simple is beautiful
Copenhagen Cycle Chic - Streetstyle and Bike Advoc: October 2008
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Friday, October 31, 2008

The Five Cycling Senses - Smell

Segregated Joy
This Five Cycling Senses is an aesthetic series so I won't dwell too long on the obvious 'smell' factor regarding urban cycling - exhaust from motor vehicles. I'll just hurry up and link to this post over at Copenhagenize.com about how studies have shown that the level of polluting particles is higher INSIDE cars than next to them on a bike. So while we have to live with exhaust, we can pity the motorists.

And this post highlights how traffic [meaning pollution and noise] kills ten times more people than traffic accidents, so cycling is a fantastic, safe way to stay healthy.

And as with the cyclist on the lovely, wide bike lane above, we can just zip right past the cars anyway.

Meanwhile, back at the poetry...
Elegant Speed
For me, when considering Smell in relation to urban cycling in Copenhagen, one thing pops instantly into my mind. Perfume.

Not a single day passes without perfume wafting up my nose on the bike lanes, and I'm not exaggerating. Cycling here is a fashionable affair [as if you haven't noticed that already] and perfume or cologne are second nature.

Whether having a fellow Copenhagener overtake me or just following in the slipstream, perfume adds aromatic colour to the urban landscape. Even waiting at the red light downwind of another cyclist, the scent of their perfume, or even their shampoo, often drifts your way. Nice aromas but it also heightens that sense of being close to your fellow citizens. It's personal, somehow, even if you're strangers.

I can't honestly remember any negative smell experiences involving sweat or body odour.

Beach Days
Certainly during the summer, the scent of suntan lotion is everywhere in the afternoons when people are heading home from the beaches.

Old School Analogue Dreams - Dapper Text Checking
Like in the post about Taste, I'm quite convinced that I can smell the seasons. The most strikingly aromatic season has to be autumn. The sweet organic smell of fallen leaves, intensified after the rain. The cooler air somehow sharpening the scent.

Train Station Bike Riding *
Surely we can taste sunlight? Whether in high-summer, mid-winter or in the early days of spring?

Short Cut *
We can certainly smell the woods and the fields when we take shortcuts to work, and the seasons possess each their own unique combination of odours.



Stockholm Cycle Chic02
I'm quite sure we can agree that we can smell the rain.


I have this thing about water. Wherever possible I like to ride past it. Riding over the bridges in Copenhagen you'll always see people glancing to their right at the harbour. I suppose it's an addendum to the post about Sight, but the harbour has changeable scents, too. The salt water smell is vague and suggestive in the winter and richer in texture in the summer. The above film is comprised of stills that I took over six months on my way to work. I can smell the sea water just looking at the film.

A few years ago I rode in another direction out of town to work, past a lake outside the city limits. The scents were just as remarkable and rememberable - the latter word was not a word until just now - as on the harbour.

In the post about Taste, coffee was mentioned, and that applies to Smell. Whether your own coffee on the bike or someone next to you. Not a bad aroma.

What you do smell or like to smell on your ride?

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Well Heeled, Well Wheeled

Heeled
Serious heels on an autumn's day.

Slick
Serious wheels.

Swimmingly Chic This Winter


Autumn is in full swing and winter is around the corner. The bicycles roll on. The good people at SWIMS in Norway have already developed fine products to protect your bespoke footwear from the seasonal elements. Here in Copenhagen you'll have fenders on your bike to protect your much-loved Paul Smiths or your trousers/stockings to some degree from the spray when riding to work but when you invest in quality footwear and clothing, it's not a bad idea to have a bit of extra protection. Like the dapper chap above and below.

We've blogged about SWIMS before but now we've chatted with them and recieved some great photos, too. They adhere to the time-honoured mantra of Scandinavian design: simple, practical, elegant. Galoshes will never be the same again. They are on the cusp of launching a new product so we're pleased to present a little world premiere here:

The City Slipper is the new product from SWIMS this season. Given the fact that urban cycling in high heels is a normal part of life in Copenhagen and many other European cities, it's a welcome addition to the urban landscape. Whether you are just riding to work in your workhorse Louboutins or heading off to a smashing fancy do with the who's who in the evening, if the forecast calls for precipitation of any kind, why not equip yourself with the City Slipper.

Like with all of SWIMS products, there is a host of colours to choose from. At time of writing, the City Slipper has yet to premiere on the SWIMS website or in the SWIMSSTORE, but they are right around the corner.

SWIMS will work hard protecting your footwear, but they are apparently not designed to help you avoid frizzy hair associated with humid, moist weather. Now you know.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Five Cycling Senses - Taste

Boy With Winter Cyclists
In a way I covered Taste in an earlier post about Eating and Drinking on Your Bike. All manner of snacks or beverages can be enjoyed while cycling through the urban landscape. Nothing like sipping a hot coffee on your way to work or crunching your way through an apple in the afternoon. So apart from this addition - a very important aspect of life in Copenhagen... beer:
Important Issues Facing Copenhageners
... I'll get all philosophical on your asses.

Felix, in the photo at the top, is tasting snowflakes while cyclists plow through the snow behind him. Which made me think... can we taste the weather on our bicycles?

Tailwind Rush
On a below zero morning, the cold winter air catches in our throats and chills our lungs. I love it. Getting to the throat and the lungs, the air has to pass the tongue. I am quite convinced that I can taste the cold air - crisp and sweet all at once.

Sunrisetastic
And what of the morning light? Does it not possess a taste all it's own? I don't think I can HEAR the light, but tasting it... oh yes. What does it taste like to you? A peach? A freshly baked roll from the oven?

Dreamy Evening Light
Or the low, melancholy light of evening, for that matter?

Pair
I was reminded of one sure taste experience. Riding home from the beach on a hot summer's day you may catch yourself licking your lips and tasting the salt of the sea after a swim.

Street Kiss With Bystander*
And the sweetest taste of all. A kiss. Can't forget that one.

Taste is a tricky one. Feel free to contribute your thoughts in the Comments section.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Handheld Cycling

Handheld Cycling
They rode the whole way along the street like that. Only letting go if a bike came up behind and wanted to pass.

Talk to the Basket The Face is Busy
Talk to the basket... the face is busy right now. :-)


A spot of Cycle Chic in the China Times Weekly in an article about the Velorbis Long John cargo bike. Felix and I and a couple of friends in motion.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Who's The Bosch?

Whos the Bosch
Transporting a power drill has never... ever... looked this elegant.

Regarding an earlier post about Copenhageners eating and especially drinking coffee on their bikes, one of our readers fired off this link to us.

"It may seem unlikely, but simply clutching a warm cup of coffee can bring on a flood of warm feelings, U.S. researchers said on Thursday in a finding that suggests a strong link between physical and emotional warmth.

"Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer -- more generous and trusting -- as well," said John Bargh, a professor of psychology at Yale University in Connecticut, whose research appears in the journal Science."


Read the full article here.

And here's a cracking photo series from Travel & Leisure about Copenhagen cycle chic.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Couple of Things

Ready For Green
This couple, complete with a kid at the front of the chap's bike, were ready for green.


It's been a while since we've had a little "It's Not Just Us" post - wherein we show that The Cycling Girl - Cykelpigen - is still an integral and iconic part of Danish culture after over a century. Here's a cover of a book called Pregnancy and Exercise and what better photo on the cover than a pregant woman on a bicycle.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Paris Revisited

zebra
Here's another great shot from Paris from 'Dev Null' on Flickr.

If you haven't read our little reportage from Paris, here's our take on the city, the Vélib' bike share programme and the amazing bicycle revival.

Friday, October 24, 2008

The Five Cycling Senses - Sight

Winter Morning*
The sense of sight in relation to urban cycling is probably the easiest to document and relate to. You're out in the open, exposed to elements, but also exposed to your city. In turn, your city exposes itself to you in ways that are unattainable in a motor vehicle, even a bus or train. You are in constant interaction with everything happening around you, including your fellow citizens. You see so much. You see the buildings, the sky, the clouds, unrestricted by the glass and roof of a car.

In Nordic countries, light is a powerful drug. When you can ride through a winter's morning into the rising sun, even the squinting of your eyes is a feast for the sense of sight.
ShineSunrisetastic

TimeTrial
Your use the city's features on a bike, like zipping along and glancing up at the clock on the City Hall Tower to see if you're late or on time.
Check the Clock
Or the clock on one of the old churches.

Neon Soup
You are up close and personal with the urban landscape. Watching other people interact with the city all while you do the same.
Turn

Girl Executing Right Turn

Turn and Glide on
Seeing other people seeing, glancing, observing somehow heightens the sense.

Summer Glance *
There are very good anthropological advantages to having an unrestricted view.
Glance
Summer Glance
Masculin Feminin
Fix
You get to regard those fellow citizens that you find attractive while they are in motion, moving through the city, using the city. Seeing a gorgeous man or woman in the car next to you is one thing, but seeing him/her in motion is far more aesthetic. Homo sapiens wouldn't have gotten very far on the evolutionary trail if we had to choose our mates based on how they sat, motionless and sedentary, in their tents. We have always needed to see each other in active settings in order to choose.
Contemplating Soup
Which men have a better chance of attracting your attention, ladies? These chaps above or this guy below?
Style Over Speed

Copenhagen Quintet
A city is far more alive when you are alive in it, on a bicycle.
Accelerate *
Your fellow citizens are in motion.
Cargo *
You see them interacting with each other in the most human way possible.

And they see you.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Five Cycling Senses - Touch

Moi, en hiver
It's a touchy-feely thing, urban cycling. It's physical, organic and a feast for the senses. I figured I'd try to portray the five senses in relation to cycling in Copenhagen. Starting with Touch.

People don't talk about 'cycling' here in Copenhagen. You don't get to work and discuss the morning's commute with your colleagues. You may comment on the rain and whether or not you were caught in it but the whole act of urban cycling is so second-nature that it isn't even mentioned.

As I've mentioned before, we don't have many cyclists in Copenhagen, we only have Copenhageners who get around by bike. Sure, there are groups that hang out together. The sub-cultural bike messenger crowd and the fixies do their funky thang together. The woolen-socks in sandals/trimmed greying beard crowd join the Cyclists' Federation. The rest of us just ride around because it's easy and fast. 57% of Copenhageners say that's why they ride. 17% mention excerise and only 1% say they do it for the environment.

Since starting these blogs I've asked friends what they like about riding their bike everyday. The most common reply, it seems, is that it's nice to experience the fresh air and the weather. And then the conversation quickly moves on to something else. There's nothing really to talk about. It's a routine - an enjoyable one, sure, but just a part of daily life. We don't discuss teethbrushing techniques either.

THE WEATHER
So, the photo above falls into the Touch category. Feeling the light spring rain, snowflakes, a sudden downpour or the stabbing, painful slivers of ice during a storm on your face and hands are definately appropriate for Touch. Feeling the four seasons up close and personal is an aesthetic part of urban cycling, even if you get drenched once in a while.

TOGETHERNESS
Festival Mood
Holding Hands *
Touch is riding with friends or loved ones. Sure, you can hold hands while driving but it's not quite the same thing.
Family Bike *
And this kind of togetherness would be difficult in a motorised vehicle.

HANDLEBARS
In the Right Place
Our sense of touch applies to all of our body but it is our hands that most used. Therefore I've included a shot of hands on handlebars. Riding with a firm grip up a hill or a loose grip through the city or even just riding with one hand. Fingers reaching for the brake and squeezing it. It's all about you touching the machine and controlling it.
One Finger Riding*
Even with one finger.
Two to Tango
And even if it's two sets of handlebars.

TIPTOES
Go
There are various postures people use at red lights, as we've highlighted before. Many people just rely on their toes to keep them balanced at the light. Tensed muscles supporting a body and a bike, ready to push off at a moment's notice. A brief connection with the ground before sailing off on two wheels.

Tip Toes
Magic Moment

FOOTPOWER
Find the Pedal
Just after that magical moment when 'lift off' is achieved and the bike is rolling forward of its own accord and the foot that propelled it forward has lost contact with the ground, the next event involves the foot finding the pedal. Seeking it out in a combination of instinct and experience as well as touch. It's second-nature. We don't have to look for the pedal, we know where it is. But the touch of the foot on the pedal confirms it and we can start pedalling away.
Limbo
Lift off.
Double Up Red Light
The cyclist on the left is seeking out the pedal with her foot. Preparing to accelerate.

Yellow Line
Seeking out the pedal is one thing, but the foot sometimes needs to find purchase on the curb. Placed just right - according to individual taste - until motion is required once again.

Anyone else have any observations about Touch in relation to cycling? Add a comment and I'll start thinking about the other senses.

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