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!

Stylish cycling in the heat

Well, probably some people will disagree that temperatures around 33°C are hot (that's 92 F), but I already don't like that kind of a temperature. Still, I can deal with it...

Generally I wear a lot of wide, loose, thin and light-colored cotton clothes. Cycling in them is no problem as the air flow then constantly cools. Even in that suffocating heat we currently have in Vienna. Well, you may want to carry a spare shirt to change with you if you sweat a lot. Choose good sunglasses. And don't ever forget to ride in style :-).

By the way, it's better not to carry a backpack (to avoid sweating on the back) but to put everything necessary in a basket or on the carrier.

What's the summer like in your place and how do you deal with it? Has anybody got good solutions for handling high humidity?

Summer cyclists in Vienna

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 :-).

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?

Improved Citybikes

A while ago I've introduced the shared Citybike system in Vienna. So far there are 60 stations.

Old bikes
The single-speed bikes have a coaster brake on the back and a hand brake in the front. On the newer models this is a drum brake, earlier it was a rim brake. The dynamo for the lighting turns on automatically when it gets dark, something that I really like. Moreover, there is a basket in the front, a chain guard and a skirt guard (often used for advertising). The bikes are blue and yellow.

New bikes
As announced a few months back there will be new bikes out in summer. This week I've seen the first ones of this kind. All of the 200 brand-new bikes will be exchanged next week.

Brand-new Citybikes, copyright by Gewista

Commuting in Zürich

Last summer I worked in Zürich, Switzerland. By train that's about 9 hours from Vienna and there are even three direct trains each day. On two of these trains it's possible to bring the bike along so that was what I did. If you're interested in the synergy between public transport and bicycles in Switzerland you can read one of my older posts from March. I think it works perfectly there. But there are also other outstanding things concerning bicycle infrastructure ...

I lived on the very border of the city and the university is in the center. Although Zürich is much smaller than Vienna (only about 350.000 inhabitants), my daily commute was therefore longer than the one in Vienna (about 7 km ~ 4.3 miles). Zürich is a very hilly city too. Basically I had to conquer one steep hill both ways which took me about 40 min once I found the best route. It was fun to see mums with two kids in the trailer passing me on the uphill sections. Well, a remarkable number of people (especially parents and older people) uses pedelecs -- electric bikes where you have to pedal to regulate the motor. It's still only a small minority, but they are visible.

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.