Red Light Moments

This little film has been frightfully popular on Flickr - seen almost 30,000 times.

To my surprise, I found another version from the same spot in my archives today:


Red light moments in the City of Cyclists.

Oh My Oh My it's Oh Land

Oh Land: Nordic Fantasia on Nowness.com.

Sigh. What a way to wander into the weekend. Danish songstress Nanna Øland Fabricius - aka Oh Land - features in this animated film by photographer Matthew Donaldson.

Tissue Chic

Cute little advert featuring a bicycle.

Bondi Beach Cruisers

This is brilliant. A cool film feat. Australian Cycle Chic for Bondi Beach Cruisers made by +61 Collective. Cycle Chic is lovin' this on this, the last day of summer in Copenhagen. So says the weather gurus, anyway.

Copenhagen Picnic

We're loving this little film about a group of friends going for a picnic in Copenhagen. Makes us love Copenhagen just a little bit more.

New York Cycle Chic

Sometimes we just miss places. Today it just happened to be New York. We're aiming on getting back in the new year with some cool Cycle Chic events. Not NYC but Janette Sadikh Khan on my Bullitt cargo bike in Copenhagen last year.
And here's a couple of films of Mikael riding in NYC.

The Flying Pigeon

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

http://www.theflyingpigeon.com/

Rio Cycle Chic Bike Ride

When I was in Rio de Janeiro last week I was picked up by bicycle at the airport and rode all the way into town on bike lanes. THAT is a sign of a cool city.

The next day my friends put on a fantastic Cycle Chic bike ride to celebrate the launch of Rio de Janeiro Cycle Chic. A 12 hour affair starting at five in the afternoon, we were around forty or so people at the peak. We rode along the bike lanes parallel to the iconic LeBlon, Ipanema and Copacabana beaches before heading around the bay to the monument commemorating the founder of the city where I gave a short speech about Cycle Chic and what it is all about and what it can achieve. After beers - and wonderful snacks provided by the bicycle-oriented La Biciclette Bakery in Rio - we moved on to various bars and nightclubs. A cracking event true to the Cycle Chic spirit. Rio is ready for Cycle Chic.

Here are some beautiful photos from the ride from our photographer, as posted on Sydney Cycle Chic.

We'll be posting some more shots from the city quicksmart.

3.1 Philip Lim Salutes Cycle Chic

Brilliance from 3.1 Philip Lim.

Noa Cortes from New York Cycle Chic

A moving, brilliant portrait of Noa Cortes from New York Cycle Chic. Defining everything Cycle Chic is about and everything it should be and everything I've always wanted it to be.

Thanks, Noa.

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:

Beautiful Copenhagen Cycling Film

Brilliant film about Copenhagen's cycling life by the director Martin de Thurah.

Faith, Hope and Love

Ah, the oddities of the internet. Bill over at District Citizen Cycling, a DC bicycle blog, has dug up this clip from a Danish film directed by Bille August in 1984. It's called 'Twist and Shout' in English and 'Tro, Håb & Kærlighed'. Which translates as 'Faith, Hope and Love'. It takes place in 1963.

Perfect title for the context presented here. As Bill writes ironically on his blog, "This short scene is pretty charming, but does serve as a stark reminder of one of the real perils of bicycling: you may not be able to catch up to your girlfriend on the bus."

Faith in the bicycle as a tool for transforming our cities. Hope that rationality will prevail. Love. Period.

Cycle Chic Guide #10 - Cycling in Winter

So, winter is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere. We here at Cycle Chic think it's high time for a little repost of our film we made last year. A little peek into cycling in winter in Copenhagen - or any city with mainstream bicycle culture. The film spells out our Cycling in Winter Guide for us.

Every winter we find ourselves dispelling misconceptions about bicycles and winter. As though it's something quite bizarre. You know how we ride in winter? The same way people have been riding in winter for 125 years. In this country and in every country with snow.

Clothing? Easy. We wear the same clothes cycling around our city that we wear whilst walking around our city. Why would we need anything different? We have winter clothes and they're great on foot or on two wheels. Anyone who tells you otherwise probably wants to sell you something.

Winter is unavoidable and only avoided by purchasing plane tickets to warmer climes. So let's just suck it up, buttercup and get on with it. Summer is, as always, just around the corner.

There are a couple of bikey things to mention, however. Firstly, most bicycles in Copenhagen don't have the razor thin wheels associated with sporty types. Our tires are thicker, which makes it easier to ride in the snow.

Going straight is rarely a problem but when approaching a corner, we tend to slow down more than we would on a dry surface.

Sure, it helps that the City clears the bike lanes here long before they clear the roads so you can almost always rely on the bike lanes being clear. In case of snowstorms you may find yourself riding on snow or ice, so just take it easy.

Whether rain, snow or shine, Cycle Chic is all about Style Over Speed. This is a little more applicable in the winter. :-)

Although you might want to leave it up to the Copenhageners to ride in a snowstorm, on snow, in killer heels whilst holding an umbrella. :-)

This is one of our favourite bicycle + snow adverts. Ever. Crappy beer. Great advert.

Copenhagen - We Love Bikes

Check out this new promotional video for Copenhagen! We Love Bikes!

She Rides

Cool little video.

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.

Copenhagen Cycling in the Snow - Film

Here's how we ride in Copenhagen when the snow falls. In style, some of us, but generally just getting on with it in our regular winter clothes. Remember, if you can walk in it, you can ride a bicycle in it when pedalling about your city.

There are fewer cyclists in Copenhagen when it snows. 80% of the cycling population continues to cycle throughout the winter and when it snows, more people take the bus or train. Nevertheless, there are still a couple of hundred thousand bicycles out there enjoying the winter.

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.

Bicycles in Danish Films

Back in 2003 an indiefilm I directed saw the light of day. Zakka West is the name.

The bicycle has featured prominently in literature, poetry and song in Denmark since it was invented. This continues to this day with pop songs featuring the bike, as well as films and television shows. For example, a popular-ish tv series featuring a female cop has her cycling to the police station each day and picking up her son at kindergarten on the back seat of the bike. The bike is not mentioned at all, it's just a true representation of how Copenhageners get around.

Not surprisingly, Zakka West featured a Copenhagen city bike - Bycyklen - in the climactic scene where Oliver has to cycle around the Vesterbro neighbourhood looking for Lulu in order to declare his love for her.

A lot of the footage for the film was shot from a cargo bike, too. A Copenhagen version of the dolly.

The entire film is available for viewing here. It's feature length and not in the best quality, but it's a sentimental little thing.