Sneak Preview: Earn (and win) your stripes!
We’ve been bouncing the idea of a custom painted Batavus for quite a while – we just needed an excuse. The World Cup was our first idea, but with only one Dutch person on staff it felt a little too partisan (plus, lets face it, the Dutch never win the World Cup). Luckily, Yvonne from the Toronto Cyclist Union approached us with a great excuse, the TCU is just about to sign up their 1000th member, so why not celebrate with a stylish bike that anyone can easily ride? We donated a bike on the spot.
Toronto has some amazing talent in its bicycle gene pool. Curbside was the first to successfully launch the concept of European city bikes in North America (a trend that is now accelerating madly in New York thanks to our distribution company), guys like Velocolour’s Noah Rosen have been voted the best frame painter in North America, and then there’s people like Poka’s Suzzanne Carlsen, whose amazing laser-cut bicycle accessories are simply unseen this side of Portland.
The theme for the bike is clearly Dutchness. The Dutch are famous for design and we wanted a clean yet whimsical bike that was as equally deadly-serious as it is light-hearted (just like the Dutch). The beautifully laser-cut lion in the chaincase was a throwback to our original idea of making a World Cup bike for the team nicknamed the Oranje Leeuwen (the orange lions). And we really love the stripes. 
Toronto has earned its own stripes as a cycling city, but lots of cyclists don’t make a bike culture. The very architecture of Toronto needs to change. While New York frantically paves bike lanes and shuts down streets for cyclists, the city of Toronto still seems to struggle with whether or not a motorist is a more important citizen than a bicyclist. And this means that bicyclists of all stripes should join the Toronto Cyclists Union to create a strong lobby for simple things like bike lanes. Plus, you could win this amazing bike!
We’ll keep blogging about this bike as it reaches completion, and then as it is displayed around Toronto and then given away to a lucky winter. This is just the sneak peek, so keep checking back!
YAKKAY IS HERE!
To all who were awaiting the fabulous YAKKAY helmets, come to Curbside to pick yours out… before it’s too late!
New York Trip
Recently I went to New York. I visited a bunch of bike stores (I just can’t stay away) and did a bit of the touristy thing. Secretly, though, I went to scope out potential neighbourhoods to move to. The dream will never die!!
One of the things that I had heard before I left was that the bike lanes and paths in Manhattan and Brooklyn are incredible. The paths are one thing, the lanes, on the other hand, leave something to be desired.
The struggle to find space between the curb and the car exists totally in New York, but the bike path the runs down the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan gives New Yorkers and tourists a safer way to travel downtown. It is slightly inconvenient as it doesn’t travel towards anything worth seeing but it is easy to access. Don (the boss) and I biked down this path daily to visit the local shops and it actually led easily to the Byrookln bridge.
Don’s Batavus Breukelen on the Brooklyn Bridge!! (GET IT?!)
The climb was a bit tough for him. I made sure he knew that.
He’s just such a good shot!
The bike store’s we went to were fantastic as well. They carry much of the same product we do thanks to Fourth Floor Distribution.
This is Adeline Adeline in Tribeka. What a place!! We can learn a lot from Julie. Check it out!!
Such nice Bakfiets, Pashleys, and Batavus’!
ABICI!!
Bakfiets out and about!
It was fantastic to meet someone else who wants to make cycling, not simply a tool for getting from A to B, but to be something so much more stylish, romantic, and, most importantly, FUN. Julie presents these bikes as art and it’s clear as soon as you walk in that you can be part of the crew. This less aggressive way of portraying cycling is much more accessible and enjoyable for everyone involved. It’s so much fun matching a set of panniers, or grips, or seats, to bikes that you know will work 50 years down the line. To see this in New York was really a breath of fresh air. Biking should be fun and accessible. It should be for everyone not just people who “know” about bikes. The more shops there are like Adeline Adeline and (excuse the shameless self promotion on our own site) Curbside Cycle, biking can move beyond the survivalist, aggressive mentality and onto, what has existed in Europe for over 100 years, a something that’s fun for all. The joy of bicycling.
Anyway, here are a few more shots from NYC.
Que ‘Rhapsody in Blue’!
Don at the famous Hub Station in West Village.
I love this building. I have no idea what it is or was but it was definitely designed with gusto!
Central Park is one of the ultimate bike spots in the city. This is one of the hard core dudes. I think the pack was on his tail.
The perfect subject.
I hope I can take more time to go to New York and check out its emerging bike culture. It’s great to see other cities by bike to see what we have at our disposal in Canada. Toronto is really incredible. The bike lanes in New York are great but the cabs and delivery trucks are worse there than here. Riding down any one of the avenues through Manhattan is like toying with death but I rode that pink Brompton and kept up with all the couriers I could find.
What’s clear is that bike lanes or not Toronto still boasts the most bike friendly and bike populated city i’ve seen on this continent. I keep saying it. At some point people will see it’s true.
CPH Continued…
Dutch hospitality is one thing, but the cold Danes are some of the warmest people i’ve ever met! The first thing I received when I arrived at the Biomega office was a hug from Sussi and a cup of coffee. Despite the weather (cold and damp and COVERED IN SNOW) Copenhagen was absolutely ideal.
On our second day in the city Sussi took us on a long, meandering ride. Here is a photo journal of said ride!
good start!
Giving the Biomega Amsterdam a ride!
Looks like Eric likes that Puma!
Sussi’s the leader.
“Push your tummy out!” -Eric
Walking in Christiania. One of the coolest places i’ve ever been!
I think there was something cute written on the back of a truck.
Sussi waits on the bridge for us slow pokes.
model shot
model shot
This all ended with hot chocolate at a local cafe. It was absolutely fantastic.
Riding in Copenhagen reminded me a lot of Toronto. Not all the streets were covered with bike lanes and delivery truck drivers do exactly the same thing as they do here. The difference in Copenhagen is bicyclists don’t seem to get bent out of shape about it. I took that mind set and have applied it to riding in Toronto. I’ve become much calmer on the road and more patient with people in general. There will always be idiots but it’s how we react to them that governs how our day pans out.
Copenhageners even ride some of the same bikes we do here, albeit with more confidence. Riding in Copenhagen has given me confidence to ride pretty much anywhere and unless I’m screaming down Mount Seymour in BC, i’m staying calm and collected the whole time.
CPH
After what I felt to be too short a time in Holland, Eric and I hopped on a midnight train to Georgia. In fact, it was a train that left Utrecht Centraal at about 6:30pm and went overnight until Copenhagen. Georgia would have been cool but we had business in Copenhagen.
Trains have got to be the most relaxing way to travel around the world, with a bike in hand of course. They can be fast or, like our overnight train, slow and meandering. We had a bottle of wine and and a cheese platter and with a stroke of luck no one else joined us in the sleeper cabin.
We made it in around 10:30am and immediately had to race off to the Biomega offices (biomega.dk). We met Sussi, the other members of the Biomega team, and Mikael from Copenhagenize and Copenhagen Cycle Chic. Thanks to these websites Copenhagen, through North American eyes, is a cycling mecca. It is a place that cities all around the world try to emulate to some extent. It is an excellent model for all of us on this side of the pond.
Copenhagen can indeed be a model for North America. The city has some of the most cycled streets in the western hemisphere and statistics show that 1.1 million kilometres are traveled everyday by bike.
What makes this city great for cycling is the vast amount of cycling infrastructure throughout the city. This infrastructure is viewed as the best in the world and has been transplanted in many cities. In fact, Jan Gehl, a Danish urban planner, was hired to set a plan for New York´s cycling roadways. Copenhagen certainly has some of the best roads for cycling.
What Copenhagen has along with this fabulous infrastructure is a large amount of cyclists. It is this group that makes this infrastructure so essential and it is this aspect of Copenhagen’s amazing cycling culture that we should attempt to match.
Despite the cars, Copenhagen is a breeze to bike through!
Anyway, after a great meeting with Mikael and Sussi we walked through the pedestrian street in old Copenhagen and back to the hotel. We met Sussi later for a fantastic meal at a fish restaurant in the meat packing district. The restaurant was very cool. It was a factory and not much had changed in the decor. No renovations had been done to fix the walls or the floors or the ceiling. The place was well heated though. Due to hygiene laws the kitchen had to be renovated but the dining room looked as though the chef were going to come out and gut the fish right there on the table and then feed you the insides off of a sharp knife. In the end it was an amazing dinner.
This was our first day in Copenhagen. Not as insanely busy as Holland but nonetheless inspiring and eye opening. Copenhagen is a place very attuned to the outside world. Their active role in hosting the climate conference is an obvious example, but what I saw was that the city has similarly wide streets and a fair number of drivers. It felt like a North American city to some extent.
This gave me hope for our own city. Maybe we can do like Copenhagen and blaze our own path of bike infrastructure……….. with a sharp design sense of course.
