The Life-Sized City Blog

A while ago... I'm guessing over a year and a half... I recall a reader emailing me with a request for a post about a bicycle culture tiny detail in Copenhagen. The little hook thingy found on most back racks. It's a practical solution to a question that arose about a century ago. How to transport your briefcase on your bicycle? While I'm quite sure this isn't a uniquely Danish thing, it does however seem to live on more in Denmark than elsewhere. The Dutch evolved a culture for using pannier bags while the Danes preferred the basket. Not many men used a basket and for the better part of a century, briefcases were what men carted around. In the style of the one in the above photo. Soft leather. Widespread use of these briefcases - I'm making a qualified guess here - faded away in the late 1960's. When the grassroots movement to reinstate the bicycle on the urban landscape started in the mid-70's it was borne, by and large, by the flower power culture of the ...

Hey! Bikes are everywhere, now cars are here... let's combine the two! Thus thought a certain Herre Holger Møller in a moment of misguided inspiration. His "Autocykel" never caught on. The design of the upright bicycle just couldn't be improved upon.

The Copenhagen Central Station has been the most massive bicycle magnet in the country for a century. The streets around the station are flooded with bicycles. Plans were revealed today for a new parking complex with room for... 7000 bicycles! behind the station. »Now more than ever there is a need for bike parking at the train stations and the problem won't get better with the coming Metro extension construction around the city", said Klaus Bondam - Mayor in charge of the Dept. of Transport. The idea is to widen the bridge behind the station - Tietgensbroen - so that it covers more of the railyard. The design for the new bicycle parking will be decided through an architecture competition that will start in the new year. The parking complex is expected to be finished in 2013. It will be financed by the City of Copenhagen, Danish State Railways and Banedanmark. 7000!

With all the travelling I've been doing lately comes the fact that I have borrowed a number of different bikes. I often consider taking my Mobiky folding bike with me, but since I invariably meet up with readers or like-minded people, there always seem to be bikes nearby. On my recent visit to New York, Johnathan was amazingly kind enough to let me borrow his Bullitt TNT cargo bike from Larry vs Harry . Johnathan flew to Copenhagen earlier this year just to buy one and ship it home. He provided me with not only the bike but two locks, a pump, a map of the city and a tool kit. Totally brilliant. He cycles in cycling shoes so the only hitch was that I had to adjust to pedalling on clipless pedals in my regular shoes, but that was no big deal. It was amazing how many conversations I struck up with people when I rode around on the bike. I'm on the Manhattan Bridge, stopped to take some photos, and a couple of workers on the railway shouted at me to come over. They wanted to know a...

Das Strike Bike Annie, one of the owners of Christiania Bikes , just visited a bike factory in Nordhausen, Germany and sent me a mail about it. I had heard about the striking bicycle workers, but that was ages ago. Turns out they are still at it. 135 colleagues in the Bike Systems GmbH factory, faced with a factory closure, decided to protest and try to save their jobs. This was back in July 2007! As I understand it, the union rules in Germany dictate that only a union can call a strike, and not the workers themselves. Their union wasn't game so the workers decided to hold a "professional meeting" to discuss the situation. They are allowed to do so. There are, however, no rules dicatating how long that meeting can last. So their meeting went on and on and on. Brilliant move. In order to prevent the factory being dismantled they kept it occupied in three shifts. Eventually an idea was formed. Self-management of the factory and production. A product was needed and they came...

Ladies and Gentleman. Live from Copenhagen. It's the inaugural Copenhagenize Bicycle Battle. In the Blue Corner: Origin unknown but we're guessing North America. The Bitchcruiser. Marrying, at long last, unnaturally high testosterone levels, a misogynist world-view and good old-fashioned sexism with... The Bicycle. In the Pink Corner: From Helsinki, Finland. The Giant Vulva Bicycle Taxi, created by the artist [pictured] Mimosa Pale, who feels the world is too penis-centric. She calles it a Mobile Female Monument. You just crawl inside and are cycled around the city. You get to feel like the star of a film by Pedro Almodovar. Put some windows in it and the title would be 'A Womb With a View'. So... here's the question. If you HAD to ride down the main street of your town or city on one of these - let's assume you had to ride the bike pulling the vagina and not hidden inside... too easy - which one would you choose?

My mates at Baisikeli borrowed a custom-made bike used in film shoots for possible usage in a Canadian tv-crew that Copenhagenize.com/Copenhagen Cycle Chic are hosting this week. They're doing a documentary on sustainability that includes Copenhagen. I'm trying to get them to film by bike so we'll see what they say to this Buddy Bike. It's a custom-made bike for use in the Danish film and tv industry. One steers the bike and the and the cameraman shoots from the buddy seat, while helping to pedal. He has handlebars, too, but they don't move. They're only for resting on. There is a front rack for gear and the camera can also be placed in the middle of two handlebars for stabilisation or resting. What a cosy ride. This bike is perfect for The Slow Bicycle Movement . We were discussing how it can be used in other ways. Among the ideas were a footbath on the front rack, a bucket of ice filled with beer, etc. Any other good ideas for The Slow Bicycle concept? How co...

A bit of strangeness on this Thursday morning. Creative Director Yorgo Tloupas of Intersection Magazine had this bike made by Max Knight. Art meets bike. Quite the funky ensemble. It actually works, too, as you can see in the video below. Perfect for commuting distances of up to 4.5 metres:

Years ago I read an article in a design magazine about new bike designs. I saw a prototype for a shopping bike with up to 20 litres of space in the built in basket. The bike was built, not just a drawing. I haven't seen it since and my friend Marie found this picture in an online pdf. Does anyone out there know of this design and do you have any photos? I'm fascinated by this design.

Here's one from the bike lanes of Copenhagen that we haven't seen before. Appropriate somehow that it's a cool cat riding this funky tandem bike.

Actually, I was at a Christmas lunch at Danish Broadcasting Corp. and was rather occupied with the consumption of food and drink when I bumped into Ole in one of the exterior atriums at the broadcaster's headquarters . It's a massive party involving over 2500 people and Ole was invited in to sell espresso coffee to the masses. What a cool bike. Just when you think you've seen everything in Copenhagen, something like this shows up. I had a good chat with Ole, the mastermind behind the concept. All of his coffee-making gear can fit inside the cargo bike and he doesn't need electricity to run the show. It's all run on natural gas. He tells me he spent ages finding the right gear and, most importantly, the right bike. With Denmark being the home of the cargo bike there were several makes to consider. He narrowed it down to three: the Nihola , the Christiania bike and the Black Iron Horse [ Sorte Jernhest in Danish.] The choice fell on the latter, as it can handle 150 ...

If you're lucky, you, too, can ride around safely after dark thanks to millions of salmon sperm. Recent research has shown that a thin layer of DNA from salmon sperm has such fine optical qualities that it increases the strength and effectiveness of light diodes by holding onto the electrons longer than synthetic materials. It's a chappie named Andrew Steckl, one of the world's leading light diode experts and professor of light learning at Cincinnati University who has figured it all out. Namely that thin layers of our hereditary material was better at blocking electrons than conventional materials like silicium. "DNA contains certain optical, magnetic and structural qualities that make it unique. It makes it possible to improve the effectiveness, the strength of the light and the clarity...", Steckl said in a press release from the university. Okay, via a Danish article from which we shamlessly translated this whole piece... but anyway... The two light diodes on...

So many good ideas, so little time. We were thrilled to hear about a proposed cycle tunnel in the city of Bodø, Norway . The city wishes to become a cycling city on a par with many other European cities. The main hurdle is that Bodø is located in the far north of Norway, at the mercy of North Atlantic and, worse, Arctic winds. Hurdles are, however, meant to be jumped over. This is Scandinavia, design capital of the known universe, so some clever thinkers starting jumping. Bodø has a population of 40,000 wind blown inhabitants and the idea is to build an 8 km long tube from the city centre to the College of Higher Education. Clear plastic plates would be used and openings would provide ventilation. It's all still being decided, as far as we can see, but the idea is great. Read more about it here . It reminds us of an idea for a Danish bridge - Storebæltsbroen - when it was being planned. At that time it was to be the longest bridge of it's kind in the world. Some bright minds pr...

Click , originally uploaded by [Zakkaliciousness] . Wheel lock. In Denmark, your bike MUST have a wheel lock if you want insurance money when it's stolen. Lock it with as many locks as you like, as long as you have a wheel lock. What's great is that it's quick, easy, efficient and functional. Danish Design in a nutshell.