The bicycle is a great invention!

As the Red Hot Chili Peppers already sing in the "Bicycle Song"

How could I forget to mention the bicycle is a good invention

a lot of people really do forget about that and completely underestimate the transport capabilities of bicycles.

But GEO (a publishing house in Germany for popular scientific magazines) did not forget to mention the bicycle in the list of the 100 most important inventions in the GEO Kompakt magazine, number 18. According to them, the French mathematician Jacques Ozanam was the first to ask in 1694 for "a carriage that can be driven without horses". It took a while though, until the first bicycle was realized -- and the first ones didn't have pedals. In 1817 Baron Karl von Drais introduced his "Laufmaschine" (in English "running machine" or dandy horse). They say that it is controversial who invented the first bicycle with pedals. Apparently it was Pierre Lallement, who was cycling through Paris in 1863.

But well, who cares who invented the bicycle? Nowadays about 1.4 billion bicycles are in use (compared to about 800 million cars and trucks). You guys know why the bicycle is so successful, others yet have to rediscover that again ;-).

It doesn't really fit in here, but as I just read it: The fastest cyclist so far was the Canadian Sam Whittingham in 2008 -- with his recumbent bicycle he reached 132.5 km/h (82.33 mph). Isn't that amazing?

Better late than never – cycling season opening in Linz

The general esteem of cycling in my hometown can be concluded from bicycle-related events. Last Monday was the official "cycling season" opening. To me, this was almost four months too late. Since I only found it out that day, I didn't have my camera with me when I went there. Well, I didn't miss much. Some speeches by city representatives, and short bicycle tour through the city, where last year's improvements as well as planning for this summer were discussed: some one-way-streets opened for cycling in both directions, parking facilities, and new bike lanes. Nothing really exciting. Almost.

A really nice idea (I already knew from other cities) is a block of notes to be left as just a friendly reminder to motorists illegally parking their vehicles in bike lanes.

Do Not Park In Our Lanes!

Your vehicle is parked on a bike lane and/or footway! This is an offense against the road traffic regulations and can cause an administrative penalty up to € 726 and a towing with cost. In case of repeated disorderly parking you can reckon with a complaint.

I had this dialog with the nice lady in the town hall who was giving away the blocks.

Lady: How many would you like to have?

Me: Two or three, please.

The lady began to tear three sheets from a block.

Me: No, I mean three blocks?

Lady: But this' very much!

Then she gave me one block á 20 sheets.

Me: Thank you so much! This will do for a week!

The long tradition of the shared Citybikes in Vienna

Well, so today's the day. I will for the first -- but surely not last -- time tell you something about the shared bike system in Vienna. Of course I cannot cover everything in this first post, but if there's something you're curious about just leave a comment and I will consider it in further investigations. For this time I will just stick to the main operating details but not yet discuss them. You may want to compare them to BiCiNg in Barcelona or other bike-sharing systems.

Why the horrible name?
I don't know. I guess there is no more uncreative name for a shared bike system than Citybike Wien. Of course, the name should be somehow connected to bikes and also kind of international, but why do we have to give up our identity for the most boring name? Why not ViennaRad or WienRad or Radln (would mean both "biking" and "bikes").. But hm, we might as well have to live with Citybike now ;-).

Why long tradition?
The Citybike system is one of the oldest ones of its kind. It was launched in 2003. There was even a forerunner model, the so-called Viennabikes, that started out in 2001 resp. 2002, but it was stopped due to vandalism and return problems. Sometimes, however, good ideas need more than one go and I'm glad that they started all over again with the more settled Citybike system.

Where?
Currently Vienna has 60 stations, most of which are located in the center -- inside the Gürtel (Vienna has a ring structure, the Gürtel is the outer ring) and the 2nd district. Each station can hold about 20 bikes. Informations about available bikes (and empty slots) can be found on the homepage and the terminals at the stations. Since the previous winter the bikes are available all year round, 7 days a week and 24 hours a day (earlier they had a winter break).

How?
Citybikes can be rent using Maestro cards (i.e. Austrian bankomat cards), credit cards and special Citybike cards which are -- in a modification -- also available for tourists. Preregistration can either be done online or at a terminal. The one-time registration fee is only 1€ and this will even be credited to future rides. So if you're in Vienna the next time, simply take out your credit card and get yourself a bike!

Once at a terminal one simply has to choose a bike, put the card in the slot and type in a password. And off you go.. This process makes it slightly slower than e.g. the BiCiNg system, but it's very safe.

Left: large Citybike station in front of the Votivkirche in the center Right: blue and yellow bikes with ads

Who?
As already explained, everybody can easily hop on a bike. While a lot of tourists use the system in the summer, the majority of the users is Viennese.

Costs?
Apart from the tiny registration fee there are also small running costs. The first hour is free of charge, the second one costs 1€ for the commenced hour, the third 2€ and all further ones 4€/hour. If the bike is not returned within 120 hours, the loss of the bike costs you 600€. After a break of 15min the clock starts from scratch.

Why is it so cheap? The system belongs to an advertising company, Gewista, that puts up ads on the skirt guard, the wheels and the basket. The city of Vienna also sponsors the systems by e.g. paying for new stations.

According to the chief of Citybike Wien, 98% of the journeys are within one hour and are therefore completely free of charge. The average borrowed time is about 20min.

My dad enjoys his ride on a yellow Citybike

Why?
The Citybike is a supplement to the public transport system and not meant for long-term use. Although I have my own bike I often use it to get to and from train stations and when my bike is at the mechanic (the next Citybike stations are around 2km away, but as a bike addict I don't mind walking there ;-)). It's also practical if I have guests that couldn't bring their own bikes.

So, why not? Check out their website for more information: www.citybikewien.at (in German and English)

Vienna promotes cycling in the rain

Earlier I always had my rain pants and -- depending on the weather forecast -- also my rain jacket (or even overshoes) with me. Well, this is not so practical, because in fact it very rarely a) rains and b) rains so heavy that I need that. Including the winter that probably happens five times a year although of course a lot of people never cycle "because it might rain".

And that's exactly where the city of Vienna hooks in. At the previous bikefestival I got this:

"Fürs Radln im Regen!" means "For cycling in the rain!"

And this is for sure the best give-away I ever got! No pencil, ballpoint pen, magnet nor water bottle (not that I ever got one) can compete with that. What is it? It's a transparent, small and light one-way poncho for cycling. It has a perfect size for carrying around all the time. And that's what I do. No more rain pants and rain jackets. Just this tiny packet of plastic. And it works -- I've already thunderstorm-approved it in Barcelona :-). Although it's meant for single use I just let it dry, folded it and could even fit it in the small bag again. It got three packets (call me greedy if you want) which will probably last for years. Afterwards I will just buy a proper poncho.

Unstylish? I don't think so (unlike you choose the grandma model I suppose). Moreover, a poncho is light enough to carry around, cheap, easy and quick to put on and take off, can be worn with everything, covers the backpacks or other bags too, waterproof but pervious to air (no more sweating in rain pants), can serve as a picnic blanket and so on.

Agu cycling poncho

And for those who are still afraid of rain, let me tell you that you're not made of sugar and that there's nothing funnier than cycling in all kinds of weather. Sunshine and warmth is of course nice, but boring. You are just being lazy if you stick to only that -- and you probably haven't experienced the happiness after a ride in pouring rain yet. Or as we tend to say here:

There's no bad weather, just bad clothing.

My first bike video

So this is the video I did when cycling in Barcelona (see an earlier post for my overall impression):

About the video
It contains material about cycling along the harbor and seafront. The second bit follows a few women cycling along the Diagonal (one of the main roads in Barcelona).

Techniques
I was cycling with the BiCiNg bikes all the time and therefore used my small and robust (but poor in filming) Olympus photo camera. My gorillapod (the small version) was handy for the quick mount and release I needed, but on the other hand this tripod shakes quite a lot too because of the flexible joints. As a Linux user I used kdenlive to cut the videos. This program is much more powerful, but I'm just a beginner so for this time I took it easy. I changed the video to black&white due to the horrible color abberation and blurring of my camera.

Feel free to criticize, I'm grateful for any advice. I know that the quality isn't great and that I probably would have needed more material in order to create a more lively video. But well, it's just my first try.

By the way, does anybody of you know a proper tripod that can easily be mounted to handlebars and that can safely hold DV camcorders (mine weighs around 600g) or SLR cameras?

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.