Straight-Talking, Straight-Sitting

Fred Mathes is 92. He also lives in America. These two facts don't stop him from riding his bicycle. A lot. Every day. This chap is Style Over Speed in a nutshell, and has been for decades before we starting calling it 'Style Over Speed' here at Copenhagen Cycle Chic. He still rides his 3-speed Schwinn, which is 56 years old and he doesn't feel he needs a newer bicycle.

“Did you hear about the centipede who fell in a ditch?” he asked. “He couldn’t get up. He was too exhausted trying to figure out what foot to put first. Same thing with a bike. Who needs 18 gears?”

He does not favour Lycra or cycling shoes. His riding clothes are whatever he happens to be wearing, usually a pair of trousers (he rolls up one pant leg), a long-sleeved western shirt and a stylish cotton hat from Italy.


It's interesting to remember that when Mr Mathes was born, bikes ruled the world, even in America. Bicycle Culture 1.0 was in full swing and millions rode around daily on simple 1 or 3 speeds, up and down hills, in all weather. Knowing that fact and seeing Mr Mathes doing his daily thing is fantastic inspiration.
Read the whole article on the Times Record News - Wichita Falls - website.

MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME TO SIT UP STRAIGHT
Mr Mathes, above, has it sussed, but then he has been riding long before the sports industry starting telling people they had to lean forward in awkward, uncomfortable and unnatural positions in order to 'cycle' - not to mention worrying about how much a bike 'weighs' or that you don't need chain guards or kickstands. And so on. My dear, darling mother had is sussed and I was always encouraged to sit up straight. Posture is an important part of body language.

If you like to ride fast and do so for training or racing, well... that's different, isn't it? You'll get a bike that suits that purpose, which is lovely. I used to race competively when young and enjoyed it thoroughly. But for the vast majority of people who ride daily or harbour secret thoughts about doing so, riding in comfort is the way to go. Style over speed. Elegance over exertion.

”In the late 19th century, large numbers of women were already using bicycles to get to work, women office workers and shop assistants wending their way each weekday morning from the suburbs to the town. They found the bicycle a convenient form of transport for distances up to, say, ten miles”.
Plucked from John Woodeforde's book ”The Story of the Bicycle”, 1970
And that was on machines that would seem monstrous to us now. Not to mention the fact that they were wearing frightfully heavy dresses and thick fabrics. If they could do it on those bikes, in those clothes, there are little excuses for not cycling chic today.

"One sits on it either straight-backed, as though you're at a festive dinner party, or hunched foward, as though you just failed an exam. All according to the situation, your inclination or your inborn characteristics."
Johannes Wulff's 'Paa cykle / On the Bike' 1930

One charming nickname for normal bikes is "sit up and beg" bikes. Indeed. Sit up and beg for fewer cars, bike lanes, a steady tailwind and lovely cyclists to ride with.

Oh, and by the way, there's some new t-shirt designs in the online shop, based on this theme:

Click here for gentlemen's clothing, here for ladies' clothing and here for a coffee mug. :-)

More Optimism from H. G. Wells

"Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia."

Another telling, visionary quote from H.G. Wells.
He didn't forsee that they would be painted blue as the sky and the sea but right he was all the same. [or green as in Portland!]

Here's to Optimism

'When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.' So wrote H.G Wells, and we here at Copenhagen Cycle Chic agree completely.

More History Repeating Itself

My Cycling Heritage - 2, originally uploaded by westfieldwanderer.

This wonderful photo was scanned in by a mate, WestfieldWanderer, from his family album. Anno 1947.

There are often articles in newspapers and magazines about how cycling is 'hot', cycling is 'trendy', cycling has finally become 'mainstream'.

Bollocks. Urban cycling in everday clothes is not a new phenomenon. At some point in the not so distant past members of your family - yes, you and you and you - rode their bikes each day.

Devoid of cycling gear and fancy equipment. Just good sturdy bikes and their regular clothes. Skirts and suits. To the shops. To work. To visit friends.

Daily cycling isn't 'mainstream' all of a sudden. It has been for more than a century. Perhaps it has faded out a bit in some countries, but it's not new.

Which makes it incredibly easy to merely start doing it again.

”In the late 19th century, large numbers of women were already using bicycles to get to work, women office workers and shop assistants wending their way each weekday morning from the suburbs to the town. They found the bicycle a convenient form of transport for distances up to, say, ten miles”.

Plucked from John Woodeforde's book ”The Story of the Bicycle”, 1970

And that was on machines that would seem monstrous to us now. Not to mention the fact that they were wearing frightfully heavy dresses. If they could do it on those bikes, in those clothes, there are little excuses for not cycling chic today.

Copenhagen Bridges Now and Then

"In the stream of cycles over Knippels Bridge we see Gudrun again, pedaling steadily. As though her and the machine are one. She is Copenhagen and Copenhagen is her."
Johannes V. Jensen, from the novel Gudrun, 1936.

The photo above is Knippels Bridge these days. Still a steady stream of cyclists each day. Below is a great video showing bike rush hour in Copenhagen on said bridge.

Here's the same bridge in 1935:

In the aforementioned novel 'Gudrun' there's a great passage comparing Copenhageners to schools of fish:
"If one is bumped by a car, the whole school is bumped. It's a nerve one has in the elbow, a flock function, which Copenhageners have learned so well that it is second nature".

Here's one of the other bridges over the harbour:


And this is the newest car-free bridge over the harbour, one side for pedestrians [not visible, it's on the other side of the white barrier] and the other for bikes.

A Number of Things

I don't really look at the stats of this blog too much. Once in awhile it's interesting. For ages there was only 1 visitor from North Dakota. Now, out of the blue, there are four. I'm fascinated. It's a massive statistical increase. Copenhagen Cycle Chic is BIG in North Dakota. North Dakotans! Come forward! Let us salute you!


After a splendid exchange of comments regarding chainguards, skirtguards and fenders, I took a photo of all the fenders in the bike shed. There are four bike sheds outside our flat, but I only took photos in the one. I was well chuffed that the Great Joe Breeze popped by for a comment. (okay, I had to google him, but my American mates filled me in... what a career he has had!)



"Bicycle posters flatter the liberated woman and her beauty and independence compliment the product's quality. In addition, the artwork shows how easy it is for the feminine sex to handle the bicycle, just as the women pictured are a testament to the femininity that isn't lost, but rather is increased, by cycling.

"The era's modern man, in sporty outfits, also features on bike posters but he is often given the role of the unlucky cyclist with a broken chain or a puncture. More often than not he rides behind the woman, who either overtakes him or is in front of the peloton.

"At the moment the concept of the Danish Cycle Girl was created, the bike poster visualised her more convincingly than any other medium."
Lars Dybdahl in "Den danske plakat" - The Danish Poster.

And remember, bloggers and blogettes! Nobody like a whiner. :-)

Classic, Classy, Copenhagener

Classic, Classy, Copenhagener, originally uploaded by [Zakkaliciousness].

"One must never ride into the back wheel of a loved and charming woman, unless one is convinced in advance that one's love for said woman will always be, and must be, unhappy."
Johannes Wulff in "Paa cykle" [On the Bike], from 1930

Why am I quoting literature?

Another Copenhagen supermum in her natural environment. Elegant boots with sharp heels, leather trousers, fur scarf, this winter's popular red gloves, oversized sunglasses and... a chunky old Bobike seat for her kid[s] resting on an anonymous Raleigh.

Oh, and isn't it time for another wallpaper?