Oh, come on!

It doesn't automatically become a bicycle lane just because you say it is, Göteborgs Stad!

Just look at these pictures! Why has Göteborgs Stad (The City of Gothenburg) painted these bicycles and arrows on this narrow, cracked, bumpy, neglected sidewalk, in a desolate industrial area on Hisingen? They weren't there a year ago. Probably because it looks good in the statistics. Now Göteborgs Stad can say that they added 2,3 km of bicycle lanes. Isn't that great? Let me say it again:

It doesn't automatically become a bicycle lane just because you say it is, Göteborgs Stad!

Urban Birds – Female Cycle Courier Documentary

Today we want to tip you about a short film. It's the Urban Birds - Female Cycle Courier Documentary. A really nice film about bicycle couriers Alessandra Giani, Stephanie Bartczak and April Bailey, working in London. Directed by Gemma Burditt and Marigold Hughes, who we predict to be directors to look out for in the future. The film is only 15 minutes long, but that's really all it takes to get to know these three women a little better, watch some really cool, beautiful footage and put a smile on your face. Watch it here (vimeo.com). You can actually even download it. Awesome.

(Alessandra Giani)

 (Stephanie Bartczak)

(Marigold Hughes)

Totally cool people, even if they ride fixies. ;)

(Oh, and these pictures were of course not taken by us, but downloaded from the Urban Birds facebook page. Hope that's OK!)

Ride safe!

It's just one of those days

... when we're fed up with the way bicyclists are treated in the traffic. Actually it's not that hard:

1. Plan for and build new, nice, safe bicycle lanes. That way bicyclists won't ride their bicycles on the sidewalks or in the car lanes.

2. Make it clear that these lanes are for bicycles and not for skateboarders, parents with prams or buggies, people in wheelchairs or pedestrians. The reason that we bicyclists don't want you non-bicyclists on the bicycle lanes is not that we are stingy, greedy people. The reason is that a bicyclist can reach speeds of 20, 30 or even 40 km/h. It might not necessarily be good to ride that fast in a city, but it's a fact. Imagine, for example, that you are a parent and you have an important meeting in the morning. No matter how carefully you plan the day and that there was plenty of time when you started your morning, children have an ability to rip plans to shreds. So you have finally managed to leave your child at the kindergarten and now you are running late for that meeting... It happens to bicyclists, it happens to motorists and it happens to pedestrians and people who ride buses, trams and trains.

Have you hit or been hit by something weighing 40 kilos or more, at 40 km/h? We have. It hurts. It hurts both the person hitting, and the person being hit. And it hurts a lot. And that's why we bicyclists don't want you non-bicyclists on the bicycle lanes. It's dangerous for both you and us.

3. Don't park your cars or put your stuff (not even "temporarily") on the bicycle lanes.It's not as dangerous as someone staggering out on the bicycle lanes, but it makes us really annoyed. Imagine how you would react if we would block the car lane or the entire sidewalk. You get it, right?

4. Turn that frown upside down. No, seriously, doing all this won't make all problems disappear. There will be problems and conflicts, we're only human. We all have bad days. We all get stressed, scared and angry. And there are bicyclists who behave like assholes. But if we all try to be nice and polite, help each other and show consideration it would be so much nicer. Then it will be better.

If you understand Swedish we highly recommend this blog.

(We didn't make this cartoon, so thanks in advance and respect to the artist Johnny Helms and to http://www.thefootdown.com/blog, where we found the image.)

Ride safe

Obstacles, part 4

It's so much more fun to write blog posts about traffic improvements for bicyclists or cool wheels, but some days are just not like that. Some days it's just obvious that some car drivers don't give a damn about bicycle lanes and have no problems parking right across them. Thanks douche!

(That's him, to the right. He stood around the entire time it took me to stop, take up my mobile phone, take the photo, put the mobile phone back in my pocket and ride on. Seemingly without a care in the world.)

(And just when I had taken the first photo another motorist also parked his car on the bicycle lane...)

Imagine a bicyclist parking his or her bicycle on the car lane, saying "Oh, I'm just going to get something over here!" How would motorists react to that? There are parking places all over the city, man. Use them!

Mavic limited edition 125th Anniversary Ksyrium 125 wheels

We do not usually promote products on our blog. Partly it's because we think that you can have just as fun on a cheap bicycle with budget components as on a really expensive bicycle with top-of-the-range components. Actually, as long as your components work you probably have more fun on your cheap bicycle, since you don't have to worry about damaging it or having it stolen. And you can tell the snobs with their fancy gear to get bent. Partly it's because we are against the snobbery of the bicycle sport - we love to tell the snobs to get bent. Partly it's because we are Socialist. And partly it's because we suspect no one would give us products to promote them anyway.

And as much as we love Italy and Italian bicycle products (we do, usually) these

Mavic wheels are just plain cool. If we had about 1470 € just lying around we would go out and buy these. (They would look amazing on an old French steel road bicycle.) But we don't have 1470 € just lying around and these wheels are a limited edition of only 6000 sets so... Congratulations to you who got a pair.

If you want to read more about it, go here. And we didn't take the photo so thanks in advance and respect to the photographer and to http://www.bikerumor.com, where we found the photo.