Tweed Ride

"Ladies. Gentlemen. Announcing the first LFGSS Winter Dress Club Run: a social ride with a bit of style.

We will be gathering for 2pm in Hanover Square. Please be prompt; at 2, we'll head down to H Huntsman & Sons, 11 Saville Row to begin the ride. The route will be a fairly leisurely ride through London. No need to pack Kendal Mint Cakes, the ride will include a stop at a tea shop at Tour de Ville for mid-ride fortitude, and will finish at the Bethnal Green Working Men's Club for refreshments and cheer.

Proper attire will of course be expected, so dapper gents and elegant ladies, polish off your lugged steel beasts and prepare your best outfits. Suggested attire: woolen plus fours, harris tweed jackets, flat caps, fair isle jumpers, alpaca coats, merino wool team jerseys, cycling skirts and perhaps a jaunty cape for the ladies, cravats or ties for gentlemen, and of course a hip flask of brandy."

Via: The Epicurean Cyclist

Clever Cycles and the emerging cargo bike market?

Clever Cycles just opened in Portland this spring selling all manner of European / Dutch style commuter and cargo bikes (via import) and already they're closing! Why? Because they underestimated demand and are running out of stock.

Yes, we’re taking a vacation in the middle of the so-called bicycling season, 28 July to 11 August. Why? Because we expect to be sold out of nearly all our most popular products! We’re out of many of them already. (Bakfietsen? Xtracycles? Child seats? Certain Bromptons, Retrovelos etc…) It’s a combination of some of our suppliers being sold out themselves, and others being simply too far away for timely resupply. Sales have exceeded our most confident hopes; thank you!

There's nothing that sucks worse then not being able to meet the demands of brisk business. For most stores this would be like doing away with the Christmas season. :(

Time to state the obvious: Nearly all Clever Cycles models are imports and that is the problem. I smell an emerging market niche opportunity here for american bike manufacturers to fill this market demand which is just starting to evolve.

Ironically while SUV and truck sales are crashing in the american car market cargo bikes, the "SUV of bikes", *may* be the next big thing.

Some solutions that are filling this category.

1) xtracycles - advantage: xtracycles can be added to most bikes / disadvantage: adding an xtracycle requires the skills and tools of your average shop mechanic.

2) baby / cargo trailers - advantage: versatility, easily added or removed from most bikes by an individual of average technical knowhow / disadvantage: trailer wheel width can make riding cumbersome on bike paths and in traffic

3) Cargo bikes - advantage: simple & stable all in one bike / disadvantages: can be costly + some 3 wheel models can be to cumbersome (wide) for city or suburban streets.

Personally I'm placing my bets on the long john design (pictured below). It's maneuverable, has a relatively simple (non patented) design that has been in existence for almost a century, is very stable as the loads sit very low, can handle very heavy loads well, and the cargo is out in front of you where you can not only see it but see over it. Best of all it rides very similar to the average american bike. Oh, and they transport one or two kids very safely, which is a big plus for young families. Not only great for weekend events, but you can go ahead and take the kids to school or daycare and then proceed with grocery shopping, errands or on to work.



Some more thoughts from clever cycles are below.

We are reluctant to present bicycling for transportation as a response to hardship, because it is a pleasure and privilege.

It's "style over speed". See my last post for more info.

But gas prices are on so many lips, we can’t pretend that they have nothing to do with this year’s blistering business. Word is that some local bike shops who sell car racks and bikes appropriate to them aren’t doing so well. Easy driving is over. Few of our customers are refugees from rising motoring costs, because we live in a city. But everything’s connected, and even urbanites have family, or friends, or enemies of friends hooked on the “freedom” of driving. Too many of them live in cities, too.

Some or our customers are extending the trend lines and seeing a near future in which utility biking is less a lifestyle preference than a key element of their own economic well-being. Others are awakening to an ethical awareness distinct from the usual environmental, quality-of-life, and political considerations of not driving: the growing scarcity of motor fuel imposes an obligation on those who don’t need it not to use it lightly. To our way of thinking, this includes most households in places designed before and without cars: places like Portland. But lots of people actually need to drive, or rather have arranged to need to quite extensively for as long as they can see. Naturally, we want our farmers to have motor fuel, and industry, and freight, and mass transit: there is a difference between enough and too much. But for mere personal or family transport, for those of you in human-scale places, not incapacitated by decades of forfeiture: reclaim the legs and lungs of your ancestors for your one and only life ON YOUR BIKE!

More info at the original post: Clever Cycles > Clever Cycles closing

See also: High Gas Prices Cause Bike Shortages in N.Y., The New York Sun

When bikes become fashion and status symbols

Triobike and Heels
Originally uploaded by [Zakkaliciousness]

Been having some conversations on the evolution of bike culture.

Here in the U.S. in all but the most cutting edge of markets like Portland, NY, and a few other college towns they are but an item of either strictly recreation or a symbol of minimal function, i.e. commuting.

Ironically though while the bicycle industry here in the U.S. has been driven by technology bicycle culture will never change until we move beyond the "functional" debate.

As a friend of mine says, "Style over Speed".

It may seem counter intuitive but bikes and bike culture must transcend the argument of function, technology or speed and move into art, fashion and style in order to catch on in a more meaningful way.

For me this picture of a stylish, young twenty or thirty something mother riding an high end cargo / baby bike in high heals is the absolute epitome of the difference between the way Dutch bicycle culture has transcended the functional debate.

I guess this is what is meant by designers when they say "fashion is the aspiration of technology".

Need further evidence? Look no further then the iPod/ iPhone. It's only when technology stops being a gadget and starts being fashionable or an accessory that it becomes a seemless part of everyday mass culture.

To put it another way. If the best indicator of a healthy startup is a full parking lot on the weekend, then the best indicator of a healthy bike culture are moms on bikes. Bonus points for moms wearing non-bike specific / fashionable cloathing (no lycra), running errands (groceries?), and above all riding with the kids (Is biking safe in their area?).

Can big box go bike friendly? - Ikea, Denmark and biking

This has to be one of the most curious images I've seen lately. Ikea is pretty much the epitome of big box retail, car culture, and urban sprawl, and yet in Denmark they're experimenting with loaner bicycles and trailers.

Apparently in Copenhagen Ikea marketing research has realized 20% of store visitors visit Ikea via bike even though Copenhagen's two Ikea stores are 10km and 20km from the city center.

I can only imagine people bike commuting to the Ikea in Chicago, especially with a trailer. In fact I'd be suprised if you can even aproach an Ikea on bicycle with all the freeways. This just further illustrates the strange and wonderful differences in Danish culture. I believe the statistic is over 60% of Copenhagener's bicycle commute.

More Info: Copenhagenize.com - The Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog: IKEA Idea With Velorbis Bikes

P.S. I strongly recommend subscribing to the Copenhagenize.com. Lately it's been one of my favorite blogs on bike culture.