Two Sunday Photos & A Stolen Bike

In the morning traffic she rode along sipping a chocolate milk.

There is nothing quite so wonderful to see as cyclists who feel secure on the bike lanes of Copenhagen. Indeed, a majority of Copenhageners say, when polled, that they feel safe in the traffic on their bikes.

Our mate Nikolas, in Washington D.C. sent us this story from the local news. The management at the city's Union Station removed a woman's bicycle because it was ugly and they thought it was abandoned. Here's the link - watch the video on the right column.

Nikolas asked if our authorities have ever confiscated a working bicycle just because it was ugly and rusty.

Firstly, well over half the bikes in Copenhagen are ugly and rusty. They are mere workhorses. Nobody would dream of removing it for this reason. With that said, there are thousands of bikes that are gathered up each year, but not unless they are absolutley sure they are abandoned.

Rusty, clunky old bikes are the standard here. There is something aesthetically pleasing about rusty old bikes.



Indeed, if you forgot your bike somewhere, you can count on nature taking it back.

Nikolas said, "This begs the question, can one be Cycle Chic with an ugly bicycle?"

Absolutely, we say. We have earlier tracked a Copenhagen trend concering old bikes. For some reason, women who wear shoes by Louboutin often ride an old, beat up Raleigh. These old bikes are an integral part of our bike culture and they're not going away anytime soon.

Guest Photos Early August 2008

Another batch of fantastic guest photos and thanks very much for thinking of us. At the bottom in the middle is Alexandra in Washington, D.C. and she is the focal point of this article in the Washington Post. As they say in that neck of the global woods, "You GO, girl!" Great article.

All in all, looking back over the past year of Copenhagen Cycle Chic, it is quite amazing to see how things have snowballed. It was as lonely as a Finnish winter until other sites started cropping up, followed by Flickr groups and then, late in 2007, we started seeing coverage in newspapers in the UK and the US. It's increased in intensity here over the summer in the US as the media has realised the people are taking back the bike culture. Here's an article from Canada, another from Australia, and this one from Washington, DC.

It's an amazing development to behold. Funny, too, considering the fact that this cycling chic thang is hardly a newfangled thang here in Europe, but it's great to watch it develop. All I did was coin a phrase - Cycle Chic - and start photographing a theme - it's all of you who make it grow and spread the Style Over Speed word - especially with wonderful guest photos like all of them we've published on the blog.

Let's keep it snowballing, shall we? A good, stylish tailwind to you all.