Author Archives: jm

Coffee & Bikes

One of the crowded places in the Delft Technical University (The Netherlands) is its cafeteria which is also a workshop and a bike parking. This 2018 building was projected at the square of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering with the suggestive name of Coffee & Bikes.

Interestingly, a rider can make use of its 2,100 bike parking and the two floors construction is surrounded by a mound covered with grass where one can relax between classes. Marjolein van Eig designed it inspired by the modern architecture of the Illinois Institute of Technology (USA) campus. The Coffee & Bikes presents a 5 x 6 meters steel beams grid which will ease a future enlargement and all the structure is detachable. Bikes are protected by the external parapet.

The workshop is located on the ground floor, directly connected to the bike parking, whereas the cafeteria is on the first floor. This last is accessed through external stairs and enjoys the sight. Moreover, the ceiling height varies so that the seating area is original and personality.

Cris Lares

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When talking about great trips some pass from one continent to another, whereas bike travelers also remain in the same continent. This is the case of Cris Lares. The Mexican woman started riding on her Specialized Pitch 27.5 from Oaxaca de Juárez the 23th of September 2018. She arrived in Pitumarca, Canchis district (Peru), but her plan was to reach the south of Argentina after pedaling more than 16,000 km. She had visited Guatemala, Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador, and interesting places like impressive ocean coasts, the Amazon or the mountain range of the Andes. The problem was that she suffered an accident with a motorbike and broke both her fibula and tibia. This fact forced her to wait for months until restarting her great trip. After that, another accident happened with a car driven by a drunken and the Covid pandemic. Thus, some more months waiting for the recovering and then finally she could continue riding.

The tragic experiences show how strong this woman is and some tips she shares for life and specially for a great trip are to be positive-minded, not to think about negative issues, always thank people hospitality, be fit as a fiddle and ride with wisely-decided, low weight. This last point is really important. Take for example when Cris rode to the snowed Cotopaxi volcano in Ecuador. She wore an impermeable trouser, but no jacket, neither gloves. Fortunately, she arrived at a mountain refuge where she could light a fire and warm up.

On March 2020, she arrived to Brazil after pedaling for 16,729 km.

Lady Beetle

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The LUOstutio created a special bicycle with the inspiring name of Lady Beetle back in 2019. It followed a parallel consisting in battle two plagues: the insect eats aphids and Lady Beetle is a way of recovering some bikes from the millions of abandoned Chinese shared-bikes because of a unbridled commercial expansion. Luo Yujie and Lu Zuhuojian made it possible.

At the beginning, both inventors were worried about millions of bike and additional scrap metal which were constantly producing. They talked to a friend who was a teacher and said them that he carried his didactic materials in a shopping cart. As a a result, they started working on a project which culminated in the Lady Beetle. It consists in a creative, interesting and lively space which reuses industrial residue in a natural and artistic manner.

What is Lady Beetle? Well, it is a quadricycle with a front wheel and three rear wheels, high load capacity to carry wisdom to wherever it goes. Its shell contributes to protect whatever is inside Lady Beetle, which above all is a moving library. Thus, it eases teaching materials to be transport so that teachers do not suffer back pain and use cars.

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The Nørreport Station

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The Nørreport Station, Copenhagen (Denmark) is a clear example of how to transform a chaotic area full of cars into an awarded place for people and bicycles which offers services for about 350,000 people per day today. This train station was built in 1916 and connected the medieval downtown with the neighbor of Nørrebro. It was a comfortable square until cars appeared.

In 2009, the council ordered a study to two different architecture companies. Conclusions were the same: too much car traffic and an extremely difficult place for pedestrians. Thus, an urgent remodeling was needed. Paths on snow made by people walking and cycling gave clues about how to deal with it. Specifically, station entrances, covered spaces and bike parking locations were inspired by cold. These facts determined the most favorable, natural fluxes for people.

In 2015, the remodeling was completed thanks to the impressive 2,500 bikes parking. Interestingly, this massive bike parking is slightly lower than the rest of the train station so that one can have a look of the set and a better place hierarchy. In addition, tourists’ jaws drop with the amazing view. Moreover, buildings in the square are made with rounded shaped glass which increases clarity and a sense of safety.

As a result, the Nørreport Station won the Danish Lighting award, the European award on Urban Public Place and the Copenhagen Best Urban Context Place in 2016; the Landezine Landscape International award in 2017; the Civic Trust award in 2018.

Critical Mass songs

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An important part of the Critical Mass and most of the citizen demonstrations is music. Music and songs enhance spirit and turn people into good mood. As it comes to the Critical Mass in Valencia (Spain), here you have some songs and their translations into English. I know they do not sound as funny as in Spanish, but this way you can get an idea of their messages:

– No cuesta un duro

y pone el culo duro:

It doesn’t cost a penny

and gets your butt hard

– La bici en el trasero

y no en el trastero:

Bike in butt

and not in storage rooms

– Mi bicicleta no la cambiaría

ni por la moto de la policía:

I wouldn’t change my bike

even by the police motorbike

– La vida en la bici es la vida mejor

la vida en la bici es la vida mejor

sin gastar

sin contaminar

poooor la calzada mejor

Life on bike is the best life

life on bike is the best life

without wasting

without polluting

beeeeter on roads

– Tanto coche

es un derroche

So many cars

are a waste

– Los coches oficiales

que vayan a pedales

Should the official cars

go on pedals

– Viva la bici

la hay donde quiera que vas

viva la bici

es lo que nos gusta más

con más gente a favor de bicis en cada pueblo y nación

habrían menos coches y motos

y menos contaminación

Long life bike

it’s everywhere you go

long life bike

that’s what we like the most

with more people in favor of bike in every village and country

there would’ve been less cars and motorbikes

and less pollution

– Carril coche ya

por toda la ciudad

Car lines now

all along the city

Ciclosferia 2023

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As I wrote about it, the first Ciclosferia took place in Valencia, Spain, in 2022. This urban bicycle exhibition continues to be placed in Valencia in 2023. Indeed, it is going to be opened on April from 21st to 23rd. This is a great opportunity to enjoy urban cycling since you will take into contact with bike brands, shops, workshops, bike activists and many more. You will test bikes, garment and components novelties if you want. Moreover, four music concerts will make this party more pleasant and finally, a Brompton bicycle will be raffled.

If you are going to be closed to or in Valencia these days, this is an impressive plan to spend the weekend.

Bielas Salvajes

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Bielas Salvajes (Wild Rods in English) is a Spanish group of passionate, bike activists women which emerged in Saragossa back in 2014. Their main target is to contribute to develop an egalitarian space in which each and every say has the same value since the males say is somewhat dominant in some urban bike groups. Indeed, more than 70 people have accessed to the bicycle in Saragossa thanks to Bielas Salvajes since it was created.

They combine two main ways of using their bikes: going to work and enjoying routes outside the city. As it comes to urban biking, they propose the Safe Routes in which women who start pedaling for working are encouraged, given tips and recommended the safest paths.

Bielas Salvajes was the pioneer group of bike women and as time went by more groups with similar characteristics emerged in Spain such as Mulleres Bicivisíbeis (in Vigo), the group Cicliques (in Barcelona) or the Lavapiés Ciclist Club (in Madrid).

Openbike

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Most of us enjoyed putting together toys pieces when we were young or joined machine parts when adults. Now, imagine you could make the same with bicycles provided you do not work in a production line. Would not it be marvelous? Well, you can do it thanks to the Openbike project.

Raquel Ares and Iñaki Albistur are the founders of Arquimaña (Basque Country, Spain), an architecture study with digital manufacturing workshop since 2010. The idea under Arquimaña is simple and powerful: To create original bicycles from wood, plastic or aluminum, and by using common tools that you can find in a digital manufacturing workshop such as 3D impression or CNC cutting. Besides, they opt to free design, so whoever wants to contribute is welcomed.

Knowledge is the inner source of the Openbike project. Thus, what you need to do is go to the webpage project, select the REV bike model you want, download information and e-handbooks, and start creating your new bicycle. Arquimaña also encourages to modify the REV models so that more original vehicles are created and share with the Openbike project. Hence, the community increases month after month. If you access the webpage project, you will see all the REV models are built in wood. This way your bike will be more environmentally friendly.

Women and bikes

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Women represents more than half of human population, still their percentage in total bikers is less than half. Why is that?

It is clear that lack of bike infrastructures, mainly bike lines and their width, affects this behavior. Additional improvement on streets are also needed such as better lighting or perhaps excessive speed of actors which share common space. But, among all what makes it difficult for women is society. Yes, society because they suffer machismo, verbal aggression and even sexual harassment. If I ride my bicycle, nobody says me “You go on sidewalk!”, and I feel strong enough to recriminate a male car driver if he makes a dangerous maneuver which endangers my life. Moreover, lack of opportunities to learn how to ride a bike in the past influences it today. Besides, sadly who dedicates more time in tasks such as taking care of people, buying in the supermarket and housework are women which let them less free time for themselves in comparison with men.

As it comes to human behavior, what I see would increase the percentage of women on bikes is women empowering. So women, please, please, please do not mind to idiots, defend your space, ride your bikes in the middle of a car line because bicycles are traffic.

Secure cities and egalitarian societies will boom bike women.

The bike footprint

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Protecting the environment is urgent and challenging for human beings as numerous international administrations have been demonstrating, although there are still some dumb who denied it. Some firms are taken it seriously by doing specific actions, changing processes, looking for green providers, etc., while some others practice the greenwashing in order to try their customers believe they are green. What is important is not words or advertising, what really matters is deeds.

If we take into account the whole lifecycle of a bike, that way of transport contaminates even if we consider a traditional bicycle (ebikes pollute more). Think in the raw materials it needs, the industrial processes, logistics and so on. However, some companies are taking steps to fight against climate change. Trek Bicycle is implementing actions to diminish their footprint. Firstly, they hire a consultant firm to know its carbon footprint at worldwide level: 300,000 tonnes of CO₂ yearly. They discovered that pedaling 692 km in bike instead of in car compensates the carbon footprint of that bicycle. Secondly, once knowing these figures they cudgeled their brains and determined the 10 commandment of sustainability:

Get bigger the use of bicycles
Increase shared bicycles
Ban plastic in packaging
Build and protect new environmentally friendly paths
Create production factories with zero residues
Augment the use of alternative, green materials
Reduce the business trips
Boom the use of renewable energies
Group deliveries to stores
Diminish the use of airplane

From a firm point of view, I would personally add additional points like use green materials like wood, or recycled ones. Finally, public organizations and governments should strain to create and improve bike infrastructures.