Author Archives: jm

Bike tourism accommodation examples

When practicing bike tourism, there is the need of planning it and finding a proper place to sleep most of the times. As bike tourism has been developed over the last years, related businesses have also appeared. Focusing on accommodations, I have found the following in Spain (not exhaustive list). Surely, there would more in the country where you live.

Ciclolodge (Lozoya, Madrid): Located in the Guadarrama sierra, its owners are cyclists too and count with workshop, bike renting, spa and sportpersons specialized cuisine
Finca Albellons (Caimari, Mallorca): Close to the Tramuntana sierra, it has a closed space for bicycles, workshop and bike renting
Las Caldas Villa Termal (Oviedo, Asturias): Spa, workshop and you can bring your bike to your room
Princesa Parc Mountain Resort & Spa (Arinsal, Andorra): Located in the Pyrenees, it has a workshop, cleaning zone and offers specific menu for long routes
Hotel Tierra de Biescas (Biescas, Huesca): It is located at the beginning of the Tena valley and you can enjoy the sauna
Hotel Viura (Villabuena de Álava, Álava): Here you can combine bike tourism with wine tourism, it has a workshop and they offer a courtesy bicycle
Resort La Costa Beach & Golf (Pals, Girona): It offers bike hiring, guided routes and personalized route proposals
Turismo Rural Os Ormos (Espuéndolas, Huesca): One of the pioneering business in Bikefriendly. Here you can hire from GPS and bike guides to post-route catering
Snö Aragón Hills (Formigal, Huesca): Located in the Pyrenees, indeed Formigal has a ski resort, it presents a workshop and spa
Snö Hotell Bielsa (Bielsa, Huesca): Close to the Ordesa and Monte Perdido national park, it is a good starting point to reach many of the Pyrenees tops

Cargo bikes and workshops

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Cargo bike use has increased over the last years at least in Europe. It is in the way to be a key point in fighting against climate change. Some countries have developed interesting laws like Spain with the 9/2025 about Sustainable Mobility. This law, for example, does not force to use cargo bikes, but it eases not to use cars and vans for logistics in downtown. Thus, cargo bikes are ideal for last mile logistics.

When cargo bikes pass from a vehicle to leisure time to an essential tool to work or bring your family, bike workshops should take them into account seriously. As I foresee there will be more and more cargo bikes, those workshops which first consider, and perhaps specialize, on them will make a lot of money. Repairing bikes for work is not the same as fixing bikes for spending a good time on weekends. Such workshops should adapt to this viewpoint considering specific times, tools, in-and-out circuits and security.

Three challenges in the workshop to seriously think of when you have at least one logistics company as a client which only have cargo bikes:

Different space as cargo bikes tend to be larger that traditional ones
Different spare parts, have the right providers
Training colleagues since fixing a cargo bike can be different than doing the same to a traditional bicycle

Bike-sharpener

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Bicycles are not used only for making exercise or allowing us to move from point A to point B. Bikes have been considered and even today are considered as tools for working. One example is the photo bellow. It was a bike-sharpener, so that the professional who rode it only needed his legs to both sharpen knifes and scissors, and travel from village to village. I found this history jewel in a museum as such interesting machines should be preserved.

Sara Qiu

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In October 2020 we lived under the Covid-19 pandemic and Sara Qiu (https://saraqiu.com/, in Spanish) discovered the power of walking: Part of the GR-11 (a long path for walkers that crosses all along the Pyrenees) and many more. This way, an idea developed inside her mind: slow travel and enjoy the moment. She bought a second-hand bicycle at the end of Summer and pedaled from Zaragoza to Oviedo (both Spanish cities). Sara did not know much about bikes and equipment at that time.

This first trip was the starting point of something higher. In 2022, she set off again from Zaragoza to China. She did not have a closed plan, rather the only thought that she had was to arrive to China and go back, but slowly. Sara applied this philosophy through Europe and Asia. She crossed France, Italy, Slovenia, Serbia, Kosovo, Turkey or Iran to China in fifteen months. During this time, she learnt a precious lesson: Every day is different. Never did she knew where to sleep, who she met or what could happen in advance. She learn to adapt, to trust, to release control.

This exemplary woman experienced a change in the way she was perceived. For instance, when she appeared covered with dust and sweat, she felt her effort was recognized and a sense of empathy was developed. In such cases, first came curiosity by local inhabitants, then respect.

Silence was her personal decision. She did not wanted music or podcasts while pedaling. Indeed, silence was very much appreciated when pedaling between mountains, secondary roads and deserts and learnt to be alone with herself.

Sara decided that such a trip was not going to be a survival one, in fact she flight back to Spain in Winter and continued riding her bike after some months. She did not have to demonstrate anything to anybody, just enjoy her trip.

Moreover, she defends that planning kills surprise. At the beginning, she recorded videos, wrote chronicles and shared reflections on social nets with the hope of living from it. However, she soon realized that the most important is not money, but sharing what she was seeing. She also defends that the world is not as dangerous as news display, there is a lot of goodness when traveling slow. She came to China in Winter 2024.

Return on investment in bike sharing schemes

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The report Return on investment in bike sharing schemes by EY, Cycling Industries Europe and EIT Urban Mobility is pioneer regarding the worldwide impact of real bike sharing systems as it comes to economy, health and society. Publish in October 2025, its conclusions aim at showing that the bike sharing systems are not only an alternative for sustainable transport, but also an strategic tool to improve productivity, reduce public expenditure and improve life quality in European cities.

This report can transform the way cities see urban biking as part of their strategies on transport and clean air, demonstrating bike sharing systems contribute to more ecological, clean and habitable cities. Thus, healthier and happier citizens. It was measured that bike sharing systems reduce logistic costs up to 90% when comparing with cars. They also are a tool for democratizing urban mobility and promoting social inclusion.

Data for this report was obtained from 2024. In this year there were 438,400 bicycles in bike sharing systems in the European Union, UK, Switzerland and Norway. More than a thousand million kilometers were pedaled with 2.12 travels per bike and day. 15% of such bikers were use cars, 29% in public transport and 56% by walking if bike sharing systems were not invented. Moreover, 55% of bikers combine bike sharing systems with public transport. So, bike sharing systems do not compete with public transport, rather they are allied.

Regarding economy, €305 million was the annual profit. The report demonstrated that one Euro invested in a bike sharing systems returned a 10% annually. Focusing on health, savings were about €40 million thanks to the prevention of 969 chronic diseases cases associated to the use of bicycles. Additionally, 200 nitrogen tones and 45,000 CO2 tones were avoided every year, resulting in about €3 million .

The report goes one step further and prognosticates that if cities promotes a firm wager on bike sharing systems, the annual economic impact would be €964 million with a return on investment of 75% by 2030. Health savings would be €173 million and 12,900 people would work directly in the bike sharing sector. Finally, €212 million would be saved in productivity which come from 5 million hours European people lost in traffic jams annually.

Ideas for promoting bike logistics

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Bike logistics is increasingly being promoted by advance cities, but there are others which have to change its politics and really promote the use of bicycles in deliveries. Here mayors have some ideas:

Allow trailers plus bikes: Surprisingly, trailers are not allowed in some cities and should be legal as they are essential accessories in bike logistics. Some of them can carry 200 kilogram and electric motors make it easy for cyclists.
Knowledge: Mayors should know the projects related to bikes already in development in their cities. They should listen to urban bikers since they share a specialized vision regarding sustainable, urban mobility such as tips, difficulties, challenges and needs. This is important to avoid false steps, and waste of money and time.
Space: Bike logistics focuses on the last mile. Cities have normally had empty public spaces, even buildings. One way to give life to them is councils yield them to bike logistics. Bike logistics can not develop often due to the fact of the impossibility of renting a 200 squared meters in downtown. This would solve a recurrent problem.
Transfer: The more cargobikes are seen in a city, the more cargobikes will be on that city. If councils transfer a cargobike fleet to firms and citizenship, they popularize them. Moreover, as this is not a bike sharing service, such bikers end buying them after testing cargobikes.
Economical support: Subsidizing cargobikes in several countries have demonstrated it as a good attempt to increase cargobike use and enhance bike logistics.

Copenhagenize index

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The Copenhagenize index is a well-known index for every person who wants to know about urban biking. It punctuates cities from more than forty countries based on several points. It gives hints and demonstrates how to do good things to promote urban biking development. It shows that not only bicycle infrastructure is important, but also advancing towards cities for people. The Copenhagenize index is not a competition, rather a showcase of actions to enter this club and a road map about successful actions for specialists.

The Copenhagenize index has three pillars: a secure and connected bike infrastructure, specific politics to increase urban biking, and budget and support. Regarding the last point, Utrech (the number one in the 2025 edition) invested 66€ per year and citizen in urban biking. Additional issues such as 89 bike parking every one thousands inhabitants or almost one third of total displacements were done by bicycle made Utrech to appear on the Copenhagenize index. These and many more ideas can be extracted from it.

What is advisable when you want to start or continuing pedaling when after moving to an other country to work?

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It is normal that some doubts appear when moving to a different country. Some of them are related to biking.

It is logical that different countries follow alternative justices over using a bicycle daily, so the first tip is to take into account the local laws regarding it. Receiving a fine for not knowing the local law when pedaling is discouraged.

Next, choosing your future bike (if you did not bring it with you) is essential and for that take a look at the bicycles that local bikers drive. For instance, if the city/country is hilly, ebikes and mountain bikes use to be preferred. If in a flat city, a city bike is usually acceptable. Buying a first hand or thrift bicycle depends on your economic situation. However, never buy a bike without bill as it could be robbed and thus you would contribute to bicycle thefts.

Another tip is to look at local bikers: how they ride, where they go, what garment they wear regarding local climate. This allows you to anticipate the best behavior while riding.

Finally, if you want to meet bikers and make friends, one of the best ways is to participate in the Critical Mass.

Bike activism matters

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I distinguish two steps in bike activism depending on the urban biking moment. Firstly, bike activism is essential when there are few bicyclers on a city. The main action of them is just ride their bikes as most people tend not to try something new unless some other people have done it before. So, if pedestrians see bikers pedaling happily, they are more prone to do the same. After checking they can do it, more people want to enjoy bicycles. If parents ride bikes, children want to do it also. If children pedal, parents would do the same. It is a snowball. Secondary actions of bike activists at this point are fighting for infrastructures such as segregated bike lines, secure bike parking and urban design pro-biking. Many different actions can be done to convince politicians of the biking benefits. At the same time, motor vehicles drivers are being accustomed to bicycles.

Secondly, the final step starts when the number of displacements by bikes is a majority. Few countries have reached it at this moment, located in central and northern Europe. One can realize it when bicycle traffic stuck and use of motor vehicles in cities is less than 20%. They are societies in which a great majority of inhabitants are in favor of less pollutant ways of transport, and bikes above all. The impact of bike activists is less visual as almost everybody uses bicycles. Still, this type of activism is appreciated and its actions mutate into more specific issues. Examples are workshops on how to face social disasters, bike tourism (outside cities) promotion, non-competing sports events, bike concerts and bike leisure in general encouragement, among others.

To me, the natural, logical progression from step one to step two is something in which the majority of countries around the globe are immersed. We do not stop. Thanks to all bike activists!

How useful are cargo bikes in natural disasters and wars?

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The bicycle characteristics are ideal when natural disasters impact human livings. As I exposed when writing about bicycles after the DANA in Valencia (Spain), in 2024, bikes and above all cargo bikes are narrower than cars and transport first needed food to where is needed.

The concern about climate change, natural disasters and even wars has created initiates to share ideas regarding it. One example is the Kollapscamp in Wittstock (Germany). Contrary to what the name suggest, it is not a pessimistic camp for bikes. This event attracted 900 people to contribute to a platform to learn and share ideas about how bicycles can help overcome natural disasters and social crisis through workshops and talks. It also promoted strong, self sufficient communities without centralized nets, psychology, social organization and logistics.

Previously, as back as 2012, some tests have been done. For instance, the Disaster Relief Trials (DRT) in Portland (USA) consisted in bike cargo tests as a drill for using this type of bicycle to bring food aid to a catastrophic area. They evaluated how good are cargo bikes in transporting water or assisting in paths full of mackerel. They concluded that non-electric bikes are the best as the good management of energy is not needed in such scenarios.

The Tolocar project, promoted by the XYZ Cargo in Hamburg, has suggested to reinforce the supply routes with cargo bikes in Chernígov (Ukraine). XYZ proposes modular systems to adapt cargo bikes in few time.