Friday 28 November 2014

Blända av! Dip your headlights!

This video is a bit over-explicit (repeating usually is) but we can't say that this is something we haven't been thinking about. (Are you with us on that double negating?) As we have entered the dark months here in the North, our bike rides have become filled with meetings with these bicyclists riding around with these crazy lights. A super strong headlight, not completely unlike those anti-bombplane searchlights used during WW II. Sometimes blinking at an epilepsy-causing rate, sometimes aimed obliquely forward to the right for a maximum blinding effect, sometimes completed with an equally strong headlamp. And we're not talking about rides in the wilds here, we're talking about the second largest city. (This video we think was filmed in Stockholm, though.)

About ten years or so ago this was not a problem, because either you had a (regular) battery-powered headlight, or that headlight was powered by a dynamo, and these lights simply weren't that strong. It wasn't unusual to have these lights mounted on the front fork either, instead of on the handlebar, which seems to be the most common place today. But as the headlights have become stronger, more effective and have moved from the front fork to the handlebar this is an epidemic.

So what is this? Overcompensating? Thoughtlessness? Biggest and strongest headlight wins? There is not that much of a pattern here, but two groups are over-represented as far as we can see: "Average" middle-aged women and male bicyclists on cyclo-cross or "serious" commuting hybrid bikes, with full gear - tights, clipless pedals, panniers and all.



No matter what the reason is: Dip your headlights. And keep that bloody headlamp out of our faces!

(And if you have any ideas how to counteract this, please let us know! The only way we have now is shouting "Dip the lights!", and we don't really like to shout at people.)

Tuesday 25 November 2014

XC in 1936

"How come you're not into fixies or single speeds?" we have been asked. Well, that's just the thing. We certainly don't hate fixed-gear or single-speed bikes, we love (almost) all kinds of bikes. We're just not into them, pretty much like some people are not into chocolate or liquorice. We will give you a more thorough reply as soon as we can, but right now... we can't, because we don't really have the time. In the meantime we would like to share this cool little film



from 1936 with you. How can you not like it? Cool girls in stylish clothes (in 1936 as well as in 2014), riding Classic bikes (we're pretty sure they're fixies). "Bicycle belles"? Yeah, we're totally into this.

Sunday 23 November 2014

Hey fixie!

I bet you wish you had gears now, don't you?

(Just a photo shot of the screen, from the film "Premium rush". Sorry about the poor quality!)

Friday 21 November 2014

Abandoned Bakfiets Classic


This cargo bike puzzles me.


It's a Bakfiets Classic, from the Dutch company De Fietsfabrik. It may not be very fast and it may not be very attractive, but it is a good, sturdy cargo bike. These bikes sell for
€ 1895 from the factory in the Netherlands, or about € 1980 from De Fietsfabrik Cykelfabriken in Stockholm, Sweden.

This particular example has been standing on the exact same spot, since about three months back. It's a little worn, the colour is scraped, the seatpost is rusty, two tires are flat and now the platform is filled with junk and brown leaves, but still it's in pretty good condition. It's not parked outside a residential block, just standing in a busy corner.

I have been thinking about taking it the lost property department of the Police, but it's locked to a bike stand with a pretty solid chain.


My guess is whoever owns it left it there, becuase of a flat, but... It doesn't take three months to fix a flat.

Well, it's not my bike but I do think that it's a pity that a good, properly working bike is just standing there. Doesn't it deserve a better destiny?

Tuesday 18 November 2014

Mr Grey?

We do hope that you have better weather than we do. We can't even remember the last time we saw the sun. The sky is an endless light grey colour, a shade somewhere between matt aluminium and milk. Sometimes it rains, then the rain stops, but the colour of the sky doesn't change. To be honest it is a little bit depressing. (And to make things absolutely right, right now there is a programme about middle-aged men who want to commit suicide, on the one radio channel we can receive on our radio. Who said Swedes don't have a sense of humour?)


Well, thankfully there are remedies. Our cure is large doses of Pharrell Williams



and dreams of Persol sunglasses


and of riding our bicycles into the summer night. Or heck, we'd even ride fixies if we could do it in Melbourne, Australia!

Ride safe, everybody


(And of course those last photos, of the Persol sunglasses, weren't taken by us. Respect and thanks in advance to the photographer and to Persol, on whose official site we found the pictures.)

Friday 14 November 2014

Fixed on fixed

As we've said before, we're not really into fixies or single-speeds but this film made us want to go back to Australia and just ride our bicycles all day long. In this film we meet five women, who all ride fixed-gear bicycles. Riding a bicycle with no means to brake but to lock your back wheel (one of them has a front brake, though) and those narrow handlebars is not for us, but these women make it seem almost effortless and relaxed. And we appreciate so much of what they are saying - becoming one with your bicycle, taking early morning rides through the city, just hanging out with your friends...

Director Raechel Harding has made a great little (it's only 9:48 minutes long) film, with these cool women riding their good-looking bikes (yeah, we have to admit that) in beautiful cityscapes. Beautifully captured and with a relaxed soundtrack. Awesome.

(This picture was of course not taken by us, but downloaded from vimeo.com. Hope that's OK!)

Wednesday 12 November 2014

The reasons we founded Ensliga Bergens cykelklubb

Our 50th blog post! And this might be a good time to explain just why we founded Ensliga Bergens cykelklubb.

The first reason we founded Ensliga Bergens cykelklubb was that we were bloody tired of the elitism and snobbery in the cycling world. And we still are. What matters is not how much your bicycle, your equipment or your gear costs. What matters is not that you have a bicycle of the "right" brand, fancy gear or expensive clothes. It may matter to other people, but it does not matter to us.

The second reason we founded Ensliga Bergens cykelklubb was that we were bloody tired of the macho attitude in the cycling world. And we still are. What matters is not how "hard" you are, how many kilometers you will ride and have ridden or how fast you can go. That's completely uninteresting to us. We ride because we like to be outdoors, because we like the things you can see in the city and on the countryside and because it's fun! Not because we feel like we have to prove something.

While we're at it: We are bloody tired of the androcentrism in the cycling world as well. There are differences between men and women, but there shouldn't be differences in how much money you can make as a pro cyclist or whether you can find sponsors or not. And again: What's with the macho attitude?

In short we don't want to ride with snobs, macho jocks or male chauvinists. Unfortunately the world is full of them, and many of them are found in other bicycle clubs. So it simply seemed like an easier way to found a bicycle club of our own. We're political and on our trips we ride at a speed that the slowest of us kan keep up with. If you think that's cool, you're welcome.

By the way, all of us don't shave our legs either. Because those of us who don't, simply don't want to. We don't give a toss about what some others think that you "must" do. Don't tell us that we have to shave our legs, that we have to have the arms of our eyewear over the helmet straps or what we can or can't wear, or when we can wear it. Take your velominati rules and stuff them. If we had rules, we would only have three:

1. Be nice

2. Riding bicycles should be fun

3. Respect the earth and don't leave litter


Ride safe!

Monday 10 November 2014

Equality is the way

And so that no-one will accuse us of being androcentrist:

(Caroline)

(Gunnar)

(Majja)

(Owe)

We have seen more photos from this series or collection before, but these are the ones that are displayed on Valhallagatan.

Ride safe!

Sunday 9 November 2014

But...

when it comes to bicycle parking and bike racks, maybe you don't have to go D.I.Y. At least maybe not in Gothenburg. While out today we ran across these:





"The search for the perfect bicycle parking". With photos of some real hardcore cyclists (one of them is the totally cool guy Owe). These posters are placed right by a big parking space, on Valhallagatan between the Valhallabadet public baths and the Valhalla IP stadium. The text says that the Parking company of the City of Gothenburg is going to carry out a number of pilot projects in the city, aiming to create secure and safe bicycle parkings. The purpose is to procure knowledge to be able to create bicycle parking to a greater extent for time to come. We really aren't big fans of the term "time to come" ("framöver" in Swedish), since it's just too vague, but nevertheless:

Great initiative, City of Gothenburg!

And we thought that these poster might have another effect as well. There are aggressions between (some) motorists and (some) cyclists - that's no secret. But it's harder to hate someone who has a face and a name. These posters show motorists, and everyone else passing by, that bicyclists are just like anyone else. (Now that we think about it: Should they perhaps show people riding their bikes in the summertime instead?) Live and let live.

Ride safe.

Saturday 8 November 2014

The Scoop

"D.I.Y. - that means Do It Yourself
I don't sit around waiting for someone's help
I don't sit back and say "Good enough"
I keep on striving, reinventing but keeping it off the cuff"

(Beastie Boys)

As a cyclist, life is not always easy. Sometimes you have to deal with wind, rain, snow and ice, sharp objects on the ground causing punctures and obstacles causing accidents. You have to watch out for absent-minded pedestrians and aggressive motorists. (A quick search on youtube reveal some really scary behaviour, by motorists. We're probably extra aware of it at the moment, since we just answered some questions from an anthropologist about attitudes towards cyclists, under the theme "Are bicyclists treated differently?") And if you're really unlucky, when you get to your location you can't find anywhere to park your bike.

We don't pretend to have all the answers. In fact, we don't have answers most of the time. But the answer to not having anywhere to park your bike is D.I.Y. Even though Casey Neistat eventually had to take his bike rack away...



and this bicycle parking space carpet...



really doesn't solve the problem of having something to lock your bicycle to, it might give some inspiration.

Go out there, have fun, be creative and ride safe!

Thursday 6 November 2014

Officer (Oh, come on! Part 2)

I got a letter from the traffic department
The other day
I opened and read it
It said they were planning


Some days ago I wrote a mail to the traffic department, of the City of Gotenburg. Today I got a reply letter from one of the officers there.

I began my mail with saying that I feel that the situation for bicyclists in Gothenburg is improving and that that is something I (of course) really appreciate. But I had some concerns, there were especially three locations that I was curious about. One of them was the bicycle lane I mentioned in a previous post.

As you can see (if you know Swedish) they are planning to improve the traffic situation in all the locations that I wondered about. That's really cool. Getting a real letter in reply to a mail is pretty cool too.

The moral of the story? It pays to ask and complain. (But complain nicely.)

Tuesday 4 November 2014

Stolen bike

My neighbour's bike was stolen two days ago. That really sucks. I mentioned the bicycle about five months ago, said it was probably the scruffiest bike I have ever seen but someone obviously still thought it was worth stealing.




 (This is what it looks like. I hope he gets it back. And if you would happen to see it, tell me and I will forward the information to him. I know he would really appreciate it. And he is a cool guy.)