My neighbours own the strangest bikes

Yeah, the two last pictures are of the same bike. And I'm sorry, neighbour, but this is probably the scruffiest bike I have ever seen. There is nothing attractive at all about this bike. On the other hand you'll probably get to keep your bike and I'll lose my bikes if there's a burglary in the bike storage. So... ugly bike, smart guy? Maybe time will tell.

But about the first bike: How can you even stay on that saddle?

Who are you calling an asshole?!

I rode past the spot where that guy had changed inner tubes, and left the old inner tube (with all the small parts) and the CO₂ refill, today. The stuff was gone.

So... I still think that you could change those CO₂ refills for a smaller pump, but if it was you who took care of the junk: That's cool. And then I shouldn't call you an asshole.

Loppis i Majorna

There was a second-hand market in Majorna - a district in Gothenburg - today. The market is every year, apparently, but it was the first time I visited it. (The last Sunday in May, from 11AM to 5PM.) It is huge, stretching out on several streets all over the district. And it's free as well - you just take what you want to sell out of your home and display it on the street. A great idea!

And this was today's find for me: A metallic light blue bottle cage for only 10 krona. A real bargain, if you ask me!

Hey asshole!

Not all assholes are motorists - some are actually bicyclists. Like this guy. Yes, I know there was a bicycle race today and that you were in a hurry to fix that flat tire but THAT SHIT IS ECOLOGICALLY HARMFUL AND SHOULDN'T BE LEFT ON THE ROAD! Just leaving your old inner tube and CO₂ refill lying by the road like that... that's not cool.

Besides: Compare this CO₂ refill with my pump. How much space do you save, compared to me? I have never had any problem having that pump with me in one of my back pockets. And that pump is REUSABLE.

So go to a bike shop, buy a small pump and STOP LEAVING LITTER!

(My pump compared to that CO₂ refill. I just couldn't leave it lying there by the road so I took it home. I left the old inner tube. Maybe I should have taken that home and recycled or reused it.)

Marisol, part 5 (Suck my chrome!)

The result:

How did I attach the metal emblem? I found three small screws that had the right diameter inside a detachable bicycle light and then spent an evening filing them to the right length. It was tedious work but in the end it was worth it.

The guys at Guson Industrier (or actually some smiths, or at least guys who "work with metal" that the guys at Guson Industrier know - I never did find out what they work with) also did a fantastic job with welding, repairing the seat stays. I really mean a fantastic job. It's as if that welded lock never was there.

So. Marisol. The final result. Although now I am thinking about replacing the saddle and the chain...

Why we ride

This

with this



in our earphones. (Gotta love Kylie.) We ride to explore. And because it's great!

Sign o' the Times

Hammarkullen is one of Gothenburg's districts or, if you will, suburbs. It is no secret that Hammarkullen is a bit from the centre of Gothenburg. Nine kilometres as the crow flies, 16 minutes by tram, and by bike... well, let's just say it takes either time, sweat or both. According to a bike route planner on internet it takes 51 minutes to ride from the centre of Gothenburg to Hammarkullen... and 34 minutes to ride from Hammarkullen to the centre of Gothenburg. So you get that there's quite a height difference - 10 to 95 metres, to be exact. And the way we recall it those 85 height metres come in halfway, so you get them compressed into four and a half kilometre. Hammarkullen is a bit from the centre of Gothenburg. But isn't Hammarkullen a part of Gothenburg? Not according to this bike way sign, that we found just on the outskirts of Hammarkullen.

It says "Göteborg" ("Gothenburg"), not "Göteborgs Centrum" ("Gothenburg's Centre") or even "Göteborg C" ("Gothenburg C"). What this sign really is saying is that you're no longer in the city. Which isn't really cool.

I Can't Stand the Rain

Fantastic cover version. (Credit for the original version goes to Ann Peebles.)



We're not riding today, because it's raining.

Sunday evening

This bicycle made us laugh. Can you see why?

Oh, and we didn't take this photo, so thanks and respect to the originator.

The perfect couple

When I parked my bike outside my sister's house the only available space was next to this bike that matched my bike perfectly. (My bike is the one to the left).

Permettez-moi de vous présenter Madame et Monsieur Peugeot:

(However, my bike is either transgender or cross-dressing, because her name is Julie.)

Marisol, part 4

Marisol was (almost) finished. The next day the sun was shining and when the sun shines I usually ride my racer, which doesn't have mudguards, has twelve gears instead of three, is lighter and is faster, but I chose Marisol instead. All went well. We were fast together. We were beautiful together.

The problem began the next day. It was raining. No worries, I thought, since Marisol has mudguards. I rode to and back from school. When I got home, however, I noticed that there were scrapings and a little rust on the top tube. "Odd" I thought, but took her up to the flat, sanded the rust off and sprayed a couple of layers of lacquer over to protect it. A couple of days passed, it continued to rain and I continued using Marisol. Then I noticed that there were small spots of rust not only on the top tube, but also on the down tube, the seat stays, the head tube... the only part that still seemed rust free was the fork. And here is my conclusion:

Don't ever use lacquer from Biltema. It's completely crap.

So I began all over, taking the bike apart completely again...

Then I took her to the guys at Guson Industrier, that sandblasted, painted and lacquered (with good, working lacquer) the frame.

(A couple of shots (without and with flashlight) I took of the frame and fork after the guys at Guson Industrier had sandblasted the parts. Harsh! And you can clearly see the gash in the seat stay.)

I asked them if it was possible to keep the raw steel and just lacquer that, but they said that it wouldn't look good, the lacquer gets a little bit yellow after some time and it would just look dull. So I went for chrome...

Marisol, part 3

This was the final (though not final final) result of  my renovation of the bike. Raw polished steel, with four layers of lacquer to protect it. Note the black plastic tape covering the gash in the seat stay. Looking back it was a completely retarded idea to use a bike with a gash in the seat stay but as I wrote before I was saved later. There is also some black plastic tape in front where the logo was to be mounted, but at the time I had no idea how to fasten it the metal emblem. I was looking everywhere for a pair of small screws - about 1 1/2 mm thick and no more than 6 mm long - but couldn't find any, neither at an optician nor at a watchmaker. So in the meantime she looked like this. Yeah, perhaps the biggest change was that I started thinking of the bike as a "her" and named her Marisol. The brand of the bike is Maraton, a bike of course is a she and since Maraton has three syllables Marisol is the logical choice. Besides, I like Marisol.

Bike lanes

You could see this as a continuation of the blog post "Obstacles, part I". Obviously it happens everywhere. Casey Neistat responds just right, with a little bit of anger and a lot of humour. We dream of a day when car drivers and everyone else start respecting the bike lanes and not use them as parking spaces and loading zones....

Göteborgs Cykelfestival 2014 again

In our eyes the bicycle festival was better on Sunday than on Saturday. It might have been because we arrived at the festival quite late on Saturday, but there was quite a lot of people around, Cykelköket (The Bike kitchen) helped people fix their bikes, the bicycle flea market was quite small but seemed really popular, even though it was a bit cold the sun was shining and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Good work! And let's hope it gets bigger next year!

(The people on the photo are not associated with Ensliga Bergens cykelklubb in any way.)

Göteborgs Cykelfestival 2014

There is a bicycle festival in Gothenburg today (Saturday 3rd of May) and tomorrow. Some of us were there today as visitors and a member of the club will be there tomorrow as a participant. To be honest, it's such a small festival that it's almost not a festival but we still like it. It's a really good initiative, the entrance fee of 20 krona is voluntary, there are a few really nice bikes and some interesting lectures. And you have to start somewhere.

You can see the programme here: http://festival.kometbicycles.se/program-2014/

Marisol, part 2

There is something special about raw steel! This is what she looked like when I was done. All the paint was scraped and sanded off, except for a little here and there, in corners and difficult to get to places. But I thought that that somehow only added to the purity of the steel - it's a bit difficult to explain. I also sawed off the welded lock, which saved about three hectogrammes.

Unfortunately I didn't just manage to get the welded lock off, but also to saw a gash into one of the seat stays. At the time I thought that it might still work, but fortunately I was saved, later on.

I decided to thoroughly clean the wheels as well. You can just barely read that they were made in West Germany. Yeah, they're that old.