What Goes Up Must Come Down

The bad news is that you have to go up one side of the bridge.

Up, up you must go.


The good news is that you get to glide down the other side.




The Copenhagener in the top photo is doing something that is hard to avoid. She's glancing out over the water and the harbour. No matter how busy you are, you have to glance at the water, it seems.

This is what the harbour looks like over a six-month period:

Bike Shop Gentlemen

When I was in London last week I hooked up with some friends and colleagues. Three guys who sell bicycles to Citizen Cyclists and work towards cementing bicycle culture in our cities. At left is Tom from Bobbin Bicycles in London. At right is Eric from Curbside Cycles in Toronto.

Here's Tom's personalised head badge thingy on his bicycle. A little pin-up sticker. Nice touch.

We all bumped into each other outside of Velorution - the bicycle shop run by Andrea, above. Looking dapper as you like with his Danish Pedersen bicycle.

Boys on Boris Bikes

I was only in London for the day last Tuesday, but managed to capture some urban cycling action on the streets. Here are some of London's bike share bicycles on the streets. Citizen Cyclists using the bicycles to get around the city centre.

I must admit, however, that I didn't spot hardly any people on bicycles who looked relaxed. London is a black hole for bicycle infrastructure so most of the cyclists looked like they were being hunted down like dogs. Compared to Paris, where safe bicycle infrastructure has brought amazing numbers of regular citizens onto bicycles - private bikes and/or Vélib bike share bicycles - cycling in London is a fringe activity. There were women out there on the streets, but very few compared to the men.

All the same, seeing bicycles in the city is a positive sign and I'll happily record it. It's baby steps for London, but the bicycle is back and it's not going anywhere.

Bicycles and Skiis

Thanks to the wonders of internet technology, when this blog article goes live I'll be gently stirring in a hotel room at an altitude of 1644 m in the Italian town of Gressoney La Trinitè, ready to get out and ski.

What's more appropriate than some photos of bicycles and skiis? Our archives don't feature as many photos of skiis and bicycles as, say, dogs and bicycles but here are a few. Above, a gentleman heads over Queen Louise's Bridge in the chill carrying his skiis on his back.

Here's a girl rolling up and over Langebro (Long Bridge) a couple of years ago carrying her skiis. Despite Denmark's distinct lack of mountainous terrain, the Danes are keen skiers. Around 10% of the population ski regularly. You can find pistes just a couple of hours from Copenhagen, in Sweden, but most people travel to Norway, Sweden and the countries hosting the Alps.

Getting rid of unwanted skiis in Copenhagen also involves bicycles. Here's my cargo bike heading to a kids flea market in our neighbourhood where Felix sells his gear for fun and profit.

Here he is after setting up shop, using the cargo bike as a display to show off his wares. The skiis on the left and, since the kids are bigger now and we have cargo bikes, he sold the Bobike bike seat as well.

London Cycle Chic and the Cycle Chic Book

I spent the day in London yesterday, for a meeting with my publisher - Thames & Hudson - about the upcoming Cycle Chic book. It was a great meeting and we're muscling our way towards publication.

The hardest part is choosing a short list of photos from the thousands and thousands in the Cycle Chic archives. I narrowed it down to 1300 photos from 26 cities. From there we have to cut it down even further but it's been great so far revisiting so many photos from the past four years - since that "Photo That Launched a Million Bicycles".

I'm so looking forward to seeing 'the best of' in a lovely, printed volume.

Headwind Bridge

Up over the bridge in a headwind. Looking good doing it.

London Cycle Chic

Cycle Chic is off to London for a meeting today. No idea if there will be time for photography but we live in hope... Here are some shots from an earlier visit.