Sometimes a cycle life gets in the way of …, well, you know, actual bike blogging. So, long overdue, but here it goes. Before I arrived in New York at the end of April I anticipated riding with my #bikeNYC friends & possibly joining well over 30.000 other individuals from around NYC & the US on the Five Boro Bike Tour. Best of all, combining the two.

As you’ve read here, the first part never fails, including the part where online friends become the offline equivalent. Cycling just unites that way, easy.

So here it is, part two of my #bikeNYC adventures in 2011.

May 1st, the day after the New Amsterdam Bike Show (which will be part three). Sunshine galore. Ignoring my jetlag, I cycled from my hotel in Soho to 6th Avenue/W Houston St & observed the 5Boro crowd cycling from down- to uptown. Quite a sight and good fun, as the film will show.

Half an hour later I met up with Ronald (Dutch expat, Research Associate at The Street Plans Collaborative) , Carina (Danish expat, freelance video reporter), Liz (Pilates instructor & advocate for Livable Streets), Noah (Mr NYC Cycle Chic), Steve (bicycle advocate/lawyer) & Noel (Asoc. Director of Engagement Technologies for the World Economic Forum) right across the street.

This was me for the day (not unlike on any other day at home):

And my hosts for the day:

Liz & Noah

Steve playing around with his 5Boro vest & Carina was ready to roll.

So we did. Setting out for our self-proclaimed ‘Un-5Boro’, circumventing a few things we couldn’t be bothered with and perhaps just join the Five Boro Tour at some point. Yes, naughty us, crashing the party ;).

Grab yourself a beer/glass of wine/a cocktail, sit back, relax and ride with us for the next 52 minutes, if you will. Roll the tape:

I know, right? Quite an awesome day, despite getting stuck on the BQE for 2,5 hours. Oh, the irony :).

Here are just a few of my favorite pictures I took along the way:

Can you say ‘I Am Legend’ & BikePeaceNYC, you look fab? ;)

You can always count on the NYPD…

Me, hard at work going up Queensboro Bridge…

Arriving at the waterfront in Queens.

Stuck on the BQE, but smiling.

You’ll always find a few Dutch around.

In a massive bicycle gridlock it’s easy to get acquainted with the nearby residents.

Stand out much? Nah..

The United Nations On Wheels #bikeNYC rat pack!

Last pit stop before Verrazano.

Noel didn’t want to freeze his toes off on Verrazano Bridge..and I figured you’d not often catch him in this position.

As I mentioned in the film, the NYPD, in this case a very bad-tempered cop, yelled us off our bikes. Steve tried arguing with him, but to no avail (and no surprise), he wouldn’t budge. Through some banter, Noel found out the cop was not on the payroll of the City of New York, which was odd, but it could easily explain his mobster-like behaviour. Anyway, it was quite entertaining.

Steve lent me his bike helmet (historic moment, I tell ya) saying he’d done 5Boro before and wanted me to finish it (thanks again for the sacrifice, Steve!). Noah & Liz also said goodbye, as they were not ‘packing gear’. Finally, Noel happened to have an extra 5Boro vest, so we were on our way, up and over the bridge, to the finish line on the other side on Staten Island.

Noel and I rode right on, towards the ferry.

But not before stopping for some brew.

Where you, predictably, bump into like-minded/familiar people.

Police started wrapping up their long day…

We caught the Staten Island ferry back to Manhattan…

Which allows beers AND drinking on board. Perfect. After all, you don’t have a utility bike with basket and panniers for nothing, aight? PS: Noel had the Heineken, I had the local flavor, in true UN-style :).

Riding along the East River…

Noel heading back to Brooklyn and me to Soho, thinking: “Wow. Just wow.” Yes, epic.

We escaped reality, tasted ‘what could be’. We Were All Legends.

Thank you, #bikeNYC. With love, from #bikeAMS.

You remember Rose from my video posts ‘Rose Loves #bikeAMS TV’ & ‘Fishing To Catch A Bicycle’.

Last Monday was her birthday. She came round to show me what she had treated herself to…

As you know her best:

Naturally, this happy occasion deserved another Bicycle TV video:

Again, happy birthday, Rose! xox

Work is done. It’s a warm & sunny evening. Taking it easy. Grab a bag with picnic goodies and flick it in a basket. Stop along the way to pick up some tasty burgers & find that sweet spot in the sun. That’s what Lauren and I did not too long ago.

* It’s been pouring this last week, so it’s only fitting that I’d edit and post this today, to keep our spirits up :).

Fietsforce.nl is a project initiated by Fietsforce Foundation Amsterdam, founded and run by a group of Amsterdam students, who “believe strongly in the combination of business and social commitment.” The foundation is supported by Pantar Amsterdam, one of the biggest employment re-integration companies in Amsterdam, which helps putting disenfranchised people to work. Finally, Fietsforce wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the Start Foundation.

Fietsforce: Fiets=Bicycle, + Force. You get the drift. Two-wheeled power. Social power. Because it provides a two-fold service: first, its mobile repair team services people with a broken down bike, on the spot. Second, Fietsforce provides youths the opportunity to learn skills, gain confidence & set off on a career path. There’s a third plus: Amsterdam & the Netherlands in general suffer from a lack of bike mechanics. Hopefully this pilot project will keep enough of them in this realm, maybe even start up their own shop. There are never enough specialty bike shops!

Below you can watch their enjoyable promotional video. I was asked by Fietsforce to wait a few weeks before posting this, as the service had quickly become a success, more demand than supply in this pilot period. Amsterdammers, take note: Fietsforce offers a 50% discount if you review their service!

Well, I’ll be sure to call ‘m when that pesky moment comes…I’ll wait a few minutes longer if I have to :).

I just had a most chillin’ Sunday, joining friends at the Appelsap HipHop Festival in Oosterpark in the eastern part of Amsterdam, enjoying some good munchin’ and good…well, let’s just say at some point somebody put Stevie Wonder on, but generally just extremely relaxed, and half the city seemed to have gathered there.

Halfway dinner (mussels, yum!) I got a text message from one good friend of mine, Wiendelt, asking me whether I had checked another friend’s Facebook page yet, in this case Gabe’s. Of course I hadn’t, and couldn’t resist, so I checked…

Suffice to say, I love it when friends get together, whip out their guitar and camera, and have a good laugh. Totally jammin’, making my day truly complete!

Quoting Henry:

A little bit of bike rap Courtesy of the City of Amsterdam who is finally waking up to the fact that bicycles are one of the Netherlands greatest attractions and on e of the strongest reasons it’s just such a darn lovely, peaceful place to visit or live. The incredible cycling mode share enables very high population density without the typical urban noise, danger and stress. Much of the 17th and 18th century city remains not as a museum but as a living, breathing, charming city as the city was once defined: a place for people. We love riding our bikes here… with our kids, dogs, SO’s, to work, to the pub, to school or just for the sake of riding!

It’s still true. The world around us is experiencing a surge in bicycle advocacy, people desperate for more ‘active transportation’ in an often hostile car-dependent society, while the Dutch take their achievements mostly for granted, both nationally and in international context. Amsterdam has a strong case to push aside the aged cheese, tulip & windmill (and pot & prostitution) associations, emphasizing its livability by embracing the bicycle as main transportation. The Netherlands as a whole could also do with a little shedding on that front. Right now ‘we’ are not doing enough.

The end game of successful bicycle policies is that nobody will have to think twice about getting on a bike. Young and old, rich and poor.

It’s just the logical thing to do.

In short, feel…

In early February of this year Antoine Sachs of ARTE TV from Paris arrived in Amsterdam on his tour around this country to document Dutch bicycle culture, infrastructure and more. He was particularly interested to talk to me about the ‘trouble in bicycle paradise’, being bike theft and parking problems. The first is huge, but on the decline, the latter is ever persistent with the rising cycle rates.

I was happy to host Antoine, show him around and highlight a few aspects on camera. This weekend he e-mailed me to tell me his video series about cycling in the Netherlands was finished and online on his blog ‘Chronicles Of My Carbon-Free Life‘.

I hope your French is good, because, as is still customary in France, it’s all dubbed. No big hurdle, as the footage will tell a clear enough story. Enjoy.

On Thursday, April 23 I pedaled off to go to Shirley Agudo’s book signing at the Waterstones store, in conjuction with Book Night. It being a beautiful day, I didn’t rush and snapped a few shots before entering. Still, I got there early enough to spot famous & fabulous Fabiola approaching the book store on his/her bike.

See, he/she wasn’t on the cover of ‘Bicycle Mania‘ for nothing :). It was great finally meeting Shirley and fellow-photographer Trevor Waldron, talk Amsterdam bike culture…well, actually, not culture, more about our own hows, whats and whys.

Perhaps because of that evening, I took my time, more than usual, when I hit the streets the next day.

On Sunday I met up with David Bernstein, host of The FredCast, ‘a weekly podcast devoted to the latest cycling news, gear, gadgets, gizmos, components, podsafe cycling music and more’, based in of Park City, Utah.

He was in town on business and seized the opportunity to go for a ride with me. No need for a rental bike, as he’d brought his own speedy Dahon folder.

We sat down in the Jordaan, had a great talk about a whole range of things-to-do-with-cycling and finally landed in Vondelpark to record a new episode: ‘Show #151: Amsterdamize!‘ (interview starts at 29:41). The rest is now ramblin’ history ;).

The rest of the day offered me some more observations, not to be ignored.

And last but not least, Queen’s Day came and went. Life is grand, never a dull moment.

The deal:

The only rule for 30 Days of Biking is that you bike every day for 30 days—around the block, 20 miles to work, whatever suits you—then tweet about your adventures with the tag #30daysofbiking. Event starts on April 1 and ends on April 30!

It’s become quite a thing on the Twitterz. No wonder, it works the same way as on the streets: more people will take up cycling when they actually see (more) people do it, the more the merrier. Low entry barrier, make it look easy and share your thoughts and experiences, inspire others. It makes a great and growing global on and offline cycling community.

I’ve been cycling every day all my life and wouldn’t know what to do without it, you already know that. But I’ll support any effort, all creative means to get people on two wheels (more often).

What, you’re not cycling yet? Then get yourself a bike, get on with it…and never look back.

In honor of #30daysofbiking I recorded this little tidbit, one of my daily rides home from the train station, on an early Tuesday evening in April.

(Shot with my Nokia phone, so low quality)

In September of last year the good people of Dublin Community TV hopped over to Amsterdam, here to film for The Pedal Project:

Rob Carr to me:
“The TV Series is 3 part documentary on cycling in Dublin. The main premise of the series will be to look at how a cycling culture can be developed in Dublin and what that might look like. To that end, one programme will be a kind of travelogue where we go on a journey from Dublin to Amsterdam via London by bike, ferry and train. We will follow Ciaran Fallon (the new Cycling Officer at Dublin City Council) on his journey as he meets various people involved in the cycling cultures of London and Amsterdam to see what is happening from a cycling perspective in those cities and what Dublin can learn from them. We are of course hoping you will be one of these people…

From DCTV:
“As Dublin has grown wealthier we have become carcooned basing our personal and city transport system on the car” said director Barra Hamilton. “We know this isn’t working – but what is the alternative and how do we get there? That’s the question we set out to answer with this documentary. We spent months talking to academics and elected officials, council planners and staff, campaigners and cyclists – and through the production process of TV we’ve constructed a convincing case and viable plan to recast Dublin as a cyclable city.”

“The Pedal Project is an ongoing debate emerging into public view in all its complexity and variety for the first time” said co-director Rob Carr. “We are inviting people to contribute to the process. From the reasons we should, and shouldn’t, insist on cycling helmets to how we design our roads to create dedicated spaces for cycling while ensuring ‘permeable’ road systems with a mix of transport forms – The Pedal Project offeres a tool for people to use in instigating wide ranging discussion on what we want from our city.”

The end result is fabulous. The Pedal Project does indeed make the case for much needed change and does so by covering all the important angles. And I think it’s safe to say that in this series Dublin is interchangeable for many other cities around the world.

Go watch and after you finish, don’t hesitate to see the other parts: One Less Car & Two Wheeled City (those are external video links, but you can instead navigate to those parts inside the embedded player). Oh, and just fyi, the Amsterdam part starts at 13:43, but don’t skip ahead, watch it in full.

Last Sunday I played guide for the Mobile Social Group Ride, organized by Byron of Bikehugger, as a prelude to his presentation ‘Changing The World With Bikes‘ at the FITC Amsterdam 2010 (- “Design, Technology. Cool Shit”) conference at the Felix Meritis European Centre for Arts and Sciences on Keizersgracht.

‘It’s prohibited to place bicycles against this building’s facade. Bicycles will be removed. This building has permanent camera surveillance.’

We ended up with the four of us. I rode alongside Rick from Toronto and Byron and his wife Pam. We blamed the poor weather conditions, not everybody’s cup of tea. Or some were just aiming for other destinations. Byron and I joked about how the weather’s always crap when he and Pam hit Amsterdam. And when it’s not raining, snowing or frogs falling from the sky, when we start riding, it eventually will. It’s a given. ;)

FITC provided two, very artsy/colored beater bikes for the ride, put together by Champagne Valentine, one more crooked/bend than the other. Very cool. Still, we needed one more bike, so we thought we’d head over to Workcycles (where a small reception would take place later that afternoon) and see if we could borrow one. Henry hadn’t arrived yet, so we pedaled on to MacBike at the central station. And by ‘pedaled’ I mean that Byron was sitting side saddle on the back of Mr Freight. Not an opportunity to waste, of course:

We rode on to the Plantage buurt (near Artis Zoo) and forced by a downpour we fled into a nearby cafe. Cycling in the rain ain’t a biggie, but if there’s no absolute need to torture yourself, treat yourself to some nice beers instead. It was equally nice to just talk about stuff that transcends the act of cycling, aka our professional realms. I discovered that I had even more in common with my guests than just the love for bicycles/cycling. Yeah, always funny how that works.

The final stop was at Henry’s, who had provided for great finger food and more beers. A setting for lots of (real) bike geek talk and showing off stuff, as you can imagine…but with items you might not have guessed. :)

Meanwhile in the city, things transpired as usual, people going about their way.

(Yeah, I know, it’s not raining in those pictures. But for editorial purposes, this just will have to do :-p)

Last October I ventured outside with a video camera on a cold, windy and rainy Saturday afternoon. I tried several times, but I never really started editing…until this week. And right after hearing this news today, I was determined to have it done by this evening.

I already confessed my love for cycling in this great, beautiful and forgiving city with ‘Sinfonia Cyclissimo‘ well over a year ago, but here’s its successor, a new ode, if you will: ‘Free’.

Enjoy!

Mikael recently posted the above picture of a young woman cycling in Copenhagen.

It vaguely rang a bell, so I went through my 2008 video footage of my long weekend in CPH. Bingo. And I thought I’d edit up a little something dedicated to Mikael’s birthday today and Cycle Chic in general (for the Dutch and Danes also known as ‘normal people in normal clothes on normal bikes, nothing to see).

Mike Rubbo from Sit-up Cycle, who’s recent video interview with Mikael Colville-Andersen made waves on the internets, posted another great video (check the whole post, it’s a good read too) with David Hembrow of A View From The Cycle Path, now a household name in the world of cycle blogs.

David is actually a Brit. who moved to the Netherlands with his family for the better bike infrastructure, which he now enjoys and makes wicker bike baskets too.

If David has a fault, it’s his constant posting of the Dutch as such paragons of bike lane building, etc. It makes you just feel like giving up in a country like Australia.

I’ve told David this, but he can’t stop. How could you in a country with 29,000 kms. of cycle paths? It’s sickening.

Anyway, my wish is to interview all the great bike bloggers of the world. With no grants, that’s a probably an impossible dream.

In the meantime, I’ve been using a young videographer, Violeta Brana-Lafourcade, who’s super economical, to go places for me, and to film interviews, which she’s done with flair.

…

Now, here’s what Violeta sent me on David Hembrow. I hope you like; Talking to David Henbrow. Do leave a comment. It’s mainly about Sit-up bikes which I see as the key to change here.

Thousand will say the type of bike does not matter much, but are they right? Here’s David.

Oh, and here’s the whole video of cycling in the Netherlands in the 1950’s that was used in Mike’s video.

A few weeks ago a new TV ad from the national bicycle awareness campaign was released, regarding bicycle lighting, called ‘Get noticed [or: stand out] on your bicycle’. A returning theme during fall and winter, as days get shorter and darkness drapes these low lands earlier and earlier. Have a look.

The pay-off: “If you want to be noticed, just turn on your lights.”

The thing to take note of here is not just that it has a positive tone or that it’s ‘hip’, but that this has been this way for years. There’s one overarching campaign theme, ‘Daar kun je mee thuis komen’ = ‘That will get you home’ + ‘You will have something to show for’, from which it’s easy to ‘hang’ all types of cycling-related issues.

The key with everything regarding cycling is being consistent. Divert from that, and nobody will take you seriously anymore. Even the Dutch, when some were ticketed for using clip-on lights and some where not. Debates ensued and laws were amended and voila, morphed into the campaign. Consistency, I tell ya, because even in Amsterdam, a city with a long history of ‘unwritten cycle rules’ and a ‘laissez-faire’ attitude I see things have changed for the better. Never mind that the police are often silly with their quotum…I mean, sting operations. But that deserves a separate posting altogether.

‘Clip-on lights are allowed too. Don’t forget to turn them on. And ohhh, make sure you turn them off, as well…hmm?’)

Voice-over: “This is Marcel. Marcel has a problem. He doesn’t get noticed. And that’s a bother for Marcel…and for others. So, what do you do?”

Marcel: “These, please!”

Voice-over: “You get two bicycle lights!”

Kids: “Hey Marcel, where have you been?”

Oh, the BMX-boys from the ad are part of a stunt team that is on tour around the Netherlands and of course there’s an extra incentive: you get a 15% discount on all lights at two major chain stores.

Last Sunday I attended Henry’s annual (6th) “Bike, Beer & BBQ Party” and naturally all who attended arrived by bike. Contrary to international perceptions these bikes don’t all look the same. Hardly, far from it.

The bicycle parking in front of the Workcycles shop on Lijnbaansgracht showed a nice cross-section of Amsterdam’s individuality on two (or more) wheels, ranging from aging, often beat up but relentless classics, spray painted/decorated Oma’s, to home-made bakfietsen with internal sound systems. You could name it, or just make it up, it was there. Lovely to watch and appreciate as decor/backdrop for a splendid get-together of customers, friends, friends of friends and family.

I had just finished my first beer of the day when I was directed outside and asked to get on a bike. Sure, but what could be so special? I quickly found out.

Soon more bike party related information…

Enjoy this video. As David Hembrow noted:

“The remarkable thing about it is how familiar all of it looks. There’s exactly the same level of cycle helmet wearing as in the country now, roughly the same number of people riding on back carriers, children on bikes, “ordinary clothes”, practical bikes and smiling faces.”

You think these people were talking about ‘going green’ or ’saving the planet’? Nah…so, what other reasons could there be? :-p.

Found through NewAmsterdamize, via David Hembrow.

Sometimes ordinary things can just click. In this case, a set of video moments from my daily commute and a particular song.