Author Archives: jm

Iten

Could it be possible to ride bikes on the very village which has seen some of the most impressive athletes in history like Eliud Kipchoge, Jonah Chesum, Florence Kiplagat, Edna Kiplagat, David Rudisha, Asbel Kiprop, Wilson Kipsang or Abel Kirui? And what if we add extreme conditions regarding climate and lack of infrastructures? This place is Iten, a village at 400 kilometers from Nairobi (Kenya).

Lots of runners go to Iten following the trail of their athlete stars. Some of them marvel at discovering a local riders team called Kenyan Riders. They even wonder more when checking how irregular, abrupt the terrain is for a vehicle that has to make permanent contact with the soil. This fact provoked continuous punctures, hence stops to repair them and discontinuous training. Team players could not buy high quality tires as they were short of cash. As time went by, the triathlete Rubén Gallart visit Iten as a part of his training. He saw the poor conditions of local riders and proposed himself earning money to help bicyclers buy better tires. He knew the Tannus airless tires would fit the continuous puncture problem. Thus, he contacted the company and they were delighted to being involved in the project to his surprise. The firm helped Kenyan Riders to overcome their precarious conditions. Nowadays, they train happy with the tires and dream with becoming first level sportspeople in order to win international competitions. After all, they live at 2,500 meters above sea level, and their athlete brothers are worldwide recognized because of their merits.

Lea Schaepe

Lea Schaepe was born in Berlin, Germany, and has been practicing one of her passions for years: Acrobatic cycling (link a lo anterior). Such enthusiasm has made her one of the best in this sport with international recognition.

Indeed, Lea has won a dozen national competitions just in Germany and offers artistic cycling exhibitions and workshops in a lot of countries. You can follow her in her Instagram page.

Lea learned to ride her bike in many unconventional ways while practicing this art year by year, primary in Germany. Those photos demonstrate how spectacular she is, and this is nothing compared to see her live and direct.

If you have the opportunity to see her in action, do not miss her and enjoy the time!

Artistic cycling

Artistic cycling is a 130-year-old sport. Yes, you have read 130 years. Cycling races began to hit their stride in Paris in 1868. Then, Nick Kaufmman showed audiences a different way to enjoy bicycles. He performed acrobatics on his bike. People were left with their mouth opened when admiring this new sport. Kaufmann expressed so much emotion and people helped by cheering him up, so that he made the connections he needed to organize a competition about artistic cycling. Indeed, he became the world champion of Professional Cycle Trick Riding, as it was known, in 1888.

This sport has been evolving over the years and now is really popular in Europe, and specifically in Germany. Competitors demonstrate several tricks indoors to judges, thus earning points as they perform. Similarly as ballet or gymnastics, participants compete in rounds of five minutes. Multi-person teams also compete by using multiple bikes, switch, ditch…

To perform the balancing tricks and backward motion, these artists use fixed-gear bikes with a gear ratio of 1:1, and tires of proportionate size. To enhance maneuver, the handlebars are similar to those used in racing bicycles, but upside-down in comparison. Moreover, the front wheel should be free to spin 360º.

By combining these outstanding bikes and long hours of practice, riders perform handstands, wheelies, body-surf, and attempt as many other tricks as they can in their allotted time. Hence, innovation is rewarded by judges who also take into account the number of tricks, execution, form and degree of difficulty.

Rueda Film Festival

The Rueda Film Festival was born in 2015, though their creators had pondered it for years. It started in Barcelona and several other cities have seen it such as Valencia. It is inspired by bikes, cinema, culture and environment. Hence, they invite you to think over energy, the collective power of people, participation and culture joy, always having in mind bicycles.

The Rueda Film Festival program is divided into sessions that last around 85 minutes and show a feature film or several shorts ones. You can see all the films by free thanks to the support of sponsors, strategic partners and collaborators. All of this is was created by a diverse group of people from different fields with a common denominator: Pedaling bikes contributes to solve major problems we face today.

As it name indicates (rueda in Spanish means wheel), it not only shows international films related to bicycles, but also organizes concerts, exhibitions and bike acrobats events. And what if I am interested in hosting the Rueda Film Festival in my city. As explained here, send the organizers an email so that they give you advices, the conditions as well as the package with everything you need to plan and promote your event. Just take advantage of their expertise.

Riding under the rain

One claim that lazy cyclists from sunny countries affirm is stop cycling when raining, even if it drizzles. Though you should pay extra attention to the road and bike lines because of falling in curves when raining, it is not impossible to do it. Indeed, riders from rainy countries even enjoy and appreciate it. It is just a matter of mentality and use the appropriate garments.

Habitual clothes to deal with rain when cycling range from raincoat (better if it is long and allows you to pedal without problems) to waterproof trousers, boots or gloves. Waterproof garments have boomed partially because of the sportstores specialization in urban cycling as well as its resurgence in the last decades. Moreover, research in new materials has helped it.

On the other hand, some cyclists use umbrellas when raining. It is probably uncomfortable, specially to those who are not used to it, but could be effective with absent wind. Here you have an example:

Going a step further, some brands have developed a modified bike to incorporate a kind of umbrella which also protects from headwind:

And finally, other firms have put on the market something in between the two previous examples:

In this case, the biker should wear at least waterproof gloves and raincoat.

Advanced stop line

Politicians who appreciate riding bikes as a transforming force towards sustainable cities use to support advanced stop lines on streets. An advanced stop line is a special infrastructure in those streets in which there is not bike lines, so bicycles and cars share them. It can also appear in roads with no segregated bike line. As you can see in the picture, bikes have a reserved area just before the traffic light so that cars can not occupy it while in red. The reserved area can be colored in green or red to highlight the place for bikes:

The ideas behind this, or why the advanced stop line is so important, are fundamentally four:

– Bikers become extremely visible to car drivers since these persons just need to open their eyes to see the riders.

– Bikers do not inhale pollution from the cars they have on their backs, or at least they do so at a much less rate.

– Conflicts between bikers and car drivers are reduced because this solution makes clear who is the first to start moving after the traffic light is green.

– Traffic is calmed due to cars can not reach an excessive speed the moment the traffic light is green.

Bicycle race (song)

If somebody asked you what is the song related to bikes you remember first?, you would probably answer Bicycle race, by Queen. It was released in 1978 and from the first moment it become a hymn for every biker. Freddie Mercury wrote it inspired by a stage in the 1978 Tour de France when passing Montreux, where the rock band was recording Jazz at the Mountain Studios.

The video song was controversial at the time since showed a bicycle race with nude women at the old Wimbledon Stadium. In fact, it was edited and even banned in several countries. The group was forced to purchase all the bicycle seats by the renting company once it realized the way their bikes were used. Denis de Vallance filmed the video.

And here is the song

Water bikes

The power of bicycles is so impressive that one can understand people use it in mysterious, outstanding ways. Everybody have in mind bikes are suitable for solid surfaces like roads or paths. But what Judah Schiller invented in the San Francisco bay was amazing: Water bikes.

The idea behind this was to create a sustainable way of transport competing with rowboats and avoiding sometimes unnecessary detours. The fact which allowed this was the need he had to cross the bay bridge between Oakland and San Francisco to go to work. He had done so on boat and was tired. The first product was BayCycle, a portable floating device to pedal on water.

This initial idea evolved into a mix of bike and catamaran in which pedaling has an essential role. When a person pedals, it moves a screw which allows sailing. On the other hand, the handlebars are used as rudder. If you want to stop, just use the backpedal brake similarly as the Netherlander bikes.

Moreover, their creator claims these bikes are folded in 10 minutes in order to easily transport them, and carry it comfortably. It is no wonder that this new kind of bike has enjoyed success and more companies have decided to produce their own water bikes.

Criteriums

Criteriums are urban races where participants ride their bikes to spin and complete a established round. Such events use to be done at night because of less car traffic and are popular among fixie bike lovers. Racers highlight adrenaline rush as a motivation in these races that are presented in lots of cities.

A special case is Singapore. In 2013, the first criterium took place there thanks to the tenacity of Zul Awad. Eric Khoo Shui Yan helped him and Holy Crit was the race name. They organized eight races up until November 2014 on closed roads or with little traffic. But also without the required permissions. Authorities fined them even if they explained them their unique objective was to increase the number of bikers. They did not receive any payment, nor did they have sponsors.

Ding Jie Ng, a young producer, noticed their troubles with justice and felt the need of telling it to the world. Thus, he made a documentary, Fixied, with little resources and inspired by the criteriums. As a results, he filmed a documentary with the help of Zul at night which is worth it from a cyclist and human perspective.

Sprocket man

Back in the 70’s, thousands of university students in USA rode their bicycles, without respecting the basic civility in some cases. Then, a new superhero appeared: Sprocket man. His objective was to show how to ride bikes in a respectful way regarding others actors on the streets, including pedestrians. In those years, Stanford was part of the Great American Bike Boom and their students were activists in social movements such as feminism, racial injustices or homosexual discrimination. Moreover, national problems influenced students like the Watergate or the Vietnam war. As a result, the massive cyclist movement debated on the need of biking infrastructures, and allowed publishing historical documents (Bikeway Planning in 1972, Bikeways: State of the art in 1974). Among those, there was Sprocket man.

Sprocket man was a 28-pages, colored cover and black-and-white pages, fresh magazine. Authors were inspired by the Elton John song Rocket man. As you can imagine, he used massive sprockets as a shield. He transmitted a clear message from the first page: The impressive figures of bikes in Stanford show that days in which bicycles were considered just as toys have ended. Or: The anarchy on streets can not be evaded for longer: Here you have some tips and guidelines for survival. It included advises about mechanics, how to drive, avoid thefts, accessories, etc., which persists today. The magazine was published in 1975 thanks to the support of the Stanford Public Security department. Louis H. Saekow was the cartoonist, Julia Molander coordinated it and Vince Darago headed them. Vince has been a dedicated champion of the sustainable movement for ages. He organized classes to teach riding bikes, and coordinated workshops about electric cars creation 40 years ago.

Unfortunately, Sprocket man only saw the light once. Nevertheless, it appeared again in a Seattle council TV ad, and in merchandise issues.