Cycling with Job Cohen

We (that is: the Cycling With team, being – Paddy Cahill and myself) went for a cycle through Amsterdam with its former mayor: Job Cohen.
Please do check out our film; I bet you’ll like it. Thanks, Phil

Cycling With Amanda…

… a new cycling interview by the cyclingwith.com team (ie: Paddy Cahill and myself)! Go check it out. You’ll love it.

Cycling With… Ellen

Paddy Cahill and myself went for a cycle with Ellen Rowley. Ellen is an Architectural Historian who lives with her family in Ballybough, Dublin.

During our cycle, we talked to Ellen’s daughter Lillo, we looked at the architectural heritage in the north of Dublin (a beautiful part that often goes ignored), the architecture of the 20th Century and her special interest the social housing schemes by the former city architect Herbert Simms.

Ellen recently compiled a book of essays on Irish Architecture “i.e. Patterns of Thought”.

For more video’s, be sure to visit my ‘Cycling With…’ Blog, on http://www.cyclingwith.com

Cycling With…. Paddy and Philip

 

Last weekend, Paddy Cahill and myself were in Dublin, shooting more ‘Cycling With…’ documentaries. Here’s a look behind the scenes.

If you would like to see the result, please ‘like’ our ‘Cycling With…’ Fanpage.

Cycling with… Jim Latimer

Jim Latimer is a promising musician at the beginning of his career. He has recently moved back to Dublin from London and is enjoying a fresh look at living in the city and all it has to offer.

This is part of our series of ‘Cycling with’ interviews, you can see more of them at facebook.com/CyclingWith

Wild, rugged, outdoor cycling – Movember Cycle in Dublin

Like I wrote in my last blog post, the Ollie and Lisa from GreenAer hosted a very special cycling tour through Dublin, this weekend.

I’m showing the pictures, just to show you I wasn’t exaggerating. 

Well – what do you think? Something we should do more often?

 

Cycling and Moustaches

I’m not sure whether all my readers are aware of Movember - the global grass roots charity that aims to promote men’s health by growing a moustache in November. The moustache is called a Mo, and November thus becomes Movember.

It’s a cool movement and it has done tremendously well in Ireland.

Last year, Movember Ireland raised over EUR 1.6 million. The funds were used, amongst others, to build research centres for prostate cancer in Trinity College. The funds keep several staff employed there full time now. And this is just one of many concrete examples of how Movember has changed the face of men’s health.  

With this blog, I’m urging you – all my readers – to generously help this great charity again this year. And: I’m also urging you to have some good cycling fun at the same time. You can help in the battle against prostate cancer this year by joining the Movember cycle tour:

‘Bike Like a Bear – the Great Movember Outdoors Cycle‘.

The event takes place on the 28th of November, starts at GreenAer (12a Magennis Place, just off Pearse St.) at 14.00, and ends in the city centre at 17.00. Cyclists with a convincing ‘rugged outfit’ have a chance to win great prizes as well. If you can’t make the cycle tour, feel free to donate to the folks cycling for charity.

Let’s show the world our appetite for doing good is even bigger this year than last.

If we succeed, I imagine the Movember folks might reward us with an even longer period of fundraising in 2012, having us start in October already, growing beards instead of moustaches, calling it Octobeard.

Has a ring to it, no?

Bikes in Bathtubs

Fixed gear bike in White Bathtub

The Cycle Chic Blogger Conference in Barcelona is not turning out to be a typical conference.

There are no keynote speakers, no coffee buffets, no powerpoint presentations. Also, there is no conference location; no cloakroom, no blue carpet with diamond shaped pattern, no tl-lighting. Instead, the conference almost completely takes place outside – on the streets of Barcelona. The one indoor conference location we did visit, was CityBici – on the Avengida Diagonal.

CityBici is the showroom and office of Jaime and Vanessa. It’s also their home. Jaime and Vanessa – a couple with their first child on its way – set up CityBici this January, after they had said goodbye to the safe lives they had before (Vanessa used to work for American Apparel, Jaime worked in packaging). With CityBici, they want to bring biking beauty to Barcelona.

One approach they are taking, is setting up unique bicycle exhibition points. The first exhibition point has recently opened in Cafe San Thelmo – an espresso boutique across their street. The Cycle Chic Bloggers were given a preview of what further exhibition points may look like. Jaime and Vanessa had placed bikes in their house like a curator would place art in the Hugh Lane Gallery. A golden Dutch bike hung next to a a group of oil on canvas squares, steering wheels  were scattered on the desk of Jaime’s office, and a fixed gear bike was placed diagonally in the bathtub.

All in all, it seems like a decent, clean approach to cycling. We loved it.

Bikes on the Wall

Bikes next to the Oil on Canvas

Cycle Chic Conference Room

Jaime Dieppa and Mikael Colville Andersen, discussing bikes

Bikes in the Bathtub -- best done diagonally

Jaime and Vanessa - Barcelona's beautiful bike pioneers

Bikes and Beaches

We love bicycles.

So much, it’s written on our bags.

But even bike lovers enjoy having bicycle-thoughts washed away,

once in a while.

The beach is an excellent place for it.

Bike Parking at Amsterdam Zuid

bicycles leaving bike parking at Amsterdam Zuid

 

This morning, I flew back to Amsterdam.

I arrived at Schiphol Airport, and took the train to Amsterdam Zuid, where my bicycle is parked in a subterranean bike parking. As if seeing it for the first time, it struck me how carefully organised that parking is; like the laid out tables of a dinner party, waiting for guests to arrive.

The bike parking is open 24 hours per day, each day of the year. Its bike stands are designed to save space, allowing bikes to be parked on two levels. Odd sized bikes – like the popular delivery bikes and bikes with crates – don’t fit in the two story stands, so separate space has been reserved for them. On your way to the slanted conveyor belt – which will take you out of the parking and into the heart of Amsterdam’s business district – you pass a traditional Dutch tyre pump. For long term residents like my bike, this is ideal – the air that slowly seeped out through the tyre’s microscopic cracks will have dropped the tyre pressure.

bicycles parked on two levels

bikes with crates: separate section

Parking is free for the first day. On day 2 and 3 parking costs € 0,50 per day, and from day 4 onwards parking costs € 2,00 per day. Bikes are tracked with tickets carrying the date they’re brought in, and are checked by the parking’s personnel on the way out. Membership costs € 55 per year, and is obviously more economical when you plan to stall your bike longer. So when I moved to Dublin and wanted to stall my bike there long term, I became a member. I got a sticker on my rear mudguard to prove it. Now, each time I leave the parking, the parking’s personnel – their purse with small change in hand - scan my bike for a day ticket until they see my sticker. I then get a small nod of understanding, as they direct their attention to the guy behind me.

The red signs, the orgy of bikes and the buzz of people entering and leaving have turned a tl-lit concrete parking space into an attraction. Apparently, I had to move away to Dublin before I could see it.

delivery bikes: also a separate section

two membership stickers on mudguard

bicycle parking office - where tickets are checked

bike parking exit