Some white stuff from above

Last weekend, just before I headed off to Innsbruck, it started to snow in Vienna. It also did when I returned on Sunday evening, and it still does!

Now that's quite some snow for Vienna.

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?

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 ;-).

The Puch Clubman

Puch was an Austrian company located in Graz, Styria. Since 1889 they produced bicycles, scooters, motorbikes and cars. One of their most famous products was the Puch Maxi scooter. They had to shut down in the late 1980s due to financial problems. The name has been sold several times afterwards. That's why you can still get Puch bicycles, but there is no connection to the old ones whatsoever - so I don't know if their quality is still as good.

I just know the old bicycles. My mum owns a Puch Cavette, and my dad a Puch Clubman. Both have this nice metallic blue color that I like so much. By now the bikes are more than 20 years old. My mum stores hers at the attic (it's a little bit broken and she never got it fixed). My dad still uses his Clubman although some parts are not original anymore, e.g. the shift levers and the saddle. I quite liked to ride the Clubman cause it has a dropped bar and small tires, but still fenders, a (rear) rack and all other essential parts of a city bike. The gear levers are (as usual for old bikes) mounted to the down tube.

As I mentioned in the previous post, there is also a Puch Clubman parked in front of the university building where I usually park my bike. It has been there for months now with a flat rear tire. But all the rest of it looks quite ok since the parking space is canopied. It's not in such a bad condition as other abandoned bikes that spent the winter outside. Well, it is a little bit rusty too of course.. I want that bike! Well, I can't steel it and I'm not a person who would ever think about doing this. But it is a pain to see it every day knowing that nobody uses it anymore and I still can't have it. I think I will leave a note there next week, asking whether the owner would sell it to me. But unfortunately it's not very likely that s/he turns up there ever again..

The left and right pictures show the Puch Clubman in front of the university, the middle one is my dad's.

What happened to the blue bike next door?

I've already mentioned earlier, that probably more bikes get trashed rather then stolen. Did you ever wonder what happens to those abandoned dying bicycles? I have the answer. Well, at least one answer for a quite common procedure in Vienna and also the rest of Austria. Maybe you can tell me how city councils get rid of those bikes elsewhere..

Let's start with a story about my little friend, the so-called “blue bike”. The blue bike is/was a kiddies bike parked at a bike rack in Vienna that I passed every day. Actually, the bike rack is right in front of a school, so it's quite likely that it was used by a pupil there. Can't remember, when I spotted it the first time, but I think it was already quite dead at the time. As the winter passed by the bike became less and less (e.g. the rear wheel and the saddle went missing and a few minor parts too) and also more and more rusty. The bike was a Taifun bike, a nice one actually. Unfortunately, it was quite obvious, that nobody cares about it anymore. I was just a matter of time when it would disappear.

I think it was only two weeks ago when I passed it for the last times. And then I also spotted it – the little white note that guarantees an honorable last journey. A last glimpse of hope too, if you wish. It says

“Dieses Fahrrad ist für die nächste Entfernungsaktion der MA48 vorgesehen. Tel.: 760 43 E-mail: ab@m48.magwien.gv.at"

which in English simply means “This bicycle is designated to by removed by the MA48 [the garbage collectors in Vienna] at the next waste disposal.” with some contact details. Well ok, that's it then with the blue bike. Dead and gone. This week it wasn't there anymore, most likely collected by the MA48 and not by the owner. Sad, isn't it?

I've also seen similar notes in other places, e.g. at train stations. The yellow note I saw on a perfectly well-functioning (but probably unused too) bike at a bike rack at the train station in Bludenz. It is much longer (sorry, horrible translation):

“Dear bicycle owner!

We want to provide you a clean and well-kept transport depot and also need your assistance for that. Your bike is parked at a spot not designated for that or is not in a roadworthy condition. We therefore ask you to remove your bike yourself, because otherwise it will be removed three weeks after the attachment of this note with costs by us and stored for three months. In case your bike has to be removed and stored by us, then you get it back after the payment of the incurred expenses and proof of identity after an arrangement over the phone with the team of the management of the transport depot. We ask for your understanding!

Yours, the ÖBB infrastructure company”

Sorry, for this negative post this time. Next time I will talk about a bike that is still there (although abandoned too) and that I would quite like to get - an old Puch Clubman :-).

By the way, I remember that last year there was an article in the newspaper Der Standard about a guy that had left his bike outside during the winter and when he came back to start cycling in the spring, it was gone because it got removed. It is called Die Physik des Abschleppens by Roman David-Freihsl and quite entertaining. It's one of those nice little Viennese stories. There are many others by Thomas Rottenberg. I've picked out some of his bike stories from 2003 till now (sorry, all in German): Tolerranzzone, Survivaltips für Radfahrer, Klassik anders, Der Bike-Funpark, Fahrradabstellblues, Aus Freude am Fahren, Das Wunder, Fahrraddiebe?, Radleiche, Ministerrad, Freirad, Radschlossmysterium, Fahrradrückkauf, Porsche, Das Rad fällt um (ok: auseinander), Ein Fahrradbeauftragter and Gelbe Bügel.

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..

Dying bicycles

It's a sad story. Especially in the winter you can see many bikes out there - cold, alone and dying -, abandoned by their owners. Each of them has a story to tell, but nobody listens anymore. Is this where our society is going to? Is a bike worth nothing?

I simply don't understand it. Everybody talks about stolen bikes. Nobody talks about abandoned bikes which in my humble opinion are many many more. Why don't people give them away or sell them if they don't want to ride them anymore? Why do the even lock them if they don't care? But the only thing they do are leaving their bikes alone, blocking parking places for people who actually want to use them and destroying a valuable object.

Please, if you don't want to ride your bike in the winter, take it inside! Or at least cover it up with something so that it doesn't rust that much. Otherwise you will not be able to (safely) use it again after the winter. I can tell you that for sure.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

But while we are at it - yes, a lot of bikes get stolen too. But most of the bikes that get stolen don't have proper locks. A rough rule of thumb says that a bike lock should be at least as expensive as 10% of the value of the bike. By now, my bike lock probably even exceeds the value of my bike (my bike is really old - it didn't get stolen for more than 12 years now ;-)). I use an Abus U-lock with safety level 9. It cost around 45€. But there are much better ones up to maximum level 15, like the Abus Granit X-Plus 54, which costs around 90€ (generally theft insurances will offer you a discount if you use that lock). There are also other companies that produce U-locks and flexible lock chains, e.g. Kryponite. Avoid using number locks though. And - even more important - lock the frame (and not just the wheels) to a fixed object. For more tips check out how to secure bicycles.