I’m a bit late on this one,
but I would like to write a few words about the Svenska Cykelmässan bicycle
fair in Gothenburg on the 15th through the 17th of March
2019. Some people has been quite negative, saying that the fair was crap. It wasn’t.
In fact, the only crap thing about the fair is that it won’t be held in
Gothenburg next year. That is, I think that the fair is every other year in
Stockholm and every other year in Gothenburg, but to be honest I’m not really
sure. The information on their homepage is that the fair will be held
in Stockholm next year, and I think it was held in Stockholm in 2018. So will
it be held in Gothenburg in 2021 then? Who knows? Who knows if there even will
be a Swedish bicycle fair in 2020?
But this year’s fair was fun.
Yeah, you could complain that Campagnolo, Colnago, Pinarello or Cinelli weren’t
there with a booth, but the truth is that Sweden is quite a small nation when
it comes to cycling. We’re not Denmark or Netherlands, and we’re certainly not
Italy. And until we become a bigger bicycling nation we’re going to have
smaller fairs than those in, for example, Denmark.
By the way the Svenska
Cykelmässan was held on the same weekend as the Copenhagen Bikeshow fair, which
seems like an utterly stupid decision. If anyone knows why this was the case
I’m all ears!
Anyway the fair was both
bigger and better-attended than I had anticipated. True, I went there with
extremely low expectations but those expectations were nevertheless surpassed. T and I stayed longer than I had expected, looked at more
stuff than I had expected, shopped more than I had expected…
First we checked out the
exhibitors’ and vendors’ booths. After about one hour we left, went outside and
I passed on T to his mother, then went back inside to listen to a
lecture/disussion about cycling friendly cities… and Gothenburg. Emil Törnsten
from the organization Svenska Cykelstäder (Swedish Bicycle cities) held a
presentation about good examples of bicycle friendly cities around the world.
(Sadly, I don’t recall any examples from Sweden.) Malin Månsson from the
(municipal) City of Gothenburg presented the work being done by the City of
Gothenburg to make it a better city for cyclists. And curated the whole thing
the Stalinist consultant-type Lars Strömgren did. No, I don’t know if Lars
Strömgren really is a Stalinist consultant-type. He’s the chairman of
Cykelfrämjandet (sort of… The Bicycle promoting organization), but it’s what
one of my friends called him once, and I think it’s funny. Probably Lars
Strömgren is a really nice guy. He did a good job curating the whole thing,
anyway.
Lars Strömgren curating
Emil Törnsten showing how one can easily make taking the bicycle the smart choice.
A bad photo of Malin Månsson.
After the seminar I left, went
outside, was passed T back and then we went back inside. This time we took our
time checking out all the exhibitors’ and vendors’ booths, saw a lot of cool
bikes… and honestly some not-so-cool, boring or just plain butt-ugly bikes.
Let’s concentrate on the cool bikes, though!
Helkama bicycles are always
fun! But what’s with the extremely boring booth?! The woman who worked in the
booth was really nice and friendly, and explained to me how the collaboration
between Helkama and Merida works, but I was completely bugged out by how boring
the booth was.
It could, so easily, be
cooler, nicer, better-looking and interesting. Hey Helkama, I’m gonna show you
how, just hang on.
T checking out a Lapierre Xelius SL. Damn it was light!
A Lapierre XR 929 Ultimate. Shiny! Gold! Almost a bit obscene, isn’t it? ;) Good-looking, though!
These commuting bags and
backpacks by Weathergoods Sweden really impressed me! Stylish, they seemed
really well-made, and as a bonus they only use synthetic leather in their
products. The only question marks are what the price will be when they start
selling and how the colours will fade in sunlight. The blue bag/backpack might
get a really nice, vintage look.
This bike from Trek is fun.
And actually the slogan isn’t that bad, either.
Commuting gear from Tucano Urbano. Really stylish! Of course, what’s to be expected from an Italian company? When I looked inside one of the garments it was made in China, though… I could easily picture myself commuting to work wearing their stuff, it just would have been even easier hadn’t the stuff been made in China… (Sori!)
(This is how happy you get when you can have a free Guerciotti catalogue.)
Guerciotti… Damn! I’m really content with my Helkama Kuningaskulkuri, it’s everything I want in a road bike and it suits me perfectly. But these Guerciotti bikes...
Guerciotti Record is their retro model. It’s steel and it comes in a variety of cool colours.
But their limited edition Made in Milano “Milan red”, closest to the camera here, is something extra! Beautiful! (And Campagnolo components! Well, in the Guerciotti catalogue, at least.)
Café Kask wasn’t as Italian as
it should be, I couldn’t even get an espresso. (We all know that Kask is an
Italian manufacturer of helmets, right?)
Should have taken a photo of
Fredrika Ek’s booth too… It might have been the smallest booth in the whole
fair. Fredrika Ek decided, a bit on a whim, it seems, to ride her bike from
Sundsvall, Sweden to China, Australia, South America Africa and then back.
(Well, she must have flew parts of the way.) She was super nice, showed some
photos of herself riding around the world and sold her book. I bought a copy,
which she happily signed. Truly inspirational!
Lastly some films of MTB
Freestyle Show. These guys are extremely talented!
