Author Archives: jm

How not to make a bike line

One of the strategies to improve the use of bicycles is to build bike infrastructures like buildings, bike lines, bike parks and so on. Bike lines should flow on roads and avoid sidewalks. It is better to put barriers between bike lines and car lines like bollards, bushes or cement or plastic objects. In some cases, only paint is used giving pictures such as the bellow photograph as a result. Interestingly as you can see, the bike line goes opposite way the car line which is also a one-way bike road. As a result, bicycles can ride the two sides. The problem that I see is that allowing cars to park so close to the bike line could provoke a clash between a distracted car driver and a biker (take into account that this picture was taken in Spain in which left-hand driving is official). Moreover, I feel there is little room in the street and some bad car drivers, like the one of the red car, take advantage of it by invading the car line. It would be better to transform the left parallel parking into a segregated bike line. This way the potential crashes would not take place.

Urban Freestyle

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Urban Freestyle is considered as a way of living. BMX, Street Trial, Dirt Bike or Fixie are examples of such a concept which goes beyond making tricks with a bike. It also comprehends specific garment, how you speak and living based on concrete music and images.

The Freestyle comes from BMX which popularized in the seventies. Then, riders competed in races on earth and some of them started doing some tricks after competitions end. Regarding Street Trial, it comes from trial when some riders used street furniture as a playground. As it comes to the Wheelie Boys, it was born in New York (USA) when riders improved wheelies to the next level.

Inside the BMX style, we have Flatland in which riders use light and small bikes to allow complete maneuvers around the bicycle. On the other hand, in Street BMX, street furniture is used as playground and no matter whether it is handrail or curb, all is accepted. In this case bikes are a heavier, so bikers use to be strong. Finally BMX Park is an Olympic discipline in which riders jump in spectacular, innovative ways on their bikes, made mainly from titanium and carbon.

Street Trial combines street furniture with height and was created by Danny Macaskill. So, Street Trial is the most multipurpose discipline in the Urban Freestyle. Light bikes with carbon bicycle frame are used.

Wheelie Boys is a New York discipline in which riders make wheelies in artistic ways. No matter which bicycle they use, all bikes are appropriate to practice this sport.

Annie Londonderry

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Annie Londonderry was the first woman to bicycle around the world. In reality, her name was Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, but the Londonderry surname came from her first sponsor The Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company of Nashua, New Hampshire. The New York World declared her trip from 1894 to 1985 as “the most extraordinary journey ever undertaken by a woman”. And she did it as a mother of three children under the age of six. This fact turned every Victorian motion of female property of its ear and was controversial.

She came to the United States of America at the age of five with her parents and two older siblings from what is now Latvia and settled in Boston old West End.

She started her journey on June 25, 1894, when she stood before a crowd of about 500 friends, family, suffragists and curious onlookers at the Massachusetts State House. Going a step further, the trip was set not only to circle the Earth, but also earn $5,000 in route. If she reached these two targets, she would win a $10,000 prize. Imagine the incredible money sum in the 1890s. Thanks to her physical endurance and mental attitude, she rode the planned trip on a man’s bicycle attired in a man’s riding suit. She earned the $5,000 by selling photographs of herself, appearing as an attraction in stores and showing her body and bicycle to advertisers. You can see some of her photographs here. Her trip was so outstanding that the SPIN musical opened in Toronto, Canada, in March 2011 to critical acclaim. In August 2022 another musical inspired by Annie took place at London’s Charing Cross Theater also to critical acclaim.

As Susan B. Anthony claimed, “Bicycling has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world”.

Internet of things

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Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software, and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communications networks, according to Wikipedia. Engineers and technologists have developed IoT over the last years and its future is promising. Bicycles could not fall behind.

Some common targets of IoT in bikes (smartbikes) consider security, satisfaction and user fidelity to transform mobility towards a more sustainable paradigm. E-bikes are equipped with geolocation, instant statistics of rides, remote alarms and anti_theft, messages advising that a mechanical check is needed and online maintenance of some bike parts. Hardware and software cooperate to offer new functionalities and experiences. But not all IoT in bikes is offered to the final user, some companies sell it to manufacturing firms that do not have such proper, specific engineers.

Where is this hardware installed? It depends on the manufacturer. In some cases it is located inside the handlebar whereas in some others in the bicycle frame or even in the rear rack.

On the other hand, more and more data is collected from these devices which allow companies to optimize marketing, among others, to offer bikers what they desire.

Yolanda Muñoz

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Yolanda Muñoz is one of the women who does not fear traveling alone. This bike-lover did an impressive trip mostly under the modality of bike + train. She started pedaling from Vitoria, Spain, and arrived to exotic countries thanks to its strength, courage and perseverance.

Her initial idea was to cross Europe and Asia and this primary teacher planned everything until the X day came: July the 16^th 2015. Unfortunately, she had an accident with a bee in Poland and she modified her plan. She took the Tran-Siberian railway from Moscow to Mongolia, and an additional train to reach Peking. From this point, she rode her bike to Tibet. Her great journey, about 19,000 km, made her to verify how neoliberalism creates inequalities around the world.

Yolanda is feminism and this fact made her to choose pedaling alone even though her family. She crossed France, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, India, Nepal, India again, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Iran (it was a cold January), Turkey and Greece. Here, she helped refugees who were running away from the Syrian war.

She encountered good and bad days. In a hostel in Bangkok, she was talking with a man a he suddenly made a joke by calling her Indurain (by Miguel Indurain, a famous Spanish cyclist) and she immediately refused it by answering that she preferred Anna (by Annie Londonderry, the first woman to travel around the world). Sadly, only Yolanda knew about Annie.

Her passion for bikes started when she was 25 and used one to go to university and work in Vitoria. According to her words, she recommends planning and feeling like doing your great trip. Intuition is an important ally to avoid dangers, trust on your instinct and do not become frightened by potential aggressors.

Such experiences make you improve your autonomy, independence and wisdom.

Next trip: Africa.

The Fahrrad Station Süd

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As it comes to bike infrastructures, sometimes they are completely new and some other are built based on previous infrastructures such us car garages. The Fahrrad Station Süd in the Karlsruhe station, Germany, is a clear example of the last point.

At the beginning, it was an obscure parking for 38 cars which was transformed into a building for 680 bicycles. Thus, less cars and more bikes, a direct example of how urban mobility is changing. Originally, the prestigious architect Rem Kolhaas was proposed to build a facility for the Zentrums für Kunst und Medientechnologie (Center for Art and Technology Media) next to the train station. After some disagreements, Rem rejected the project and finally the building was constructed in a different neighbor. So, the building continued being a parking for cars. In 2017, Karlsruhe proposed the target of reaching a 30 percent of total modal split by bikes and a new project started which concluded in nine months. As a result, the old car parking was transformed into an impressive 1,300 squared meters for bikes. It accepts not only urban and conventional bicycles, but also cargobikes, bike tows and electric bikes. Moreover, the station offers a modern locker room, drinking fountains and even a workshop with professional tools. In addition, it has five zones identified with different colors and symbols on floors and walls. Such was the impact when opened that the building received the German Cycling Award in 2020.

Furthermore, it opens 24-7 and the electricity that consumes comes completely from renewable energy sources. From the user economy, using it to lock your bike costs 1 euro per day and there are tickets for a month (8.50 euros), a semester (35 euros) and a year (75 euros).

A possible path for the biking movement

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We, as bikers, know all the benefits that riding a bike produces like human health improvement, environment protection, more free surface for people in cities, less dangerous crashes, you name it (or at least we should know them). Making efforts to promote it is an encouraging task which gives back pride in return. The problem is that sometimes we focus too much in people who are already cyclists or concern about the benefits of using bicycles.

I consider there are three types of persons in this regard: Those who are already convinced of the advantages of pedaling, those who are in the path of arriving to the previous group, and those cochistas who will never allow themselves to see positive points in bikes. I reckon the bike movement should focus more on convincing the group two of people, as indicated before. Most of them see bikes daily, have some concern in human and environment, check bad mood in car drivers, see cars and car infrastructure occupying too much surface in the neighbors stealing it from people, among others. They just need a little push to become riders and we, as experimented bikers, should constitute an example for them, transmit our good mood, explaining how it feels when riding a bicycle, all the benefits it has. This way more and more bicyclers will be seen on the streets which will encourage more people to pedal, politicians to build bike infrastructures and diminish car lines. In the end, all the people will benefit including those in the group three, though they will probably continue opposing bikes. Do not worry, their sons or grandsons will appreciate bikes.

Shitty politicians

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From the last local elections in Spain, right-wing politicians have decided to ban bike lines in several cities with the help of fascists. These actions go against European and Spanish laws as well as common sense. One of the key points in fighting against climate change is changing the XX century mobility based almost exclusively on polluting cars into low carbon footprint vehicles like bicycles in order to protect human health and environment. It attracts attention that while bikes are promoted in a lot of countries around the world, no matter what political party governs including right-wing parties for example in The Netherlands and Denmark, in Spain right -wing parties see bicycles as a threat for car. Both the Partido Popular and VOX in Spain share the same origin: The genocide dictatorship, and several corruption cases. Surprisingly, in European countries where the equivalent Partido Popular rules, bike infrastructures are increased.

Why is that the Spanish right-wing parties behave differently considering bicycles as unpolitical vehicles? Clearly it is because they feel that they live in the XX century, they like cars (some corruption cases in which these political parties were involved were related to cars and its infrastructures) and love climate change. Additional facts confirm the last point such as the apathy in protecting the Doñana national park , the disaster in the Mar Menor or the disastrous management and environmental impact of the Prestige ship. Guess what, in all cases the politicians involved in these examples have been members of the Partido Popular.

Todobici

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Workshops fix your bicycle indoor and some of them do it outdoor. Going a step further, few workshops not only fix bikes indoor and outdoor, but also do it free on streets, parks and pedestrian zones in order to help no-bikeholism. These workshops think people as customers as well as key persons to improve Earth as it comes to environment, better health and happier.

One of the workshops is called Todobici which is located in Valencia, Spain. It has promoted biking for more than a decade in which, in addition to fix and sell bikes and components, has contributed to develop the neighbor and the bike activism. Todobici shows adapted workshops outdoor as master classes with the name of “Con las manos en la grasa” (something like Fill your hands with grease, in English). They say that it is important that those who pedal bikes know their vehicles and names of parts and basic repairs. It has done workshops for children in schools, senior citizens in several locations, women in Todobici and online in the 2021 Ciclosferia. Moreover, it is a workshop in which you can find Ciclosfera.

The Turia course

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The Turia river crossed the city of Valencia, Spain, for ages. It provided water and fish resources to citizens long time ago and is cited in books and texts. The problem is that it overflowed every autumn in a meteorological event called cold drop in which floods were produced year after year. Thus, Valencian authorities decided to deviate it upstream so that such floods were not repeated. At this point, they thought what to do with the more than nine kilometers long of new, profitable area that is called the Turia course.

At the beginning, some idiot politicians proposed to convert it in a highway with twelve car lines. “A fast way to go through Valencia”, they argued. Immediately after, lots of citizens and associations presented an innovative idea in the Valencia of the 80’s. They fought to convert the Turia course in a massive garden which could be enjoyed by locals and foreigners. You can see the huge difference between one and the other proposals in the picture bellow. People pressed so much with demonstrations, opinion pieces in newspapers, banners in streets and so on that politicians saw their desire and how important it was. At this point, some politicians contemplated the second proposal as the most interesting and protective to the inhabitants health. In the end, it was the chosen one and we enjoy the Turia course as one of the green lungs of Valencia. By the way, you can cycle it thanks to two bike lines which start at the Cabecera lake and end in the city Aquarium.