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!

Do it yourself!

A piece of art on the wall of the bike flea market in Aurinkotehdas

I don't know much about mechanics. Actually I'm quite hopeless when it comes to fixing anything, especially anything as complex as bikes. That is why bike kitchens are awesome!

There is a multipurpose center called Aurinkotehdas ("Sun Factory") in Turku. The headquarters of the Uusi tuuli ry non-governmental organization is located there, and that's also where some of its activities take place. Its probably most famous project was to build the ship Estelle that nowadays sails around the world buying fair trade products and bringing them back to Finland. They also have a bicycle flea market that has a do-it-yourself day every Thursday. They teach people how to fix their bikes free of charge.

Estelle

In the past, when my bike needed to be fixed, I took her into a bike shop. (You know, fathers don't usually teach these things to their daughters...) Well, not anymore. I've been to the bike kitchen a few times this fall bugging the mechanicians with stupid questions and they have tought me loads of new things: I barely even knew how to change a tire until they told me how it is properly done. Among other things, they tought me how to fix and adjust a handbrake and straighten wheels. Last week a mechanician showed me how to make a makeshift spare part to fix the broken seat. A few weeks back an exchange intern fixed the brakes of my bike and thought me new things about bike anatomy. The next time winter tires need to be changed because black ice is beginning to appear on the roads.

A mechanician working on a bike after the rush hour on the do-it-yourself day

Here's a link to the Vienna bike kitchen and a video about Hobart bike kitchen (BTW: I love her shirt!). Care to share your experiences about similar projects?

Vintage bike store vs. car park

In Vienna there is an old regulation that requires new houses to have a certain minimum amount of places to park cars (e.g., for each flat at least one parking space). Whenever old houses are rebuild or get extensions that law has to be applied as well. This time it hits a vintage bike store in Mariahilf, one of the central districts of Vienna and a busy shopping area. Since the house gets a roof extension, the bike shop has to be removed in order to build a garage. From next week onwards the Radlager will be history. By the way, there already is a nearby car park that is never full, but law is law. A very sad story. This parking regulation actually goes back to 1939 and Hitler's plan of a car-centric society – and yes, it is still called Reichsgaragenordnung and in use (and not only in Germany and Austria). Even nowadays most politicians don't yet see the need to abolish this law.

Good-bye lovely bike store. Hello car park :-(.

Apparently, and that is sad too, there is no quite as powerful regulation for bicycle parking. Although new houses need to have a “sufficiently big” room for bicycle and buggy parking (see §119 (5) of the Viennese building law) the “sufficiently big” is yet undetermined and a very elastic term. While the car parks that have to be built are mostly empty, the rooms for bicycle parking (if existent) are hardly ever big enough.

Just that you get an idea – these pictures show how “sufficiently big” was interpreted in the house I live in (18 flats). Do the math yourself to see how many people have to store their bikes and buggies elsewhere. And yes, that stupid column in the center prevents from easy pulling in and out (note that the door opens inwards too). In fact, one can only store two bicycles for everyday use in there, the rest is trapped.

Sufficient bike parking? Left: an older picture before the big "muck out", Right: after the "muck out"

Old houses don't even need to have a dedicated area to park bicycles and it's often forbidden to leave the bikes in the staircase or inner courtyard. Most people living in one of those (and most houses in Vienna are in fact old) just have to drag the bikes upstairs and store them inside the flat. Elevators are of course rare too, so that is really a pain.

Please guys, wake up. Here's something going completely wrong!

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UPDATE
There's an interesting article in Die Zeit called "Fahren, um zu parken" (driving to park) from 1995 dealing with some of our homemade problems I mentioned above. And here's another German text called "Verkehrssytem und Wirtschaftsstrukturen" (transportation system and economic structures) by the Austrian traffic planner Hermann Knoflacher, who I already introduced in an earlier post. If you know English literature dealing with parking problems, please post it ;-).

Be aware -- the shitty bike season starts

Maybe you have noticed that yourself -- it's time for shitty bikes. Lately I received a lot of unwanted fliers by discounters and supermarkets that want to sell me cheap bicycles and cheap bicycle equipment (like lights, locks, pumps, helmets etc.). And I'm sure there are many people out there who decided to start cycling this year or want/need a new bike. Well, if they buy one of those, I feel sorry for them. Some people might actually really want to start commuting by bike. But if they buy one of those shitty bikes, they will lose interest soon. They would probably take it for granted that their gear shift doesn't work well, that their brakes are unsound and that their lights broke after one month. So after a while they will put their bike in a corner and leave it there for the next few weeks or years until it gets stolen. But don't worry, if you buy a lock for 1.99€ your problem will be solved soon, no matter how shitty the bike is. And then you have an excuse to not cycle or can buy another shitty bike :-).















Sorry for being so cynical today. Well, there might be some good bikes in supermarkets too. But a beginner can't tell the difference, I'm sure. And it will be worse for them if they never experienced what a decent bike is. Over here, you need to spend 700-1500€ for a good city bike that you can use for commuting all year long, absolute minimum being 500€. Of course, it is enough to buy one for 250€ if you only want to use it to cycle 20 km/year in the summer. But such a bike simply won't last long and will not please you. If you don't have enough money to buy a decent bike, I recommend to buy a good and serviced second-hand bicycle -- but never ever a crappy new bike of a discounter. And go to a good bike shop (not a sports shop) to get some advice what kind of bike suits you (type, size, equipment). Be aware anyway!

Here are a few websites that deal with bike shopping: How to buy a bicycle, How to buy a bicycle (wiki), Tips on buying a bicycle and many more (just type "how to buy a bike" into Google :-)).

By the way, a good bike will last a lifetime if it is looked after (well, if it doesn't get stolen or crashed in an accident of course) -- so it's definitely worth spending some money on it and getting it serviced regularly (at least once a year).

Do bicycles really die?

On Saturday Maff and I went to a party of our friends in Linz. Currently they are collecting old and broken bicycles to build some tall bikes. They get the bicycles from scrapyards and such for free. Some of them are still in good condition, sometimes even only have a flat tire as far as I could see that. It's sad that people throw such bikes away.. But well, I'm actually quite happy this time. Usually I don't have a bicycle in Linz. Sometimes I bring mine on the train, but in the new "railjet" train sets bicycle transport was cancelled and I have less opportunities now (very future-oriented, aren't they?). So I saw this bicycle on Saturday in their basement:

Radiant "Touring Sport" (the pink ladies' bicycle in the front)

It doesn't work yet, but it's still in good shape. From what I have seen so far, it only has a flat tire, the rear brake doesn't work and the rear fender is broken. The lights are also demolished. I don't know whether the gearshift is working. We will try to fix it this evening and see how far we get. Would be really nice to have a bicycle in Linz too. Even if it's just for a short time before they continue to use it for a tall bike..