Who's The Bosch?

Transporting a power drill has never... ever... looked this elegant.

Regarding an earlier post about Copenhageners eating and especially drinking coffee on their bikes, one of our readers fired off this link to us.

"It may seem unlikely, but simply clutching a warm cup of coffee can bring on a flood of warm feelings, U.S. researchers said on Thursday in a finding that suggests a strong link between physical and emotional warmth.

"Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer -- more generous and trusting -- as well," said John Bargh, a professor of psychology at Yale University in Connecticut, whose research appears in the journal Science."

Read the full article here.

And here's a cracking photo series from Travel & Leisure about Copenhagen cycle chic.

Couple of Things

This couple, complete with a kid at the front of the chap's bike, were ready for green.


It's been a while since we've had a little "It's Not Just Us" post - wherein we show that The Cycling Girl - Cykelpigen - is still an integral and iconic part of Danish culture after over a century. Here's a cover of a book called Pregnancy and Exercise and what better photo on the cover than a pregant woman on a bicycle.

Paris Revisited

Here's another great shot from Paris from 'Dev Null' on Flickr.

If you haven't read our little reportage from Paris, here's our take on the city, the Vélib' bike share programme and the amazing bicycle revival.

The Five Cycling Senses - Sight

The sense of sight in relation to urban cycling is probably the easiest to document and relate to. You're out in the open, exposed to elements, but also exposed to your city. In turn, your city exposes itself to you in ways that are unattainable in a motor vehicle, even a bus or train. You are in constant interaction with everything happening around you, including your fellow citizens. You see so much. You see the buildings, the sky, the clouds, unrestricted by the glass and roof of a car.

In Nordic countries, light is a powerful drug. When you can ride through a winter's morning into the rising sun, even the squinting of your eyes is a feast for the sense of sight.



Your use the city's features on a bike, like zipping along and glancing up at the clock on the City Hall Tower to see if you're late or on time.

Or the clock on one of the old churches.


You are up close and personal with the urban landscape. Watching other people interact with the city all while you do the same.





Seeing other people seeing, glancing, observing somehow heightens the sense.


There are very good anthropological advantages to having an unrestricted view.




You get to regard those fellow citizens that you find attractive while they are in motion, moving through the city, using the city. Seeing a gorgeous man or woman in the car next to you is one thing, but seeing him/her in motion is far more aesthetic. Homo sapiens wouldn't have gotten very far on the evolutionary trail if we had to choose our mates based on how they sat, motionless and sedentary, in their tents. We have always needed to see each other in active settings in order to choose.

Which men have a better chance of attracting your attention, ladies? These chaps above or this guy below?



A city is far more alive when you are alive in it, on a bicycle.

Your fellow citizens are in motion.

You see them interacting with each other in the most human way possible.

And they see you.

The Five Cycling Senses - Touch

It's a touchy-feely thing, urban cycling. It's physical, organic and a feast for the senses. I figured I'd try to portray the five senses in relation to cycling in Copenhagen. Starting with Touch.

People don't talk about 'cycling' here in Copenhagen. You don't get to work and discuss the morning's commute with your colleagues. You may comment on the rain and whether or not you were caught in it but the whole act of urban cycling is so second-nature that it isn't even mentioned.

As I've mentioned before, we don't have many cyclists in Copenhagen, we only have Copenhageners who get around by bike. Sure, there are groups that hang out together. The sub-cultural bike messenger crowd and the fixies do their funky thang together. The woolen-socks in sandals/trimmed greying beard crowd join the Cyclists' Federation. The rest of us just ride around because it's easy and fast. 57% of Copenhageners say that's why they ride. 17% mention excerise and only 1% say they do it for the environment.

Since starting these blogs I've asked friends what they like about riding their bike everyday. The most common reply, it seems, is that it's nice to experience the fresh air and the weather. And then the conversation quickly moves on to something else. There's nothing really to talk about. It's a routine - an enjoyable one, sure, but just a part of daily life. We don't discuss teethbrushing techniques either.

THE WEATHER
So, the photo above falls into the Touch category. Feeling the light spring rain, snowflakes, a sudden downpour or the stabbing, painful slivers of ice during a storm on your face and hands are definately appropriate for Touch. Feeling the four seasons up close and personal is an aesthetic part of urban cycling, even if you get drenched once in a while.

TOGETHERNESS


Touch is riding with friends or loved ones. Sure, you can hold hands while driving but it's not quite the same thing.

And this kind of togetherness would be difficult in a motorised vehicle.

HANDLEBARS

Our sense of touch applies to all of our body but it is our hands that most used. Therefore I've included a shot of hands on handlebars. Riding with a firm grip up a hill or a loose grip through the city or even just riding with one hand. Fingers reaching for the brake and squeezing it. It's all about you touching the machine and controlling it.

Even with one finger.

And even if it's two sets of handlebars.

TIPTOES

There are various postures people use at red lights, as we've highlighted before. Many people just rely on their toes to keep them balanced at the light. Tensed muscles supporting a body and a bike, ready to push off at a moment's notice. A brief connection with the ground before sailing off on two wheels.




FOOTPOWER

Just after that magical moment when 'lift off' is achieved and the bike is rolling forward of its own accord and the foot that propelled it forward has lost contact with the ground, the next event involves the foot finding the pedal. Seeking it out in a combination of instinct and experience as well as touch. It's second-nature. We don't have to look for the pedal, we know where it is. But the touch of the foot on the pedal confirms it and we can start pedalling away.

Lift off.

The cyclist on the left is seeking out the pedal with her foot. Preparing to accelerate.


Seeking out the pedal is one thing, but the foot sometimes needs to find purchase on the curb. Placed just right - according to individual taste - until motion is required once again.

Anyone else have any observations about Touch in relation to cycling? Add a comment and I'll start thinking about the other senses.

Calmly, Stripey and Gorgeously Advertised

No jockeying for position, not muscling their way ahead of other cyclists, no trackstand on the edge of the zebra crossing. Just two cyclists waiting calmly for a red light to change to green.

A spot of stripes in the autumn sun.


Over at Copenhagenize.com we've been discussing http://www.copenhagenize.com/2008/10/what-if-we-marketed-cycling-like-we.html.

Above is a recent advert for the French tyre company Hutchinson which is quite brilliant. Just two cyclists - one messengery type and one Cycle Chic Hero riding through New York City. Cool cool cool. This is the way to go to start branding cycling as effortless, enjoyable and liberating, not to mention a feasible and acceptable form of transport.

There is one flaw in the film, though. Hundreds of thousands of chic female cyclists in Europe know that when cycling in high heels you don't use the heel to pedal, for gods sake. You use the sole of the foot like with any other shoe. Sheesh.

But... because we're cheeky... we made a quick and dirty Copenhagen Cycle Chic Remix of the above advert wherein we feature just the Cycle Chic and sans sub-culture.

Hutchinson Tires Urban Video - Copenhagen Cycle Chic Remix from Colville Andersen on Vimeo.

Wonderful Fairytale Town

Wonderful Copenhagen from Colville Andersen on Vimeo.
Don't know why it didn't occur to me before to use this song. It's corny, it's kitsch - it's from a musical for god's sake - but it works well with the footage. The Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen song from the 1952 Danny Kaye musical about Hans Christian Andersen. The story is completely Hollywoodized and doesn't come close to drawing a true portrait of the writer. Believe me, I know. I produced this website for Danish Broadcasting for the bicentenary of Andersen's birth in 2005. Actually, if you're coming to Copenhagen and like history, I'm quite proud of The Time Machine on the aforementioned website. You follow in Andersen's footsteps in a flash-based 'game'.

The Hollywood film, it is said, is the single reason that generations of Americans still pronounce the English name for Copenhagen wrong. It's not Copen-HAH-gen. It's Copen-HAY-gen. Blame the songwriter/scriptwriter on that film.:-)


Meanwhile, back in fairytale land, splendid creatures roll about the streets each and every day, as Lars' photo attests [and every other photo on this blog]. You can send the dinky Little Mermaid to China, for all I care. I prefer the Cycling Girls of Copenhagen as a symbol for this city.

Look Behind You

Glance backwards. Summer still lingers but with every autumn leaf that falls, she gets farther away. Good thing we have photographs to remember her by.

Eat, Cycle and be Merry

One of our dear readers, Village Mama, requested a Bicycle and Food series and I quickly discovered that I have a shocking absence of this theme in the archives. Not because it's not an important part of Copenhagen bike life, but merely because I haven't caught the shots. So above is me heading for a meeting and enjoying a pain au chocolat on the bike lanes.


Here's an apple munching cyclist.

And ice cream counts, too, doesn't it?


One thing the Copenhagen Cycle Chic archives are filled with is photos of Copenhageners transporting coffee, like this previously posted photo above.

Or this pregnant Copenhagen sipping an ice coffee.

Coffee holder on the handlebars.

Two girlfriends, both carrying coffee.

I'll be sure the keep an eye out for 'diner transportable', as they say in French. Eat 'n ride. Cykle og spise.

Autumn Shadows

The shadows of autumn are long and melancholy.

A famous photograph from the Occupation by Eric Petersen. No, we weren't occupied by Eric Petersen.