You wouldn’t really think the Dutch needed public commercials trying to get more people to cycle, but there it is. Even if you don’t understand any Dutch (I don’t), it’s brilliant to watch these clips. Everyone is wearing everyday clothes. Cycling not as some sort of extreme sport, but as an everyday activity that is practical, fun, and sexy.
Nicola sent me this link. I have to admit I hadn’t heard of Kunstler before. His “Eyesore of the Month” and his blog seem well worth a look as well. It’s just a tiny bit ironic that this talk was apparently sponsored by BMW.
Last Thursday, we went to Velorution’s Pret a Rouler show. The idea is timely to say the least: a stab at the problem that some people think cycling and dressing smart don’t mix. It was a brilliant show, although as far as we could tell, some of the scheduled designers were missing. We notably weren’t able to spot Paul Smith, Rapha or the Teenage Girl Fashion Project. Checking just now, it seems that Paul Smith and Rapha have since been removed from the Pret a Rouler site, but I remember them being announced at some point. I was particularly looking forward to pestering Rapha to finally include women’s cuts in their range.
Needless to say, I especially liked that the show kicked off with the models stripping off fake cardboard helmets and face masks. Very nice stuff by Jan Cicmanec and by Guy Hills and Kirsty McDougall of Dashing Tweeds. A former courier turned fashion photographer and keen everyday urban transport cyclist, Hills together with weaver McDougall designed a range of tweed fabrics at the same time stylish and functional. Reflective stripes are woven directly into the fabric and are practically invisible by daylight, and the fabric is teflon coated to be water repellent.
The suits are cut to have knickerbocker style trousers and the jackets have an extensible section at the shoulder to give extra room for movement when bending over the handlebars, yet to still have a smart fit when off the bike. Check out their website for more cuts (not just for cycling).
I’ve also just seen that Velorution are finally starting to add pictures of the show to their blog. Hopefully they’ll add a few more; I’m shamelessly nicking this one (showing a few Dashing Tweeds suits and a women’s outfit by Jan Cicmanec):
Well, you might say, the Dutch and the Germans have been cycling in everyday, even elegant clothing all along. As Seth Stevenson (who’s presumably from the U.S.) writes about his impressions of the Dutch cycling culture on Slate:
I can’t tell you how absurd it looked—and how utterly gleeful it made me—as these older couples, in prim evening wear, mounted their bikes and rode side-by-side into the night. They whooshed past me, pedaling with ease, and their conversations carried on undisturbed. The women’s dresses fluttered about their ankles; the men’s cigarette smoke trailed behind them.
So why would you need any kind of special clothing at all, even if it looks smart? One answer is that even in Germany, many people who have to dress formally for the office shun taking the bike, or make excuses for any minor drizzle.
Another answer is distance. At least for Germany, I can confirm that most utility cycling is done only on short trips (below 5 km or so) and at a relatively slow speed. This is at least reinforced by the strong prevalence of mandatory segregated cycle lanes, which cyclists have to use whenever they accompany a road, and which are beloved by many Germans for their purported (though largely illusory) safety benefits, but which invariably force you to cycle much more slowly than you would be able to on the adjacent road.
Here in expansive London, trips can easily exceed 5 km. Hackney to Leicester Square is just over 8 km. Yet, cycling on the road, I am easily faster than traffic even without exerting myself, so cycling is my top choice to get there. For these distances, though, it is nice having clothes that accommodate some of the cycling “issues”, such as the the slightly bent forward position or the open chain on many sportier bikes. Having jackets and tops cut to be ever so slightly longer in back is a nice touch that I appreciate even when trundling along on my upright Dutch roadster.
So I’d argue that even the cycling culture in countries such as Germany could benefit from this kind of fashion, particularly by prying many suburb-to-town distances out of the firm grip of cars and overcrowded trains, and by transforming the stubborn notion that smart office wear cannot possibly also be functional.
Too bad no-one told the San Francisco game company Three Rings Design. (As a downside, the rack below seems to accommodate very few bicycles. I also don’t see a straightforward way to lock the bike to the rack.)
Clicking on the picture takes you to the full set of pictures at wired.com.
Granted, this is a game company, so they may be able to break out of norms more easily than an insurance company. Still, compare this to many bleak and dreary boxes in which companies expect their employees to be cheerful and creative, boxes in which these employees often have to spend upwards of one third of their waking hours. How much of office space “design” is even any conscious effort that merits that name, and how much is just thoughtless convention? But if so much of it is thoughtless convention, why do some people insist that dull and grey is what office space needs to look like, and that for example it’s not possible to use some of the space for bicycles?
This past Sunday, 17 June, the British Heart Foundation once again organized its yearly London to Brighton Bike Ride. It’s a charity ride: you sign up for a small fee, BHF uses that to organize the event, and you get friends and family to sponsor you, i.e. donate to the BHF. 27,000 people cycled from London to Brighton. All those people then have to get back to London — most of them don’t cycle back. Taking the train might be an obvious option. Surely there will be special train services for such a special event? Wrong. This is how First Capital Connect, the private rail company serving that route, handled the event, according to information on their website:
“The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is once again sponsoring this year’s London to Brighton bike ride.
The event will take place on Sunday 17 June. Unfortunately, First Capital Connect will not be carrying bicycles (including folding cycles) on any of its services on this day. This is because our trains do not have guard’s vans and capacity to cannot [sic] cater for the number of bicycles expected to travel. However, the BHF is making provision for the transportation of bicycles by road to the start line in London from Brighton, Haywards Heath and Crawley, and back from Brighton to Haywards Heath, Crawley, Coulsdon and Clapham Common at the end of the ride.
The BHF is accepting bookings for this service until 28th May. For more information on the BHF’s transportation service, please click here.”
Note that this means First Capital Connect did not carry any bicycles (including folders!) on any of its services on that Sunday, including for example London–Cambridge, going the opposite direction (looking for such a service was how Tony Raven, who posted this to uk.rec.cycling, found out about the no-bicycles policy).
Contrast this idea of service with this video, also linked in the uk.rec.cycling thread and originally posted in Brian Arner’s blog:
It’s all nice and well that BHF have organized transport back to London, if FCC don’t have the capacity. However, the video above clearly shows that it’s not a natural law that train companies don’t have this capacity. And if BHF have organized for the bulk of the riders to get back to London, it would have been a nice touch by FCC to carry those who maybe failed to book a seat in time (the BHF deadline being more than 2 weeks before the event). And what about cyclists out for a weekend ride who ended up in Brighton, who may have had nothing to do with the BHF ride? Or those innocently wishing to go to Cambrige? Moreover, the ban on folding bicycles is surely total nonsense — many suitcases are bigger than a folded Brompton. Why not just ban all luggage then?