Roots Cycle Chic

ROOTS is a Canadian clothing brand and they're the latest to hop onto the Cycle Chic bandwagon.
Photo via our friend Xander at 416CycleStyle.

The Flying Pigeon

The Flying Pigeon Bicycle from yulu canada on Vimeo.
Cycle Chic is lovin' this. We approve. Brilliant.

http://www.theflyingpigeon.com/

Canadian Cyclists

The Coles sisters on a bicycle trip from Montreal to Ottawa, 1916.

Members of the Chinook Bicycle Club, between 1894-1900

Cycle Chic Global: Toronto

Toronto Cycle Chic from Dan on Flickr.

Cycle Chic goodness from the Cycle Chic™ Flickr group.

Bicycles in Films of Late

I saw a great film on a flight recently, called Wild Target and starring Emily Blunt and Bill Nighy. It's a comedy about a con artist and a hitman but there is a brilliant Cycle Chic sequence where Blunt's character rides a lovely bicycle in a smashing ensemble. I found the photo of her, above, on this website.


Our reader Yvette sent us the link to this trailer for a new Canadian indiefilm that also features bicycles in cracking Cycle Chic style.

Another great film that features bicycles is the Canadian film Monkey Warfare, which we blogged about last year.

Remember: Bike is the new black.

Bike Share Boogie

Lots of cities now have bike share programmes for their citizens but Montreal has a music video about their Bixi bike share system. Check this. Thanks to Graham for the link.

And while we're on the topic of Montreal, here's an article about how the city is the best for cycling in North America. Thanks to Taras for the link.

Ottawa Cycle Chic

Some lovely shots from my friend, Joel, in Ottawa, with the Parliament buildings in the background.

Tomorrow - June 2, 2010 - there will be a Best Dressed Commuter prize at the Commuter Challenge / Clean Air Day event in the Canadian capital.

Sepia tones, but that wicked cool Bullitt cargo bike betrays the old school mood.

Vancouver Cycle Chic

Cycle Chic was featured in a blogpost by Douglas Todd, a columnist for The Vancouver Sun, in Canada. I figured I'd dig out my Cycle Chic [ish] photos from the city.





On this trip Wifealiciousness - our own Cycle Chic export - was 6 months pregnant with Lulu-Sophia. Cycling is virtually prescribed for pregnant women in Denmark so going for a ride was a must.

Monkey Warfare

Here's a classic Cycle Chic sequence from a wicked cool film Monkey Warfare that I saw tonight. A Canadian writer friend, Taras Grescoe was in town last week and our cinema talk led to him mentioning this film. Wham, bam, eBay and there you go.

Needless to say I loved the cycle chic sequence. Most the film takes place on bicycles in Toronto though.


Here's the trailer.

Toronto's 416 Cycle Style

The Cycle Chic Radar is filled with elegant blips these days and one of the biggest flashing dots is Toronto's 416 Cycle Style.

As velotographer 'Xander, the brains and style guru behind the website describes it:
"From the multicultural flavored, and kaleidoscope styled streets of the 416 in TORONTO, we span the neighborhoods and asphalt in search of new aromas and combinations of visual and edible delights. Armed with a crank and a camera we search. Freezing moments in time of the familliar strangers sharing space and riding by."



Even hard to impress Treehugger is begrudgingly impressed.



416 Cycle Style... meet Copenhagen Cycle Chic's RSS Feed.

Global Cycle Chic Roundup

A little Cycle Chic Global round-up from our readers.
Starting with Edinburgh.


Toronto, Canada.


Calgary, Canada.


San Jose, USA.


Barcelona


Atlanta, USA.


Austria.

New Kids on the Cycle Chic Block

The latest addition to the Copycats and Collaborators list is 416 Cycle Style a.k.a. Toronto Bike Chic.


And Barcelona Cycle Chic. This blog was started by a friend of mine who features in this earlier post.

Sunday Music Video - Mike Edel

Mike Edel "Turn the Lights on Bright" from Jordan Clarke on Vimeo.
Beautiful music video for a song by Mike Edel. Cycle Chic approves thoroughly. Shot in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Thanks to Lynn for the heads up.

Frozen Cycle Chic in Canada and Alaska

What a lovely photo from Tapia in Anchorage, Alaska. Here's what she wrote to us:
"I thought Cycle Chic might enjoy this picture of me leaving to go watch the Iditarod...the world's longest sled-dog race. People amass on downtown Anchorage and watch the racers at a ceremonial start. Lots of Winter fashion, insane amounts of fur, but I only saw one bicycle - how sad!"
Thanks for the brilliant photo, Tapia!

And here's two photos from Reuben. He says:
"I discovered your wonderful site recently and all the snowy photos remind me of an unfortunate four frozen months I spent in Calgary, Canada last winter. I was delighted to discover that the best way to avoid the psychopathic pick-up truck drivers on the streets of Calgary was to ride on the frozen Elbow River (which seemed pretty exotic to a New Zealander). I would ride with my flatmate on the handlebars (she reckons once her bum stops fitting in the curve of the handlebars she’ll have to start riding herself) of a lovely ancient bike that came with the house.

Your beautiful Copenhagen photos seem all the more foreign now that I live in Sydney, Australia – home to the original bike-hating motorists and the world’s worst cycling infrastructure. I’m trying to Copenhagenize myself but it’s quite hard here... it’s too hot to ride in my work clothes and when I don’t wear a helmet the other cyclists shake their heads like I’m crazy (interestingly, the police don’t seem to care about enforcing this silly law). I’ve also paid a visit to the local Velorbis dealer here so hope to be in possession of one of those glorious machines soon, to go with my two Copenhagenize t-shirts and poster."

Thanks for these great shots, Reuben!

Last but not least we have this great shot of a Danish Nihola trike in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan from Roger:
"Just thought I would show you some pictures of Danish bikes in Canada. They work great even though its -40 and the snow is deep. We love our Nihola. It has allowed us to remain car free even with a baby on the way."
Brilliant stuff, Roger! Thanks!
Canadians can check out Fourth Floor Distribution in Toronto if they fancy getting a Nihola for themselves.

It's great to see Cycle Chic Extreme from far flung places. Regular people in regular clothes doing what people have been doing for 120 years - just riding a bike. And looking good doing so.

Celebrity Cycle Chic

It's been a while since we have featured some celebrity chic. Here we have the Canadian actress Ellen Page looking absolutely smashing in true Copenhagen Cycle Chic fashion.


And Cycle Chic's international audience may not be acquainted with the Norwegian author Per Asbjørn Risnes Jr. but I am since he is a mate of mine. This photo of him and his daughter was a publicity shot for one of his books, 'Verdens beste pappa' or The World's Best Dad. He writes for the Norwegian version of Financial Times, Dagens Næringsliv. Besides all that, it's just a cool photo.

Addendum: A comment spurred me to include info about the bike seat, above. They're widespread in Denmark and Holland and in Denmark we call them bulldogs. When the kids are younger you can strap their feet in. When they get older there's a bar you slap onto your frame so their feet can rest on them.

The seat on which they sit is detachable so you don't have to ride with it when the kids are not on the bike with you.

Vélo Vogue Cycle Chic Fashion Show in Ottawa

A quick little plug for a Vélo Vogue fashion show that will be held in Ottawa this Saturday, if anyone is in the neighbourhood. The photo above is a repost of a guest photo from Chris, taken in Canada's capital city.


Tall Tree Cycles are the host of the fashion show this Saturday, 17 January 2009. You can read more about it, and Cycle Chic, in this article in the Ottawa Citizen. If you get photos of the event, you know where to send them.

Steel Town Cycle Chic & NY Times Article

One simple and yet brilliant guest photo today, from Larry Strung in Hamilton, Canada. Larry is a photographer with a wonderful photo series called Hamilton365. Here's what Larry says about why he took this photo and why his project is important:

Hamilton is mostly a "blue-collar" town, which means working class people that for the most part have been employed in the steel industry. That industry is in decline, so there is quite a bit of poverty while the city changes its economic direction. It has so much potential, but the biggest difficulty is changing attitudes. The really poor ride bicycles (if they are fit enough) because they can't afford a car. The new "industry" in the city is centered around a very good university that has it's most recognition from work in the health care field - so there is lots of new work related to this in local hospitals as well. The university and health-care people are the ones interested in using and promoting cycling. The former steel workers cannot get employment in this new industry, so there is a resentment present. The bulk of the population relate riding bikes to either the new "white collar" workers who are displacing them, or people so poor that they cannot afford a car. So they tend to be aggressive towards cyclist when driving in their cars...

My project, www.hamilton365.com , is an attempt to change the attitudes about the people of Hamilton. From the outside, Hamilton has always had a reputation of a "tough" town - something to be avoided. Even from within, people have a poor attitude about themselves. I have found that if you can get beyond the outside appearance, in most cases the people have a very warm and open heart. So the goal is to change the perception of being a city full of threatening people, to a city full of "people of character". When the perception is that people are full of character, they become interesting to get to know instead of to be avoided.

For cycling, the city is just about perfect. It is a harbour city - on Lake Ontario. In an east-west direction the city is perfectly flat. In a north-south direction, the city is bisected by a "mountain" - it's actually just a big hill. We have a land form here that is referred to as an escarpment - a single hill that goes for hundreds of kilometers. It's the same land form that Niagara Falls goes over. So we can practice our hill-climbing skills on this escarpment, and commute to work along the flat without building up a sweat. The World Cycling Championships were held here in 2003.

I think that Hamilton will come around in terms of being a cycling city, but it will take a few more years and a few more confrontations yet.

One little note from me: There is a great opinion piece by Thomas L. Friedman in the New York Times today, about Denmark and the things we do which can inspire others. Have a read.

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.

Guest Photo Saturday

As always, thanks to everyone who sends guest photos in to Copenhagen Cycle Chic. It's wonderful to see images from around the world. We've had a bit of a backlog so we made a little montage du monde.

But first, above, a smashing image of Ottawa Cycle Chic, from Rachelle and her fiancé. Wonderful stuff!


The latest installment in the Copenhagen Cycle Chic Goes Global series. Nigel and his kids slapped a sticker on a lamppost near the Bishop's Palace in the City of Wells - England's smallest city. Thanks, Nigel!


A bevy of global cycle chic images, in one easy png file! Thanks to everyone!

And a bit of Eurofunkaliciousness from Milo in Vienna to wrap up the proceedings.

Sunday Guest Photos - Geneva, Roma, Vancouver, Barcelona

Cool shot from Geneva by Zara.


Cycloromantica from Roma by Fotorita.


Waxy from Vancouver captured a little street corner slice of life.


Rodolfoto from Barcelona with a great shot of happy cyclists.