Copenhagen Bike Life [While Copenhagenize is on Holiday]
Copenhagen Signage. One Way Street - Bicycles Excepted.
17 July 2009
16 July 2009
Kissing Toronto's Bicycle Culture Goodbye
Well, that was that, perhaps. Toronto's blossoming bicycle culture is at risk of being pedalled back into the stone ages because a city councillor is proposing mandatory bicycle helmet laws for all ages AND bicycle licencing/registration.
Michael Walker is the name of the councillor and he, like many car-centric, uninformed politicians before him, is doing his bit for promoting cars and killing off the growth of a carbon neutral, life-extending transport form - bicycles.
His proposal was seconded by another councillor, Suzan Hall.
Walker doesn't seem to be aware that bicycle helmets are designed for protecting a head from non-life threatening injuries in solo accidents under 20 km/h. He seems to think they are some kind of wonder drug that can protect heads from collisions with cars, trucks and rogue meteors.
Here's the pdf of his motion. His shocking disregard for pedestrian safety is alarming. I cannot see any reference to helmets for pedestrians in the motion.
As it's been seen all over the world, mandatory helmet laws kill off cycling. 20-40% fewer cyclists as a result. And fewer cyclists means an increase in health care costs, pollution and the continuation of a car-centric society. Bullying people who choose a healthy transport option serves no good purpose.
Here you can see the unfortunate results of Canadian helmet laws so far. Not much for Toronto to look forward to.
Here's a radio interview about the proposal from CBC:
http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/toronto/ondemand/audio/jul02bh_TOR.wma. Hilariously, in the URL there is the word/name ONDEMAND. In Danish "onde mand" means "evil man".
I'll never understand why politicians like him, or like the Danish Socialist Peoples' Party propose laws without considering ALL of the science. Thorough political groundwork is a rarity, it seems. This man is a poster child for The Culture of Fear Inc. Actually, he's probably a shareholder.
Regarding his proposal for bicycle licencing, Copenhagenize.com has written about this folly before. Right here.
Toronto... it's been lovely watching your bicycle culture grow. You have been a progressive city in many areas.
Shame it may all have been in vain.
15 July 2009
14 July 2009
13 July 2009
12 July 2009
11 July 2009
10 July 2009
Copenhagen Bike Life [While Copenhagenize is on Holiday]
Copenhagen Bicycle Bell.
See a slideshow with all my bicycle bell shots.
09 July 2009
08 July 2009
07 July 2009
05 July 2009
The Re:Boot Re:Bike
At the recent Re:boot conference/festival here in Copenhagen some of the participants whipped up a Re:Bike using a Nihola cargo bike. Re:Boot is a community event focused on digital change and culture. It's about tech but it's also about community.
Check out the bike on this website, complete with all the tech-specs.
And here's a little youtube film about the bike.
Lock 7 Cycle Café in Hackney
There was one bicycle shop I knew I'd end up visiting when in London. I'd heard about the Lock 7 Cycle Café from a reader and, since I was staying in the same neighbourhood, Hackney, it was just down the street.
I'd also heard that the café was inspired by a trip the owners made to Copenhagen and I had to get an answer to that mystery. We don't have cycle cafés in Copenhagen. Well... I suppose we do... every café in the city can be cycled to so that kind of makes them all cycle cafés... but I digress. We don't have cafés that serve you coffee and food while your bike gets fixed.
When I spoke with the owners I was told that it was merely the Danish capital's all-encompassing bicycle culture that inspired them to start a café in Hackney. Which is great.
Lock 7 is like an anchor for the blossoming bicycle culture in Hackney in particular and London in general. Sitting outside on a Tuesday morning with a coffee, the parade of cyclists/Cycle Chicistas rolling past was astounding. It has to be the most cleverly placed bike shop in London. 
In the city on a whole there are 2% trips by bike but in Hackney it's 8%. Lock 7 has a fine, relaxed atmosphere and friendly staff. When they started out the café was a lot larger but now the tables are a bit fewer to make room for the bikes. They repair them and they sell them and I spotted a shiny new Velorbis in the stable of new bikes. All they need now are some Bullitts from Larry vs Harry to complete the Copenhagen Connection.
A location next to a constant flow of cyclists is a plus, but check out the rest of the location. It has to be the best view from a bike shop I've ever seen. Lock 7 is named after this seventh lock on the Regent's Canal that winds it's way through London. It's not because you need seven locks to secure your bike in the city. Four will do, apparently.
Lock 7 Cycle Cafe is located at 129 Pritchards Road, London [Hackney].
www.Lock-7.com
Charging Phones With Bicycles
The famous Roskilde Festival ends today after four days of cracking concerts, sunshine and good times. First held in 1971 it's one of the premiere music festivals in the world. This year featured a good crop of bands but there is so much action that it's hard to keep track.
One enviro-friendly gimmick was charging your mobile telephone with bicycles. The Climate Community 'neighbourhood' at the festival hooked up bikes to a generator and let festival-goers charge their phones using human-power.
It took about 7 minutes of cycling to charge a phone. Interestingly, it would take about an hour and a half of cycling to generate enough energy to boil water for a cup of coffee. A 15 minute shower and you'll be cycling for 50 hours.
One of the great traditions at the Roskilde Festival is entirely sustainable. The Nude Race is one of the most popular activities and the winner gets interviewed all over the press.
This being Denmark, nudity is not considered odd or strange so the photos of the race are shown in newspapers and on the national news. The above photo is from a newspaper and you can see the whole slide show on their website.
04 July 2009
Freaky Summer of Love in Florida
Freak Bike Summer of Love 60's Ride in West Palm Beach Florida.
Niiiiiice!
Like Vintage Bicycle Posters?
Here's a poster for your wall, if you fancy it.
A collection of my favourite bicycle posters from back when we excelled at promoted cycling positively.
Git yers tout suite down at our Cafe Press online boutique. Or don't. That's the beauty of a market economy.
03 July 2009
Sargent and Co - Bespoke Bicycles
On my recent visit to London I spent the better part of two days cycling throughout the capital on a photo assignment. My indispensible guide, Oliver from Hackney Cyclists, brought me quite on purpose past Sargent & Co Bicycle Shop.
My god, I'm glad he did. The shop was closed but Rob Sargent, the owner, was kind enough to open the door and let us in inside for a look. It was time for a tea break, anyway.
Rob opened up the shop about a year ago after settling on a bicycle shop as a 'lifestyle change'. It's more of a workshop than a bicycle shop proper as Rob gently restores vintage racers at the most relaxing, aesthetic pace.
That's Rob making the tea in the background and it's Eric Deeks in the foreground. Eric is teaching Rob the tricks of the framebuilding trade. He used to build frames for Paris Cycles back in the day.
I don't know what it was about the shop but I keep returning to it in my head. The atmosphere was calm, the air scented with the unmistakeable sweetness of oil and vintage. Buzzing gently below the surface was that unique passion for bicycles, like the sound of a distant bumble bee at the bottom of the garden.
The most remarkable thing about this bicycle shop is that you feel as though it has occupied the premises since, I don't know... 1948... and that Rob's dad and grampy had puttered around inside throughout the decades before handing it down. You don't quite believe the Established 2008 sign outside and are quite convinced that the old walls have strained under the weight of hanging frames and wheels. Indeed, that they were built solely for this purpose.
Speaking to Rob you are seduced by his quiet manner and gentle voice. Just hearing the way he speaks and you know how he handles the old frames and bicycles that are wheeled into the shop. Gently, lovingly, passionately.
Business is fine, apparently. Too fine, you sense. Meaning less time for the quiet pleasures of restoring old bicycles to former glory and building new frames. The bicycle in the left window in the top photo is Rob's first framebuilding effort. you can see a better photo of it on his Flickr Photostream. He was well proud about it in the most relaxed way. It certainly is a beauty.
Eric used to build Paris bicycles not that far from the shop. His prescence in the place is one of quiet authority. Hands grey with grease as he sips his tea you can't help thinking of what it was like building bicycles in the 1950's and you secretly wish you were there to experience it.
That's Rob's bike on the wall but he has a 'pub bike' out front which is just a beat up old mixte that nobody will nick.
Left: An old R.H. Wakefield is on the rack, ready for treatment.
Right: The cellar workshop.
If you're in London, be sure to meander past. Even if the shop is closed, peer through the windows. It's enough, somehow.
Sargent & Co is at
74 Mountgrove Road
Finsbury Park
www.sargentandco.com/
01 July 2009
Cyclo Brevity
My reading this past week brought me past George Bernard Shaw and this quote, a propos fearmongering and The Culture of Fear:
"Newspapers are unable, seemingly to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization."
Indeed. And how appropriate given the hysteria many papers, especially the tabloids, exhibited by the press about cycling and 'safety'.
And I returned, for reasons nothing to do with cycling, to Philip Larkin's great death poem, Aubade:
"Courage is no good:
It means not scaring others."
Courage means not scaring others. Boy, there are a lot of people out there who should reflect on that.
While we're in brevity mode, I can recommend a book of bicycle poems by Paul Fattaruso called... "Bicycle".
Brilliant stuff. Simple, elegant poems about bicycles. Example:
"Of all the hidden cities, the city of abandoned bicycles is the most perfectly hidden. One can listen a long time to the indistinct whispers of abandoned bicycles in the streets."
Go With the Sleek, Swedish Flow - Strömmen
A couple of chaps in Västerås, Sweden decided that the world needs a simple, elegant bicycle on which to ride down to the café for an espresso. The result? Strömmen. Translated that would be The Flow, The Stream, The Current. The name is inspired by the massive flow of bicycles in Västerås back in the day when the citizens all pedalled to work at the town's ASEA factory.
Photo from a local historian's website.
To this day, Västerås in Central Sweden is one of Sweden's main cycling towns, with over 30% trips by bike. They even have a wicked cool statue celebrating their cycling history.
Anyway, Jonas Wallin and Daniel Ingdahl created this all-white, fixed gear 'café racer' with a steel frame, with parts chosen from a variety of suppliers in the UK and the US. They assemble them in Västerås. Only 50 have been built and they have just become available to the market, costing 5000-6000 Swedish kroner according to their website and $600 according to an article I read about it.
They got the idea out of the blue and catalouged their journey from idea to product on their website.
www.strommenvelo.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
