Bike thieves should...

Die? Be locked away in prison cells? Be locked to a bike stand with bike locks? Or get understanding and sympathy? We at Ensliga Bergens cykelklubb are not advocates for hard, severe punishments. We believe that crime is a sign that something in society is wrong, most people who steal do this because they need money and/or use drugs or alcohol. We get that, and we feel sorry for all people who are in that situtation.

Still, when our bicycles are stolen we just get furious. About a week ago someone broke into the bike storage room of our block of flats and stole my Orange Clockwork mountain bike.

As you can see it's an old 26" hardtail, so it's really quite out of date. What's more, it's made of steel. It also has a custom paint job and has been renovated, so it's instantly recognisable. In conclusion, it's not really worth a lot of money, but it's the mountain bike I've got and I like it. I would like to keep it.

Last week, when I got into the bike storage room in the morning, though, it was gone. Just gone. Fortunately I went to the back of the house to see if there were any traces or evidence of the theft and then it stood there. I don't know what happened, if the thief had tried to steal the bike but was interrupted or if he had planned to come back later and pick up the bike then. I got the feeling that someone had been sleeping in there, in the storage room, and maybe had had to move the bike to be able to sleep there, but then why had he put the bike on the outside? Or had he planned to sleep there, and then just taken the opportunity, because the bike looked shiny and fancy (I had just cleaned it the week before)?

I don't know and I don't really care. I took the bike up the the flat and kept it there until yesterday when this lock

arrived, from Bike 24 in Germany. Now my mountain bike is down in the bike storage room again. Locked with three sturdy locks, of which this one ties it to a central heating pipe. It's crazy, though - this is my eighth bike lock, my sister has two and these locks are distributed on four bikes, each bike is locked with three locks. (No, it doesn't add up. Let me know if you're interested and I'll explain how it works.) My most valuable bike, both because it has cost the most and because it is my most treasured bike I have to keep in the flat if I want to get a good night's sleep. It would be nice if it didn't have to be this way.

(We borrowed this picture from Dustin Quasar's Flickr page. Hope that's OK!)

Ride safe!

Postgirot Open 1983

This is Part 3 of our series "Postgirot Open" where we will mainly show some memorabilia that we have found about this race. We would like to tell you anecdotes and stories about this race but unfortunately not much has been written about it. Anyway, not much as far as we know, but if you have some tips, feel free to tell us!

Anyway this is a postcard from 1983. Perhaps the race was gaining momentum and becoming more known at this time, because this post card is more worked through than the cards from the year before. Actually it is a small piece of art, really cool. Again, or still, frame mounted gear shifters and generally all old school style. The back of the post card simply tell us that Postgirot Open was the biggest bicycle race in Sweden. (Duh! Was there even any other stage races in Sweden?) The winner of the race was, as in 1982, Tommy Prim from Sweden.

Ride safe!

Trying out new bicycle lanes

Or rather, trying out new bicycle lane material.

Some time ago I had the opportunity to test ride new bicycle lane material, that SP Sveriges Tekniska Forskningsinstitut/SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden are working with. The test was done at AstaZero's testing grounds, about twelve kilometres from the city of Borås. Before the test all the participants had to sign a contract of secrecy, and we were forbidden to take photos of the inside the grounds. But Ensliga Bergens cykelklubb has always fought for freedom of the press, for less secretiveness and for the public's right to know, so I will break the contract and tell you all about it! I also snuck in a camera and took photos during the test, in secrecy, when the test conductors looked away!

No, seriously I asked one of the test conductors if I could write something about it here, asked her a couple of questions which she replied to and she also included some photos. Thanks Ena! All I had to do in return was to tell you that there were two test conductors, Ena Cupina and Martin Arvidsson, and that all the photos were taken by Ena Cupina. And as you can see in the photos there even was a news reporter and a camera man from a TV station there so, the test really wasn't that secret. What is secret is, of course, the compounds and materials they are working with.

So, there were five types of bicycle lane materials or, to be precise, five different compounds being tested and the goal of the test was to get opinions of how the lanes feel to ride on. This opportunity was the winter test, and it will be followed by a summer test later on. The compunds were tested for different aspects: how they felt when accelerating and riding, how they worked when you brake, how they felt when turning and swinging and "general feel". The only real miss that the test conductors did was being out too late when finding test participants, just two days ahead, so there were only twelve participants there. On the other hand the test took longer than anticipated and it got a little bit stressful at the end, so maybe that was only good. A more even mix of women and men would of course have been preferable too, but then (almost) all the participants were keen bicycle riders who know how a good bicycle lane should look and feel.

This is really important work, for the safety of bicyclists everywhere, so I am really happy to have had this opportunity and I look forward to seeing the results out "in the real world".

 Me being interviewed by the news team.

 A wintery landscape. This was some weeks ago, but by the coast spring was already on its way.

 

 Me being asked questions by Martin Arvidsson.

 To the left you can see my favourite lane compound. It looks a bit different, which I think is really good, because it would mean that eventually people would start recognising this as a bicycle lane, and not walk on it or park their car on it.

All the participants and one of the test conductors - ten mamils (including me), two women and one normal guy!

Ride safe!

Helkama White Power

Being politically correct really isn't something that Finnish bother much with. We would say that the Finnish are neither more nor less prejudiced or ignorant than anyone else, we simple bother less to use terms that are certain to not offend anyone. That said, should you be offended by something a Finnish person has said you don't have to hesitate telling her or him so. He or she will not have said it to hurt you, will have a very pragmatic attitude towards it all, will apologise and stop using the word. This is generally speaking of course, there is sexism, racism and homophobia in Finland, just as in most, if not all, countries. (So maybe we can skip the whole discussion about prejudice in Finland here. This is, after all, a bicycle blog.)

Probably, however, it wasn't a sod it-attitude towards political correctness that caused the Finnish bicycle brand Helkama to name one of their models...

(We borrowed this picture from the album "Welcome to Finland" on imgur. Hope that's OK!)

Most likely it was a case of the marketing department not being really aware of what this term could mean. This model came in the early 1990's, a time when a negligible share of the people in Finland were foreigners and when the internet was pretty much unheard of. Still... Wow.

Ride safe!

Giant ATX 777, part 2

Or "The end". Every bicycle has a story, but sadly this bicycle's story ends here.

After having reported it to the lost propery office of the police, waited three months and having gotten a letter stating the bicycle was mine I got to work on it. With a liberal spraying with anti-rust spray, the use of force and a list of swearwords I managed to get the pedals and the crankset off. A couple of days later I took the bike with me to the Cykelköket bike kitchen and, again with liberal spraying with anti-rust spray, the use of force and with the help of a Greek guy I managed to get the bottom bracket out too. (Never spray anti-rust spray on a bottom bracket that you plan to use!)

Then I could measure the distance from the bottom bracket shell to the rear dropouts with a piece of string, and state the the frame was actually bent. The left side was about three millimetres shorter than the right side, and there was a crack in the chainstay that looked quite worrying too. Too bad, because I was starting to like this frame! It was aluminium so it was very light, and though white is a terrible choice for bicycle frames (they start looking dirty within minutes) the frame felt like it could be a lot of fun.

But that's just the way it is. So:

Adieu, Anonymous Giant ATX 777!

 The crack in the chainstay.

Nope, it's not OK anymore.

Ride safe!