Learning how to ride a bike

In Mussoorie -- a small town in the foothills of the Himalaya ranges -- I had the pleasure of watching a little boy taking the first steps towards becoming a cyclist. He was on a pink-and-yellow bike that was actually too small for him. Attached to the rear wheel there seemed to be a construction for training wheels, but the wheels were missing. His father walked beside him and gently held on to the seat/backrest.

To Paris by train

Since beginning of this week I'm in Paris, France. Not for a holiday, but that doesn't matter. I still intend to enjoy it as much as possible :).

I was traveling by train all the way from Vienna, which took me about 12 hours (including a stopover in Frankfurt, Germany). Some might say that this is too long for a train ride and prefer to fly. I love train rides. According to my grandma I already enjoyed my first big train ride without parents at the age of 3 (we moved houses between two towns in Austria). My granny feared that I would start to cry because I would miss my close family, but instead I happily looked outside the window, pointed at sheep and giggled.

IC (Intercity) train of the German railway company DB at Frankfurt train station

Finnish cycling culture

People around the world have different attitudes towards cycling. The attitudes even vary within Europe. In some cultures cycling is a sport, in others it is a way to get around. Some people do it just for fun. There are also presumptions on who should ride a bike and who should not. I've been writing here more or less regularly since the last fall, and so far haven't gotten around to tell you about what cycling is and who ride a bike in my culture. So I'll tell you about that today.

Let me start with how common it is. This is the view from my front door.

Special spring cycling moments

You may remember my enthusiastic post about meeting friends while cycling and that being able to have a little chat with another cyclist at a red light is a great advantage of not being trapped in a car. Well, it's not entirely true that conversations with people in cars cannot happen (and I don't mean the common "Get out of my way" shouts). But see for yourself:

A new plus and a new minus in the 9th district

Since a few days I live in the 9th district in Vienna. Generally, it has a dense network of bicycle infrastructure -- a lot of bike racks and a lot of bike lanes. In fact, too many bike lanes. And some of the new ones in horrible positions: in the door zone, and on cobblestones. Who the hell plans something like that? Certainly not a regular cyclist... By the way, in Austria we have the law that any bicycle infrastructure available must be used, so on many such "bike lanes" I am forced to either ride illegal or unsafe.

On the other hand, I can also report something good.

Traffic in India

Beep! Beep! Apart from left-hand traffic this is the first thing one notices after coming to India. It’s the cars, autorickshaws and motorbikes blowing their horns on the crowded roads. Unlike Europe, however, this noise level does not indicate stress or anger. People honk for various reasons -- before and while overtaking, to indicate a turn, before stopping or changing lanes.

Bikes of my life

My first bike was a little and blue. I think I was around 5 years old then. I was very fond of it. I don't remember much of that time, but there's one memory concerning that bike. The memory is vague, I'm not even sure whether the bike was actually mine or my twin sister's. Anyway, we were living in Eskilstuna, Sweden, in a suburban block of flats in a Finnish district. There were some kids that often bullied us and other girls on the block. The bad boys, as we called them, stole that bike, and I was very upset. I can't remember if we got the bike back or not.

When we moved back to Finland, getting new bike took a while. Most of my life we lived in rather small communities and suburbs that had schools, so there was no need for any other transportation besides your feet. One of my home towns was Outokumpu, a town of less than 10'000 people. The school was 2 kilometers from my home, so I walked. My mother was unemployed and single, we couldn't afford bikes anyway. However, some of my friends had bikes, and I often bummed rides on their rack. In the wintertime we sometimes walked, sometimes skied, but my all-time favorite was the kicksled! We had two of them and the downhill on the way back home was so much fun in a clear winter afternoon. You stand on the skids and kick, and you can give a ride to a friend in the chair. I would still love to use one, but road maintenance is usually too thorough in big cities. However, this winter has been so snowy, that kicksled would be more practical than bike. Imagine parking a kicksled next to the bike racks at the university :D

A kicksled, or a kicker. Much more fun than walking!

The city as playground

I don't see many teenagers around here riding bicycles. Are they (or their parents) too afraid? Is it not necessary to get around because public transport is good enough (or parents drive them around)? Or is it just not cool to do so?

I remember being made fun of by other kids when I cycled to and from the grammar school in the neighboring town. Maybe it was because I didn't attend the extended elementary school in my town as most kids did (Hauptschule in German, a school from 10-14, but without a general qualification for university entrance -- see Wikipedia for an explanation). But actually I believe it was because of that stupid looking bicycle helmet that my mum made me wear. The "bicycle helmet fashion" in my area started in the early 90s, and the first helmets were really really ugly and uncomfortable. It created a very negative image of cycling amongst young people.

Better motivations for kids to cycle are those fancy trial riders, e.g. Danny MacAskill from the Inspired Bicycles Team in Edinburgh:


Cycling is really fun, and can be very challenging and cool if need be :).

Cycling makes you more intelligent!

Well, this isn't something I have cooked up. I read it in the news today: "Sich bewegen bringt doppelt Segen" (to take exercise is a double blessing). The article is based on a scientific study carried out in Sweden and claims that sport increases intelligence and slows down aging.

by Kevin Saunders

For more details see the article "Cardiovascular fitness is associated with cognition in young adulthood" (2009, abstract, full text). I just copied some of the results:

"During early adulthood, a phase in which the central nervous system displays considerable plasticity and in which important cognitive traits are shaped, the effects of exercise on cognition remain poorly understood. We performed a cohort study of all Swedish men born in 1950 through 1976 who were enlisted for military service at age 18 (N = 1,221,727). [...] Physical fitness and intelligence performance data were collected during conscription examinations and linked with other national databases for information on school achievement, socioeconomic status, and sibship. [...] Cardiovascular fitness, as measured by ergometer cycling, positively associated with intelligence after adjusting for relevant confounders [...] In contrast, muscle strength was not associated with cognitive performance. Cross-twin cross-trait analyses showed that the associations were primarily explained by individual specific, non-shared environmental influences (≥80%), whereas heritability explained less than 15% of covariation. Cardiovascular fitness changes between age 15 and 18 y predicted cognitive performance at 18 y. Cox proportional-hazards models showed that cardiovascular fitness at age 18 y predicted educational achievements later in life. These data substantiate that physical exercise could be an important instrument for public health initiatives to optimize educational achievements, cognitive performance, as well as disease prevention at the society level."

So let our young people cycle (to school)!

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 :).

Are you a good bike rider?

Two days ago I saw on TV a new iniative from both the Catalan Traffic Department and the local government, mainly addressed to kids, which aims at teaching them the rules for cycling in different environments.

The initiative has the shape of a website called "Bicicla't" (Bicycle yourself) , which is an invented verb that would mean -as far as I understand- "teach yourself to cycle". And one of the best ways to teach oneself to cycle is not really being aware that you are learning but actually doing so. For children, the best way to learn is undoubtably by playing.

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:

Putumayo and bicycles

Putumayo is my favorite world music record label. But their CDs don't just contain great music, they also have lovely covers that go with it. Here I've picked some of them that feature cyclists and bicycles as an integral part of life. Simple but impressive. I like it.

Putumayo Kids presents music for children.

Kids on bikes

While for the average kid in Vienna it is normal to go to school by public transport, the "wealthy" families chauffeur their kids around in huge cars. I really don't understand this concept of bringing the kids after a certain age, especially in a city with such great public transport and short ways. This way they don't get to learn how to use public transport independently, loose touch to their schoolmates, put on weight because they don't get enough exercise and so on. Obesity becomes a bigger and bigger issue anyhow, so why make it worse?

And it can't be because the parents are worried about their kids' safety as most of them don't mind to block bike lanes, sidewalks and crosswalks directly in front of schools -- making it impossible for pupils to feel safe.

I think a city should be safe enough for kids to ride bikes. And I think parents can achieve that by simply not creating unnecessary car traffic in front of schools. So in fact I think the city already is safe enough, but it's the people that aren't ready for a change. Well, car addiction is certainly not easy to overcome, but they could try to get bike addicted instead. And if they still want to make namby-pambies out of their children, they can bring them by bike too :-).

By the way, kids are allowed to cycle on the sidewalks in Austria till the age of 12. But already at the age of 10 they can do a "bicycle license" which allows them to cycle on the road earlier. That's a great thing because this way the children are taught the traffic rules, hand signals etc. and they also have to pass a practical test. Then they can take responsibility for themselves.

I think mobile autonomy is far too underrated. To make a long story short: relying on someone (or something) else to get to and from places is just no fun. But cycling is :-).

Kirschblütenrennen

Last weekend a special bicycle race took place here in Upper Austria. It is called Kirschblütenrennen (cherry blossom race) and I think it is one of the oldest races still run in my region.

In 1984 it was the first bicycle race I had ever seen. I must admit that it didn't impress me much. I was rather bored by standing around at the road side, watching colorfully dressed men riding up a hill. Albeit it was a very steep hill, so what?

Years later, in my first season of bicycle racing, I happened to enter the race with the scope of experience of two or three races earlier that year, and I was ill-prepared for this one: To my surprise the hill had to be crossed twice. I fell back behind the peloton in the first climb and abandoned in the second. On Sunday I had a kind of flashback, especially when watching 12- to 15-year-old boys and girls merely flying up to the mountain standing with amazing speed.

A question of balance

Actually, on the trains from Spain to Vienna I couldn't cut my videos cause all the trains (except the night train) didn't have sockets and my laptop was shortly dead. Instead, I read my new book again, "Das Geheimnis des Fahrradhändlers" (the secret of the bicycle dealer) by the cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé. It was masterly translated to German by Patrick Süskind whoose book "Perfume" you might know. The original French title of Sempé's book is "Raoul Taburin". I don't know if it's also available in English and other languages, but I guess it is.

Anyhow, the book is about a famous bicycle dealer that can repair all kinds of damages and is therefore highly regarded in his village. He has a secret though -- he can't ride a bicycle. First he tries to avoid bicycles and comes up with all kinds of excuses, but at one point he can't keep out of harm's way anymore..

I won't tell more in case you want to read it yourself. It's a nice little book though, more like a fairy tale with lovely cartoons and therefore also suitable for children.

It made me think too. I have many friends in Vienna that don't own a bicycle and who, according to themselves, can't ride a bicycle. Maybe they learned it as a child, but they never cycled in their teens and later.

But it's not a problem if you can't ride a bicycle, cause you can always learn it!

There are two simple steps:

1. cycling as a question of balance
2. cycling in traffic

The first is just a matter of training. I remember that I had training wheels on my bike when I learned it at the age of 3. Nowadays, this seems to be not the preferred method anymore. Here, the Puky learner bike is state-of-the-art for children. Choose a park or a quiet area where cycling is allowed. Sometimes it's handy to have a second person that can hold you in the beginning and give advice. Read also how to ride a bicycle (but please don't consider the things they think you need -- they only constrain you).

For the second step, make sure that you know the traffic regulations well, especially if there are exceptions for cyclists. It's generally not enough to hold a driver's license, cause for that you only had to deal with car-related regulations. As there's much less traffic on weekends (especially on Sundays) it's advisable to start riding in traffic then. Assure that you already feel confident with braking and hand signaling before you hit the road though. You may also want to read an earlier post of mine about positioning on the road.

Why the heck am I riding a mountain bike?

Well, this is just a rhetorical question. Of course I know the answer. But it's probably not so obvious to other people since I nowadays only commute in the city and a mountain bike actually isn't the right mode of transport for that. And that's also one of the reasons why I think about buying another bike, a proper city bike..

My bike doesn't have a name. I have it for more than 12 years and it never had one. By now it's already like a part of me (or the other way round), like in "The third policeman" by Flann O'Brien as Maff would say. So if I would have to name my bike I would just call it "Anna's bike" or even just "Anna". Ok, it's not so cool as others have great names for their bikes like Elisa M's Mick Jagger or Dottie's Smurfette, but I can live with it. Maybe I will name my next bike.

Twelve years ago I was still a teenager. Till the age of fourteen I commuted to grammar school with my old and very heavy city bike and a ~10kg schoolbag in my rear bike basket. And all that on a ~8km round-trip with a long and steep hill in the middle. It was quite hard, but I enjoyed it a lot cause running to the school bus and squeezing into that (there really was a lot of squeezing involved - once a schoolmate of mine was jammed in the back door for quite a while until the driver realized it) wasn't very relaxing. Cycling -- even on a federal road without bike path -- was a lot of fun. Especially since a few girls of us rode together.

Ok, why a mountain bike? The city bike was just crap. I hated it because it was so heavy and I had to work so hard to get up that hill. And I wanted to be cool which in the 90s meant that I needed a mountain bike. At that time aluminium frames became popular, but they were still thick and ugly so that I decided to buy a steel-framed bike, namely a red Kästle Degree. It was my first (and only) adult bike and I had to pay half of it from my own pocket money. Unlike contemporary mountain bikes mine only has a short suspension fork in the front and no disc brakes. Of course I had to buy all the additional stuff extra (lights, reflectors, fenders, bell, stand). I still don't have a rear rack, but I could attach one to it if I wanted to. As I started to attend a secondary technical college ~25km away I stopped cycling to school anyway and commuted by train. I mainly used my bike to meet up with friends or for recreational rides. And since I did a lot of off-road biking at the time, a mountain bike was actual the perfect choice.

Myself and my bike at the Danube Island

When I moved to Vienna I took my bike with me. In the beginning I had everything within walking distance so I didn't use it regularly, but e.g. on the weekends for some trips to the Danube Island (a very popular recreational area in Vienna). It was in 2005 when I moved to a flat further outside and started to ride my bike every day to get to the university. Of course as a student I used to hold a cheap public transport ticket, but the trams were slow and no fun. Nowadays I also do my shopping by bike, and it would sometimes be useful to have a rear rack. Other than that I'm quite happy to have a mountain bike in the winter as I have a much better grip on the snow with the fat tires. They are also practical if I can't avoid the horrible cobbled pavement in the city center.

The last time I used my bike for real mountain biking was in the previous summer in Switzerland. There are quite some mountain bike tracks in and around Vienna too, and I might try some of them this year. But besides that I already think about my new city bike (that yet has to be found). One bike isn't enough to meet all demands anyway :-).