Self-made Sunday: paint the frame

You're right, today is not Sunday. But hey, I took these pictures on Sunday, so I hope it still counts. In fact, I even saw the motif on Saturday on my way to the grocery shop...

What? Well, a bicycle!
Nothing special, you say, you see bicycles every day?
Well, not this one!

This one is special because it is personalized. Here I present you the one and only tiger bike.

  

Winter cycling

This year has been snowy and cold everywhere in Europe. I've heard news of snow in Spain and Italy, and Austria received first snow before Turku, Finland. Actually, we don't always get a good snowy and cold winter here either. A couple of years ago there was no termic winter (temperature drops permanently below zero) here at all, but that was exceptional. I have never experienced such a poor winter before, and it really sucked. However, this year has been delightfully snowy and cold, we received permanent snow cover a few weeks back, earlier than usually (I have to mention that in Turku the statistical average for that is in the Christmas Eve :D). So, considering my little winter cycling experiment, the conditions have been ideal. Apart from the raging blizzard outside as I'm writing this.

In the middle: walking on frozen Kallavesi lake, Kuopio; other images: modifications for the winter

Animals on bikes

Cycling doesn't have to be serious. Have some fun too!

What about decorating your bike with a duck?
Or a zebra... ehm giraffe? (see also meligrosa's pic of the very same thing)
Butterflies are a quite common too:

In Budapest I even came across a ladybird and a hedgehog...

Well, I've also seen lions, snakes and other exotic animals on bikes. There seems to be no limit to creativity :).

Tom Turbo -- the bicycle with the 111 tricks

Most kids in Austria know Tom Turbo very well. Tom Turbo is a kind of a bicycle, but not an ordinary one. He's a bicycle with a face, that can think, talk and drive around on it's own. But that's not the only thing he does. He observes, analyzes and solves crimes. He's a bicycle detective.

Tom Turbo is an invention by Thomas Brezina, one of Austrians most famous authors for children's books. There are dozens of adventures of the Knickerbocker gang that I have read when I was a kid. And most of these stories are actually known worldwide as his books have been translated into dozens of languages and even been picturized.

The wonder bicycle Tom Turbo is more interesting for younger kids. I remember that the books contain a lot of colorful pictures and gadgets. But it's not just the books. Since 1993 we even have a TV series starring Tom (Turbo) and Tom (Thomas Brezina) where they investigate different cases.

I think Tom Turbo is such a cool invention. It is obvious that a bicycle is the most suitable mode of transport for children as it brings them wherever they want to – independently of adults, and fast too. Or could you imagine kids to go through adventures while they have to be driven around by their parents?

Although I grew up with KITT in Knight Rider, I do prefer Tom Turbo ;-). Watch him in action if you like:

Just a lovely colored frame

Well, I don't even know what bike that is, but I just liked the color so much that I had to take some pictures. It was parked outside the university.

DIY guards

Yes, I know. We are not really famous for stylish bicycles in Austria -- neither the bike produces nor most of the riders seem to have heard much about elegancy. But hey, we use our ugly trekking bikes to get around! I could think of worse things :-).

A few weeks ago I came across some -- as it seemed to me -- quickly knocked together mud- and chain guards. Well, actually it's a very creative and easy way to create something that answers the purpose. Functionality first, loveliness later. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder anyhow. Personally I consider DIY to be quite fancy.

Low rider or what men really want

Yesterday in the city center I've seen a guy with a gorgeous low rider or -- as I also like to call it -- a chopper. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, but I was just overwhelmed by that bike (not the man). It was painted in a beautiful metallic red color, the guy wore a strange blue suit. They just matched up perfectly!

Check out these 14 pimped bikes (cool stuff, trust me) to get more ideas on the topic and maybe some ideas of how you could pimp your own bike.

This is really some kind of a new cult and I certainly wouldn't mind if the cars as status symbol would be replaced by some fantastic low riders. These bikes certainly have a lot of potential -- a recently published marvelous German rap video by Skero ft. Kamp proves that too. They sing about cruising around Vienna. Even if you don't understand German it's worth watching because of all the cool bikes involved and the lovely scenery :-). The title "Fuß vom Gas" simply means "Foot off gas [pedal]". Enjoy!

Red paint

This is a beautiful mixte I spotted in the city center. It seems abandoned because the rear fender is broken but was not removed (plus, I've passed the bike a couple of times by now and it still looks the same). The bike is all red, except the grips and the saddle. The lock is red, and even the rims and the spokes are! Well, the paint job wasn't carried out very thoroughly though and the color already peels off. But I really like the idea of having a bike in one and only one color. I find the metallic red particularly gorgeous.


Anybody ever repainted a bike? What do I need to consider if I want to do that, and what kind of paint should I use?

A beautiful ring

What could that be? For my bike it's the bicycle bell. Unfortunately mine is not as beautiful as this one.


By the way, I love this video.

Dotted bicycles

Yes, I must admit it. I'm a bike spotter. I love looking at bikes. I scan my surrounding in view of cool parked and ridden bicycles. It's not about new and high-tech bikes though. That would be really boring, wouldn't it? No, I love to look at customized bikes. And glamorous accessories. Whoever accompanies me around town will occasionally hear an astonishing "Oh, look at that gorgeous [...] bike over there", "Wow, what a lovely basket/bell/saddlebag ..." and so on. I will try to take at least some pictures of such discoveries and post them with a "customized" label.

I already showed you a picture of a decoupage bicycle some time back. Today I present the red white-dotted Puch bicycle. I saw it once at the west train station and then again a few times in front of the math department. Another time I saw a girl riding a different, more modern, glaring red bike -- but again with white dots.

Dots are in, get some yourself!

Customized bike

On Saturday I saw this lovely personalized bike in front of the Weltcafé. I guess it belongs to a huge soccer fan ;-).

Weird bikes at the bike festival

On Saturday I rode to the 10th bike festival with a friend. It was a lovely sunny and warm day and it was absolutely packed! We got a lot of information about cycling in Vienna (like bike maps and one-way ponchos for free), trips to Lower and Upper Austria, the Neusiedler Lake, Slovakia etc., got our bikes registered by the police, saw some new bikes (e.g. cool e-bikes) as well as second-hand bikes (unfortunately they didn't really have a good catch in my size), watched parts of the Vienna Air King contest (an international dirt jump contest), bought bicycle-buttons of the great Motmot Shop and could try out some really weird bikes: tall bikes, penny-farthing bikes (high wheeler), swing bikes, fixies that are used to play bike polo and some other constructions that I can't even name.

Here are some impressions and us on some of these cool bikes. I can assure you that it was a lot of fun :-). It felt a bit strange to cycle back home on my "normal" bike though..

Handlebar is at the wrong position	In the beginning I didn't figure out how to ride the swing bike, but in the end it somehow worked :-).	Same problem with the tall bike which was even taller than me -- but once I got on it (without anybody else's help!), it was just awesome!
A bike with two gears: 1st -- pedaling forwards, 2nd -- pedaling backwards. Got it?!	Cheap second-hand bikes	Old bike with old bell and old front brake
Actually a bike for three	Amazing jumps	Although I don't want an e-bike, they might be useful to others.

Windy Wien

Finally, the sun is here. Hurrah! Well, it's also quite windy and that's both a blessing and a curse. They good thing about it is that the air in Vienna isn't all that bad, cause the wind blows away most of the air pollution. Tailwinds are welcome anytime of course. And a light breeze is always refreshing in the summer.

The bad thing is the hard work against the wind, especially uphill. Sometimes it's very difficult to balance the bike. Flying objects (e.g. paper, leaves, trash, small branches, dust) have to be avoided. And it's much colder -- at the moment we have about 5°C, but the windchill factor is still below 0°C. Anybody else struggeling with head and side wind?

Anyhow. Although rain and snow is forecast for this week, I still believe in spring. The blue Oma bike with the daffodil has told me so :-).