The City of Gothenburg (or, rather it subcontractors) has begun to clear the roads and the bicycle lanes of the gravel that has been lying in heaps all over. Hooray! It's spring and our première ride shouldn't be far away now!
Ride safe!
Monday 21 March 2016
Tuesday 15 March 2016
(Car) Dooring
(We borrowed this picture from melbourne cyclist. Hope that's OK!)
Today we would like to discuss a very important, and very dangerous, topic: (Car) Dooring. Yesterday we read about Alberto Paulon, an Italian chef, who died a little over a year ago, in Melbourne, Australia, after being doored.
Alberto Paulon and his fiancée at the time, Cristina Canedda. (We borrowed this picture from The Age. Hope that's OK!)
Alberto Paulon was riding his bicycle in the bicycle lane, when a motorist swung open the car door right in front of him, he hit the door, was thrown under a truck driving next to him and died lying on the street.
We have nearly been car doored a couple of times. Thankfully we haven't had any real accidents and hopefully we won't have any either. But motorists or passengers swinging their car doors open without looking is potentially life threatening, and being near that happening is enough to get your heart racing a little.
As cyclists there isn't that much we can do, without having to be sticklers for the letter of the law, or just quite annoying people. We can train our reflexes and powers of reaction. We can tell motorists that they should always check their mirrors before exiting (or look around before entering) their vehicles, if they're doing it while we're passing. And we can try to influence our politicians to spend more money on safe bicycle lanes and tell officials about dangerous places, where this phenomenon occurs or could occur. Because it really is better to be annoying than dead.
Ride safe! And spread this video:
The cyclist in this video reacts exemplary. Our reactions have included swearing, shouting and/or flipping the bird. Because we have gotten scared. (We borrowed this picture from youtube. Hope that's OK!)
Tuesday 8 March 2016
International Women's Day
Today is the 8th of March - International Women's Day. Our day began with reading a man praising all women on a (Swedish) bicycle forum:
"Your beauty embellish each day and each night.... You're always there, by our side, in any weather, or when we come home from a bicycle ride.... " he wrote. And ended his post with a picture of a woman in shorts straddling a fixie.
Some, both women and men, thought that this was a pretty weird way of marking the International Women's Day and posted sarcastic replies. Then some men got offended, going "You feminists are all the same, always accusing men. Not all men are bad!" completely missing the point that this it is all about a patriarchal structure, and we are all affected by it. The man posting the first comment replied "No, it's not my wife on the picture, she's indeed just as beautiful, but the problem is finding a bicycle picture of her, unfortunately she doesn't share this interest with me, but she fully supports it, there's always a cold beer, some good food and sometimes a masage (sic!) waiting when I come home from my rides....!" Some people just don't seem to get it, do they?
He got more sarcastic replies, more men felt offended. (It's epidemic how people seem to feel offended nowadays.) So the man replied "She has cooking and baking as one of her biggest interests, I have the impression that she's quite pleased with what she has achieved, and will achieve in her life, and I try to support her in her interests and goals as much as I possibly can. Furthermore she has the fantastic quality of liking to please her husband, which I like doing for her too. We have the common opinion that the difference between man and woman is something that should be preserved and taken care of" and so on. And accused a women posting one of the sarcastic remarks of being bitter. Some people really don't seem to get it, do they?
Well, fortunately, that's not all that we found today. We found three great initiatives and inspirational people that we would like to tip you about:
World Bicycle Relief. It's not an organisation specifically for women, but it is just fantastic how something as simple as a bicycle can help women go to school, start a small business or provide healthcare. More people should support this.
Cycles Lady. Should you feel the need to be inspired when it comes to riding bikes, this is a great place to find it. Blogger/photographer Alena Chendler is extremely talented, and seem to know a lot of cool women who ride all kinds of bicycles.
And then, when you have gotten some inspiration, there's Bago Studio, run by Kellie Mobbs. Bago Studio makes clothes that are for cycling, traveling, hiking, dancing and everyday exploring, according to herself. Kellie Mobbs is extremely talented as well, and while the weather up here in the North really doesn't match her clothes very well at the moment, there will be a summer here too, eventually.
Happy International Women's Day. Ride safe!
"Your beauty embellish each day and each night.... You're always there, by our side, in any weather, or when we come home from a bicycle ride.... " he wrote. And ended his post with a picture of a woman in shorts straddling a fixie.
Some, both women and men, thought that this was a pretty weird way of marking the International Women's Day and posted sarcastic replies. Then some men got offended, going "You feminists are all the same, always accusing men. Not all men are bad!" completely missing the point that this it is all about a patriarchal structure, and we are all affected by it. The man posting the first comment replied "No, it's not my wife on the picture, she's indeed just as beautiful, but the problem is finding a bicycle picture of her, unfortunately she doesn't share this interest with me, but she fully supports it, there's always a cold beer, some good food and sometimes a masage (sic!) waiting when I come home from my rides....!" Some people just don't seem to get it, do they?
He got more sarcastic replies, more men felt offended. (It's epidemic how people seem to feel offended nowadays.) So the man replied "She has cooking and baking as one of her biggest interests, I have the impression that she's quite pleased with what she has achieved, and will achieve in her life, and I try to support her in her interests and goals as much as I possibly can. Furthermore she has the fantastic quality of liking to please her husband, which I like doing for her too. We have the common opinion that the difference between man and woman is something that should be preserved and taken care of" and so on. And accused a women posting one of the sarcastic remarks of being bitter. Some people really don't seem to get it, do they?
Well, fortunately, that's not all that we found today. We found three great initiatives and inspirational people that we would like to tip you about:
World Bicycle Relief. It's not an organisation specifically for women, but it is just fantastic how something as simple as a bicycle can help women go to school, start a small business or provide healthcare. More people should support this.
Charity Msendo with her sturdy Buffalo Bicycle. (We borrowed this picture from World Bicycle Relief. Hope that's OK!)
Cycles Lady. Should you feel the need to be inspired when it comes to riding bikes, this is a great place to find it. Blogger/photographer Alena Chendler is extremely talented, and seem to know a lot of cool women who ride all kinds of bicycles.
(We borrowed this picture from Cycles Lady. Hope that's OK!)
And then, when you have gotten some inspiration, there's Bago Studio, run by Kellie Mobbs. Bago Studio makes clothes that are for cycling, traveling, hiking, dancing and everyday exploring, according to herself. Kellie Mobbs is extremely talented as well, and while the weather up here in the North really doesn't match her clothes very well at the moment, there will be a summer here too, eventually.
(We borrowed this picture from Bago Studio. Hope that's OK!)
Happy International Women's Day. Ride safe!
Thursday 3 March 2016
Our road racing season 2016, part 4
Things are changing. Parts of Ensliga Bergens cykelklubb have now entered the
instead of the 70 km long Stadsgirot. We entered a kind of contest where you got a voucher to enter a race of your choice (of all the Göteborgsgirot options) and in a fit of hubris we registered for the 140 km version. We don't recall having ever ridden more than 82 kilometres in one go, and we have never had the opportunity of having a coach, so we have absolutely no idea how it will go but... Hey, let's do this!
And then the Nationaldagsloppet race (or rather the organisers of the race) have decided to not run it this year, "for different and good reasons". They don't write what these reasons are on the homepage, but we have no choice but to believe them. Anyway it's a real pity, because we really liked this race and looked forward to entering the 104 km race this year.
Oh well. Things change, and progress is always a good thing. If you want to find what races are going on around you go here (Swedish only).
Ride safe!
Göteborgsgirot, 140 km, on the 7th of May
(We borrowed this picture from Göteborgsgirot. Hope that's OK!)
instead of the 70 km long Stadsgirot. We entered a kind of contest where you got a voucher to enter a race of your choice (of all the Göteborgsgirot options) and in a fit of hubris we registered for the 140 km version. We don't recall having ever ridden more than 82 kilometres in one go, and we have never had the opportunity of having a coach, so we have absolutely no idea how it will go but... Hey, let's do this!
And then the Nationaldagsloppet race (or rather the organisers of the race) have decided to not run it this year, "for different and good reasons". They don't write what these reasons are on the homepage, but we have no choice but to believe them. Anyway it's a real pity, because we really liked this race and looked forward to entering the 104 km race this year.
Oh well. Things change, and progress is always a good thing. If you want to find what races are going on around you go here (Swedish only).
Ride safe!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)