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