Speed".

A Hub of Copenhagen Cyclists

We coined this phrase a while back, for fun. There is a long line of interesting names for animal flocks in English like:
- A leash of greyhounds
- A gaggle of geese
- An exaltation of larks
- A shrewdness of apes
- A troop of kangaroos
- A parliament of owls
- A siege of herons
- A crash of rhinoceri

Val - The King of Kargo Bikes in Seattle - and I played a little game in the comments about what else we could come up with.

He brought two great ones to the table:
- A pallet of cargo bikes
- A lounge of recumbents

I came up with:
- A cove of beach cruisers
- A sweat of racing bikes
- A posture of Dutch/Danish bikes
- A load of Xtra cycles

Let's play! Any other amusing ideas? Post a comment. Ooh! I have one!
- A elevation of high-heeled Copenhagen cyclists...

UPDATE!
This just in on the comments page:
Jason brilliantly proposes these:

A tower of tall bikes
A cog of fixed gear bikes
A trick of BMXers
A basket of townies
A cubby of folding bikes
A tred of mountain bikes
A convoy on commuter bikes
A union of unicycles

Steve proposes:
A bank of velodrome bikes.

Keep them coming!

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE CYCLE CHIC:

A warm morning smile at the photographer chap taking photos/filming footage of the rush hour.


Are you exceptionally slow if a violin player overtakes you? Perhaps. Do you care? Unlikely.

Bike Baskety Goodness

Herewith we present a series of photographs as a Visual Analysis of the Bicycle Basket as a Key Part of our Bicycle Culture.
The written analysis goes like this: Slap 'em on your bike, put stuff in 'em, ride around.

Over at Charlotte's Chic Cyclist blog out of Boston she had a post called "What's in Your Bag?" wherein visitors discussed the contents of their bike bags. It's a good, fun question.

But it made be realise that, as a rule, the bags you see in Copenhagen, transported around by cyclists, are not bike bags. There is nothing bike-related in them. This goes for baskets, too. No bicycle tools or pumps or suchlike 'gear'. Save a pair of lights, perhaps. It's just people's stuff. The same stuff they have if they took the train or the bus. Stuff.

Nor when they hop off their bike do they become 'pedestrian bags' anymore than they are 'shopping bags' if the cyclist - now a pedestrian - walks into a supermarket or designer boutique.

Regarding the baskets in these shots, I love the fact that in this design mecca called Copenhagen, old wicker baskets live on. Some are new, but the design remains unchanged. Just as women 75 years ago carried their belongings in these baskets, the modern Copenhagen woman carries on the tradition. Most are detachable and are carried into shops or supermarkets. They serve a practical purpose and do so with simple, elegant and timeless style.

You do see modern baskets in Goretex-y material now and then but they are rare. A good old wicker basket - or even a wire one - or a wooden beer crate/plastic milk crate on the back rack are still around because they do the job and do it well.


Denmark and Copenhagen are doing fine lately in the global media exposure sweepstakes.
This from the NY Times about Denmark's tackling of the energy crisis. This from the Washington Post today about why the Danes are consistenly ranked as the happiest people on earth.

Steel Town Cycle Chic & NY Times Article

One simple and yet brilliant guest photo today, from Larry Strung in Hamilton, Canada. Larry is a photographer with a wonderful photo series called Hamilton365. Here's what Larry says about why he took this photo and why his project is important:

Hamilton is mostly a "blue-collar" town, which means working class people that for the most part have been employed in the steel industry. That industry is in decline, so there is quite a bit of poverty while the city changes its economic direction. It has so much potential, but the biggest difficulty is changing attitudes. The really poor ride bicycles (if they are fit enough) because they can't afford a car. The new "industry" in the city is centered around a very good university that has it's most recognition from work in the health care field - so there is lots of new work related to this in local hospitals as well. The university and health-care people are the ones interested in using and promoting cycling. The former steel workers cannot get employment in this new industry, so there is a resentment present. The bulk of the population relate riding bikes to either the new "white collar" workers who are displacing them, or people so poor that they cannot afford a car. So they tend to be aggressive towards cyclist when driving in their cars...

My project, www.hamilton365.com , is an attempt to change the attitudes about the people of Hamilton. From the outside, Hamilton has always had a reputation of a "tough" town - something to be avoided. Even from within, people have a poor attitude about themselves. I have found that if you can get beyond the outside appearance, in most cases the people have a very warm and open heart. So the goal is to change the perception of being a city full of threatening people, to a city full of "people of character". When the perception is that people are full of character, they become interesting to get to know instead of to be avoided.

For cycling, the city is just about perfect. It is a harbour city - on Lake Ontario. In an east-west direction the city is perfectly flat. In a north-south direction, the city is bisected by a "mountain" - it's actually just a big hill. We have a land form here that is referred to as an escarpment - a single hill that goes for hundreds of kilometers. It's the same land form that Niagara Falls goes over. So we can practice our hill-climbing skills on this escarpment, and commute to work along the flat without building up a sweat. The World Cycling Championships were held here in 2003.

I think that Hamilton will come around in terms of being a cycling city, but it will take a few more years and a few more confrontations yet.

One little note from me: There is a great opinion piece by Thomas L. Friedman in the New York Times today, about Denmark and the things we do which can inspire others. Have a read.

Movement Metropolis

A city is movement. This movement is caused solely by the inhabitants of the city. A city is people moving.

In the country it is the quiet scenes that appeal. A landscape stretching away with only a grazing cow or drifting clouds or crashing waves to suggest that things are alive.

In a metropolis we are all part of an organic symphony of motion. We all contribute to it and we all regard others contributing to it.

It is in cities that a society is propelled forward by the people who live there. The foundations of the future are laid down in cities and the rest of the nation plays an eternal game of catch up. What appeals to me the most about Copenhagen is that the core melody of our symphony is provided by the bicycle. Cars rumble past in constant, linear paths with their occupants hidden from view. The melody is staccatto and repetitive and not a little dull.

Copenhageners on bicycles are clearly visible to everyone, especially to each other, and their melody is much more symphonic. There is human energy on display. There are visible faces and assorted postures to regard. As homo sapiens we search for recognisable signals from faces and body language. A long line of cars gives us little we can identify with. Psychology has taught us that we humans despise creatures like spiders and insects because we cannot identify with them because they lack a human face, whereas we love dogs and monkeys and other creatures with faces resembling our own.

[perhaps that is why the front end of cars are designed to have big, round headlight eyes and a mouth-like bumper?]

Cycling in itself is movement. Legs swirling around, heads turning, arms signalling, bodies hopping on and off while still rolling. All appealing and recognisable to the human eye. A flirtacious smile, a flash of leg, gesticulation during a conversation at a red light. We can associate with it.

Cars are fine. They aren't going anywhere and they shouldn't. Wishing for the death of the automobile is a ridiculous pipe dream. A vast reduction of cars on the roads and a massive increase of cyclists - with all the health and societal benefits involved - is, however, a splendid goal.

Transforming cities into symphonic, melodic, urban landscapes filled with people in motion, in movement, in concerto is an appealing thought. This is what I mean when I talk of Copenhagenizing the Planet.

There are many reasons why I love Copenhagen. The most important must surely be that my fellow citizens surround me and I can watch them move. Each an integral part of the city. Each a visible moving part in the organic spectacle of this metropolis, not covered by a hood or encased in steel, but rather brilliantly exposed. Like taking the back cover off a old, ticking pocket watch and seeing the finely crafted parts all contributing to keeping track of time.

As Johannes V. Jensen wrote of Copenhagen cyclists in his 1936 novel 'Gudrun', "If one is bumped by a car, the whole school is bumped. It's a nerve one has in the elbow, a flock function, which Copenhageners have learned so well that it is second nature."

Now we have safe, separted bike lanes of course but the school of fish analogy still applies.

And while I often revel in this populous symphony there are, rest assured, ample opportunities for solitary moments. A fish can leave the school and swim solo if it wishes.

Photo by Jackson Owen on Flickr.

L.A. Times

Another little rush hour shot. Over 30,000 bicycles ride past this point each day.

If you have the time, have a look at this over at the Los Angeles Times. They asked me to guest blog and this is the inaugural piece on their traffic blog Bottleneck, comparing Copenhagen to Los Angeles.

Film and Fashion

Firstly, the film. A little cinematic thingy I whipped up. The music is from 1935, a song called 'Cykelsangen' - The Cycle Song - by Poul Henningsen, written for his film 'Danmark' from the same year. It was a documentary about the state of the nation and he wrapped it up with a long sequence of lovely Copenhageners cycling, with this song as the backdrop. "Cycling girls... lovely shoes on pedals" are among the lyrics. Some things never change and thank goodness for that. We've blogged a few times before about the iconic figure of the Cycling Girl as an integral part of Danish history. Denmark has a mammoth back catalogue of songs and poems celebrating our cycling women. This song is one of the classics.

THE FASHION

This week sees Copenhagen showing her colours as a fashion capital. Fashion is a major industry here, as one might expect from a nation known for its design heritage and the Copenhagen Vision fashion fair is in full swing. What will we be wearing next spring/summer and will Paris Hilton show up are the two main questions. [the latter is in town plugging her new bags.]

Wifealiciousness blogged about the fashion week over at Modler Style - in Danish - if you're interested in a designer's POV.

At the major venues it's a constant parade of frightfully well-dressed participants heading for catwalk shows or events or free alcohol. I went past the other day and noticed that most of the foreign guests were showing up in a convoy of taxis from either the airport or their designer hotel. It was a polygot extravanganza what with all the langauges wafting past.

But typically, most of the locals were rolling up on their bikes, as these pictures attest. Because it's easy and quick, because it's just what you do in Copenhagen but maybe because the Italians and Americans hogged all the taxis. Nevertheless, we're showing how to do it and leading the way.

Rush Hour, Bridges and Suchlike

I've been out shooting film footage for a little film I've been asked to make about Copenhagen's bike culture - all the wonderful aspects of it. I'll be posting some great still shots from the streets in the coming days.


Bicycles and Bridges. They seem made for each other. This is Langebro. Long Bridge. Cyclists have been crossing the harbour on this bridge since 1954, although there has been a bridge here since 1656.
The bridge has been immortalised in a Danish song by a band you've never heard of named Gasolin'. And by me, in this little time lapse video where I took a photo every weekday for about eight months:


BACK TO THE BIKES

There has been a trend for a year or so of Copenhageners investing in newer, cooler bikes. Going for quality brands like Velorbis or Batavus instead of buying cheapish models at supermarkets. Nevertheless, the workhorse bicycle in it's funkiest, most personal incarnation lives on. Slap some stickers on the beast. Smile as the rust develops. It's all personality. Old people acquire charm and an air of experience when they get wrinkles. The same applies to bikes. Rust, a squeak, a wobbly wheel.


Another shot of the bicycle as a social form of transport. Couples pedalling about, free to chat and regard the city that surrounds them.


Alternatively, you don't need to ride with someone to get the sensation of riding with someone, if you know what I mean. You are constantly surrounded by your fellow citizens, each on their own personal version of the most efficient machine ever invented.

Wifealiciousness and I decided that this photo of her on the Velorbis Scrap Deluxe shoot is the coolest.

Old People, Animals and Children

We have a rule in the film industry that one should always avoid working with old people, animals and children. Fortunately, this unwritten rule does not apply to a true bicycle culture.


Au contraire. The very prescence of old people, animals and children on the bike lanes is the surest sign that you are doing something right.


Found this half-forgotten photo of Felix from a holiday a couple of years ago on the brilliant Île de Ré off the west coast of France. The island's best beach was 10 km from our house and we made the trip on rented bikes each day. On the way home, the Boy Wonder invariably fell asleep on his kid's seat on the back of my bike - in the 35 degree heat with headphones playing his favourite music.

Spectactular and Spectactors plus Guest Photos

The Tour of Denmark bicycle race wrapped up in our neighbourhood last week. We blogged about it over at Copenhagenize.com. All the streets were closed off but the bike lanes remained open during the day as the riders did 10 laps through the neighbourhood before crossing the finish line.

Throughout the race cyclists pedalled past. Some stopped when the racers flew by, but many didn't even raise an eyebrow. There were many people lining the streets in the sunshine and there were many bicyclists to watch. It was truly style over speed all day long.

GUEST PHOTOS FROM BASQUE COUNTRY

One of our regular readers, Humberto from Lisbon, travelled up to Basque Country for a concert and he took a series of cycle chic photos from San Sebastian and Bilbao. We just had to add them today. Thanks, Humberto!

While we'd like to take out a patent on chic cycling in Copenhagen, it is worth remembering that according to the European Cyclists' Federation there are 100 million daily cyclists in Europe. Normal people on normal bikes doing normal things. As Humberto's photos attest.

BOSTONIAN HEELS

Thanks to our reader Marcie in Boston who sent us this cycle chic link from Boston.com.
The caption on the website shows that normal people in normal clothes is not yet run of the mill in American cities: "BPD Tactical Bicycle Unit members were somewhat amused by the foot gear Jessica Foster wore as she joined in the event and pedaled in from Brookline."

But Marcie does her bit to spread the good word:
"Since my daily cycling only requires only a leisurely 3 km to the T in Boston, I never considered putting on special clothes or even casual attire to make my commute. I am going from point A to point B and will barely break a sweat, why do I need to forgo my business suit? When I found your blog, not only have I found an excellent advocate of like mind, but also someone who provides beautiful photos to remind me of my short sojourn in Copenhagen years ago."

Velorbis Scrap Deluxe - A Bicycle For Feminine Urban Living

Velorbis asked Wifealiciousness and I to review the new Scrap Deluxe for Ladies, which they have recently launched. We're always up for a World Premiere, so we took the bike out for a ride last week.

I know the Scrap Deluxe well, since I have the Gentleman's model. As I've mentioned before, riding this bike around Copenhagen is a treat. In a city that has seen it all regarding bikes, the Scrap Deluxe is a real head turner. Men and women alike.

We whipped up a little film about our test drive:


Wifealiciousness blogged about it on her styling blog Modler Style - in Danish - so I'm going to let her take it away - after a quick translation into English:

"I enjoyed riding for the sake of riding and not having to go anywhere. My husband already has a Gents Scrap Deluxe and we really caused a stir as we rode around on our 'headturner' Velorbis'.

The bike is in a league all its own - the super cool grey, steel frame combined with the creme-coloured wheels, the gorgeous brown leather on the hand grips and saddle and the perfectly formed fenders and lights were an elixir for the eye. Not to mention the little 'number plate' with the Velorbis logo. The bicycle is simple, classic and completely unique.

The frame's form gives you a feeling of sitting up high, straight-backed and with a complete overview of your surroundings. The wheels seem, somehow, smaller than on other bikes and it gave me the feeling of riding a mini-bike - in the funkiest way.

It was an all-round, wonderful experience and a bike that begs to be tried - not least for the aesthetic kick!"


The most important thing from the photographer's perspective is that MAN, Wifealiciousness looks good on the Scrap Deluxe! Riding high and looking beautiful.

It's the perfect bicycle for feminine urban living. Smooth, gorgeous and downtownalicious.

No, we don't know what it weighs, so don't ask. Check Velorbis' website for more info if strange weight or tech spec questions persist in your head. :-)