French Kiss

For some strange reason this short film by François Truffaut popped into my head the other day. Les Mistons - The Brats - was one of his first directorial efforts, in 1957. It laid the groundwork for the adolescent themes in some of his later films. It's about five boys who quite fancy an 'older woman' and who subsequently get jealous when she takes a lover.

No, this hasn't turned into a film blog, I'm including it here because the first 3:30 of the film is a beautiful woman on a bicycle. Skirts a'fluttering. As they have since the bicycle was invented - so feel free to giggle when somebody tells you cycling is only a 'sport'. That's why I call it Bicycle Culture 2.0 [beta]. We've all been there before and we're going there again. Regular people on normal bikes in everyday clothes. All over the world.

”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”.
John Woodeforde ”The Story of the Bicycle”, 1970

And they weren't wearing lycra or riding carbon fibre contraptions and they weren't restricted to flat areas.

The Sartorialist - aka The Colville-Andersen on No Wheels - :-) posted a couple of lovely bicycle shots recently. The film above was shot in Nîmes and this photo is in Paris.


Nothing French about this shot, I just like it. Taken at the new Royal Theatre - Skuespilhuset - on the harbour in Copenhagen.

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. :-)

"A Cycling Girl Becomes Our Dream Today"

Our co-blogger Marie is currently in Malaysia working on a Danish reality show for a couple of months but she'll be blogging as best she can while there. Marie's granddad was known for his songwriting and we thought it appropriate to translate one of his cycling songs about springtime. His name was Sigfred Pedersen and he wrote the following song in 1936.

We have several posts about the iconic stature of the Cycling Girl [cykelpigen] in Danish history and this song is a fine example of the poetry surrounding the topic. I translated it directly, so it doesn't rhyme in English. Nevertheless, the song remains true to this day and still fits Copenhagen's bike culture to a tee.

Cyclist Song by Sigfred Pedersen, 1936

Denmark's young girls are all cycling now / Through springime's gentle, floral kingdom / To the beat of nickel bike bells / They head in flocks towards fairy tale adventures / With the sun in their eye, squinting over the handlebars / All the cold of winter is suddenly forgotten.

Yes, soon old houses can ignite in flame / Us old boys feel our blood rush [...]
We must give up! It's useless to lie: / That which flutters and which flies, entices us / A cycling girl becomes our dream today.

Fly out in flocks, you lovely cyclists / That which smiles and which tempts, entices us [...] / Fly out in flocks, fly out with your partner, / The youth must have freedom every day / But remember that bike lights must be turned on at 9!

All winter you long for the sun / Now springtime embraces the dresses / As the bike bell chimes from the polished handlebars / Every girl's heart is a promise given / One to be embraced completely by life / Springtime's fairytale begins today

The small cyclistas become cyclones / Millions of them on their small machines / Make traffic dangerous for every sad cyclist / But I have an indestructable frame and I can swing / If your tyre is flat we can trade tubes / As long as it will be you and I at the end of the day.

My own girl cycles through the spring / small auriculas flutter from the forks / A knee slides in and out of the hem of her dress / It all smells sweetly of love and nickel and springtime / from the newly varnished cycle / that carries the city's blonde girl on her way.


[NB:] The reference to 'auriculas flutter from the forks' is seen to this day. Women decorate their baskets and frames with flowers, more often plastic than real, but it is an old tradition in Denmark from the early days of cycling:

The Modern Way to Ride

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 Life Cycles

What I love about this shot - and many aspects of bike culture in Copenhagen - is that it is quite timeless. This could be my mum in 1948 or my wife in 2008. It's neither, but you know what I mean... a Copenhagen life cycle.

I'd been toying with this idea for a while and finally found time for it:

It's available as a poster on our little online boutique. In all it's full-size glory it measures 87.5 cm x 62.5 cm [that's 35 x 25 inches, apparently]. It's available in a small poster size, too.

I call it Copenhagen Life Cycles. Loads of moments of clarity from the bike lanes of Copenhagen. Here's a little slice of detail:

Style Over Speed

The guy on the left is my hero.
Wearing his regular clothes, sitting up and enjoying the ride, not trying to break any records. Just getting on with it. A true role model for The New Age of Urban Cycling.


Two Copenhageners cross Knippels Bridge, as Copenhageners have done since this 'new' bridge was opened in 1937.


Yet another Copenhagen Supermum.

History Repeating Itself

My friend Marie used this in her thesis about bike culture. This cartoon was used in America back in the 1930's, showing how the bicycle was seen as a way of kickstarting the American economy after the Depression. "Back to Prosperity!" "That Buy-cycle you're hearing so much about." "Circulating dollars."

While America isn't currently in a Depression, the dollar continues to fall and oil dependency is a big issue, not to mention environmental concerns. So it seems quite appropriate that this cartoon gets a revival.

And while we're on the History Repeating Itself subject:

Mrs Harcourt Williamson wrote this in The Complete Cyclist in 1897:
"The whole secret of a woman looking well on her bicycle lies in the cut and hang of her skirt." The best skirt of all, in her opinion, was made on the same lines as a habit, fitting the figure perfectly and cunningly stretched and shrunk. Once the skirt was successfully negotiated, the rest of the attire was simple:
"After all, however, the skirt is the thing, and once having this perfect, there is no reason why one should not wear an elaborate blouse and really smart hat on a fine day".

Indeed, Mrs Harcourt Williamson. Mr Colville-Andersen agrees with you. If only you knew how visionary your words were and how appropriate they are to this new generation of cycle chicsters.
Plucked from "The History of the Bicycle", by John Woodeforde, 1970.