Author Archives: jm

Openbike

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.

Shimanami Kaido

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Is there a place in which you can cross a see without stopping pedaling? Yes, there is at least one with an amazing infrastructure which allows it. Concretely, it is located in Japan and the inner see is called Seto. Throughout 70 km and 8 islands, you can enjoy impressive landscapes and the local culture. It was inaugurated in 1979 and connects the island of Honshu, which contains Tokyo among other cities, on the North with Shikoku on the South. The path crosses other islands (Mukaishima, Innoshima, Ikuchi, Omi, Hakata and Oshima) in between.

In some places bicycles share space with cars in wide, two-way, physically separated lines whereas in others exclusive sections for bikes make happy bikers. Other dedicated infrastructures like access ramps complete the bike like.

But pedaling is not the only pleasure of these islands. Cycle-tourists also appreciate nature and Japanese cuisine and they sometimes opt for spending days in deep knowing every island they ride on by spending time contemplating the docks and orchard fields.

Some tips:

You can make the Shimanami Kaido with your own bicycle or you can hire one in the cities of Onomichi or Imabari since both are tourist oriented
Moreover, there is a shared bike service between islands called Shinamami Rental Bike
As it comes to weather, the Winter is really cold and windy. Summer is warm and humid, and typhoons should appear at the end of August and in September. Thus, Spring and Autumn are the most interesting seasons in which to pedal the Shimanami Kaido
Be aware of the train Japanese law if you need to use this way of transport
If you want something livelier, try the Cycling Shimanami. The organization proposes a non-competitive ride from 30 to 140 km in which thousands of people pedal as a mass. 7,000 people was the limit of the last edition back on the October 30, 2022

Blanca Fernández

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Blanca Fernández, Irún, Spain, has been living in London for more than four decades. She started long rides on bicycles back in 2015. First, she pedaled on a Surly Long Haul Trucker and crossed Romania, Serbia, Greece, Turkey, the country Georgia, Armenia and finally the planned Iran. Here, she discover the Pamir mountainous area which is one of the high mountain most impressive of Asia. At the beginning of this journey, she did not have any idea on how or when to reach her target, though she new the travel would lasting. Why? Because she affirms she always wanted more in each and every ride she had done. Moreover, she had the clear idea that the most important is not the start and the end of a ride, but rather what is between them.

Thus, she did not stop in the Pamir mountainous area. She continued to China, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. She experienced heavy rains, snow, windy days, but no climate conditions stopped her. Two years, 22,000 km, 23 countries, 687 days in total until she went back to London as a result of the Brexit. Her daughters asked her to come due to red tape and so did her. However, in march 2018 she kept on cycling in order to cover Africa from The Cairo, Egypt. Then, she rode on Sudan, Uganda, Malawi, Botswana, South Africa, Angola, Benin and Morocco. Differences in languages were easily overcame by proper gestures. What amazes her is meeting people from distant lands and share views and ideas. At the moment of writing this post, she has pedaled for more than 44,000 km.

Aware supermarkets

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Urban mobility has been changing from a model based almost exclusively on cars to a more sustainable one with special attention to bicycles. Regarding sustainability, every person who lives in cities in the most advanced countries realizes small changes at diverse levels such as urban architecture, streets, infrastructures, pieces of news, companies which want a better future for everybody, you name it. It is one interesting aspect the fact that some supermarkets have introduced bike facilities in their site boundaries by adding bicycle racks. This way bikers are attracted to buy in those bike-friendly supermarkets. After all, there is only the need to change one or two car parking by, preferably, inverted U shape bike racks.

Fancy Women Bike Ride

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Women and bikes are necessary actors in streets as key factors to diminish machismo and pollution. Following this spirit, a group of girl friends met through social nets in order to pedal the downtown of Izmir, Turkey, in 2013. They opened this event to every woman who wanted to spend some happy time since proposed rules such as participants were dressed up or their bikes being decorated with flowers were compulsory. The event was a success and more than 500 women spent the day laughing and making new friends. Indeed, the Fancy Women Bike Ride took place the September 22^nd, the Day Without Cars.

The Fancy Women Bike Ride is an organized group leaded by Pinar and Sema Gür which is supported by local volunteers all around Turkey. Participants ride their bicycles by free on a previously decided two hours route. If you contact to Pinar and Sema, they provide you with banners, flyers and knowledge on how to organize it no matter which city you live on.

The Fancy Women Bike Ride proposed two clear targets: to motivate women to use bikes in cities (and villages) and convince local authorities to create permanent bike infrastructures and services so that pedaling was a more secure activity. All in all, they demand it with a big smile.

In September 19^th, 2021 Fancy Women Bike Ride was celebrated in more than 150 cities of 30 countries in which thousands of women claimed for their right to move on bikes in a happy, kind, secure way. Good for you!

Batteries

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One of the main advantages of bicycles over cars is the low environmental impact they produce. However, as it comes to electric bikes (as well as other electric vehicles) there is the issue of the batteries not only in the production step in the whole object life span, but also the end of life. This last stage causes negative environmental impacts when not following individual guides made by some experts in the field.

As time goes by, it seems like the e-bike market is increasing year by year. For instance, 4,5 million of electric bikes were sold just in Europe in 2020. This is a good idea specially when electric bikes substitute pollutant cars or motorcycles. Nevertheless, the traditional bicycle is always better than the electric one at least from the environmental perspective because of the energy it consumes (person-originated vs probably not renewable energy) and the batteries.

At the time of writing this post, there is not an international guide on how to treat batteries from e-bikes at the end of life. Some countries welcome bikers to deposit them in recycling points whereas others make bike stores responsible for the correct treatment of them, usually with agreements with expert firms in the treatment of gadgets batteries. Logic says it is better to trust in such companies due to the fact that they are used to manipulate batteries and extract its components to give them a proper end of life under the most challenging quality and environmental standards. Under no circumstances should you manipulate batteries since they can emit poisoning gas or even get burnt.

Finally, what can I do in order to expand the battery of my e-bike? Here you have some tips:

Do not lock your electric bike under the warm sun
Keep your battery at medium temperatures when not using
Keep it at medium charge (30% – 60%) so that you avoid an important discharge which would seriously deteriorate it

The Goonies

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What have you thought when reading the title of this post: The Goonies? You have probably thought about adventure, freedom, friendliness, risks and nostalgia. The Goonies was an iconic movie in the 80’s which marked a whole generation with other materials by George Lucas, John Carpenter or Stephen King. The four friends plus a three-people group of teenagers faced an impressive quest: To find a treasure of gold and diamonds which was hidden by the pirate One-Eyed Willy. The magical quest starts and finishes with bikes as powerful symbols. Remember some other movies from the 80’s such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, It or BMX Bandits.

Nostalgia is also powerful since we can say that The Goonies is the seed of the series Stranger Things. Besides, nostalgia made Youngbuck to create an internet forum called BMX Musem (https://bmxmuseum.com/) in which he wants to get the necessary accessory to build the four bicycles that appear in The Goonies like the fabulous Wester Flyer Invader Mag of Mickey.

The Goonies, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, BMX Bandits and some other movies from past decades in which actors and actresses move by pedaling are impossible to make because of cities which have made compulsory bike helmet no matter the biker age. Most of urban bikers have learnt riding a bike without wearing it. Most of us do not pedal like mad people and respect other actors in street, specially the pedestrians. Besides, making it mandatory reduces the number of cyclists as were the cases of Australia and New Zealand. Moreover, in a crash between a bike and a car, the decisive factor in determining whether or not the biker dyes is not the helmet, but the car speed. Numerous studies demonstrate that if the car speed is above 50 km/h (31 mph), most of the time the cyclist dyes. Thus, authorities should focus on preventing too fast cars by using radars, speed bumps or winding car line designs.

Fernando Traverso

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In March 24^th, 2001 actual size, black bicycles started appearing in Rosario, Argentina. At the beginning, it was a surprise since nobody knew who had painted them or whether they had a special meaning. Then, one day it was discovered that Fernando Traverso had made them. Fernando Traverso is a plastic artist who militated in the Juventud Peronista in his youth at the same time the bloody dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla took place. Among the abundant crimes it committed such as economic and juridical issues, there was the multiple human rights violations.

Fernando Traverso painted 350 black bicycles and this figure links with one of the darker episodes in the Rosario history. 350 is precisely the number of disappeared people from Rosario under the dictatorship. The Argentinian repression is known first for kidnapping people, then for torturing and finally for disappearing thousands of Argentinian.

There is a red number bellow every black bicycle indicating the number of bike in the series. Not surprisingly, cycles play a central role in this Traverso work. The reason why is that is because an episode in his youth. One day in the grey streets of the dictatorship, he was walking when he came across a friend who was riding a bike. Traverso surprised since he did not say hello to him and after a few minutes he found his friend’s bicycle locked to a tree. The next day, the same bike remained in the very same spot. This detail impressed Fernando Traverso and after some time he determined his friend had been a victim of the dictatorship. He had been murdered.

The project was awarded by the Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan B. Castagnino in december of 2003.